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respectable man? Decision is pronounced concerning the persons, but the dispute concerns the general questions.

14. Declamations, too, such as are usually pronounced in the schools, are, if but adapted to real cases, and made similar to actual pleadings, of the greatest service, not only while our education has still to reach maturity, (for the exercise is alike both in conception and in arrangement,) but even when our studies are said to be completed, and have obtained us reputation in the forum; since eloquence is thus nurtured and made florid, as it were, on a richer sort of diet, and is refreshed after being fatigued by the constant roughnesses of forensic contests. 15. Hence, also, the copious style of history may be tried with advantage for exercising the pen; and we may indulge in the easy style of dialogues. Nor will it be prejudicial to our improvement to amuse ourselves with verse; as athletes, relaxing at times from their fixed rules for food and exercise, recruit themselves with ease and more inviting dainties. 16. It was from this cause, as it seems to me, that Cicero threw such a glorious brilliancy over his eloquence, that he used freely to ramble in such sequestered walks of study; for if our sole material for thought is derived from law cases, the gloss of our oratory must of necessity be rubbed off, its joints must grow stiff, and the points of its wit be blunted by daily

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encounters.

17. But though this feasting, as it were, of eloquence, refreshes and recruits those who are employed, and, as we may say, at war, in the field of the forum, yet young men ought not to be detained too long in fictitious representations and empty semblances of real life; to such a degree, I mean, that it would be difficult to familiarize them, when removed from such illusions, to the occupations of the forum; lest, from the effect of the retirement in which they have almost wasted away their life, they should shrink from the field of action as from too dazzling sunshine. 18. This is said indeed to have been the case with Porcius Latro, who was the first professor of rhetoric of any eminence, so that, when he was called on to plead a cause in the forum, at the time that he bore the highest character in the schools, he used earnestly to entreat that the benches of the judges might be removed into the hall; for so strange did the open sky appear to him, that all his eloquence seemed to lie within a roof and walls. 19. Let the

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young man, then, who has carefully learned skil. in conception and expression from his teachers, (which will not be an endlesstask if they are able and willing to teach,) and who has gained a fair degree of facility by practice, choose some orator, as was the custom among the ancients, whom he may follow and imitate; let him attend as many trials as possible, and be a frequent spectator of the sort of contest for which he is intended. 20. Let him set down cases also in writing, either the same that he has heard pleaded, or others, provided that they be on feal facts, and let him handle both sides of the question; and, as we see in the schools of gladiators, let him exercise himsel with arms that will decide contests,* as we observed that Brutus did in composing a speech for Mile,† This is a much better practice than writing replies to old speeches, as Cestius did to the speech of Cicero on behalf of Milo, though he could not have had a sufficient knowledge of the other side from reading only the defence.

21. The young man will thus be sooner qualified for the forum, whom his master has obliged to approach in his declamations as nearly as possible to reality, and to range through all sorts of cases, of which masters now select only the easiest parts, as most favourable for exhibition. The ordinary hindrances to such variety in cases,§ are the crowd of pupils, the custom of hearing the classes on stated days, and, in some degree, the influence of parents, who count their sons' declamations rather than judge of the merit of them. 22. But a good master, as I said, I believe, in my first book,|| will not encumber himself with a greater number of pupils than he can well undertake to teach; he will put a stop to all empty loquacity, allowing everything to be said that concerns the

*Decretoriis.] "The gladiators," says Seneca the Rhetorician, Controv. lib. iv. præf. "exercise themselves with heavier arms than those with which they actually fight." So Caligula is said by Suetonius, c. 54, to have used pugnatoria arma, which are the same as those here called decretoria by Quintilian. Spalding.

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C. 1, sect. 23.

A man of Greek origin, who practised rhetoric at Rome. See Seneca the father, p. Bip. 399. Spalding.

8 Huic quod secundo loco posui.] That is, per totas ire materias; comp. vii. 2, 9; ix. 2, 6. Spalding.

Quod dixi primo, ut arbitror, libro.] See i. 2, 15. Quintilian seems to me to have used the expression ut arbitror rather deliciandi causá than from forgetfulness. Spalding.

question for decision, but not everything, as some would wish, within the range of possibility; and he will relax the stated course for speaking by granting longer time, or will permit his pupils to divide their cases into several parts, for one part carefully worked out will be of more service than many only half finished or just attempted 23. It is from this desultoriness that nothing is put in its proper place in a speech, and that what is introduced at the beginning does not keep within its due bounds, as the young men crowd all the flowers of eloquence into what they are just going to deliver, and hence, from a fear of losing opportunities in the sequel, throw their Commencement into utter confusion.

CHAPTER VI.

Of thought and premeditation.

1. NEXT to writing is meditation, which indeed derives strength from it, and is something between the labour of writing and the trial of our fortune in extemporary speaking; and I know not whether it is not more frequently of use than either; for we cannot write everywhere and at all times; but there is abundance of time and room for thought. Meditation may in a very few hours embrace all points of the most important causes. When our sleep is broken at night, meditation is aided by the very darkness. Between the different stages in the pleading of a cause it finds some room to exercise itself, and never allows itself to be idle. 2. Nor does it only arrange within its circle the order of things, (which would itself be a great assistance to us,) but forms an array of words, and connects together the whole texture of a speech, with such effect, that nothing is wanting to it but to write it down. That, indeed, is in general more firmly fixed in the memory, on which the attention does not relax its hold from trusting too securely to writing.

But at such power of thought we cannot arrive suddenly or even soon. 3. In the first place, a certain form of thinking must be acquired by great practice in writing, a form which may be continually attendant on our meditations; a habit of

thinking must then be gradually gained by embracing in our minds a few particulars at first, in such a way that they may be faithfully repeated; next, by additions so moderate that our task may scarcely feel itself increased, our power of conception must be enlarged, and sustained by plenty of exercise; power which in a great degree depends on memory, and I shall consequently defer some remarks on it till I enter on that head of my subject. 4. Yet it has already been made apparent,† that he to whom nature does not obstinately refuse her aid, may, if assisted only by zealous application, attain such proficiency that what he has merely meditated, as well as what he has written and learned by heart, may be faithfully expressed in his efforts at oratory. Cicero indeed has acquainted us that, among the Greeks, Metrodorus of Scepsis,‡ and Empylus § of Rhodes, and Hortensius among our own countrymen, could, when they pleaded a cause, repeat word for word what they had premeditated.

5. But if by chance, while we are speaking, some glowing thought, suggested on the instant, should spring up in our minds, we must certainly not adhere too superstitiously to that which we have studied; for what we meditate is not to be settled with such nicety, that room is not to be allowed for a happy conception of the moment, when thoughts that suddenly arise in our minds are often inserted even in our written compositions. Hence the whole of this kind of exercise must be so ordered that we may easily depart from what we have arranged and easily return to it; since, though it is of the first importance to bring with us from home a prepared and precise array of language, yet it would be the greatest folly to reject the offerings of the moment. 6. Let our premeditation, therefore, be made with such care that fortune, while she is unable to disappoint, may have it in her power to assist us. But it will depend on the strength of our memory, whether what we have embraced in our minds flows forth easily, and

*B. xi. c. 2.

† Eo tamen pervenit, sc. res; "the subject has come to this," that is, what has been previously said is sufficient to show this.

He was celebrated for the cultivation of his memory. See Cicero

de Orat. ii. 88. See also Pliny, H. N. vii. 24.

The name Empylus does not occur in any work of Cicero that we now have. A rhetorician of that name is mentioned by Plutarch as the companion of Brutus, Vit. Brut. c. 2.

does not prevent us, while we are anxious and looking back, and relying on no hope but that of recollection, from casting a glance in advance; otherwise I should prefer extemporary venturesomeness to premeditation of such unhappy coherence. It has the very worst effect to be turning back in quest of our matter, because, while we are looking for what is in one direction, we are diverted from what is in another, and we derive our thoughts rather from mere memory than from our proper subject. Supposing, too, that we had to depend wholly on premeditation or wholly on the conceptions of the moment, we know very well that more may be imagined than has been imagined.

CHAPTER VII.

Of the ability of speaking extempore; necessity for it, § 1-4. How it is to be acquired, 5-23. How we must guard against losing it, 24-33.

1. BUT the richest fruit of all our study, and the most ample recompense for the extent of our labour, is the faculty of speaking extempore; and he who has not succeeded in acquiring it, will do well, in my opinion, to renounce the occupations of the forum, and devote his solitary talent of writing to some other employment; for it is scarcely consis tent with the character of a man of honour to make a public profession of service to others which may fail in the most pressing emergencies, since it is of no more use than to point out a harbour to a vessel, to which it cannot approach unless it be borne along by the gentlest breezes. 2. There arise indeed innumerable occasions where it is absolutely necessary to speak on the instant, as well before magistrates, as on trials that are brought on before the appointed time;* and if any of these shall occur, I do not say to any one of our innocent fellow-citizens, but to any of our own friends or relatives, is an advocate to stand dumb, and, while they are

* Repræsentatis judiciis.] That is, ante statutum vel expectatum tempus prolatis. So repræsentare pecuniam for "to pay it before the appointed time." Capperonier.

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