ness should be under the control of judgment, without which nothing will be either praiseworthy or beneficial; elegance should have a certain manly air, and good taste should attend on invention. 80. Thus what the orator produces will be great, without extravagance; sublime, without audacity; energetic, without rashness, severe, without repulsiveness; grave, without dulness; plenteous, without exuberance; pleasing. without meretriciousness; grand, without tumidity. Such judgment will be shown with regard to other qualities; and the path in the middle is generally the safest, because error lies on either side. CHAPTER XI. The orator must leave off speaking in public before he fails through old age, 1-4. How his time may be employed after he has retired, 5-7. Quintilian hastens to conclude his work; he shows that students have ample time for acquiring all the qualifications, as far as nature will allow, that he has specified, 8-20. He proves, from the examples of great men, how much may be done, and observes that even moderate attainments in eloquence are attended with very great advantages, 21-29. Exhortation to diligence, and conclusion, 30, 31. 1 THE orator, after displaying these excellences of eloquence on trials, in councils, at the assemblies of the people, in the senate, and in every province of a good citizen, will think of bringing his labours to an end worthy of an honourable man and a noble employment, not because it is ever time to leave off doing good, or because it is not proper for one endowed with such understanding and talents to spend the longest possible time in so dignified an occupation, but because it becomes him to take care that he may not speak worse than he has been in the habit of speaking. 2. The orator does not depend merely on knowledge, which increases with years, but on strength of voice, lungs, and constitution, and if these are weakened or impaired by age or ill-health, he must beware lest something of his usual excellence be missed, lest he should be obliged to stop from fatigue, lest he should perceive that what he says is imperfectly heard, and lest he should not recognize his former in his present self. 3. I myself saw Domitius Afer, by far the most eminent orator of all whom it has been my fortune to know, losing daily, at an advanced period of life, something of the authority which he had so justly acquired; since when he, who had doubtless once been the prince of the forum, was speaking, some (what may well be thought disgraceful) laughed, while others blushed for him; and his inefficiency gave occasion to the remark, that he had rather faint than leave off. Yet his pleading, such as it was, was not bad, but inferior in energy to what it had been. 4. The orator, therefore, before he falls into the grasp of old age, will do well to sound a retreat, and gain the harbour while his vessel is still undamaged. Nor, when he has done so, will less honourable advantages from his acquirements attend on him. He will transmit the history of his own times to posterity, or, as Lucius Crassus, in the books of Cicero,† expresses his intention to do, will explain points of law to those who consult him, or will compose a treatise on eloquence, or will set forth the finest precepts of morality in a style worthy of the subject.‡ 5. In the meantime well-disposed youth, as was customary with the ancients, will frequent his house, and will consult him, as an oracle, on the best mode of attaining eloquence; and he, as a father in the art, will form them, and, as an old pilot on the ocean of oratory, will give them instruction respecting coasts and harbours, and show them what are the signs of tempests, and what management a ship may require under favourable or adverse winds;§ being induced to do so, not only by the common obligations of humanity, but by his love for his profession; for no man would like that art, in which he himself has been great, to fall into decay. 6. What, indeed, can be more honourable to a man, than to teach that of which he Malle eum deficere quàm desinere.] Seneca, Controv. i. 8: Optimus virtutis finis est, antequam deficias desinere. Spalding. † De Orat. i. 42. Aut pulcherrimis vitæ præceptis dignum os dabit.] "Or will give to the precepts of life (or moral conduct) a mouth (or eloquence) worthy (of them)." "He will compose precepts in such words as become the dignity of the subject." Gesner. § Quid secundis flatibus, quid adversis ratis poscat.] For ratis Spalding proposed to read ratio, which Buttmann approves. himself has a thorough knowledge? It was thus that Cicero* says Cælius was brought to him by his father; and it was thus that, like a master, he exercised Pansa, Hirtius, and Dolabella,† daily speaking and listening to them. 7. And I know not whether an orator ought not to be thought happiest at that period of his life, when, sequestered from the world, devoted to retired study, unmolested by envy, and remote from strife, he has placed his reputation in a harbour of safety; experiencing, while yet alive, that respect which is more commonly offered after death, and observing how his character will be regarded among posterity. 8. For my own part, I know that, as far as I could, with my moderate ability, I have imparted, candidly and ingenuously, whatever I previously knew, and whatever I could discover in furtherance of my present work, for the improvement of such as might wish to learn; and it is enough for an honourable man to have taught what he knows. 9. Yet I fear lest I may be thought, not only to require too much in expecting a man to be at once good and eloquent, but also to specify too many qualifications, by giving, in addition to so many accomplish ments necessary to be gained in youth, precepts on morals, and enjoining a knowledge of civil law, not to mention the rules which I have laid down concerning eloquence; and I am apprehensive lest even those who allow that all these requirements were necessary to my design, should nevertheless dread them as too oppressive, and despair of fulfilling them before they proceed to a trial. 10. But let those who think thus, reflect, in the first place, how great the power of the human mind is, and how capable of accomplishing whatever it makes its object; since even arts of less importance than oratory, though more difficult of attainment, have been able to effect voyages over the ocean, to discover the courses and number of the stars, and to measure almost the whole universe. Next let them consider how honourable is the end which they desire to attain, and that no labour should be spared when such a reward is in view. 11. If they allow such conceptions to have due weight with them, they will the more easily be induced to believe that the * Orat. pro Cælio, c. 4. Cic. ad Div. ix. 16, though Pansa is not mentioned there. See also Quint. viii. 3, 54; Suet. de Clar. Rhet. sub init.; Sen. Controv. i. Proem. Buttmann. way to eloquence is not impracticable, or indeed extremely difficult; for that which is the first and more important point, that an orator should be a good man, depends chiefly on the will; and he who shall sincerely cherish a resolution to be good, will easily attain those qualifications that support virtue. 12. The duties incumbent upon us* are not so complex or so numerous, that they may not be learned by the application of a very few years. What makes it so long a labour, is our own reluctance; the ordering of an upright and happy life is but a short task, if we but give our inclination to it. Nature formed us for attaining the highest degree of virtue; and so easy is it, for those who are well disposed, to learn what is good, that to him who looks fairly on the world, it is rather surprising that there should be so many bad men. 13. As water, indeed, is suitable to fishes, as the dry land to terrestrial animals, and the air that surrounds us to birds, so it ought to be more agreeable to us to live conformably to nature than at variance with her. As to other qualifications, although we should include in our estimate of life, not the years of old age, but merely those of youth and manhood, it is apparent that there is time enough for acquiring them; for order, and method, and judgment, will shorten all labour. 14. But the fault lies, first, with teachers, who love to retain under them those whom they have taken in hand, partly from covetousness, in order to be longer in receipt of fees, partly from vanity, to make it appear that what they profess is very difficult, and partly perhaps from ignorance or neglect of the proper mode of teaching; and, secondly, in ourselves, who are fonder of dwelling on what we have learned than of learning what we do not yet know. 15. For, to confine myself chiefly to oratorical studies, of what advantage is it to declaim so many years in the schools as is customary with many, (to say nothing of those by whom a great portion of life is wasted in that exercise,) and to bestow so much labour on imaginary subjects, when it is possible to gain, in but a short time, a sufficient notion of real pleading, and of the rules of oratory? 16. In making this remark, I do not intimate that exercise in speaking should ever be discontinued, but only signify that we should not grow old in one species of * Neque enim-tam numerosa sunt quæ premunt.] For premunt Buttmann would read præcipiuntur. exercise. We may be gaining general knowledge, learning the duties of ordinary life, and trying our strength in the forum, while we are still scholars.* The course of study is such, that it does not require many years; for any of those sciences, to which I have just alluded,† may be comprised in a few treatises, so far are they from requiring infinite time and application. All else depends on practice, which will soon increase our ability. 17. Our knowledge of things in general will daily increase; though it must be admitted that the perusal of many books, by means of which examples of things may be gained from historians, and of eloquence from orators, is necessary for great advancement in it. It is requisite also that we should read, as well as some other things, the opinions of philosophers and eminent lawyers. All this knowledge we may acquire; but it is we ourselves that make time short. 18. For how much time do we seriously devote to study? The empty ceremony of paying visits steals some of our hours, leisure wasted in idle conversation others, public spectacles and entertainments others. Take into con sideration also our great variety of private amusements, and the extravagant care which we bestow on our persons; let travelling, excursions into the country, anxious meditations on our losses and gains,§ a thousand incentives to the gratification of the passions, wine, and the corruption of the mind with every species of pleasure, claim their several portions of our time; and not even that which remains will find us in a proper condition for study. 19. But if all these hours were allotted to study, our life would seem long enough, and our time amply sufficient, for learning, even if we take into account only our days; while our nights, of which a great part is more than enough for all necessary sleep, would add to our improvement. We now compute, not how many years we have studied, but how many we have lived. 20. Nor, if geometricians and grammarians, and professors of other sciences, have spent all their lives, however long they were, in their respective pursuits, *See c. 6, sect. 6. + Sect. 10. + Salutandi.] Visits of ceremony, to pay respect to great men, which were made in the morning. See Virg. Georg. ii. 461: Ingentem foribus domus alta superbis Manè salutantúm totis vomit ædibus undam. § Calculorum anxie solicitudines.] Calculations about income, interest of money, &c. Buttmann. |