Part 13
[d] Quintilian, in his tenth book, chap. 1. has given a full account of the best Greek and Roman poets, orators, and historians; and in b. ii. ch. 6, he draws up a regular scheme for the young student to pursue in his course of reading. There are, he says, two rocks, on which they may split. The first, by being led by some fond admirer of antiquity to set too high a value on the manner of Cato and the Gracchi; for, in that commerce, they will be in danger of growing dry, harsh, and rugged. The strong conception of those men will be beyond the reach of tender minds. Their style, indeed, may be copied; and the youth may flatter himself, when he has contracted the rust of antiquity, that he resembles the illustrious orators of a former age. On the other hand, the florid decorations and false glitter of the moderns may have a secret charm, the more dangerous, and seductive, as the petty flourishes of our new way of writing may prove acceptable to the youthful mind. _Duo autem genera maximè cavenda pueris puto: unum, ne quis eos antiquitatis nimius admirator in Gracchorum, Catonisque, et aliorum similium lectione durescere velit. Erunt enim horridi atque jejuni. Nam neque vim eorum adhuc intellectu consequentur; et elocutione, quæ tum sine dubio erat optima, sed nostris temporibus aliena, contenti, quod est pessimum, similes sibi magnis viris videbuntur. Alterum, quod huic diversum est, ne recentis hujus lasciviæ flosculis capti, voluptate quâdam pravâ deliniantur, ut prædulce illud genus, et puerilibus ingeniis hoc gratius, quo propius est, adament._ Such was the doctrine of Quintilian. His practice, we may be sure, was consonant to his own rules. Under such a master the youth of Rome might be initiated in science, and formed to a just taste for eloquence and legitimate composition; but one man was not equal to the task. The rhetoricians and pedagogues of the age preferred the novelty and meretricious ornaments of the style then in vogue.
Section XXX.
[a] This is the treatise, or history of the most eminent orators (DE CLARIS ORATORIBUS), which has been so often cited in the course of these notes. It is also entitled BRUTUS; a work replete with the soundest criticism, and by its variety and elegance always charming.
[b] Quintus Mucius Scævola was the great lawyer of his time. Cicero draws a comparison between him and Crassus. They were both engaged, on opposite sides, in a cause before the CENTUMVIRI. Crassus proved himself the best lawyer among the orators of that day, and Scævola the most eloquent of the lawyers. _Ut eloquentium juris peritissimus Crassus; jurisperitorum eloquentissimus Scævola putaretur._ _De Claris Orat._ s. 145. During the consulship of Sylla, A.U.C. 666, Cicero being then in the nineteenth year of his age, and wishing to acquire a competent knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence, attached himself to Mucius Scævola, who did not undertake the task of instructing pupils, but, by conversing freely with all who consulted him, gave a fair opportunity to those who thirsted after knowledge. _Ego autem juris civilis studio, multum operæ dabam Q. Scævolæ, qui quamquam nemini se ad docendum dabat, tamen, consulentibus respondendo, studiosos audiendi docebat._ _De Claris Orat._ s. 306.
[c] Philo was a leading philosopher of the academic school. To avoid the fury of Mithridates, who waged a long war with the Romans, he fled from Athens, and, with some of the most eminent of his fellow-citizens, repaired to Rome. Cicero was struck with his philosophy, and became his pupil. _Cùm princeps academiæ Philo, cum Atheniensium optimatibus, Mithridatico bello, domo profugisset, Romamque venisset, totum ei me tradidi, admirabili quodam ad philosophiam studio concitatus._ _De Claris Orat._ s. 306.
Cicero adds, that he gave board and lodging, at his own house, to Diodotus the stoic, and, under that master, employed himself in various branches of literature, but particularly in the study of logic, which may be considered as a mode of eloquence, contracted, close, and nervous. _Eram cum stoico Diodoto: qui cum habitavisset apud me, mecumque vixisset, nuper est domi meæ mortuus. A quo, cum in aliis rebus, tum studiosissime in dialecticâ exercebar, quæ quasi contracta et adstricta eloquentia putanda est._ _De Claris Orat._ s. 309.
[d] Cicero gives an account of his travels, which he undertook, after having employed two years in the business of the forum, where he gained an early reputation. At Athens, he passed six months with Antiochus, the principal philosopher of the old academy, and, under the direction of that able master, resumed those abstract speculations which he had cultivated from his earliest youth. Nor did he neglect his rhetorical exercises. In that pursuit, he was assisted by Demetrius, the Syrian, who was allowed to be a skilful preceptor. He passed from Greece into Asia; and, in the course of his travels through that country, he lived in constant habits with Menippus of Stratonica; a man eminent for his learning; who, if to be neither frivolous, nor unintelligible, is the character of Attic eloquence, might fairly be called a disciple of that school. He met with many other professors of rhetoric, such as Dionysius of Magnesia, Æschylus of Cnidos, and Zenocles of Adramytus; but not content with their assistance, he went to Rhodes, and renewed his friendship with MOLO, whom he had heard at Rome, and knew to be an able pleader in real causes; a fine writer, and a judicious critic, who could, with a just discernment of the beauties as well as the faults of a composition, point out the road to excellence, and improve the taste of his scholars. In his attention to the Roman orator, the point he aimed at (Cicero will not say that he succeeded) was, to lop away superfluous branches, and confine within its proper channel a stream of eloquence, too apt to swell above all bounds, and overflow its banks. After two years thus spent in the pursuit of knowledge, and improvement in his oratorical profession, Cicero returned to Rome almost a new man. _Is (MOLO) dedit operam (si modo id consequi potuit) ut nimis redundantes nos, et superfluentes juvenili quadam dicendi impunitate, et licentiâ, reprimeret, et quasi extra ripas diffluentes cœrceret. Ita recepi me biennio post, non modo exercitatior, sed propè mutatus._ See _De Claris Oratoribus_, s. 315 and 316.
[e] Cicero is here said to have been a complete master of philosophy, which, according to Quintilian, was divided into three branches, namely, physics, ethics, and logic. It has been mentioned in this section, note [c], that Cicero called logic a contracted and close mode of eloquence. That observation is fully explained by Quintilian. Speaking of logic, the use, he says, of that contentious art, consists in just definition, which presents to the mind the precise idea; and in nice discrimination, which marks the essential difference of things. It is this faculty that throws a sudden light on every difficult question, removes all ambiguity, clears up what was doubtful, divides, develops, and separates, and then collects the argument to a point. But the orator must not be too fond of this close combat. The minute attention, which logic requires, will exclude what is of higher value; while it aims at precision, the vigour of the mind is lost in subtlety. We often see men, who argue with wonderful craft; but, when petty controversy will no longer serve their purpose, we see the same men without warmth or energy, cold, languid, and unequal to the conflict; like those little animals, which are brisk in narrow places, and by their agility baffle their pursuers, but in the open field are soon overpowered. _Hæc pars dialectica, sive illam dicere malimus disputatricem, ut est utilis sæpe et finitionibus, et comprehensionibus, et separandis quæ sunt differentia, et resolvendâ ambiguitate, et distinguendo, dividendo, illiciendo, implicando; ita si totum sibi vindicaverit in foro certamen, obstabit melioribus, et sectas ad tenuitatem vires ipsâ subtilitate consumet. Itaque reperias quosdam in disputando mirè callidos; cum ab illâ verò cavillatione discesserint, non magis sufficere in aliquo graviori actu, quam parva quædam animalia, quæ in angustiis mobilia, campo deprehenduntur._ Quint. lib. xii. cap. 2.
Ethics, or moral philosophy, the same great critic holds to be indispensably requisite. _Jam quidem pars illa moralis, quæ dicitur ethice, certè tota oratori est accommodata. Nam in tantâ causarum varietate, nulla ferè dici potest, cujus non parte aliquâ tractatus æqui et boni reperiantur._ Lib. xii. Unless the mind be enriched with a store of knowledge, there may he loquacity, but nothing that deserves the name of oratory. Eloquence, says Lord Bolingbroke, must flow like a stream that is fed by an abundant spring, and not spout forth a little frothy stream, on some gaudy day, and remain dry for the rest of the year. See _Spirit of Patriotism_.
With regard to natural philosophy, Quintilian has a sentiment so truly sublime, that to omit it in this place would look like insensibility. If, says he, the universe is conducted by a superintending Providence, it follows that good men should govern the nations of the earth. And if the soul of man is of celestial origin, it is evident that we should tread in the paths of virtue, all aspiring to our native source, not slaves to passion, and the pleasures of the world. These are important topics; they often occur to the public orator, and demand all his eloquence. _Nam si regitur providentiâ mundus, administranda certè bonis viris erit respublica. Si divina nostris animis origo, tendendum ad virtutem, nec voluptatibus terreni corporis serviendum. An hoc non frequenter tractabit orator?_ Quint. lib. xii. cap. 2.
Section XXXI.
[a] Quintilian, as well as Seneca, has left a collection of school-declamations, but he has given his opinion of all such performances. They are mere imitation, and, by consequence, have not the force and spirit which a real cause inspires. In public harangues, the subject is founded in reality; in declamations, all is fiction. _Omnis imitatio ficta est; quo fit ut minus sanguinis ac virium declamationes habeant, quam orationes; quod in his vera, in illis assimulata materia est._ Lib. x. cap. 2. Petronius has given a lively description of the rhetoricians of his time. The consequence, he says, of their turgid style, and the pompous swell of sounding periods, has ever been the same: when their scholars enter the forum, they look as if they were transported into a new world. The teachers of rhetoric have been the bane of all true eloquence. _Hæc ipsa tolerabilia essent, si ad eloquentiam ituris viam facerent: nunc et rerum tumore, et sententiarum vanissimo strepitu, hoc tantum proficiunt, ut quum in forum venerint, putent se in alium terrarum orbem delatos. Pace vestrâ liceat dixisse, primi omnium eloquentiam perdidistis._ Petron. _in Satyrico_, cap. 1 and 2. That gay writer, who passed his days in luxury and voluptuous pleasures (see his character, _Annals_, b. xvi. s. 18), was, amidst all his dissipation, a man of learning, and, at intervals, of deep reflection. He knew the value of true philosophy, and, therefore, directs the young orator to the Socratic school, and to that plan of education which we have before us in the present Dialogue. He bids his scholar begin with Homer, and there drink deep of the Pierian spring: after that, he recommends the moral system; and, when his mind is thus enlarged, he allows him to wield the arms of Demosthenes.
----Det primos versibus annos, Mæoniumque bibat felici pectore fontem: Mox et Socratico plenus grege mutet habenas Liber, et ingentis quatiat Demosthenis arma.
[b] Cicero has left a book, entitled TOPICA, in which he treats at large of the method of finding proper arguments. This, he observes, was executed by Aristotle, whom he pronounces the great master both of invention and judgement. _Cum omnis ratio diligens disserendi duas habeat partes; unam INVENIENDI, alteram JUDICANDI; utriusque princeps, ut mihi quidem videtur, Aristoteles fuit._ Ciceronis _Topica_, s. vi. The sources from which arguments may be drawn, are called LOCI COMMUNES, COMMON PLACES. To supply the orator with ample materials, and to render him copious on every subject, was the design of the Greek preceptor, and for that purpose he gave his TOPICA. _Aristoteles adolescentes, non ad philosophorum morem tenuiter disserendi, sed ad copiam rhetorum in utramque partem, ut ornatius et uberius dici posset, exercuit; idemque locos (sic enim appellat) quasi argumentorum notas tradidit, unde omnis in utramque partem traheretur oratio._ Cicero, _De Oratore_. Aristotle was the most eminent of Plato's scholars: he retired to a _gymnasium_, or place of exercise, in the neighbourhood of Athens, called the _Lyceum_, where, from a custom, which he and his followers observed, of discussing points of philosophy, as they walked in the _porticos_ of the place, they obtained the name of Peripatetics, or the walking philosophers. See Middleton's _Life of Cicero_, vol. ii. p. 537, 4to edit.
[c] The academic sect derived its origin from Socrates, and its name from a celebrated _gymnasium_, or place of exercise, in the suburbs of Athens, called the _Academy_, after _Ecademus_, who possessed it in the time of the _Tyndaridæ_. It was afterwards purchased, and dedicated to the public, for the convenience of walks and exercises for the citizens of Athens. It was gradually improved with plantations, groves and porticos for the particular use of the professors or masters of the academic school; where several of them are said to have spent their lives, and to have resided so strictly, as scarce ever to have come within the city. See Middleton's _Life of Cicero_, 4to edit. vol. ii. p. 536. Plato, and his followers, continued to reside in the porticos of the academy. They chose
----The green retreats Of Academus, and the thymy vale, Where, oft inchanted with Socratic sounds, Ilyssus pure devolv'd his tuneful stream In gentle murmurs. AKENSIDE, PLEAS. OF IMAG.
For dexterity in argument, the orator is referred to this school, for the reason given by Quintilian, who says that the custom of supporting an argument on either side of the question, approaches nearest to the orator's practice in forensic causes. _Academiam quidam utilissimam credunt, quod mos in utramque partem disserendi ad exercitationem forensium causarum proximè accedat._ Lib. xii. cap. 2 Quintilian assures us that we are indebted to the academic philosophy for the ablest orators, and it is to that school that Horace sends his poet for instruction:
Rem tibi Socraticæ poterunt ostendere chartæ, Verbaque provisam rem non invita sequentur. ARS POET. ver. 310.
Good sense, that fountain of the muse's art, Let the rich page of Socrates impart; And if the mind with clear conception glow, The willing words in just expressions flow. FRANCIS'S HORACE.
[d] Epicurus made frequent use of the rhetorical figure called exclamation; and in his life, by Diogenes Lærtius, we find a variety of instances. It is for that manner of giving animation to a discourse that Epicurus is mentioned in the Dialogue. For the rest, Quintilian tells us what to think of him. Epicurus, he says, dismisses the orator from his school, since he advises his pupil to pay no regard to science or to method. _Epicurus imprimis nos a se ipse dimittit, qui fugere omnem disciplinam navigatione quam velocissima jubet._ Lib. xii. cap. 2. Metrodorus was the favourite disciple of Epicurus. Brotier says that a statue of the master and the scholar, with their heads joined together, was found at Rome in the year 1743.
It is worthy of notice, that except the stoics, who, without aiming at elegance of language, argued closely and with vigour, Quintilian proscribes the remaining sects of philosophers. Aristippus, he says, placed his _summum bonum_ in bodily pleasure, and therefore could be no friend to the strict regimen of the accomplished orator. Much less could Pyrrho be of use, since he doubted whether there was any such thing in existence as the judges before whom the cause must be pleaded. To him the party accused, and the senate, were alike non-entities. _Neque vero Aristippus, summum in voluptate corpora bonum ponens, ad hunc nos laborem adhortetur. Pyrrho quidem, quas in hoc opere partes habere potest? cui judices esse apud quos verba faciat, et reum pro quo loquatur, et senatum, in quo sit dicenda sententia, non liquebat._ Quintil. lib. xii. cap. 2.
Section XXXII.
[a] We are told by Quintilian, that Demosthenes, the great orator of Greece, was an assiduous hearer of Plato: _Constat Demosthenem, principem omnium Græciæ oratorum, dedisse operam Platoni._ Lib. xii. cap. 2. And Cicero expressly says, that, if he might venture to call himself an orator, he was made so, not by the manufacture of the schools of rhetoric, but in the walks of the Academy. _Fateor me oratorem, si modo sim, aut etiam quicumque sim, non ex rhetorum officinis, sed ex Academiæ spatiis extitisse. Ad Brutum Orator_, s. 12.
Section XXXIII.
[a] The ancient critics made a wide distinction, between a mere facility of speech, and what they called the oratorical faculty. This is fully explained by Asinius Pollio, who said of himself, that by pleading at first with propriety, he succeeded so far as to be often called upon; by pleading frequently, he began to lose the propriety with which he set out; and the reason was, by constant practice he acquired rashness, not a just confidence in himself; a fluent facility, not the true faculty of an orator. _Commodè agenda factum est, ut sæpe agerem; sæpe agenda, ut minus commodè; quia scilicet nimia facilitas magis quam facultas, nec fiducia, sed temeritas, paratur._ Quintil. lib. xii.
Section XXXIV.
[a] There is in this place a trifling mistake, either in Messala, the speaker, or in the copyists. Crassus was born A.U.C. 614. See s. xviii. note [f]. Papirius Carbo, the person accused, was consul A.U.C. 634, and the prosecution was in the following year, when Crassus expressly says, that he was then only one and twenty. _Quippe qui omnium maturrimè ad publicas causas accesserim, annosque natus UNUM ET VIGINTI, nobilissimum hominem et eloquentissimum in judicium vocârim._ Cicero, _De Orat._ lib. iii. s. 74. Pliny the consul was another instance of early pleading. He says himself, that he began his career in the forum at the age of nineteen, and, after long practice, he could only see the functions of an orator as it were in a mist. _Undevicessimo ætatis anno dicere in foro cœpi, et nunc demum, quid præstare debeat orator, adhuc tamen per caliginem video._ Lib. v. epist. 8. Quintilian relates of Cæsar, Calvus, and Pollio, that they all three appeared at the bar, long before they arrived at their quæstorian age, which was seven and twenty. _Calvus, Cæsar, Pollio, multum ante quæstoriam omnes ætatem gravissima judicia susceperunt._ Quintilian, lib. xii. cap. 6.
Section XXXV.
[a] Lipsius, in his note on this passage, says, that he once thought the word _scena_ in the text ought to be changed to _schola_; but he afterwards saw his mistake. The place of fictitious declamation and spurious eloquence, where the teachers played a ridiculous part, was properly called a theatrical scene.
[b] Lucius Licinius Crassus and Domitius Ænobarbus were censors A.U.C. 662. Crassus himself informs us, that, for two years together, a new race of men, called Rhetoricians, or masters of eloquence, kept open schools at Rome, till he thought fit to exercise his censorian authority, and by an edict to banish the whole tribe from the city of Rome; and this, he says, he did, not, as some people suggested, to hinder the talents of youth from being cultivated, but to save their genius from being corrupted, and the young mind from being confirmed in shameless ignorance. Audacity was all the new masters could teach; and this being the only thing to be acquired on that stage of impudence, he thought it the duty of a Roman censor to crush the mischief in the bud. _Latini (sic diis placet) hoc biennio magistri dicendi extiterunt; quos ego censor edicto meo sustuleram; non quo (ut nescio quos dicere aiebant) acui ingenia adolescentium nollem, sed, contra, ingenia obtundi nolui, corroborari impudentiam. Hos vero novos magistros nihil intelligebam posse docere, nisi ut auderent. Hoc cum unum traderetur, et cum impudentiæ ludus esset, putavi esse censoris, ne longius id serperet, providere._ _De Orat._ lib. iii. s. 93 and 94. Aulus Gellius mentions a former expulsion of the rhetoricians, by a decree of the senate, in the consulship of Fannius Strabo and Valerius Messala, A.U.C. 593. He gives the words of the decree, and also of the edict, by which the teachers were banished by Crassus, several years after. See _A. Gellius, Noctes Atticæ_, lib. xv. cap. 2. See also Suetonius, _De Claris Rhet._ s. 1.
[c] Seneca has left a collection of declamations in the two kinds, viz. the persuasive, and controversial. See his SUASORIÆ, and CONTROVERSIÆ. In the first class, the questions are, Whether Alexander should attempt the Indian ocean? Whether he should enter Babylon, when the augurs denounced impending danger? Whether Cicero, to appease the wrath of Marc Antony, should burn all his works? The subjects in the second class are more complex. A priestess was taken prisoner by a band of pirates, and sold to slavery. The purchaser abandoned her to prostitution. Her person being rendered venal, a soldier made his offers of gallantry. She desired the price of her prostituted charms; but the military man resolved to use force and insolence, and she stabbed him in the attempt. For this she was prosecuted, and acquitted. She then desired to be restored to her rank of priestess: that point was decided against her. These instances may serve as a specimen of the trifling declamations, into which such a man as Seneca was betrayed by his own imagination. Petronius has described the literary farce of the schools. Young men, he says, were there trained up in folly, neither seeing nor hearing any thing that could be of use in the business of life. They were taught to think of nothing, but pirates loaded with fetters on the sea-shore; tyrants by their edicts commanding sons to murder their fathers; the responses of oracles demanding a sacrifice of three or more virgins, in order to abate an epidemic pestilence. All these discourses, void of common sense, are tricked out in the gaudy colours of exquisite eloquence, soft, sweet, and seasoned to the palate. In this ridiculous boy's-play the scholars trifle away their time; they are laughed at in the forum, and still worse, what they learn in their youth they do not forget at an advanced age. _Ego adolescentulos existimo in scholis stultissimos fieri, quia nihil ex iis, quæ in usu habemus, aut audiunt aut vident; sed piratas cum catenis in littore stantes, et tyrannos edicta scribentes, quibus imperent filiis, ut patrum suorum capita præcidant; sed responsa in pestilentiâ data, ut virgines tres aut plures immolentur; sed mellitos verborum globos, et omnia dicta factaque quasi papavere et sesamo sparsa. Nunc pueri in scholis ludunt; juvenes ridentur in foro; et, quod utroque turpius est, quod quisque perperam discit, in senectute confiteri non vult._ Petron. _in Satyrico_, cap. 3 and 4.