to be prepared for giving such definitions by those who have given most attention to that department of study? Does not every question of equity depend either on an exact determination of the sense of words, or on the consideration of what is right, or on conjecture respecting the intention of the author of something written? and of all such questions part will rest on logical and part on ethical science. 20. All oratory, therefore, naturally partakes of these two departments of philosophy: I mean all oratory that truly deserves the name; for mere loquacity, which is ignorant of all such learning, must necessarily go astray, as having either no guides, or guides that are deceitful.

But the department of natural philosophy, besides that Natural it affords so much wider a field for exercise in speaking philosophy. than other subjects, inasmuch as we must treat of divine in a more elevated style than of human things, embraces also the whole of moral science, without which, as I have just shown, there can be no real oratory. 21. For if the world is governed by a providence, the state ought surely to be ruled by the superintendence of good men. If our souls are of divine origin, we ought to devote ourselves to virtue, and not to be slaves to a body of terrestrial nature. Will not the orator frequently have to treat of such subjects as these? Will he not have to speak of auguries, oracles, and of everything pertaining to religion, on which the most important deliberations in the senate often depend, at least if he is to be, as I think that he ought to be, a well qualified statesman? What sort of eloquence can be imagined, indeed, to proceed from a man who is ignorant of the noblest subjects of human contemplation?

27. But an orator has no need to bind himself to the laws of any particular sect; for the office to which he devotes himself, and for which he is as it were a candidate, is of a loftier and better nature, since he is to be distinguished as well by excellence of moral conduct as by merit in eloquence. He will accordingly select the most eloquent orators for imitation in oratory, and for forming his moral character will fix upon the most honourable precepts and the most direct road to virtue. 28. He will indeed

Should learn
the good
of all.

exercise himself on all subjects, but he will attach himself most to those of the highest and noblest nature; for what more fertile subjects can be found, indeed, for grave and copious eloquence, than dissertations on virtue, on government, on providence, on the origin of the human mind, and on friendship? These are the topics by which the mind and the language are alike elevated; what is really good; what allays fear, restrains cupidity, frees us from the prejudices of the vulgar, and raises the mind towards the heaven from which it sprung.

29. Nor will it be proper to understand those matters only which are comprehended in the sciences of which I have been speaking, but still more to know, and to bear continually in mind, the noble deeds and sayings which are recorded of the great men of antiquity, and which certainly are nowhere found in greater number or excellence than in the annals of our own commonwealth. 30. Will men of any other nation give better lessons of fortitude, justice, honour, temperance, frugality, contempt of pain and death, than a Fabricius,1 a Curius, a Regulus,3 a Decius, a Mucius,5 and others without number? for highly as the Greeks abound in precepts, the Romans, what is of far more importance, abound quite as much as in examples; 31. and that man will feel himself in a manner impelled by the biography of his country to a similar course of conduct, who does not think it sufficient

1 Roman consul, first in 283 B.C., again in 279. Refused bribe from Pyrrhus. Later returned in chains the ambassador of Pyrrhus, who offered to poison his master.

2 Roman consul, first in 290 B.C. Noted for his simplicity of life.

* Roman consul made prisoner by the Carthaginians, 255 B.C. When returned to Rome on an embassy to make peace, he advised against it, and returned as a prisoner to Carthage, to a martyr's death.

* A Roman consul who gave his life for the safety of his country in the war against the Latins, 337 B.C.

5 Mucius Scævola entered the enemy's camp for the purpose of killing King Porsena, but by mistake killed the king's secretary. On being brought to execution by fire, he placed his right hand in the flame until consumed. The king ordered him released on account of his bravery. Mucius then informed Porsena of the purpose of three hundred youths to attempt his death. This so terrified the king that he withdrew.

to regard merely the present age, and the passing day, but considers that any honourable remembrance among posterity is but the just sequel to a life of virtue, and the completion of a career of merit. From this source let the orator whom I would form derive strong encouragements to the observance of justice, and let him show a sense of liberty drawn from hence in his pleadings in the forum and in his addresses to the senate. Nor will he indeed ever be a consummate orator who has not both knowledge and boldness to speak with sincerity.

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