re of panegyrics. For if teaching, we want shrewd
sentences; if aiming at giving pleasure, we want musical ones; if
at exciting the feelings, dignified ones. But there is a certain
arrangement of words which produces both harmony and smoothness; and
different sentiments have different arrangements suitable to them, and
an order naturally calculated to prove their point; but of all
those things memory is the foundation, (just as a building has a
foundation,) and action is the light. The man, then, in whom all
these qualities are found in the highest perfection, will be the most
skilful orator; he in whom they exist in a moderate degree will be a
mediocre orator: he in whom they are found to the slightest extent
will be the most inferior sort of orator. All these, indeed, will be
called orators, just as bad painters are still called painters; not
differing from one another in kind, but in ability. So there is no
orator who would not like to resemble Demosthenes; but Menander did
not want to be like Homer, for his style was different.

This difference does not exist in orators; or if there be any such
difference, that one avoiding gravity aims rather at subtlety; and on
the other hand, that another desires to show himself acute rather
than polished: such men, although they may be tolerable orators, are
certainly not perfect ones; since that is perfection which combines
every kind of excellence.

III. I have stated these things with greater brevity than the subject
deserves; but still, with reference to my present object, it was
not worth while being more prolix. For as there is but one kind of
eloquence, what we are seeking to ascertain is what kind it is. And it
is such as flourished at Athens; and in which the genius of the Attic
orators is hardly comprehended by us, though their glory is known to
us. For many have perceived this fact, that there is nothing faulty
in them: few have discerned the other point; namely, how much in them
there is that is praiseworthy. For it is a fault in a sentence if
anything is absurd, or foreign to the subject, or stupid, or trivial;
and it is a fault of language if any thing is gross, or abject, or
unsuitable, or harsh, or far-fetched. Nearly all those men who are
either considered Attic orators or who speak in the Attic manner have
avoided these faults. But if that is all their merit, then they may
deserve to be regarded as sound and healthy, as if we were regarding
athletes, to such