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, quae dicitur
ethice, certe tota oratori est accommodata. Nam in tanta causarum
varietate, nulla fere dici potest, cujus non parte aliqua tractatus
aequi 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 providentia mundus,
administranda certe 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. _Haec ipsa tolerabilia
essent, si ad eloquentiam it
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