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 _Tyndaridae_. 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 proxime 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 Socraticae poterunt ostendere chartae,
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 Laertius, 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. _