but little in making an attempt to speak without premeditation in view
of the extraordinary approval which I have won by my set speeches. For
having pleased you by more serious efforts, I have no fear of
displeasing you when I speak on a frivolous subject. But in order that
you may know me in all my infinite variety, make trial of me in what
Lucilius called

_The improviser's formless art_,

and see whether I have the same skill at short notice as I have after
preparation; if indeed there be any of you who have never heard the
trifles I toss off on the spur of the moment. You will listen to them
with the same critical exactitude that I have bestowed on their
composition, but with greater complaisance, I hope, than I can feel in
reciting them. For prudent judges are wont to judge finished works by
a somewhat severe standard, but are far more complaisant to
improvisations. For you weigh and examine all that is actually
written, but in the case of extempore speaking pardon and criticism go
hand in hand, as it is right they should. For what we read forth from
manuscript will remain such as it was when set down, even though you
say nothing, but those words which I must utter now and the travail of
whose birth you must share with me, will be just such as your favour
shall make them. For the more I modify my style to suit your taste,
the more I shall please you.[64] I see that you hear me gladly. From
this moment it lies with you to furl or spread my sails, that they
hang not slack and drooping nor be reefed and brailed.

[Footnote 64: _modificabor, tanto a vobis in maius tolletur._ So all
editions before Van der Vliet. The words _tanto ... tolletur_ have no
MS. support, but some such insertion is necessary for the sense.]

I will try to apply the saying of Aristippus. Aristippus was the
founder of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy and was a disciple of
Socrates--a fact which he regarded as the greater honour of the two. A
certain tyrant asked him what benefit he had derived from so long and
so devoted a study of philosophy. 'It has given me the power,' replied
Aristippus, 'to converse with all men without fear or concern.'

My speech has begun with a certain abruptness of expression due to the
suddenness with which the subject suggested itself to me. It is as
though I were building a loose wall in which one must be content to
pile the stones haphazard without filling the interior with rubble,
levelling the front, or