good I will discuss presently; but at
this moment I only say that that topic which I think we shall be right in
calling the civil one, and which the Greeks call {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH VARIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}, has been
treated of in a dignified and copious manner by the ancient Peripatetics
and Academicians who, agreeing in parts, differed from one another only in
words.

III. How many books have these men written on the republic! how many on
laws! How many precepts in art, and, more than that, how many instances of
good speaking in orations have they bequeathed to us! For, in the first
place, they said with the greatest degree of polish and fitness those very
things which were to be argued in a subtle manner, laying down both
definitions and divisions: as your friends have also done: but you have
done it in a more shabby manner; while you see how brilliant their
language is. In the second place, with what splendid language have they
adorned that part of the subject which required ornate and impressive
eloquence! how gloriously have they illustrated it! discussing justice,
and fortitude, and friendship, and the method of passing life, and
philosophy, and the government of the state, and temperance, not like men
picking out thorns, like the Stoics, or laying bare the bones, but like
men who knew how to handle great subjects elegantly, and lesser ones
clearly. What, therefore, are their consolations? What are their
exhortations? What also are their warnings and advice written to the most
eminent men? For their practice in speaking was, like the nature of the
things themselves, of a two-fold character. For whatever is made a
question of, contains a controversy either as to the genus itself, without
reference to persons or times; or else, with these additions, a dispute as
to the fact, or the right, or the name. And therefore, they exercised
themselves in both kinds; and that discipline it was which produced that
great copiousness of eloquence among them in both kinds of argumentation.
Now Zeno, and those who imitated him, were either unable to do much in
this kind of argument, or else were unwilling, or at all events they did
not do it. Although Cleanthes wrote a treatise on the art of rhetoric, and
so too did