inTolves a epecies of doubt, ■which ia cleared up when tho words which are wanting are supplied; and such addition being made, it is maintained that the intention of tho writing was clear; and if any doubt arises from contradictory writings, it is not a new iind of controversy that arises, but a, cause of the former sort ia doubled;^ imd this can either never be determined, or must be so determined, that by supplying the omitted words, the writing which ■wa defend, whichsoever of the two it is, may be rendered complete. Thus, of those causes whicit arise from a controversy about a writing, when anything ia espressed ambiguously, there exists hut one kind. But as there are many Borts of ambiguities, (which they who are called logicians Beem to me to understand better than other men; while those of <mr profession, who ought to know them ftdl seem to be ignorant of them,) so that is the most freqi ia occurrence, either ia discourse or writing, when a quest arises from a word or words being left out. They another mistake when they distinguish this kind of cai which consist in the interpretation of writing, from those which it ia disputed of what nature a thing is; for there nowhere so much dispute reepecting the exact nature ' thing as in regard to writing, which is totally sepamted from controversy concerning fact. There are in all, therefore, three Borts of motters, which may possibly fall under doubt and discussion; what is now done, what has been done, or what is to be done; what the nature of a thing is, or bow it should be designated; for as to the question which some Greelis add, whether a thing bo rightly done, it is wholly included in the inquiry, what the nature of the thing is XXVII, [^But to return to my own method. When, hearing and understanding the nature of a cause, I pre to examiue the subject matter of it, I settle nothing until have ascertained to what point my whole speech, bearing immediately on the question and case, must be directed. I then very diligently consider two other points; the one, bow to reeoaunend mysel£ or those for whom I plead; the other, how to sway the minds of those before whom I speak to that ' SuperUn-ii gentra canua dupiieatttr. Ellendt eiplsjns tlieBO words Qua: " in the same cause, the uUegiitioiis of the twu partiea ara judged -- ■ HepamtB quebtiona of the same kinil."
lAHAUTEH OF THE ORATOl ■which I desire. Thus the whola business of Bpeaking rests upou three things for success in persuaainn; that we prove ■what we maintain to be tme; that we concihate those who hear; that we produce in their minds whatever feeling our cause may require. For' the purpose of proof, two kinds of matter present themselves to the orator; one, conaistiiig ofsneh things as are not invented by him, bat, as appertaining to the cause, are judiciously treated by him, as deeds, testimonies, covenants, contracts, EKjuninations, laws, acts of the senate, precedents, decrees, opinions of lawyers, and whatever else ia not found out by the orator, but brought under hia notice by the cause and by hia cUeiits; the other, consisting entirely in the orator's own reasoning and arguments: so that, as to the former head, be has only to handle the arguments with which he ia furnished; ss to the latter, to invent arguments likewise. Those who profess to teach eloquence, after dividing causes into several kinds, suggest a number of arguments for each kind; which method, though it may be better adapted to the instruction of youth, in order that when a ease ia proposed to them they may have something to which they may refer, and from whence tbey may draw forth arguments ready prepared; yet it shows a slowness of mind to pursue the rivulets, instead of seeking for the fountain-head; and it becomes our age and experience to derive what we want to know from the source, and to ascertain the spring from which everything proceeds.
" But that first kind of matters which are brought before the oratorj ought to be the eonatant subject of our contemplation for general practice in affairs of that nature. For in support of deeds and against them, for and against evidence, for and against examinations by torture, and in other subjects of that sort, we usually speak either of each kind in general and abstractedly, or as confined to particular occaaioQS, persons, and causes; and such common-places (I speak to you, Cotta and Sulpicius) you ought to keep ready and prepared with much study and meditation. It would occupy too much time at present to show by what means we should confirm or invalidate testimony, deeds, and examinations. These matters are all to be atttuned with a moderate share of capacity, though with very great practice; and they require art and instruction only so far, as they should bo I DE OaiTOBf!; OR, I DE OaiTOBf!; OR, iUufitrated with certain. embQlliahmeuta of languagti. So also thoHs ■ft-hieh are of the other kind, and which proceed whoHy from the orator, are not difficult of inveiitioB, but require perspicuous and coiTect espoaition. As these two things, therefore, are the objects of our inquiry in causes, first, nhat Ve shall say, and next, how we shall say it; the former, which eeeme to be wholly concerned with art, though it does indeed require some art, is yet an affeir of but ordinary understanding, namely, to see what ought to be saidj the lattec is the department in which the divine power and excellence of the orator is seen; I mean in delivering what is to be said with elegance, copiousness, and variety of language.
XXVIII. '■ The former part,^ then, since you have onoe declared it to be your pleasure, I will not refuse to finish off and complete, (how far I shall succeed you will beat judge,) and shall show from what topics a speech must be furnished in order to effect these three objects wiiich alone have power to persuade; namely, that the minds of the audience be conciluUsd, informed, and moved, for these are the three; but how they ^ould be illustrated, there is one present who can instruct us all; one who first introduced this excellence into our practice, who principally improved it, who alone haa brought it to perfection. ' For I think, Catulus, {and I will aay this without any dread of a suspicion of flattery,) that there is no orator, at all more eminent than ordinary, either Grecian, or Roman, that our age has produced, whom I have not heard often and atteutivoly; and, therefore, if there is any abiUty in me, (as I may now presume to hope, since you, men of such talents, take so much trouble in giving me audience,) it arises ih)m this, that no orator ever delivered anything in my hearing, which did not sink deeply into my memory; and I, such as I am, and as lar as I have capacity to form a judgment, having heard all orators, without any hesitation decide and pronounce this. That none of them all had so many and such esceUent accomplishments in speaking as Are iu Crassus. On which account^ if you also are of the same opinion, it will uot, as I think, bo an unjust partition, if, when I shall have given birth and education and strength to this orator whom I am forming, as is my design, I deliver ' Which Bhowa what a BptsJLiir aught to say, and what is sflactiTa in pemiiadijig an audience. Prffast.
him to CrftSBus to be fumislied with apparel and omtiments." ' CrassuB then said, " Do you rather, Antonius, go on as you have commenced; for it is Bot the part of a good or liberal parent not to clothe and adorn him whom he has engendered and brought up; especially aa you caanot deny that you are wealthy enough. For what grace, what power, what spirit, what dignity waa wanting to that orator, who at the close of a epeech did not hesitate to oaU forth hia accused ciient, though of consular rank, and to tear open his garment, and to expose to the judgea the scars on the breast of the old commander)' who also, when he defended a seditious madman,' Sulpicius here being the aecuser, did not hesitate to apeak in &vour of sedition itself, and to demonstrate, with the utmost power of language, that many popular insurrections are j ust, for whichnohody could beaccountable^ adding that many seditions had occurred to the benefit of the commonwealth, as when the kings were espellod, and when the power of the tribunes waa established; and that the sedition of Norbanua, proceeding irora the grief of the citizens, and their hatred to Caspio, who had lost the army, oould not possibly bo restrained, and was blown up into a flame by a just indignation. Could this, BO hazardous a topic, so unprecedented, so delicate, so new, be handled without an incredible force and power of eloquence i What shall I say of the compassion excited for CneiuB Manlius,' or that in favour of Quintus Res!* What of other innumerable instances, in which it was not'that eitraordinary aoutenesa, which everybody allows you, that was most conspicuous, but it was those very qualities which you ' ManiuB AquiliuH, who, nfter the terminatido of the Hervilo war in willing to oDtroat the pity of the juices, Antonius, who pleaded for him, tore open his tuaic in front, and showed tha Bcnn of tbe honauiv able wounds which he had rocoiTBd in battle. He waa Gf^uitted. Livy, Bpit. Protttt. ' Norbimus tha tribune. See note on c. 47. SUaidl, ' He WDS uousul with FubliuB Kutiliua, A.O.O. 619 1 nnd hsTing refused to unite his troops nith those of Quintus Cxpio, the proconsul, was defeated by tha Cimbri, and lost liia wmy. Livy, Ep. bml For this miBcairiage he was, with Ccepio, brought to trial, and must have been defended by Antonius. EllmdI. * Of tlie tiisl of QnintuB Msrcins lies Qothing is konwn. EUewii, I I ci'ibs to me, tLnt were always eminent aud exceUeti in you."
XXIX. " For my part," said Catnlus, " what I am accustomed most to admire in you. both, is, that while you are totally unlike each other in your manner of speaking, yet each of you Bpeaka so well, that nothing seems eitiier to have been denied you by nature, or not to Imve been boBtowed on yoa by learning. You, therefore, CrassUB, from your obliging disposition, will neither withhold from us the illustratiou of whatever may have been inadvertently or purposely omitted, by Antonina; nor if you, Antouius, do not apeak on every point, we shall think, not that you could not speak on it, but that you preferred that it should be treated by Crassua." Here Crassua said, " Do you rather, Antouius, omit those particularB which you have proposed to treat, and which no one here Deeds, namely, from what topics the statoments made ia pleadings are to be derived, which, though they would be treated by you in a new aud escelleut way, are in. their nature very easy, and commonly set forth in books of rules; but ^how 41s these resourees whence yoa draw that eloquence which you frequently exert, and aJwaya divinely."
" I will indeed show you them," said Antoaiua; " and that I may the more easily obtain from you what I require, I will refuse you nothing that you ask, iThe supports of my whole eloquciice, and that power of speaking which Crassua just now extolled to the skies, are, as I observed before, three processes; the first, that of conciliating my hearers; the second, that of instructing them; and the third, that of moving them. The first of these divisions requires mildness of address; the second penetration; the third energy; for it is impossible but that he, who is to determine a cause in our favour, must either lean to our aide from propensity of feeling, or be swayed by the arguments of our defence, or be forced by action upon his mind. But sinoe that part, in which the opening of the cose itself and the defence lie, seems to comprehend all that is laid down as doctrine on thia head, I shall speak on that first, and say but few words; for I seem to have but few_ observations gained from experience, and imprinted ai on ray memoTy.l XXX. " Wo shall willingly consent to your judicious prQ posal, Crassus, to omit those defences for every sort of m which the masters of rhetoric are accustomed to teach hoys; and to open thoso sources whence all ailments for every cause and spoech fire derived. For neither, aa often as wa have occasion to write any word, need the letters of that word he bo often collected in our thoughts; nor, aa ofteii aa WB are to plead a cause, need we turn to the separate arguments for that oouBB; but we should have certain commonplaces which, like letters for forming a word, immediately occur to US to aid in stating a cause. But these commonplaces can be of advantogo only to that orator who is conversant in husinees, and has that experience which age at length brings with it; or one who has so much attention and power of thought as to anticipate age by study and diligence. For if you bring to me a maa of ever so deep erudition, of ever BO acute and subtile an intellect, or ever so ready an elocution, if he be a stranger to the customs of civil communities, to the examples, to the institations, to the manners and inchnations of his fellow-citizens, the common-places from which arguments are drawn will be of little benefit to him. I must have a weli-cuitivated genius, like a field not onca ploughed only, but again and again, with renewed and repeated tillage, that it may produce better and lai'ger crops; and the cultivation here required is experience, attentive hearing of other orators, reading, and writing.
" Fictt, then, let him esamine tb« nature of Jiia. cause, which is never obscure so far as the inquiry 'whether a thing haa been done or not j' or ' of what nature it is;' or ' what namo it should receive;' and when this is ascertained, it immediately occm-g, with the aid of natural good sense, and not of those artifices which teachers of rhetoric inculcate, 'wiat con-BtitutBs the cause,' that is, the point without which there would be no controversy; then, 'what is the matter for tnal,' which they direct you to ascertain in this manner: Opimiua slow Gracchus; what constitutes the cause? 'That he slew him for the good of the republic, when he had called the people to arms, in consequence of a decree of the senate.' Set this point aside, and there will be no question for trial. But Decius denies that snch a deed could be authorized contrary to the laws. The point therefore to be tried will be, ' whether Opimius had authority to do so from the decree of the senate, for the good of the coiamonwealth.' Theaa clear, and may be settled by H to be ooBsidered what argumerts, relative to the point for trialj oug^t to be advanaed, as well by the accuser as by bim who has undertaken the defence.
XXXI. " Here we must notice a capital error in those raaatere to whom we Bend our children; not that it has much to do with speaking, but that you may see how stupid and unpolished a aet of men they are who ima^ne themselves learned.
For, in diatinguiahing the different kinds of spcakiog, they make two apeciea of canaea One they call, 'that in whidi the question is about a general proposition, without reference to persona and times;' the other, ' that which is confined to certain persons and times;' being ignorant that all contro- ^ -veraieB muat have relation, to the force and nature of tha i I general position; for in thut very cause which I mentioned, I the person of Opimiue or Decius has nothing to do with the / oommon arguments of the orator; since tho inquiry has / reatricted reference to the queation in general, ' whether he f seems deserving of punishment who has slun a citizen under a decree of the senate for the preservation of his country, when such a deed was sot pennitted by the laws.' There is / indeed no cause in which the point that falls under dispute ' is considered with reference to the parties to the suit, aud not from arguments relating to such questions in general. But even in those very cases where the dispute is about a fact, as 'whether Publius Decius^ has taken money contrary to law, tho arguments both for the accusation and for the defence must have reference to the general question, and the general nature of the caae; as, to show that the defendant is eipensire, the arguments must refer to luiury; that he is covetous of another's property, to avarice; that he is seditious, to turbulent aud ill-designing citizens in general; that he ia convicted by many proofs, to the general nature of evidence: and, on the other side, whatsver is aaid for the defendant, must of necessity be abstracted from the occasion and individual, and referred to the general notions of things and questions of the kind. These, perhaps, to a "inn who cannot readily comprehend in bis mind all that is in the nature of things, may aeom ' He WSB accused of liaving beei ftir having eausal the death of Cnii Biog. and Mjthol. Art. Decius, n.
tlN THE CHAltACTBR OP THE ORATOR.
extremely numerous to eome under eonaideration when the question is about a single iact; hut it is the numher of charges, and not of modes of defence, or topics for theffi, that is infinite.'- XXXir. " But when thei'e is no contoat abont facfaf, the questions on tht) nature of ^Lcte, if you j'eckon them from the number of the parties aucused, are innumerable aad intricate; if from the facta themBeWeB, Tery few and clear.
For if we consider the case of Mancinus'''flo as referring to Mancinus alone, then, whenever a person whom the chief herald has surrendered to the enemy is not re-admitted into hia country, a new case will arise. But if what gives rise to the controversy bo the general question, ' whether to him whom thechief herald has surrendered, if he has not been re-adniitted into his country, there seems to he a. right of return,' the name of Mancinus has nothing to do with the mode of speaking upon it, or the arguments for the defence. And if the merit or demerit of tlie person give rise to any discussion, it is wholly beside the question; and the part of the speech referring to the question must, of necessity, he adapted to such arguments in general. I do not reason upon these suhjecta for the purpose of confuting learned teachers; although those merit reproof, who, in their general definition, describe thia sort of causes as relating to persons and times. For, although times and persons are incident to them, yet it shonld be tmderstood, that the cauaes depend not upon them, but upon the general question. But this is not my business; for we ought to have no contest with that sort of people; it is sufficient that this only should be known, that they liave not even attained a point which they might have effected amid 80 much leisure, even without any eiperience in affairs of tbe foruiu; that is, they might have distinguished the general natures of cases, and explained them a little more accurately. But this, as I said, is not my business; it is mine, and much more yours, my IVieuds Cotta and Sulpieius, to know, that as their artificial rules now stand, the multitude- * InDumerabls acausatioiia majr be brought RgaiiiBt a peraon, aS agaiiut Yenea by Cicero; but the (oct, eommou topics or grounda, on iraieh the attack or defence will rsat, (reapecting, for inatance, avario% Inxuiy, vioieDCe, treaeOQ,) will be but tbw. ElUadl.
DE OBdTOEEJ OR, of eausea is to be dreaded; for it is infinite, if they are referred to persons; so many men, so many causes; iiut, if they are referred to general queBtious, they are so limited and few, that studious orators of good memory aad judgment ought to liave them digested in tlieir minds, and, I may ahnost say, learned by heart; unless perhaps you imagine that Lucius Cnisaus took his notion of that famous cause'- Ironi Manius CuriuB personally; and thus brought many ailments to show why, though no posthuiaous son was bom, yet Curins ought to be the heir of Coponiiis. The name of Copouius, or of Curius, had no influence at all on the array of arguments advanced, or on the force and nature of the questiou; iha whole controversy had regard to all affairs aiid events of that kind in general, not to particular occasioiis or names; smce the writing was thus, 1/ a son is horn to m.e, anil he die before, etc., then let him he my heir; and if a son. waa not born, the question was whether ho ought to be heir who was appointed heir on the death of the son.
XXXIU, " A queatioa regarding unvarying equity, and of a general nature, requires no names of persons, but merely skill in speaking, and sources of proper argument, In this respect oven the lawyers themselves are an impediment to us, and hinder us from learning; for I perceive it to be generally reported in the hooks of Cato and of Brutus, what answers they gave on points of law to any particular man or woman by name; that we might imagine, I suppose, soma cause for consultation or doubt to have arisen Irom the persons, not irom the thing; so that, since persons are innumerable, we might be deterred from the study of the law, and lay aside all inclination to learn it, at the same time with all hope of ever attaining a thorough knowledge of it.
" But Crassus will some day make all these points clear to us, aad set them forth arranged under general beads; for you must know, Catulus, that he promised us yesterday, that he would reduce the civil law, which is now in a state of confusion and dispersion, under certain general heads, and digest it into an easy system." " And indeed," said Catulus, "that is by no means a difficult undertaking for Crassus, ■who has all of law that can be learned, and he will supply that which was wanting in those who taught him; for he will ttUSlVj I TH£ CEAIUCIBR OF XHB OBATOB.
bo able to define exactly, and to illuatrate eloquently, every point comprebended ia the law." " We shall then," said AntoniuB, "leam all these tbinga from Ceassua, when heehall ha,v0 betaken himself, as he intends, from the tumult of public busineBS and the benches of the forum, to a quiet retreat, and to bis threne."^ " I have indeed often," observed Catulua, "heard him say, 'that he was resolved to retire from pleading and the courts of justice;' but, as I frequently tell him, it will never be in hia power; for neither will ho permit his assistance to bo repeatedly implored in vain by persons of character, nor will the public endure his retirement patiently, as they ■will think that if they lose the eloquence of Lucius CrassuB, they will lose one of the principal ornaments of the city." " Indeed then," remarked Antonins, " if what Catulus says. is true, Crassus, you must still live on in the same workshop with me, and we must give up that yawning and sleepy science to the tranquillity of the Scb3vo1bo and other such happy people." Here Crassus smiled a little, nud said, " Finish weaving, Antonius, the web which you have begun; yet that yawning science, as you term it, when I have sheltered myself under it, will vindicate my right to liberty."