How small a portion of all these abilities will be required for the
defence of the innocent, the repression of crime or the support of truth
against falsehood in suits involving questions of money? It is true that
our supreme orator will bear his part in such tasks, but his powers will
be displayed with brighter splendour in greater matters than these, when
he is called upon to direct the counsels of the senate and
Was not this the man conceived by Virgil and described as quelling a
riot when torches and stones have begun to fly: Aen. i. 151 sqq.
Here then we have
one who is before all else a good man, and it is only after this that
the poet adds that he is skilled in speaking:
Again, His words their minds control, their
passions soothe.
will not this same man, whom we are striving to form, if in time of war he be called upon to inspire his soldiers with courage for the fray, draw for his eloquence on the innermost precepts of philosophy? For how can men who stand upon the verge of battle banish all the crowding fears of hardship, pain and death from their minds, unless those fears be replaced by the sense of the duty that they owe their country, by courage and the lively image of a soldier's honour?
And assuredly the man who will best inspire such feelings in others is he who has first inspired them in himself. For however we strive to conceal it, insincerity will always betray itself, and there was never in any man so great eloquence as would not begin to stumble and hesitate so soon as his words ran counter to his inmost thoughts.
Now: a bad man cannot help speaking things other than he feels. On the
other land, the good will never be at a loss for honourable words or
fail to find matter full of virtue for utterance, since among his
virtues practical wisdom will be one. And even though his