Institutio Oratoria

and, further, that actual pleading is characterised by a greater energy and by the employment, almost verging on license, of every artifice designed to please, since the minds of an uneducated audience require to be moved and led. On the other hand, the written speech with is published as a model of style must be polished and filed and brought into conformity with the accepted rules and standards of artistic construction, since it will come into the hands of learned men and its art will be judged by artists.

These subtle teachers (for such they have persuaded themselves and others that they are) have laid it down that the παράδειγμα [*](Sec v. xi. 1. Parallels and especially historical ones.) is best suited for actual speech and the ἐνθύμημα [*]( See v. xiv. 1 sqq. A form of syllogism. ) for writing. My own view is that there is absolutely no difference between writing well and speaking well, and that a written speech is merely a record of one that has actually been delivered. Consequently it must in my opinion possess every kind of merit, and note that I say merit, not fault. For I know that faults do sometimes meet with the approval of the uneducated.