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[4]
Inasmuch as Aristotle and Theophrastus, too, both
of whom were celebrated for their keenness of
intellect and particularly for their copiousness of
speech, have joined rhetoric with philosophy, it
seems proper also to put my rhetorical books in
the same category; hence we shall include the
three volumes On Oratory, the fourth entitled
Brutus, and the fifth called The Orator.
2. I have named the philosophic works so far
written: to the completion of the remaining books
of this series I was hastening with so much ardour
that if some most grievous cause1 had not inter-
[p. 375]
vened there would not now be any phase of philosophy which I had failed to elucidate and make
easily accessible in the Latin tongue. For what
greater or better service can I render to the common
wealth than to instruct and train the youth—
especially in view of the fact that our young men
have gone so far astray because of the present
moral laxity that the utmost effort will be needed
to hold them in check and direct them in the right
way?
1 Cicero refers to the chaotic condition of public affairs following the death of Caesar.
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