[8]
I should like, however, to consider the point
more fully and explicitly by appealing to the
actual work of oratory. For how will the orator
succeed in panegyric unless he can distinguish between what is honourable and the reverse? How
[p. 355]
can he urge a policy, unless he has a clear perception of what is expedient? How can he plead in
the law-courts, if he is ignorant of the nature of
justice? Again, does not oratory call for courage,
since it is often directed against the threats of
popular turbulence and frequently runs into peril
through incurring the hatred of the great, while
sometimes, as for instance in the trial of Milo, the
orator may have to speak in the midst of a crowd of
armed soldiers? Consequently, if oratory be not a
virtue, perfection is beyond its grasp.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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