Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

"nuating genius of the other penetrated, by a cer"tain sweetness and complacency, to the most hid"den recesses of the heart. He had the art of enter"ing into the interests, the inclinations, the passions, " and sentiments of all who heard him."

The archbishop of Cambray, having more courage than the two excellent writers above-cited, declares manifestly in favour of Demosthenes; and yet he cannot be thought to be an enemy to the graces, the flowers, and elegance of speech. He gives us his sentiments on this subject, in his epistle upon Eloquence. "I am not, says he, afraid to own, that I prefer De"mosthenes to Cicero. I protest no one admires Ci

[ocr errors]

cero more than I do: he adorns every thing he "touches: he does honour to speech: he makes "more of words than any other could: he is possessed "of a variety of geniusses: he is even concise and "vehement whenever he pleases, against Catiline,

Verres, and Antony; but we perceive some em"bellishment in his orations. They are worked up "with wonderful art, but we see through it. When "the orator thinks of the safety of the common“wealth, he neither forgets himself, nor suffers others "to do it; but Demosthenes seems to step out, as it were, from himself, and to see nothing but his

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

country. He does not seek after beauties, for they "occur to him naturally. He is superior to admira"tion: he makes use of speech as a modest man does "of clothes: he thunders and lightens: he is a flood, "that sweeps away all things in its progress. We "cannot criticize upon him, because we are capti"vated by his Eloquence. We are attentive to his "ideas, and not to his words; we lose sight of him, "and our whole attention is fixed on Philip, who usurps every thing. Both orators charm me; but "I own myself less affected with Cicero's boundless art, and magnificent Eloquence, than with the rapid simplicity of Demosthenes."

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Nothing can be more rational and judicious than these reflections of the great archbishop; and the

closer

closer we examine his opinion, the more conformable we find it to good sense, right reason, and the most exact rules of true rhetoric. But whoever would take upon him to prefer Demosthenes's orations to those of Cicero, ought, in my opinion, to possess almost as much solidity, force, and elevation of mind, as Demosthenes must have had to compose them. Whether it be owing to a long prepossession in favour of an author we have constantly read from our tender years; or that we are accustomed to a style which agrees more with our manners, and is more adapted to our capacities; we cannot be persuaded to prefer the severe austerity of Demosthenes to the insinuating softness of Cicero; and we chuse to follow our own inclinations and taste for an author, who is in some measure our friend and acquaintance, rather than to declare, upon the credit of another, in favour of one that is almost a stranger to us.

Cicero knew the high merit of Demosthenes's Eloquence, and was fully sensible of all its strength and beauty: but, being persuaded that an orator may, without deviating from the best rules, form his style to a certain point upon the taste of his auditors (itis obvious enough, that I do not here mean a depraved or vicious taste,) he did not think the age he lived in susceptible of so rigid an exactness; [2] and believed it necessary to indulge something to the ears and to the delicacy of his auditors, who required more elegance and graces in orations. Thus, he made some allowance to pleasure, but still never lost sight of the cause he was pleading; and he thought he was even then serving his country, which he did effectually, since one of the surest methods of persuading is to please.

The best advice that can be given to young persons, who are designed for the bar, is to take for the model

[*] Quapropter ne illis quidem nimiùm repugno, qui dandum putant nonnihil esse temporibus atque auribus nitidius aliquid atque affectatius postulantibus.... Atque id fecisse M. Tullium video,ut,cùm

omnia utilitati, tùm partem quandam delectationi daret: cùm & ipsam se rem agere dicere (agebat autem maximè) litigatoris. Nam hoe ipso proderat,quòd placebat. Quint. 1. 12. c. 10.

of

of their style, the solid foundation of Demosthenes, embellished with the graces of Cicero: [a] To which, if we may believe Quintilian, nothing can be added, except, says he, that perhaps a few more thoughts might be introduced in discourses. He means, no doubt, those which were very much in vogue in his time, and by which, as by so many lively and shining strokes, they pointed the ends of most of their periods. Cicero ventures upon them sometimes, but it is very rarely; [b] and he was the first among the Romans who made them current. It is very obvious, that what Quintilian says in this place is nothing but a kind of condescension, which the depraved taste of the age seems to have forced from him, [c] when according to the observation of the author of the Dialogue upon orators, the auditor thought he had a right to insist upon a florid style; and when even the judge would not vouchsafe to hear a lawyer, if he were not invited, and in some measure corrupted, by the allurement of pleasure, and by the splendor of the thoughts and descriptions.

"[d] But, let no one pretend, adds Quintilian, to "abuse my compliance, or to carry it farther. I "will indulge the age we live in so far, as to have the

gown now in fashion made of something better "than coarse stuff; but then it must not be of silk: I "will allow the hair to be neatly disposed, but it must "not be in stages, and in ringlets; for dress is then "the most elegant, and at the same time most beau"tiful and becoming, when it has nothing luxurious "and excessive in it for the sake of pleasing."

[a] Ad cujus voluptates nihil equidem, quod addi possit, invenio, hisi ut fensus nos quidem dicamus plures, Quint. l. 12. c. 10.

[6] Cicero primus excoluit orationem. . . . locosque lætiores attentavit, & quasdam sententias invenit. Dial. de Or. n. 22.

[c] Auditor assuevit jam exigere Jætitiam & pulchritudinem orationis... Judex ipse, nisi. . . aut cotore sententiarum, aut nitore & cul

tu descriptionum invitatus & corruptus est, aversatur dicentem. Ib.. n. 20.

[4] Sed me hactenus cedentem nemo insequatur ultrà. Do tempori, ne crassa toga sit, non serica: ne intonsum caput, non in gradus atque annulos totum comptum : cùm in eo qui se non ad luxuriam ac libidinem referat, eadem speciosiora quoque sint, quæ honestiora. Quint. 1. 12. c. 10.

Had

Had orators kept within these just bounds, and this wise sobriety with regard to ornainents, Eloquence would not have degenerated in Athens and Rome.

We may affirm, that the most conspicuous age for Eloquence at Athens was that of Demosthenes, [e] when so great a multitude of excellent orators arose, whose general character was, a natural and unadorned beauty: these orators did not all boast the same genius, nor the same style; but they were all united in the same taste of truth and simplicity; which continued as long as the Athenians imitated those great men; but the remembrance of them growing insensibly more obscure after their death, and being at last quite obliterated in people's minds, a new species of Eloquence arose, which was softer, and more loose and diffused, than the ancient kind.

Demetrius Phalereus, who might have seen and heard Demosthenes, took a different course, by giving entirely into the florid and embellished species. He thought Eloquence ought to appear in gay and sprightly colours, and be divested of that gloomy and rigid air, which made her, in his opinion, too serious. He introduced a great many more thoughts; strewed more flowers over her; and, to use an expression of Quintilian, instead of the majestic, but modest dress she wore in Demosthenes's time, [f] he gave her a sparkling robe, variegated with colours altogether unfit for the dust of the bar, but at the same time very fit to attract and dazzle the eyes of people.

[e] Hæc ætas effudit hanc copiam: &, ut opinio mea fert, succus ille & sanguis incorruptus usque ad hanc ætatem oratorum fuit, in quâ naturalis inesset non fucatus nitor. Brut. n. 36.

Demosthenes, Hyperides, Lycurgus, schines, Dinarchus, aliique complures, etsi inter se pares non fuerunt, tamen sunt omnes in eodem veritatis imitandæ genere versati. Quorum quamdiu mansit imitatio,

tamdiu genus illud dicendi studiumque vixit. Posteaquam, extinctis his, omnis eorum memoria sensim obscurata est & evanuit, alia quædam dicendi molliora ac remissiora genera viguerunt. 2. de Orat. n. 94, 95.

[f] Meminerimus versicolorem illam quâ Demetrius Phalereus dicebatur uti vestem, non benè ad forensem pulverem facere. Quint. 1. 10. c. x.

Thus

[g] Thus Demetrius, being fitter for affairs of pomp and ceremony, than the contest and litigations of the Bar, preferred softness to strength; endeavoured more to charm than subdue the mind; he thought it sufficient to leave in it the remembrance of a flowing and harmonious discourse; but did not endeavour, like Pericles, to leave at the same time sharp stings, as it were, blended with the allurements of pleasure.

[h] It does not appear, by the picture which Cicero had elsewhere drawn of Phalereus, and his opinion of him, that there was however any thing of forced and · excessive in his style; since he says, [] we might esteem and approve it, if not compared with the force and majesty of the noble and sublime style. [k] And nevertheless Demetrius was the first who caused Eloquence to degenerate; [1] and perhaps declamations, the practice of which was first introduced into the schools in his time, and possibly might have been invented by him, contributed very much to this fatal decline, as they certainly afterwards hastened that of the Roman Eloquence.

But things did not long continue in this state. [m] When Eloquence, after leaving the Pyræeum, had begun to breathe another air, she soon lost that sprightliness and florid health which she had always preserved there; and, being vitiated by foreign manners, she forgot, as it were, the use of speech, and

[g] Phalereus successit eis senibus adolefcens, eruditissimus ille quidem horum omnium, sed non tam armis institutus quàm palæstrâ. Itaque delectabat magis Athenienses, quàm inflammabat. Processerat enim in solem & pulverem : non ut è militari tabernaculo, sed ut è Theophrasti, doctissimi hominis, umbraculis. Hic primus inflexit orationem, & eam mollem teneramque reddidit: & suavis, sicut fuit, videri maluit, quam gravis, sed suavitate eâ quâ perfunderet animos, non quâ perfringeret : & tantùm ut memoriam concinnitatis suæ, non (quemadmodum de Pericle scripsit Eupolis) cum delectatione

aculeos etiam relinqueret in animis eorem â quibus esset auditus. Brut, n. 37, 38.

[b] Orat. n. 91, 96.

[i] Et nisi coràm erit, comparatus ille fortior per se hic, quem dico, probabitur. Orat. n. 95.

[k] Primus inclinâsse eloquentiam dicitur. Quint. 1. 10. c. 1. [] Quint. 1. 2. c. 4.

[m] Ut semel è Piræeo eloquentia evecta est, omnes peragravit insulas, atque ita peregrinata totâ Asiâ est, ut se externis oblineret moribus: omnemque illam salubritatem Atticæ dictionis & quasi sanitatem perderet, ac loqui penè dedisceret. Brut. n. 51.

was

« ZurückWeiter »