[34]
For my own part I regard these particular
ornaments of oratory to be, as it were, the eyes of
eloquence. On the other hand, I should not like to
see the whole body full of eyes, for fear that it might
cripple the functions of the other members, and, if I
had no alternative, I should prefer the rudeness of
ancient eloquence to the license of the moderns.
But a middle course is open to us here no less than
in the refinements of dress and mode of life, where
there is a certain tasteful elegance that offends no
one. Therefore let us as far as possible seek to increase the number of our virtues, although our first
care must always be to keep ourselves free from
vices, lest in seeking to make ourselves better than
[p. 301]
the ancients we succeed merely in making ourselves
unlike them.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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