226 S Y L V A BOOK iv 



tarn ipsa aquula^ quae describitur^ quam Platonis oratione 

 crevisse &c. as the orator brings it in, in the person 

 of one of that meeting. 



I confess Quintilian seems much to question whether 

 such places do not rather perturb and distract from 

 an orator's * recollection, and the depths of contemp- 

 lation : Non tamen (says he) protinus audiendi, qui credunt 

 aptissima in hoc nemora^ sihasque^ quod ilia caeli libertas, 

 locorumque amoenitas^ sublimem animum^ & beatiorem 

 spiritum parent : Mihi certe jucundus hie magis^ quam 

 studiorum hortator videtur esse secessus : Namque ilia 

 ipsa quae delectant^ necesse est avocent ab intentione opens 



destinati: He proceeds Quare siharum amoenitas^ 



& praeterlabentia flumina^ & inspir antes ramis arbor um 

 aurae^ volucrumque cantus & ipsa late circumspiciendi 

 libertas^ ad se trahunt ; ut mihi remittere potius voluptas 

 ista ^ideatur cogitationem quam intendere. But this is only 

 his singular suffrage, which as conscious of his error, 

 we soon hear him retract, when he is by and by as loud 

 in its praises, as the places in the world the best fitted 

 for the diviner rhetoric of poetry : But let us admit 

 another 2 to cast in his symbol for groves : Nemora 

 (says he) & luci^ et secretum ipsum^ tantum mihi afferunt 

 voluptatem, ut inter praecipuos carminumfructus numerem^ 

 quod nee in strepitu^ nee sedente ante ostium litigator e^ nee 

 inter sordes & lacrimas reorum componuntur : Sed secedit 

 animus locapura^ atque innocentia^Jruiturque sedibus sacris. 



Whether this were the effect of the incomparable 

 younger Pliny's Epistle 3 to this noble historian, I know 

 not ; but to shew him by his own example how study 

 and forest-sport may consist together, he tells him 



1 See this most elegantly discuss'd in a Greek Epistle of Budseus to his brother, 

 ep. i. 



2 Tacitus. 



3 Plin. Ep. VI. Lib. I. Cornelio Tacito. 



