MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 227 



carried on by easy journeys and short stages, and novelty in the speaker 

 supplies the want of novelty in the matter. 



Nor does Cicero discover less skill in the execution of these dialogues, Beauty of 

 than address in their design. It were idle to enlarge upon the beauty, execution - 

 richness, and taste of compositions which have been the admiration of 

 every age and country. In the dignity of his speakers, their high tone 

 of mutual courtesy, the harmony of his groups, and the delicate relief 

 of his contrasts, he is inimitable. The majesty and splendour of his 

 introductions, which generally address themselves to the passions or 

 the imagination, the eloquence with which both sides of a question 

 are successively displayed, the clearness and terseness of his statements 

 on abstract points, the grace of his illustrations, his exquisite allusions 

 to the scene or time of the supposed conversation, his digressions in 

 praise of philosophy or great men, his quotations from Grecian and 

 Roman poetry ; lastly, the melody and fulness of his style, unite to 

 throw a charm round his writings peculiar to themselves. To the 

 Roman reader they especially recommended themselves by their con- 

 tinual and most artful references to the heroes of the old republic, who 

 now appeared but exemplars, and (as it were) patrons of that eternal 

 philosophy, which he had before, perhaps, considered as the short-lived 

 reveries of ingenious, but inactive men. Nor is there any confusion, 

 harshness, or appearance of effort in the introduction of the various 

 beauties we have been enumerating, which are blended together with 

 so much skill and propriety, that it is sometimes difficult to point out 

 the particular causes of the delight left upon the mind. 



In proceeding to enumerate Cicero's philosophical writings, 1 it may 

 be necessary to premise that our intention is rather to sketch out 

 the plan on which they are conducted than to explain the doctrines 

 which they recommend ; for an account of which the reader is 

 referred to our articles on the schools by which they were respectively 

 entertained. 2 



The series of his rhetorical works has been preserved nearly com- Rhetorical 

 plete, and consists of the 'De Inventione,' ' De Oratore,' ' Brutus sive de works< 

 claris Oratoribus,' * Orator sive de optimo genere Dicendi,' ' De parti- 

 tione Oratoria,' ' Topica de optimo genere Oratorum.' The last- 

 mentioned, which is a fragment, is understood to have been the 

 proem to his translation (now lost) of the speeches of Demosthenes 

 and JEschines, ' De Corona.' These he translated with the view of 

 defending, by the example of the Greek orators, his own style of 

 eloquence, which, as we shall afterwards find, the critics of the day 

 censured as too Asiatic in its character ; and hence the preface, which 

 still survives, is on the subject of the Attic style of oratory. This 

 composition and his abstracts of his own orations 3 are his only rhe- 

 torical works now extant, and probably our loss is not very great. 



1 See Fabricius, Bibliothec. Latin. ; Olivet, in Cic. op. omn. ; Middleton's Life. 



2 History of Greek and Roman Philosophy, in this Encyclopaedia. 



3 Quint. Inst. x. 7. 



Q2 



