except as a literary curiosity, than Macaulay could have adapted to our times the prose style of Milton. His aim was simply to induce the writers of his day to employ the existing materials of the language according to the immutable laws of taste. His purpose is thus distinctly expressed in the tenth book: I am striving to call back the style of eloquence, corrupted and vitiated by every fault, to severer standards.*

In the style of the Institutions, composed in the full maturity of his powers, and in the perfect development of his judgment, he has fully exemplified all that he aimed throughout his professional life to enforce by precept.

We can plainly see the happy influence of Quintilian's earnest teachings in the Latin works which appeared while he was still engaged in public lecturing, as well as in some of those which were published after he had retired from professional life. It is most apparent in the Dialogue concerning Orators, and in the letters of the younger Pliny. The latter was a pupil of Quintilian, and ever remained his warm admirer and fast friend. His letters, indeed, indicate the man of refinement rather than of power, but as specimens of epistolary composition, apart from their historical value, they are deservedly ranked among the best of ancient times. The Dialogue on Orators, ascribed to Tacitus, is the most finished work in Latin written subsequent to the golden age, and will bear comparison even with the most perfect productions of that period. "There is no Latin book," says M. Pierron, "I do not except even the finest books of Cicero, to which the reader is held with a livelier interest. We learn much from it, and we meet, not here and there, but on every page, and in almost every line, those marks of genius, thoughts, images, expressions, which prove that the author had some reason for affirming that, after the heroes of ancient literature, new heroes could still arise." t

Tacitus and the younger Pliny were associated together in the minds of their contemporaries as the two most accomplished and most eloquent of the Roman senators, and there can be no doubt that the bosom friend of Pliny was an admirer, if not a pupil, of Quintilian. At any rate the influence of Quintilian must have been felt by Tacitus, and cannot have failed to give

*Corruptum et omnibus vitiis fractum dicendi genus revocare ad severiora judicia contendo. X. 125.

+ Pierron, Histoire de la lit. rom. p. 564.

direction to his earlier literary productions. The two most perfect orators, therefore, and the two best prosaists of the century, excepting Quintilian himself, may be fairly regarded as the exponents of his teaching and criticism. And besides this we may justly ascribe to his efforts much of the more chastened character, and of the greater subordination of the language to the thought, which in general mark the prose style of Latin in the period of Trajan and Hadrian. In fine, the results of the critical labors of Quintilian are clearly traceable in the body of Roman literature, both secular and sacred, which appeared during and after his life, and in the laws of taste which have impressed themselves upon the writings and upon the eloquence of modern times.

M. FABII QUINTILIANI

DE

INSTITUTIONE ORATORIA.

LIBER DECIMUS.

Libro decimo haec continentur: De copia verborum. Quae legenda. Qui Graecorum maxime legendi. Qui Romanorum. De imitatione. Quomodo scribendum. Quomodo emendandum. Quae maxime scribenda. De cogitatione. Quomodo extemporalis facilitas paretur et contineatur.

DE COPIA VERBORUM.

I. SED haec eloquendi praecepta, sicut cognitioni sunt necessaria, ita non satis ad vim dicendi valent, nisi illis firma quaedam facilitas, quae apud Graecos Eğıç nominatur, accesserit; ad quam scribendo plus an legendo an dicendo conferatur, solere quaeri scio. Quod esset diligenti nobis examinandum cura, si qualibet earum rerum possemus una esse contenti. Verum 2 ita sunt inter se connexa et indiscreta omnia, ut, si quid ex his defuerit, frustra sit in ceteris laboratum. Nam neque solida atque robusta fuerit unquam eloquentia, nisi multo stilo vires acceperit; et citra lectionis exemplum labor ille carens rectore fluit. Qui autem sciet, quae, quoque sint modo dicenda, nisi tamen in procinctu paratamque ad omnes casus habuerit eloquentiam, velut clausis thesauris incubabit. Non autem ut quid- 3 que praecipue necessarium est, sic ad efficiendum oratorem maximi protinus erit momenti. Nam certe cum sit in eloquendo positum oratoris officium, dicere ante

omnia est, atque hinc initium eius artis fuisse manifestum est; proximam deinde imitationem, novissimam 4 scribendi quoque diligentiam. Sed ut perveniri ad summa nisi ex principiis non potest: ita procedente iam opere minima incipiunt esse quae prima sunt. Verum nos non, quomodo instituendus orator, hoc loco dicimus; nam id quidem aut satis aut certe uti potuimus dictum est; sed athleta, qui omnes iam perdidicerit a praeceptore numeros, quo genere exercitationis ad certamina praeparandus sit. Igitur eum, qui res invenire et disponere sciet, verba quoque et eligendi et collocandi rationem perceperit, instruamus, qua ratione, quod didicerit, facere quam optime, quam facillime possit. 5 Num ergo dubium est, quin ei velut opes sint quaedam parandae, quibus uti, ubicunque desideratum erit, possit? Eae constant copia rerum ac verborum. 6 Sed res propriae sunt cuiusque causae, aut paucis communes, verba in universas paranda; quae si in rebus singulis essent singula, minorem curam postularent, nam cuncta sese cum ipsis protinus rebus offerrent. Sed cum sint aliis alia aut magis propria aut magis ornata aut plus efficientia aut melius sonantia: debent esse non solum nota omnia sed in promptu atque, ut ita dicam, in conspectu, ut, cum se iudicio dicentis ostenderint, facilis ex 7 his optimorum sit electio. Et quae idem significarent solitos scio ediscere, quo facilius et occurreret unum ex pluribus, et, cum essent usi aliquo, si breve intra spatium rursus desideraretur, effugiendae repetitionis gratia sumerent aliud, quo idem intelligi posset. Quod cum est puerile et cuiusdam infelicis operae tum etiam utile parum; turbam enim tantum congregat, ex qua sine discrimine occupet proximum quodque.

8 Nobis autem copia cum iudicio paranda est vim orandi non circulatoriam volubilitatem spectantibus. Id autem consequemur optima legendo atque audiendo. Non enim solum nomina ipsa rerum cognoscemus hac cura, sed quid quoque loco sit aptis