n, charming us rather by his language than by his
lessons. He says of Eloquence that "she is the companion of peace, and
the associate of ease."[258] He tells us of Cato, that he had read a
hundred and fifty of his speeches, and had "found them all replete with
bright words and with great matter; * * * and yet no one in his days
read Cato's speeches!"[259] This, of course, was Cato the elder. Then we
hear how Demosthenes said that in oratory action was everything: it was
the first thing, the second, and the third. "For there is nothing like
it to penetrate into the minds of the audience--to teach them, to turn
them, and to form them, till the orator shall be made to appear exactly
that which he wishes to be thought.[260] * * * The man who listens to one
who is an orator believes what he hears; he thinks everything to be
true, he approves of all."[261] No doubt! In his power of describing the
orator and his work Cicero is perfect; but he does not describe the man
doing that which he is bound to do by his duty.

He tells us that nothing is worse than half a dozen advocates--which
certainly is true.[262] Further on he comes to Caesar, and praises him
very highly. But here Brutus is made to speak, and tells us how he has
read the Commentaries, and found them to be "bare in their beauty,
perfect in symmetry, but unadorned, and deprived of all outside
garniture."[263] They are all that he has told us, nor could they have
been described in truer words. Then he names Hortensius, and speaks of
him in language which is graceful and graphic; but he reserves his
greatest strength for himself, and at last, declaring that he will say
nothing in his own praise, bursts out into a string of eulogy, which he
is able to conceal beneath dubious phrases, so as to show that he
himself has acquired such a mastery over his art as to have made
himself, in truth, the best orator of them all.[264]

Perhaps the chief charm of this essay is to be found in the lightness of
the touch. It is never heavy, never severe, rarely melancholic. If read
without reference to other works, it would leave on the reader's mind
the impression that though now and again there had come upon him the
memory of a friend who had gone, and some remembrance of changes in the
State to which, as an old man, he could not give his assent;
nevertheless, it was written by a happy man, by one who was contented
among his books, and was pleased to be reminded that things had gone
w