ur._ _De Claris
Orat._ s. 288. Quintilian says, there were, who preferred him to all
the orators of his time. Others were of opinion that, by being too
severe a critic on himself, he polished too much, and grew weak by
refinement. But his manner was grave and solid; his style was chaste,
and often animated. To be thought a man of attic eloquence was the
height of his ambition. If he had lived to see his error, and to give
to his eloquence a true and perfect form, not by retrenching (for
there was nothing to be taken away), but by adding certain qualities
that were wanted, he would have reached the summit of his art. By a
premature death his fame was nipped in the bud. _Inveni qui Calvum
praeferrent omnibus; inveni qui contra crederent eum, nimia contra se
calumnia, verum sanguinem perdidisse. Sed est et sancta et gravis
oratio, et castigata, et frequenter vehemens quoque. Imitator est
autem Atticorum; fecitque illi properata mors injuriam, si quid
adjecturus, non si quid detracturus fuit._ Quintil. lib. x. cap. 1.

[d] This was the famous Marcus Junius Brutus, who stood forth in the
cause of liberty, and delivered his country from the usurpation of
Julius Caesar. Cicero describes him in that great tragic scene,
brandishing his bloody dagger, and calling on Cicero by name, to tell
him that his country was free. _Caesare interfecto, statim cruentum
alte extollens Marcus Brutus pugionem, Ciceronem nominatim exclamavit,
atque ei recuperatam libertatem est gratulatus._ Philippic, ii. s. 28.
The late Doctor Akenside has retouched this passage with all the
colours of a sublime imagination.

Look then abroad through nature, through the range
Of planets, suns, and adamantine spheres,
Wheeling unshaken through the void immense,
And speak, O man! does this capacious scene
With half that kindling majesty dilate
Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose
Refulgent from the stroke of Caesar's fate,
Amid the crowd of patriots, and his arm
Aloft extending, like eternal Jove
When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud
On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel,
And bade the Father of his Country hail!
For, lo! the tyrant prostrate in the dust,
And Rome again is free.
PLEASURES OF IMAG. b. i. ver. 487.

According to Quintilian, Brutus was fitter for philosophical
speculations, and books of moral theory, than for the career of public