Cicero, Orations Vol. 1

to know how one must speak at any given time, is the best of all: which is necessary for him who wishes to be a perfect orator; and whether it is lacking that he should illustrate these [subjects] with most ornate and grave words, and adorn them with every light of oratory? That this is indeed as arduous and great a task can be most easily recognized from this: because although there has hardly ever been anyone who did not think this glory of eloquence was to be pursued above all else, and many men of the keenest intellect have spent their whole lives with the greatest zeal toward nothing else, yet very few in so many ages have been found who were so approved that they did not appear to lack many things. And certainly, to have known any single art with distinction is a very great thing, not to mention that many could be grasped by one person alone. But if one should be of such felicity of genius that he has attained the knowledge of all the greatest things, then how much prudence is required whenever he must speak to arrange each thing in its own proper place? Now, to adorn those very matters with that style of speech, with such words, and to connect those same words so composedly, so concisely, and so aptly among themselves, that nothing could be more illustrious, nothing more pleasant to the ear: that indeed must be held as the most difficult of all. Truly, although many other things are required in an orator, yet the name of eloquence is attributed to this one thing. What shall I say of delivery? It is said that Demosthenes attributed the first, second, and third place to this. If one should lack this alone, even if all other things were granted to him most abundantly, there is nothing that an orator thinks can be accomplished by himself that is great. Yet it is of such a kind that if it be denied to anyone by nature, that which is handed down by art is something small and meager. But also, memory can be neither produced nor instilled by any art much less. A certain method, indeed, has been discovered by which it may be aided, but this would be nothing if that very goodness of nature had not first existed in our minds. Yet this is, as it were, a certain foundation in the orator, upon which, if it be removed, it is necessary that everything else should collapse.