[b] Cæsar the dictator was, as the poet
expresses
it, graced with both
Minervas.
Minervas.
Tacitus
s.
32.
St.
Paul has made use of a similar argument;
"The body is not one member, but many: if the foot shall
say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it,
therefore, not of the body? and if the ear shall say,
Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it,
therefore, not of the body? If the whole body were an eye,
where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where
were the smelling? But now hath God set the members everyone
of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they
were all one member, where were the body? But now are they
many members, yet but one body: and the eye cannot say unto
the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again, the head to the
feet, I have no need of you. And whether one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured,
all the members rejoice with it. "
_First Epistle to the Corinthians_, chap. xii.
This reasoning of St. Paul merits the attention of those friends of
innovation, who are not content with the station in which God has
placed them, and, therefore, object to all subordination, all ranks in
society.
[b] Cæsar the dictator was, as the poet expresses it, graced with both
Minervas. Quintilian is of opinion, that if he had devoted his whole
time to the profession of eloquence, he would have been the great
rival of Cicero. The energy of his language, his strength of
conception, and his power over the passions, were so striking, that he
may be said to have harangued with the same spirit that he fought.
_Caius vero Cæsar si foro tantum vacasset, non alius ex nostris contra
Ciceronem nominaretur. Tanta in eo vis est, id acumen, ea concitatio,
ut illum eodem animo dixisse, quo bellavit, appareat. _ Lib. x. cap. 1.
To speak of Cicero in this place, were to hold a candle to the sun. It
will be sufficient to refer to Quintilian, who in the chapter above
cited has drawn a beautiful parallel between him and Demosthenes. The
Roman orator, he admits, improved himself by a diligent study of the
best models of Greece. He attained the warmth and the sublime of
Demosthenes, the harmony of Plato, and the sweet flexibility of
Isocrates. His own native genius supplied the rest. He was not
content, as Pindar expresses it, to collect the drops that rained down
from heaven, but had in himself the living fountain of that copious
flow, and that sublime, that pathetic energy, which were bestowed upon
him by the bounty of Providence, that in one man eloquence might exert
all her powers. _Nam mihi videtur Marcus Tullius, cum se totum ad
imitationem Græcorum contulisset, effinxisse vim Demosthenis, copiam
Platonis, jucunditatem Isocratis.
Paul has made use of a similar argument;
"The body is not one member, but many: if the foot shall
say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it,
therefore, not of the body? and if the ear shall say,
Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it,
therefore, not of the body? If the whole body were an eye,
where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where
were the smelling? But now hath God set the members everyone
of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they
were all one member, where were the body? But now are they
many members, yet but one body: and the eye cannot say unto
the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again, the head to the
feet, I have no need of you. And whether one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured,
all the members rejoice with it. "
_First Epistle to the Corinthians_, chap. xii.
This reasoning of St. Paul merits the attention of those friends of
innovation, who are not content with the station in which God has
placed them, and, therefore, object to all subordination, all ranks in
society.
[b] Cæsar the dictator was, as the poet expresses it, graced with both
Minervas. Quintilian is of opinion, that if he had devoted his whole
time to the profession of eloquence, he would have been the great
rival of Cicero. The energy of his language, his strength of
conception, and his power over the passions, were so striking, that he
may be said to have harangued with the same spirit that he fought.
_Caius vero Cæsar si foro tantum vacasset, non alius ex nostris contra
Ciceronem nominaretur. Tanta in eo vis est, id acumen, ea concitatio,
ut illum eodem animo dixisse, quo bellavit, appareat. _ Lib. x. cap. 1.
To speak of Cicero in this place, were to hold a candle to the sun. It
will be sufficient to refer to Quintilian, who in the chapter above
cited has drawn a beautiful parallel between him and Demosthenes. The
Roman orator, he admits, improved himself by a diligent study of the
best models of Greece. He attained the warmth and the sublime of
Demosthenes, the harmony of Plato, and the sweet flexibility of
Isocrates. His own native genius supplied the rest. He was not
content, as Pindar expresses it, to collect the drops that rained down
from heaven, but had in himself the living fountain of that copious
flow, and that sublime, that pathetic energy, which were bestowed upon
him by the bounty of Providence, that in one man eloquence might exert
all her powers. _Nam mihi videtur Marcus Tullius, cum se totum ad
imitationem Græcorum contulisset, effinxisse vim Demosthenis, copiam
Platonis, jucunditatem Isocratis.
