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[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. Nec vero quod in quoque optimum fuit
studio consecutus est tantum, sed plurimas vel potius omnes ex se ipso
virtutes extulit immortalis ingenii beatissimâ ubertate. Non enim
pluvias (ut ait Pindarus) aquas colligit sed vivo gurgite exundat,
dono quodam providentiæ genitus, in quo vires suas eloquentia
experiretur. _ Lib. x. cap. 1.

[c] Marcus Cælius Rufus, in the judgement of Quintilian, was an orator
of considerable genius. In the conduct of a prosecution, he was
remarkable for a certain urbanity, that gave a secret charm to his
whole speech. It is to be regretted that he was not a man of better
conduct and longer life. _Multum ingenii in Cælio, et præcipuè in
accusando multa urbanitas; dignusque vir, cui et mens melior, et vita
longior contigisset. _ Quint, lib. x. cap. 1. His letters to Cicero
make the eighth book of the _Epistolæ ad Familiares_.