No More Learning

It is probable, that the harsh manner of Lucilius, _durus componere
versus_, infected the eloquence of Lælius, since we find in Cicero,
that his style was unpolished, and had much of the rust of antiquity.
_Multo tamen vetustior et horridior ille quam Scipio, et, cum sint in
dicendo variæ, voluntates, delectari mihi magis antiquitate videtur,
et lubenter verbis etiam uti paulo magis priscis Lælius. _ _De Claris
Oratoribus_, s. 83.


Section XXVI.

[a] For an account of Caius Gracchus, see s. xviii. note [d].

[b] For Lucius Crassus, see s. xviii. note [f].

[c] The false taste of Mæcenas has been noted by the poets and critics
who flourished after his death. His affected prettinesses are compared
to the prim curls, in which women and effeminate men tricked out their
hair. Seneca, who was himself tainted with affectation, has left a
beautiful epistle on the very question that makes the main subject of
the present Dialogue. He points out the causes of the corrupt taste
that debauched the eloquence of those times and imputes the mischief
to the degeneracy of the manners.
Whatever the man was, such was the
orator. _Talis oratio quails vita. _ When ancient discipline relaxed,
luxury succeeded, and language became delicate, brilliant, spangled
with conceits. Simplicity was laid aside, and quaint expressions grew
into fashion. Does the mind sink into languor, the body moves
reluctantly. Is the man softened into effeminacy, you see it in his
gait. Is he quick and eager, he walks with alacrity. The powers of the
understanding are affected in the same manner. Having laid this down
as his principle, Seneca proceeds to describe the soft delicacy of
Mæcenas, and he finds the same vice in his phraseology. He cites a
number of the lady-like terms, which the great patron of letters
considered as exquisite beauties. In all this, says he, we see the man
who walked the streets of Rome in his open and flowing robe. _Nonne
statim, cum hæc legis, occurrit hunc esse, qui solutis tunicis in urbe
semper incesserit? _ Seneca, epist. cxiv. What he has said of Mæcenas
is perfectly just. The fopperies of that celebrated minister are in
this Dialogue called CALAMISTRI; an allusion borrowed from Cicero,
who praises the beautiful simplicity of _Cæsar's Commentaries_, and
says there were men of a vicious taste, who wanted to apply the
_curling-iron_, that is, to introduce the glitter of conceit and
antithesis in the place of truth and nature.