No More Learning

Section 6.

[a] This charge against Seneca is by no means new. Quintilian was his
contemporary; he saw and heard the man, and, in less than twenty
years after his death, pronounced judgement against him. In the
conclusion of the first chapter of his tenth book, after having given
an account of the Greek and Roman authors, he says, he reserved Seneca
for the last place, because, having always endeavoured to counteract
the influence of a bad taste, he was supposed to be influenced by
motives of personal enmity. But the case was otherwise. He saw that
Seneca was the favourite of the times, and, to check the torrent that
threatened the ruin of all true eloquence, he exerted his best efforts
to diffuse a sounder judgement. He did not wish that Seneca should be
laid aside: but he could not in silence see him preferred to the
writers of the Augustan age, whom that writer endeavoured to
depreciate, conscious that, having chosen a different style, he could
not hope to please the taste of those who were charmed with the
authors of a former day. But Seneca was still in fashion; his
partisans continued to admire, though it cannot be said that they
imitated him. He fell short of the ancients, and they were still more
beneath their model. Since they were content to copy, it were to be
wished that they had been able to vie with him. He pleased by his
defects, and the herd of imitators chose the worst. They acquired a
vicious manner, and flattered themselves that they resembled their
master. But the truth is, they disgraced him. Seneca, it must be
allowed, had many great and excellent qualities; a lively imagination,
vast erudition, and extensive knowledge. He frequently employed others
to make researches for him, and was often deceived.
He embraced all
subjects; in his philosophy, not always profound, but a keen censor of
the manners, and on moral subjects truly admirable. He has brilliant
passages, and beautiful sentiments; but the expression is in a false
taste, the more dangerous, as he abounds with delightful vices. You
would have wished that he had written with his own imagination, and
the judgement of others. To sum up his character; had he known how to
rate little things, had he been above the petty ambition of always
shining, had he not been fond of himself, had he not weakened his
force by minute and dazzling sentences, he would have gained, not the
admiration of boys, but the suffrage of the judicious. At present he
may be read with safety by those who have made acquaintance with
better models. His works afford the fairest opportunity of
distinguishing the beauties of fine writing from their opposite vices.
He has much to be approved, and even admired: but a just selection is
necessary, and it is to be regretted that he did not choose for
himself. Such was the judgement of Quintilian: the learned reader
will, perhaps, be glad to have the whole passage in the author's
words, rather than be referred to another book. _Ex industriâ Senecam,
in omni genere eloquentiæ versatum, distuli, propter vulgatam falso de
me opinionem, quâ damnare eum, et invisum quoque habere sum creditus.
Quod, accidit mihi, dum corruptum, et omnibus vitiis fractum dicendi
genus revocare ad severiora judicia contendo. Tum autem solus hic fere
in manibus adolescentium fuit. Quem non equidem omnino conabar
excutere, sed potioribus præferri non sinebam, quos ille non
destiterat incessere, cum, diversi sibi conscius generis, placere se
in dicendo posse iis quibus illi placerent, diffideret. Amabant autem
eum magis, quàm imitabantur; tantumque ab illo defluebant, quantum
ille ab antiquis descenderat. Foret enim optandum, pares, aut saltem
proximos, illi viro fieri. Sed placebat propter sola vitia, et ad ea
se quisque dirigebat effingenda, quæ poterat. Deinde cum se jactaret
eodem modo dicere, Senecam infamabat.