The fenfible pleasure his rifing reputation gave him, was allayed by the ill ftate of his health, His conftitution was very tender; the drudgery of the bar, together with his warm and vehement manner of writing and fpeaking, made people fear he would fink under their weight; and all his friends and the phyficians enjoined him filence and retirement. It was a kind of death to him to renounce wholly the pleafing hopes of glory which the bar feemed to offer him. He thought it would be enough to foften a little the vehemence of his ftile and pronunciation, and that a voyage might reftore his health. And accordingly, he fet out for Afia. Some indeed imagined a political reafon made his abfence neceffary, in order that he might avoid the confequence of Chryfogonus's refentment. t He took Athens in his way, and continued there about fix months. 'Tis eafy to judge how one who was fo fond of ftudy, employed that time in a city which was ftill looked upon as the feat of the moft refined learning, and moft folid philofophy. "From Athens he went to Afia, where he confulted all the able profeffors of eloquence he could meet with. And not contented with all the treasures he had amaffed there, he proceeded to Rhodes, purpofely to hear the celebrated Molo. Though he had already acquired great reputation among the lawyers of Rome, he was not in the least ashamed of taking new leffons under him, and of becoming his difciple a fecond time. Erat eo tempore in nobis fumma gracilitas & infirmitas corporis; procerum & tenue collum; qui habitus & quæ figura non procul abeffe putatur à vitæ periculò, fi accedit labor, & laterum magna contentio. Eoque magis hoc eos, quibus eram carus, commovebat, quòd omnia fine remiffione, fine varietate, vi fumma vocis, & totius corporis contentione dicebam. Itaque cùm me & amici & medici hortarentur, ut caufas agere de M 4 w But W But he had no reafon to repent it; for this great mafter, taking him again under his tuition, corrected what was ftill vicious in his ftile; and completely retrenched that exceffive redundancy which, like a river that overflowed its banks, had neither measure nor boundaries. * Cicero returned to Rome after two years abfence, not only more accomplished, but almost a new man. He had acquired a fweeter voice; his ftile was become more correct and lefs verbofe; and even his body was grown more robust. y He found two orators at Rome who had gained great reputation, and whom he much defired to equal; these were Cotta and Hortenfius, but especially the latter, who was very near of the fame age with himself, and whofe manner of writing bore a nearer refemblance to his own. 'Tis not an idle curiofity in young men defigned for the bar, to see those two great orators contending for prizes, like two wreftlers, and difputing for victory with one another during feveral years, through a noble emulation. I fhall here relate a part of what Cicero tells us on that fubject. Hortenfius wanted none of thofe qualifications, either natural or acquired, which form the great orator. He had a lively genius, an inconceivable paffion for study, a large extent of knowledge, a prodigious Is Molo! dedit operam, fi modò id confequi potuit, ut nimis redundantes nos & fuperfluentes juvenili quadam dicendi impunitate & licentia reprimeret, & quafi extra ripas diffluentes coerceret. Brut. n. 316. M. Tullius, cùm jam clarum meruiffet inter patronos qui tum erant nomen..... ... Appollonio Moloni, quem Romæ quoque auderat, Rhodi fe rurfus formandum ac velut recoquendum dedit. Quint. 1. 12. c. 6. x Ita recepi me biennio poft, non modò exercitatior, fed prope mutatus. Nam & contentio ni mia vocis reciderat, & quafi deferbuerat oratio, lateribufque vires & corporis mediocris habitus accefferat. Brut. n. 316. y Duo tum excellebant oratores, qui me imitandi cupiditate incitarent, Cotta & Hortenfius. . . . Cum Hortenfio mihi magis arbitrabar rem effe; quòd & dicendi ardore eram propior, & ætate conjun&tior. Brut. n. 317. 2 Nihil ifti, neque à natura, neque à doctrina defuit.... Erat ingenio peracri, & ftudio flagranti, & doctrina eximia & memoria fingulari, 3. de Orat, n. 229, 230. memory, memory, and fo perfect a manner of pronunciation, that the most celebrated actors of his time went on purpose to hear him, in order to form themselves by his example for gefture and declamation. Thus he made a fhining figure at the bar, and acquired great reputation. a But there being nothing farther to animate his ambition after he was raised to the confulfhip; and defirous of a more happy way of life, as he imagined, or at least a more eafy one, with the great poffeffions he had acquired; he began to grow indolent, and abated very much of the warmth he had always entertained for ftudy from his childhood. There was fome difference in his manner of pleading the firft, fecond, and third years after his confulfhip; but this was scarce perceivable; and none but the learned could obferve it: as happens to pictures, the brightnefs of whofe colours decays infenfibly. This declenfion encreased with his years, and when his fire and vivacity left him, he grew every day more unlike himself. 1 b Cicero however redoubling his efforts, made a very great progrefs, endeavouring to come up with his rival, and even outftrip him, if poffible, in that noble career of glory, where pleaders are allowed to difpute the palm with their best friends. A new fpecies of eloquence, beautiful as well as energetic, which he introduced in the bar, drew peoples eyes upon him, and made him the object of publick admiration. He him * Poft confulatum. ... fummum illud fuum ftudium remifit, quo à puero fuerat incenfus: atque in omnium rerum abundantia voluit beatiùs, ut ipfe putabat, remiffiùs certè vivere. Primus, & fecundus annus, & tertius tantum quafi de picturæ veteris colore detraxerat, quantum non quivis unus ex populo, fed exiftimator doctus & intelligens poffet cognofcere. Longius autem procedens, & in cæteris eloquentiæ partibus, tum maximè in celeritate & continuatione ver M 5 borum adhærefcens: fui diffimilior videbatur fieri quotidie. Brut. n. 320. Nos autem non defiftebamus, cùm omni genere exercitationis, tum maximè ftilo, noftrum illud quod erat augere: quantumcunque erat.... Nam cum propter affiduitatem in caufis & induftriam, tum propter exquifitius & minimè vulgare orationis genus, animos hominum ad me dicendi novitate converteram. n. 521, felf felf gives an excellent picture of this, but in a curious and delicate manner; by obferving what was wanting in others, and fhewing by that means what was admired in himself. I fhall tranfcribe the whole paffage, because youth may therein see all the parts which form this great orator. "No perfon at that time, fays Cicero, made polite literature his particular ftudy, without which "there is no perfect eloquence. No one studied philofophy thoroughly, which alone teaches us at one "and the fame time, to live and fpeak well. No "one learnt the civil law, which is abfolutely necef"fary for an orator, to enable him to plead well in 66 private caufes, and form a true judgment of public "affairs. There was no perfon well skilled in the "Roman history, or able to make a proper ufe of it "in pleading. No one could raise a chearfulness in "the judges, and unruffle them, as it were, by fea"fonable railleries, after having vigorously pushed "his adversary, by the ftrength and folidity of his ar66 guments: no one had the art of transferring or 66 converting the circumftance of a private affair into a common or general one: no perfon could fome"times depart from his fubject by prudent digreffions, to throw in the agreeable into his difcourfe: in fine, "no perfon could incline the judges fometimes to an 86 • Nihil de me d'cam; dicam de cæteris, quorum nemo erat qui videretur exquifitiùs quam vulgus hominum ftuduiffe literis, quibus fons perfecta eloquent æ continetur nemo, qui philofophiam complexus effet, matrem omnium bene factorum beneque dictorum: nemo, qui jus civile didiciffet, rem ad privatas caufas, & ad cratoris prudentiam, maximè neceffariam: nemo, qui memoriam rerum Romanarum teneret, ex qua, fi quando opus effet, ab inferis locupletiffimos teftes excitaret: nemo, qui breviter argu:éque inclufo ad verfario, laxaret judicum animos, 66 ger, ger, fometimes to compaffion; and infpire them "with whatever fentiments he pleafed, wherein, "however, the principal merit of an orator confifts." d Cicero's great fuccefs roufed Hortenfius from his lethargy, especially when he faw him promoted to the confulate; fearing, no doubt, that now he was equal to him in dignity, he would furpafs him in me. rit. They afterwards pleaded together for twelve years, lived in great unity, and had an esteem for one another, each exalting the other much above himself. But the publick gave the preference to Cicero without hefitation. • The latter orator tells us the reason why Hortenfius was more agreeable to the public in his youth, than in his advanced years. He gave into a florid kind of eloquence, enriched with happy expreffions; a great beauty and delicacy of thought, which was often more fhining than folid; an uncommon correctnefs, juftnefs, and elegance. His difcourfes thus laboured with infinite care and art, fupported by a mufical Itaque, cùm jam penè evanuiffet Hortenfius, & ego conful factus effem, revocare fe ad induftriam cœpit: ne, cum pares honore effemus, aliqua re fuperior viderer. Sic duodecim poft meum confulatum annos in maximis caufis, cùm ego mihi ilium, fibi me i le anteferret, conjunctiffimè verfati fumus. Brut. n. 313. Si quærimus cur adolefcens magis floruerit dicendo, quàm fenior, Hortenfius: caufas reperiemus veriflimas duas. Primum, quod genus erat orationis Afiaticum, adolefcentiæ magis concef fum, quam fene&tuti..... Itaque Hortenfius hoc genere frens, clamores faciebat adolefcens. Frat in verborum fplendore elegans, compofitione aptus, facultate copiofus... Vox canora & fuavis: motus & geftus etiam plus artis habebat quàm erat oraM 6 ... tori fatis. Habebat illud ftudiu mani hominum admirationem ex- Brut. 325, voice, |