and the tribunals of justice, have now a nice discriminating taste.  They expect to have their imaginations pleased.  They wish to carry home some bright illustration, some splendid passage, that deserves to be remembered.  What has struck their fancy, they communicate to each other:  and in their letters, the glittering thought, given with sententious brevity, the poetical allusion that enlivened the discourse, and the dazzling imagery, are sure to be transmitted to their respective colonies and provinces.  The ornaments of poetic diction are now required, not, indeed, copied from the rude obsolete style of Accius [e] and Pacuvius, but embellished with the graces of Horace, Virgil, and [f] Lucan.  The public judgement has raised a demand for harmonious periods, and, in compliance with the taste of the age, our orators grow every day more polished and adorned.  Let it not be said that what we gain in refinement, we lose in strength.  Are the temples, raised by our modern architects, of a weaker structure, because they are not formed with shapeless stones, but with the magnificence of polished marble, and decorations of the richest gilding?

XXI.  Shall I fairly own to you the impression which I generally receive from the ancient orators?  They make me laugh, or lull me to sleep.  Nor is this the case only, when I read the orations of Canutus [a], Arrius, Furnius, Toranius and others of the same school, or rather, the same infirmary [b]; an emaciated sickly race of orators; without sinew, colour, or proportion.  But what shall be said of your admired Calvus [c]?  He, I think, has left no less than one and twenty volumes:  in the whole collection, there is not more than one or two short orations, that can pretend to perfection in the kind.  Upon this point there is no difference of opinion.  Who now reads his declamations against Asitius or Drusus?  His speeches against Vatinius are in the hands of the curious, particularly the second, which must be allowed to be a masterpiece.  The language is elegant; the sentiments are striking, and the ear is satisfied with the roundness of the periods.  In this specimen we see that he had an idea of just composition, but his genius was not equal to his judgement.  The orations of Caelius, though upon the whole defective, are not without their beauties.  Some passages are highly finished.  In those we acknowledge, the nice touches of modern elegance.  In general, however, the coarse expression, the halting period, and the vulgarity of the sentiments, have too much of the leaven of antiquity.

If Caelius [d] is still admired, it is not, I believe, in any of those parts that bear the mark of a rude illiterate age.  With regard to Julius Caesar [e], engaged as he was in projects of vast ambition, we may forgive him the want of that perfection which might, otherwise, be expected from so sublime a genius.  Brutus, in like manner, may be excused on account of his philosophical speculations.  Both he and