In like manner, Cicero stands at the head of our Roman orators, while Calvus, Asinius, and Caesar, Caelius and Brutus, follow him at a distance; all of them superior, not only to every former age, but to the whole race that came after them.  Nor is it material that they differ in the mode, since they all agree in the kind.  Calvus is close and nervous; Asinius more open and harmonious; Caesar is distinguished [b] by the splendour of his diction; Caelius by a caustic severity; and gravity is the characteristic of Brutus.  Cicero is more luxuriant in amplification, and he has strength and vehemence.  They all, however, agree in this:  their eloquence is manly, sound, and vigorous.  Examine their works, and you will see the energy of congenial minds, a family-likeness in their genius, however it may take a distinct colour from the specific qualities of the men.  True, they detracted from each other’s merit.  In their letters, which are still extant, we find some strokes of mutual hostility.  But this littleness does not impeach their eloquence:  their jealousy was the infirmity of human nature.  Calvus, Asinius, and Cicero, might have their fits of animosity, and, no doubt, were liable to envy, malice, and other degrading passions:  they were great orators, but they were men.

Brutus is the only one of the set, who may be thought superior to petty contentions.  He spoke his mind with freedom, and, I believe, without a tincture of malice.  He did not envy Caesar himself, and can it be imagined that he envied Cicero?  As to Galba [c], Laelius, and others of a remote period, against whom we have heard Aper’s declamation, I need not undertake their defence, since I am willing to acknowledge, that in their style and manner we perceive those defects and blemishes which it is natural to expect, while art, as yet in its infancy, has made no advances towards perfection.

XXVI.  After all, if the best form of eloquence must be abandoned, and some, new-fangled style must grow into fashion, give me the rapidity of Gracchus [a], or the more solemn manner of Crassus [b], with all their imperfections, rather than the effeminate delicacy of [c] Maecenas, or the tinkling cymbal [d] of Gallio.  The most homely dress is preferable to gawdy colours and meretricious ornaments.  The style in vogue at present, is an innovation, against every thing just and natural; it is not even manly.  The luxuriant phrase, the inanity of tuneful periods, and the wanton levity of the whole composition, are fit for nothing but the histrionic art, as if they were written for the stage.  To the disgrace of the age (however astonishing it may appear), it is the boast, the pride, the glory of our present orators, that their periods are musical enough either for the dancer’s heel [e], or the warbler’s throat.  Hence it is, that by a frequent, but preposterous, metaphor, the orator is said to speak in melodious cadence, and the dancer to move with expression.  In this view of things, even [f] Cassius Severus (the