et praeterlabentia flumina, et inspirantes ramis arborum aurae, volucrumque cantus, et ipsa late circumspiciendi libertas ad se trahunt; at mihi remittere potius voluptas ista videtur cogitationem, quam intendere. De Orat. lib. ii.  This, perhaps, may be true as applied to the public orator, whose scene of action lay in the forum or the senate.  Pliny, on the other hand, says to his friend Tacitus, there is something in the solemnity of venerable woods, and the awful silence which prevails in those places, that strongly disposes us to study and contemplation.  For the future, therefore, whenever you hunt, take along with you your pen and paper, as well as your basket and bottle; for you will find the mountains not more inhabited by Diana, than by Minerva. Jam undique sylvae, et solitudo, ipsumque illud silentium, quod venationi datur, magna cogitationis incitamenta sunt.  Proinde, cum, venabere, licebit, auctore me, ut panarium et lagunculam, sic etiam pugillares feras.  Experiaris non Dianam magis montibus quam Minervam inerrare. Lib. i. epist. 6.  Between these two different opinions, a true poet may be allowed to decide.  Horace describes the noise and tumult of a city life, and then says,

Scriptorum chorus omnis amat nemus, et fugit urbes. 
Epist. lib. ii. ep. ii. ver. 77.

Alas! to grottos and to groves we run,
To ease and silence, ev’ry muse’s son. 
POPE.

[b] The expression in the original is full and expressive, lucrosae hujus et sanguinantis eloquentiae; that gainful and blood-thirsty eloquence.  The immoderate wealth acquired by Eprius Marcellus has been mentioned in this Dialogue, section 8.  Pliny gives us an idea of the vast acquisitions gained by Regulus, the notorious informer.  From a state of indigence, he rose, by a train of villainous actions, to such immense riches, that he once consulted the omens, to know how soon he should be worth sixty millions of sesterces, and found them so favourable, that he had no doubt of being worth double that sum. Aspice Regulum, qui ex paupere et tenui ad tantas opes per flagitia processit, ut ipse mihi dixerit, cum consuleret, quam cito sestertium sexcennies impleturus esset, invenisse se exta duplicata, quibus portendi millies et ducenties habiturum. Lib. ii. ep. 20.  In another epistle the same author relates, that Regulus, having lost his son, was visited upon that occasion by multitudes of people, who all in secret detested him, yet paid their court with as much assiduity as if they esteemed and loved him.  They retaliated upon this man his own insidious arts:  to gain the friendship of Regulus, they played the game of Regulus himself.  He, in the mean time, dwells in his villa on the other side of the Tiber, where he has covered a large tract of ground with magnificent porticos, and lined the banks of the river with elegant statues; profuse, with all his avarice, and, in the depth of infamy, proud and vain-glorious. Convenitur