choose to follow the plain and direct way of speaking.  Others take to be sound and truly Attic whatever is close, neat, and departs but little from ordinary conversation.  Some are delighted with a more elevated, more impetuous, and more fiery force of genius.  Others, and not a few, like a smooth, elegant, and polite manner.  I shall speak of this difference in taste more fully when I come to examine the style which may seem most proper for the orator.

QUALITIES OF CLASSIC WRITERS

Homer

We may begin properly with Homer.

He it is who gave birth to, and set the example for all parts of eloquence, in the same way, as he himself says, as the course of rivers and springs of fountains owe their origin to the ocean.  No one, in great subjects, has excelled him in elevation; nor in small subjects, in propriety.  He is florid and close, grave and agreeable, admirable for his concise as well as for his copious manner, and is not only eminent for poetical, but likewise oratorical, abilities.

AEschylus

AEschylus is the one who gave birth to tragedy.  He is sublime, and grave, and often pompous to a fault.  But his plots are mostly ill-contrived and as ill-conducted.  For which reason the Athenians permitted the poets who came after him to correct his pieces and fit them for the stage, and in this way many of these poets received the honor of being crowned.

Sophocles and Euripides

Sophocles and Euripides brought tragedy to greater perfection; but the difference in their manner has occasioned dispute among the learned as to their relative poetic merits.  For my part, I shall leave the matter undecided, as having nothing to do with my present purpose.  It must be confest, nevertheless, that the study of Euripedes will be of much greater value to those who are preparing themselves for the bar; for besides the fact that his style comes nearer the oratorical style, he likewise abounds in fine thoughts, and in philosophic maxims is almost on an equality with philosophers, and in his dialog may be compared with the best speakers at the bar.  He is wonderful, again, for his masterly strokes in moving the passions, and more especially in exciting sympathy.

Thucydides and Herodotus

There have been many famous writers of history, but all agree in giving the preference to two, whose perfections, tho different, have received an almost equal degree of praise.  Thucydides is close, concise, and ever pressing on.  Herodotus is sweet, natural, and copious.  One is remarkable for his animated expression of the more impetuous passions, the other for gentle persuasion in the milder:  the former succeeds in harangues and has more force; the other surpasses in speeches of familiar intercourse, and gives more pleasure.

Demosthenes