What now follows requires special labor and care, the purpose being to
treat of elocution, which in the opinion of all orators is the most
difficult part of our work, for M. Antonius says that he has seen many
good speakers, but none eloquent. He thinks it good enough for a speaker
to say whatever is necessary on a subject, but only the most eloquent
may discuss it with grace and elegance. If down to the time he lived in,
this perfection was not discoverable in any orator, and neither in
himself nor in L. Crassus, it is certain that it was lacking in them and
their predecessors only on account of its extreme difficulty. Cicero
says that invention and disposition show the man of sense, but eloquence
the orator. He therefore took particular pains about the rules for this
part, and that he had reason for so doing the very name of eloquence
sufficiently declares. For to be eloquent is nothing else than to be
able to set forth all the lively images you have conceived in your mind,
and to convey them to the hearers in the same rich coloring, without
which all the principles we have laid down are useless, and are like a
sword concealed and kept sheathed in its scabbard.
This, then, is what we are principally to learn; this is what we can not
attain without the help of art; this ought to be the object of our
study, our exercise, our imitation; this may be full employment for our
whole life; by this, one orator excels another; and from this proceeds
diversity of style.