Above all, as happens to a great many, let not desire for temporary
praise keep our orator from having an eye to the interest of the cause
he has undertaken. For as generals in waging wars do not always march
their armies over pleasant plains, but often must climb rugged hills,
must lay siege to forts and castles raised on steep rocks and mountains,
and fortified both by nature and by art: so an orator will be pleased
with an opportunity to make great excursions, and when he engages on
champion ground, he will display all his forces so as to make an
exceedingly fine appearance; but if under the necessity of unraveling
the intricacies of some points of law, or placing truth in a clear
light from amidst the obscurity thrown around it, he will not then
ostentatiously ride about, nor will he use a shower of pointed
sentences, as missive weapons; but he will carry on his operations by
frustrating his enemy; by mines, by ambuscade, and by stratagem: all of
which are not much to be commended while they are being used, but after
they have been practised. Whence those men benefit themselves most, who
seem least desirous of praise; for when the frivolous parade of
eloquence has ceased its bursts of thunder among its own applauders, the
more potent applause of true talents will appear in genuine splendor;
the judges will not conceal the impressions which have been made on
them; the sense of the learned will outweigh the opinion of ignorance:
so true it is that it is the winding up of the discourse, and the
success attending it, that must prove its true merit.