which we have his judgment, as well as our own character, to
maintain, and therefore to be guarded with the greater caution.
Fared well.

XIV

TO CORNELIUS TACITUS

I HAVE frequent debates with a certain acquaintance of mine, a
man of skill and learning, who admires nothing so much in the
eloquence of the bar as conciseness. I agree with him, that where
the case will admit of this precision, it may with propriety be
adopted; but insist that, to leave out what is material to be
mentioned,-or only briefly and cursorily to touch upon those points
which should be inculcated, impressed, and urged well home upon
the minds of the audience, is a downright fraud upon one's client.
In many cases, to deal with the subject at greater length adds
strength and weight to our ideas, which frequently produce their
impression upon the mind, as iron does upon solid bodies, rather
by repeated strokes than a single blow. In answer to this, he
usually has recourse to authorities, and produces Lysias17 amongst
the Grecians, together with Cato and the two Gracchi, among our
own countrymen, many of whose speeches certainly are brief and
curtailed. In return, I name Demosthenes, Aeschines, Hyperides,18
and many others, in opposition to Lysias; while I confront Cato
and the Gracchi with Caesar, Pollio,19 Caelius,20 but, above all,
Cicero, whose longest speech is generally considered his best.
Why, no doubt about it, in good compositions, as in everything
else that is valuable, the more there is of them, the better. You may
observe in statues, basso-relievos, pictures, and the human form,