strengthen it; for, to my own knowlege, he had the same affection for, and
the same favourable sentiments of _you_, which I now discover in you
towards _him_. I cannot, therefore, help regretting very sincerely, that
the Roman State has so long been deprived of the benefit of his advice,
and of your Eloquence;--a circumstance which is indeed calamitous enough
in itself; but must appear much more so to him who considers into what
hands that once respectable authority has been of late, I will not say
transferred, but forcibly wrested."--"You certainly forget," said Atticus,
"that I proposed, when we began the conversation, to drop all matters of
State; by all means, therefore, let us keep to our plan: for if we once
begin to repeat our grievances, there will be no end, I need not say to
our inquiries, but to our sighs and lamentations."--"Let us proceed,
then," said I, "without any farther digression, and pursue the plan we set
out upon. Crassus (for he is the Orator we were just speaking of) always
came into the Forum ready prepared for the combat. He was expected with
impatience, and heard with pleasure. When he first began his Oration
(which he always did in a very accurate style) he seemed worthy of the
great expectations he had raised. He was very moderate in the sway of his
body, had no remarkable variation of voice, never advanced from the ground
he stood upon, and seldom stamped his foot: his language was forcible, and
sometimes warm and pathetic; he had many strokes of humour, which were
always tempered with a becoming dignity; and, what is a difficult
character to hit, he was at once very florid, and very concise. In a close
contest, he never met with his equal; and there was scarcely any kind of
causes, in which he had not signalized his abilities; so that he enrolled
himself very early among the first Orators of the time. He accused C.
Carbo, though a man of great Eloquence, when he was but a youth;--and
displayed his talents in such a manner, that they were not only applauded,
but admired by every body. He afterwards defended the Virgin Licinia, when
he was only twenty-seven years of age; on which occasion he discovered an