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30 "Je dois auparavant reporter ma pensée sur le plan d'études que suivaient ces orateurs, doit les travaux infinis, les méditations journalières, les exercices de tout genre, sont attestés par leurs propres ouvrages. Rien n'est plus connu de nous que le livre de Cicéron intitulé Brutus, dans la dernière partie duquel (car l'histoire des anciens orateurs occupe la première) il raconte ses commencements, ses progrès et, pour ainsi dire, l'éducation de son éloquence. Il apprit le droit civil chez Q. Mucius, l'académicien Philon, Diodote le stoïcien, lui enseignèrent à fond toutes les parties de la philosophie ; et, non content de cette foule de maîtres que Rome lui avait offerts, il parcourut la Grèce et l'Asie pour embrasser le cercle entier des connaissances humaines. Aussi peut-on remarquer, en lisant Cicéron, que ni la géométrie, ni la musique, ni la littérature, ni aucune des sciences libérales, ne lui fut étrangère. Il connut les subtilités de la dialectique, les utiles préceptes de la morale, la marche et les causes des phénomènes naturels. Oui, estimables amis, oui, c'est de cette vaste érudition, de cette variété d'études, de ce savoir universel, que s'élance et coule, ainsi qu'un fleuve débordé, cette admirable éloquence. Et le génie oratoire n'est pas, comme les autres talents, circonscrit dans des limites étroites et resserrées : celui-là est orateur, qui peut sur toute question parler d'une manière élégante, ornée, persuasive, en ayant égard à la dignité du sujet, à la convenance des temps, au plaisir des auditeurs.
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30 I say nothing about the learners’ first rudiments. Even with these little pains are taken, and on the reading of authors, on the study of antiquity and a knowledge of facts, of men and of periods, by no means enough labour is bestowed. It is rhetoricians, as they are called, who are in request. When this profession was first introduced into our city, and how little esteem it had among our ancestors, I am now about to explain; but I will first recall your attention to the training which we have been told was practised by those orators whose infinite industry, daily study and incessant application to every branch of learning are seen in the contents of their own books. You are doubtless familiar with Cicero’s book, called Brutus. In the latter part of it (the first gives an account of the ancient orators) he relates his own beginnings, his progress, and the growth, so to say, of his eloquence. He tells us that he learnt the civil law under Quintus Mucius, and that he thoroughly imbibed every branch of philosophy under Philo of the Academy and under Diodotus the Stoic; that not content with the teachers under whom he had had the opportunity of studying at Rome, he travelled through Achaia and Asia Minor so as to embrace every variety of every learned pursuit. Hence we really find in Cicero’s works that he was not deficient in the knowledge of geometry, music, grammar, or, in short, any liberal accomplishment. The subtleties of logic, the useful lessons of ethical science, the movements and causes of the universe, were alike known to him. The truth indeed is this, my excellent friends, that Cicero’s wonderful eloquence wells up and overflows out of a store of erudition, a multitude of accomplishments, and a knowledge that was universal. The strength and power of oratory, unlike all other arts, is not confined within narrow and straitened limits, but the orator is he who can speak on every question with grace, elegance, and persuasiveness, suitably to the dignity of his subject, the requirements of the occasion, and the taste of his audience.
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