Stili eminentia.--Virgil.--Tully.--Sallust.--It is no wonder men's
eminence appears but in their own way. Virgil's felicity left him
in prose, as Tully's forsook him in verse. Sallust's orations are
read in the honour of story, yet the most eloquent. Plato's speech,
which he made for Socrates, is neither worthy of the patron nor the
person defended. Nay, in the same kind of oratory, and where the
matter is one, you shall have him that reasons strongly, open
negligently; another that prepares well, not fit so well. And this
happens not only to brains, but to bodies. One can wrestle well,
another run well, a third leap or throw the bar, a fourth lift or
stop a cart going; each hath his way of strength. So in other
creatures--some dogs are for the deer, some for the wild boar, some
are fox-hounds, some otter-hounds. Nor are all horses for the coach
or saddle, some are for the cart and paniers.
De Claris Oratoribus.--I have known many excellent men that would
speak suddenly to the admiration of their hearers, who upon study
and premeditation have been forsaken by their own wits, and no way
answered their fame; their eloquence was greater than their reading,
and the things they uttered better than those they knew; their
fortune deserved better of them than their care.
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