1pFFjZK

224 THEORIES OF STYLE IN LITERATURE
at the very best, for the political discussion, but often no
more than a subsequent illustration or proof attached to
some one of its heads. The main staple of any long speech
must always be some general view of national policy;
and,
in Cicero's language, such a view must always be infinita;
that is,
not determined ab extra, but shaped and drawn from
the funds of one's own understanding. The facts are here
subordinate and ministerial; in the case before a jury the
facts are all in all. The forensic orator satisfies his duty
does but take the facts exactly as they stand in his brief, and
if he
place them before his audience in that order, and even (if
he
should choose it) in those words. The parliamentary orator
has no opening for facts at all, but as he himself may be able
to create such an opening by some previous expositions of
doctrine or opinion, of the probable or expedient. The one
is
always creeping along shore; the other is
always out at sea.
Accordingly, the degrees of anxiety which severally affect the
two cases are best brought to the test in this one question
" What shall I say next?" an anxiety besetting orators like
that which besets poor men in respect
daily bread. "This moment it is secured; but,
"
next !
to their children's
alas for the
Now, the judicial orator finds an instant relief: the
very points of the case are numbered ; and,
if he cannot find
more to say upon No. 7,
he has only to pass on and call up
No. 8. Whereas the deliberative orator, in a senate or a
literary meeting, finds himself always in this -
situation,
that, having reached with difficulty that topic which we have
supposed to be No. 7, one of three cases uniformly occurs:
either he does not perceive any No. 8 at all;
sees a distracting choice of No. 8's
or, secondly, he
the ideas to which he
might next pass are many, but he does not see whither they
will lead him; or, thirdly, he sees a very fair and promising
No. 8, but cannot in any way discover off-hand how he is to