Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

82 STOICISM.disquisitions. Lazy assent or a few lifeless wordsalone were needed, and the audience might be evenhalf- asleep while the firstly and secondly were leisurelyset forth, and truisms disguised in learned phrases.That done, the scholar's Avork was over ;no conningover tasks by night, no reciting or declaiming, nocareful study of the power of synonymsor themethods of translation." He thoughtit mere pretensionof philosophy to claim the sphere of morals forits special care. The domain of rhetoric was wideenough to cover that, as well as many another field ofthought her mission was to touch the; feelings andto guide men by persuasive speech. For words weresomething infinitely sacred, too precious to be trifledwith by any bungler in the art of speaking. As forthe thoughts, they were not likely to be wantingifonly the terms of oratory were fitly chosen.Quintilian, the celebrated critic, who made thepractice and theory of rhetoric his familiar study,was quite as bitter in his antipathy as Fronto. Tohim it also seemed that moral questions belonged tohis own domain by natural right, and that it was insufferablepride on the part of any school of abstractthought to claim the monopoly of such importantsubjects. The good man was the true sage, hethought, and in a matter so intensely practical therecould be no need of fine-drawn speculations.Lucian, writing as a man of letters, takes anotherline for his attack, without however quite disdainingthe use of arguments already stated. The Hermotimusof his dialogue is a student of ripe age. who