Epistle III. To Nepos.
by
Mr. Henley.
[_]
In Praise of Isæus, the Rhetorician.
Isæus gave us the Promise of a bright Reputation, but has far exceeded it:
He has the utmost command, plenty, and luxuriancy of Speaking. He always delivers himself in the readiest,
and yet in the most exact Manner. His Style does not only carry the Purity of the
Greek, but the Refinement of the Attic. His Openings are terse,
easy, engaging; sometimes weighty and rais'd. He demands a number of his Questions from his Audience;
and permits the Choice of others, and often the Sides, to them. He rises,
dresses, begins; suddenly all is at hand, and in a manner all alike. His Sense more remote,
his Words familiar; but of what kind? chosen and labour'd. Even in his sallies of Oratory,
a vast Compass of Reading and Writing shines forth. His Preface is just;
his Narration clear; his Reasoning forcible; his Consequences strong;
his Ornament high: he informs, delights, and affects at once, (a Thing almost incredible:)
His Turns of Logic are frequent; his Syllogisms bounded and determinate; which it must be a great Mastery
to execute also in a proper Style. His Memory is hardly to be conceiv'd.
He traces to the height what he uttered off-hand, and does not slip a Word.
He arriv'd at this Habit by Study and Exercise: For, whether by Night or Day,
his Acting, Hearing, Speaking, have no other Tendency. He is past the sixtieth Year of Life,
and is not yet beyond the School; which indeed is the truest Scene of Simplicity,
Sincerity and Goodness. For we, who are employ'd in the Court, and in real Disputes at Law,
are obliged, tho' unwilling, to contract a large Vein of what is Evil.
But in the School, and in the Auditory of Learning, the Cause is feign'd,
and the Matter itself is naked and innocent; and not less happy, especially to Men in declining Years.
For what is more fortunate in old Age, than that which was the most delightful in Youth?
On this Foot I judge
Isæus, not only the most Eloquent, but the most Blest of Men;
and if you be not desirous to know him, you have the Insensibility of Marble or Iron.
Therefore come, if not upon other Accounts, or mine, yet to be one of his Audience.
Did you never read of a Man that took a Journey from the
Streights
to view the celebrated
Livy, and departed after the first sight of him?
It would be ungenerous, illiterate, dull, and even almost infamous, not to value a piece of Knowledge so pleasing,
fair, and humane above all others. You will urge, perhaps, that you are already furnished with
Reading equal to him: True, but you have always an Opportunity of Reading,
not always of Hearing. Besides, we are apt to be most affected by the living Voice,
or as we say, Word of Mouth. For, tho' what you read may be more acute,
yet it strikes deeper in the Mind, what is fix'd in it by the Delivery,
Countenance, Habit and Gesture of the Speaker; unless we can imagine that of
Æschines to be false; who, upon reading the Oration of
Demosthenes
to the
Rhodians, and a general Admiration it created, is said to have added:
What if you had heard the Words of the Fury in Person, thundering it out to you?
And
Æschines was, if we may believe
Demosthenes, possess'd of a Voice extreamly commanding.
Yet he confess'd that the same was pronounced more perfectly by the Author.
All this is intended to make you an Auditor of
Isæus; if it goes no farther than the bare Hearing of him.
Farewel.
