§1.pr.14ea vero destituta infirmioribus ingeniis velut praedae fuit.
But that (care of morals) being abandoned was, as it were, a prey to weaker intellects.
inde quidam, contempto bene dicendi labore, ad formandos animos statuendasque vitae leges regressi partem quidem potiorem, si dividi posset, retinuerunt; nomen tamen sibi insolentissimum arrogaverunt, ut soli studiosi sapientiae vocarentur, quod neque summi imperatores neque in consiliis rerum maximarum ac totius administratione rei publicae clarissime versati sibi unquam vindicare sunt ausi.
Thence certain persons, having despised the labor of speaking well, having returned to forming minds and establishing laws of life, retained indeed the better part, if it could be divided; yet they arrogated to themselves a most insolent name, so that they alone might be called studies of wisdom (philosophers), which neither the greatest commanders nor those most illustriously engaged in the counsels of the most important affairs and the administration of the whole commonwealth ever dared to claim for themselves.
facere enim optima quam promittere maluerunt.
For they preferred to do the best things rather than to promise them.
§1.pr.15ac veterum quidem sapientiae professorum multos et honesta praecepisse et, ut praeceperint, etiam vixisse, facile concesserim; nostris vero temporibus sub hoc nomine maxima in plerisque vitia latuerunt.
And indeed, I would readily concede that many of the ancient professors of wisdom both taught honorable things and, as they taught, also lived; but in our times, under this name, the greatest vices have lay hidden in most of them.
non enim virtute ac studiis, ut haberentur philosophi, laborabant, sed vultum et tristitiam et dissentientem a ceteris habitum pessimis moribus praetendebant.
For they did not labor in virtue and studies that they might be held philosophers, but they pretended a stern countenance and sadness and a habit dissenting from others to cover their worst morals.
§1.pr.16haec autem, quae velut propria philosophiae asseruntur, passim tractamus omnes.
But these things, which are asserted as if peculiar to philosophy, we all treat everywhere.
quis enim non de iusto, aequo ac bono, modo non et vir pessimus, loquitur? quis non etiam rusticorum aliqua de causis naturalibus quaerit? nam verborum proprietas ac differentia omnibus, qui sermonem curae habent, debet esse communis.
For who, provided he is not the worst of men, does not speak of the just, the fair, and the good? Who even of rustics does not inquire something concerning natural causes? For propriety and difference of words ought to be common to all who have care of speech.
§1.pr.17sed ea et sciet optime et eloquetur orator; qui si fuisset aliquando perfectus, non a philosophorum scholis virtutis praecepta peterentur.
But the orator will both know those things best and express them; who, if he had been at any time perfect, the precepts of virtue would not be sought from the schools of philosophers.
nunc necesse est ad eos aliquando auctores recurrere, qui desertam, ut dixi, partem oratoriae artis, meliorem praesertim, occupaverunt, et velut nostrum reposcere; non ut nos illorum utamur inventis, sed ut illos alienis usos esse doceamus.
Now it is necessary sometimes to recur to those authors who, as I said, have occupied the abandoned, and especially the better, part of the oratorical art, and to reclaim it as if ours; not that we may use their discoveries, but that we may show that they have used the things of others.
§1.pr.18sit igitur orator vir talis, qualis vere sapiens appellari possit; nec moribus modo perfectus (nam id mea quidem opinione, quanquam sunt qui dissentiant, satis non est) sed etiam scientia et omni facultate dicendi, qualis fortasse nemo adhuc fuerit; §1.pr.19sed non ideo minus nobis ad summa tendendum est; quod fecerunt plerique veterum, qui, etsi nondum quemquam sapientem repertum putabant, praecepta tamen sapientiae tradiderant.
Let the orator, therefore, be such a man as can truly be called wise; not perfect in morals only (for that in my opinion indeed, although there are those who dissent, is not enough) but also in knowledge and in every faculty of speaking, such as perhaps no one has yet been; but we must not on that account strive the less toward the highest things; which most of the ancients did, who, although they did not yet think any wise man had been found, nevertheless handed down the precepts of wisdom.
§1.pr.20nam est certe aliquid consummata eloquentia, neque ad eam pervenire natura humani ingenii prohibet.
For there is certainly something in consummate eloquence, nor does the nature of human genius forbid reaching it.
quod si non contingat, altius tamen ibunt, qui ad summa nitentur, quam qui, praesumpta desperatione quo velint evadendi, protinus circa ima substiterint.
Which, even if it should not happen, yet those who strive for the highest things will go higher than those who, with a presumed despair of escaping where they wish, immediately stop around the lowest.
§1.pr.21quo magis impetranda erit venia, si ne minora quidem illa, verum operi, quod instituimus, necessaria praeteribo.
By so much the more must indulgence be obtained, if I shall not pass over even those smaller things, which are nevertheless necessary to the work we have undertaken.
nam liber primus ea, quae sunt ante officium rhetoris, continebit.
For the first book will contain those things which are before the office of the rhetorician.
secundo prima apud rhetorem elementa et quae de ipsa rhetorices substantia quaeruntur tractabimus.
In the second, we shall treat the first elements under the rhetorician and what are inquired concerning the very substance of rhetoric.
§1.pr.22quinque deinceps inventioni (nam huic et dispositio subiungitur), quattuor elocutioni, in cuius partem memoria ac pronuntiatio veniunt, dabuntur.
Five next will be given to invention (for to this disposition is also subjoined), four to elocution, into whose part memory and pronunciation come.
unus accedet, in quo nobis orator ipse informandus est, ubi, qui mores eius, quae in suscipiendis, discendis, agendis causis ratio, quod eloquentiae genus, quis agendi debeat esse finis, quae post fine studia, quantum nostra valebit infirmitas, disseremus.
One will be added, in which the orator himself is to be formed by us, where we shall discuss, as far as our weakness shall avail, what his morals should be, what his method in undertaking, studying, and pleading causes, what kind of eloquence, what ought to be the end of pleading, what studies after the end.
§1.pr.23his omnibus admiscebitur, ut quisque locus postulabit, docendi ratio, quae non eorum modo scientia, quibus solis quidam nomen artis dederunt, studiosos instruat et (ut sic dixerim) ius ipsum rhetorices interpretetur, sed alere facundiam, vires augere eloquentiae possit.
To all these will be mixed, as each place shall demand, the method of teaching, which may not only instruct students in the knowledge of those things to which alone some have given the name of art, and (as I may say so) interpret the very law of rhetoric, but may be able to nourish facility and increase the strength of eloquence.
§1.pr.24nam plerumque nudae illae artes nimia subtilitatis adfectatione frangunt atque concidunt quidquid est in oratione generosius, et omnem sucum ingenii bibunt et ossa detegunt: quae ut esse et adstringi nervis suis debent, sic corpore operienda sunt.
For generally those naked arts, by an excessive affectation of subtlety, break and cut minutely whatever is more noble in speech, and drink up all the moisture of genius and lay bare the bones; which, as they ought to exist and be bound together by their own nerves, so they must be covered with a body.
§1.pr.25ideoque nos non particulam illam, sicut plerique, sed quidquid utile ad instituendum oratorem putabamus, in hos duodecim libros contulimus breviter omnia demonstraturi. nam si quantum de quaque re dici potest persequamur, finis operis non reperietur.
And therefore we, not that small part like most, but whatever we thought useful for training an orator, have brought into these twelve books, intending to demonstrate all things briefly; for if we should pursue as much as can be said concerning each thing, the end of the work will not be found.
§1.pr.26illud tamen in primis testandum est, nihil praecepta atque artes valere nisi adiuvante natura.
That, however, must be testified in the first place, that precepts and arts avail nothing unless nature assists.
quapropter ei, cui deerit ingenium, non magis haec scripta sint quam de agrorum cultu sterilibus terris.
Wherefore, to him who shall lack genius, let these writings be no more than those on the cultivation of fields to sterile lands.
§1.pr.27sunt et alia ingenita cuique adiumenta, vox, latus patiens laboris, valetudo, constantia, decor; quae si modica obtigerunt, possunt ratione ampliari, sed nonnunquam ita desunt, ut bona etiam ingenii studiique corrumpant; sicut et haec ipsa sine doctore perito, studio pertinaci, scribendi, legendi, dicendi multa et continua exercitatione per se nihil prosunt.
There are also other innate assistances to each, voice, lungs patient of labor, health, constancy, grace; which, if they have fallen moderately, can be increased by method, but sometimes they are so lacking that they corrupt even the good things of genius and study; just as these very things, without an experienced teacher, persistent study, and much and continuous exercise of writing, reading, and speaking, profit nothing by themselves.