§10.7.23hoc, dum egredimur e portu, si nos nondum aptatis satis armamentis aget ventus;
This [we must do] if, as we are leaving the harbor, the wind should drive us before our tackle is sufficiently prepared; then, as we go, we shall gradually adjust the sails, arrange the ropes, and pray that the canvas be filled.
deinde paulatim simul euntes aptabimus vela et disponemus rudentes et impleri sinus optabimus. Id potius quam se inani verborum torrenti dare quasi tempestatibus quo volent auferendum.
It is better to do this than to give oneself to an empty torrent of words, to be carried away where they will, as if by tempests.
§10.7.24sed non minore studio continetur haec facultas quam paratur.
But this faculty is maintained with no less zeal than it is acquired.
ars enim semel percepta non labitur, stilus quoque intermissione paulum admodum de celeritate deperdit; promptum hoc et in expedito positum exercitatione sola continetur.
For an art once grasped does not slip away, and the pen also loses only a very little of its speed through interruption; but this prompt facility, ready for immediate use, is maintained by practice alone.
hac uti sic optimum est, ut cotidie dicamus audientibus pluribus, maxime de quorum simus iudicio atque opinione solliciti; rarum est enim ut satis se quisque vereatur.
It is best to use this practice in such a way that we speak daily before several listeners, especially those about whose judgment and opinion we are anxious; for it is rare that anyone respects himself enough.
§10.7.25vel soli tamen dicamus potius quam omnino non dicamus.
Yet let us speak even alone, rather than not speak at all.
est et illa exercitatio cogitandi totasque materias vel silentio (dum tamen quasi dicat intra se ipsum) persequendi, quae nullo non et tempore et loco, quando non aliud agimus, explicari potest, et est in parte utilior quam haec proxima.
There is also that practice of thinking and of pursuing entire subjects even in silence (provided, however, that one speaks as it were within oneself), which can be developed at any time and in any place when we are not doing something else, and it is in part more useful than this last one.
§10.7.26diligentius enim componitur quam illa, in qua contextum dicendi intermittere veremur.
For it is composed more carefully than that in which we fear to interrupt the flow of speech.
rursus in alia plus prior confert, vocis firmitatem, oris facilitatem, motum corporis, qui et ipse, ut dixi, excitat oratorem et iactatione manus, pedis supplosione, sicut cauda leones facere dicuntur, hortatur.
On the other hand, the former contributes more in another way: firmness of voice, ease of mouth, and movement of body, which itself, as I have said, excites the orator and encourages him by the waving of the hand and the stamping of the foot, just as lions are said to do with their tails.
studendum vero semper et ubique.
Indeed, one must study always and everywhere.
§10.7.27neque enim fere tam est ullus dies occupatus, ut nihil lucrativae, ut Cicero Brutum facere tradit, operae ad scribendum aut legendum aut dicendum rapi aliquo momento temporis possit; siquidem C. Carbo etiam in tabernaculo solebat hac uti exercitatione dicendi.
For there is hardly any day so busy that some moment of time cannot be snatched for writing, reading, or speaking as a "lucrative task," as Cicero reports that Brutus used to do; since indeed Gaius Carbo was accustomed to use this practice of speaking even in his tent.
§10.7.28ne id quidem tacendum, quod eidem Ciceroni placet, nullum nostrum usquam negligentem esse sermonem; quidquid loquemur ubicunque, sit pro sua scilicet portione perfectum.
Nor indeed must we keep silent about that which pleases the same Cicero, that none of our speech should ever be careless; whatever we say anywhere should be, as far as its portion goes, perfect.
scribendum certe nunquam est magis, quam cum multa dicemus ex tempore.
Certainly, we must never write more than when we are to speak much from extempore.
ita enim servabitur pondus, et innatans illa verborum facilitas in altum reducetur; sicut rustici proximas vitis radices amputant, quae illam in summum solum ducunt, ut inferiores penitus descendendo firmentur.
For thus weight will be preserved, and that floating facility of words will be brought back into the deep; just as husbandmen cut away the nearest roots of the vine which lead it into the surface of the soil, so that the lower ones may be strengthened by descending deep.
§10.7.29ac nescio an, si utrumque cum cura et studio fecerimus, invicem prosit, ut scribendo dicamus diligentius, dicendo scribamus facilius.
And I do not know whether, if we do both with care and study, they may not mutually benefit each other, so that by writing we speak more diligently, and by speaking we write more easily.
scribendum ergo, quotiens licebit; si id non dabitur, cogitandum; ab utroque exclusi debent tamen sic dicere, ut neque deprehensus orator neque litigator destitutus esse videatur.
We must write, therefore, as often as it is allowed; if that is not granted, we must think; those excluded from both must nevertheless speak in such a way that the orator may not seem caught unawares, nor the litigant abandoned.
§10.7.30plerumque autem multa agentibus accidit, ut maxime necessaria et utique initia scribant, cetera quae domo adferunt cogitatione complectantur, subitis ex tempore occurrant; quod fecisse M. Tullium commentariis ipsius apparet.
Moreover, it usually happens to those who plead many cases that they write the most necessary parts, and especially the beginnings, embrace the rest which they bring from home in reflection, and meet sudden occurrences extempore; which it is clear Marcus Tullius did from his own notebooks.
sed feruntur aliorum quoque et inventi forte, ut eos dicturus quisque composuerat, et in libros digesti, ut causarum quae sunt actae a Ser. Sulpicio, cuius tres orationes extant; sed hi de quibus loquor commentarii ita sunt exacti, ut ab ipso mihi in memoriam posteritatis videantur esse compositi.
But those of others also are in circulation, both discovered by chance just as each speaker had composed them when about to speak, and arranged into books, like the notebooks of the cases pleaded by Servius Sulpicius, of whom three speeches remain; but these notebooks of which I speak are so finished that they seem to me to have been composed by himself for the memory of posterity.
§10.7.31nam Ciceronis ad praesens modo tempus aptatos libertus Tiro contraxit; quos non ideo excuso, quia non probem, sed ut sint magis admirabiles.
For Tiro, the freedman of Cicero, collected those of Cicero which were adapted only to the present moment; which I do not excuse on the ground that I do not approve of them, but so that they may be more admirable.
in hoc genere prorsus recipio hanc brevem adnotationem libellosque, qui vel manu teneantur, et ad quos interim respicere fas sit.
In this kind, I entirely admit this brief notation and notebooks which may be held in the hand and to which it is permitted to look back from time to time.
§10.7.32illud quod Laenas praecipit displicet mihi, vel in his quae scripserimus velut summas in commentarium et capita conferre.
That which Laenas prescribes displeases me, to collect even from what we have written summaries, as it were, and main heads into a notebook.
facit enim ediscendi negligentiam haec ipsa fiducia et lacerat ac deformat orationem.
For this very confidence produces negligence in learning by heart, and mangles and deforms the speech.
ego autem ne scribendum quidem puto, quod non sinus memoria persecuturi.
I, however, do not think we should even write what we are not going to pursue with memory.
nam hic quoque accidit, ut revocet nos cogitatio ad illa elaborata nec sinat praesentem fortunam experiri.
For here too it happens that reflection recalls us to those elaborated parts and does not allow us to try our present fortune.
§10.7.33sic anceps inter utrumque animus aestuat, cum et scripta perdidit et non quaerit nova.
Thus the mind, wavering between both, is tossed about when it has both lost the written words and does not seek new ones.
sed de memoria destinatus est libro proximo locus nec huic parti subiungendus, quia sunt alia prius nobis dicenda.
But a designated place for memory is set in the next book, and is not to be subjoined to this part, since there are other things we must speak of first.