§2.1.1tenuit consuetudo, quae cotidie magis invalescit, ut praeceptoribus eloquentiae, Latinis quidem semper sed etiam Graecis interim, discipuli serius quam ratio postulat, traderentur.
A custom has held, which daily grows stronger, that pupils are handed over to the teachers of eloquence—to the Latin ones indeed always, but also to the Greek ones recently—later than reason demands.
eius rei duplex causa est, quod et rhetores utique nostri suas partes omiserunt et grammatici alienas occupaverunt.
There is a double cause for this: because both our rhetoricians have indeed abandoned their own parts, and the grammarians have occupied those of others.
§2.1.2nam et illi declamare modo et scientiam declamandi ac facultatem tradere officii sui ducunt, idque intra deliberativas iudicialesque materias (nam cetera ut professione sua minora despiciunt), et hi non satis credunt excepisse, quae relicta erant, (quo nomine gratia quoque iis habenda est), sed ad prosopopoeias usque ac suasorias, in quibus onus dicendi vel maximum est, irrumpunt.
For while those (the rhetoricians) think it their duty only to declaim and to hand down the knowledge and capacity of declaiming, and that within deliberative and judicial materials (for they despise other things as being below their profession), these (the grammarians) do not think it enough to have taken over what had been left (on which account thanks must also be given to them), but break in even as far as prosopopoeias and suasoriae, in which the burden of speaking is indeed greatest.
§2.1.3hinc ergo accidit, ut, quae alterius artis prima erant opera, facta sint alterius novissima, et aetas altioribus iam disciplinis debita in schola minore subsidat ac rhetoricen apud grammaticos exerceat.
Hence, therefore, it happens that what were the first works of one art have become the last works of the other, and the age already due to higher disciplines remains in the lower school and practices rhetoric under the grammarians.
ita, quod est maxime ridiculum, non ante ad declamandi magistrum mittendus videtur puer quam declamare sciat.
Thus, what is most ridiculous, a boy does not seem fit to be sent to a master of declaiming until he knows how to declaim.
nos suum cuique professioni modum demus.
Let us give each profession its own limit.
§2.1.4et grammatice (quam in Latinum transferentes litteraturam vocaverunt) fines suos norit, praesertim tantum ab hac appellationis suae paupertate, intra quam primi illi constitere, provecta; nam tenuis a fonte assumptis historicorum criticorumque viribus pleno iam satis alveo fluit, cum praeter rationem recte loquendi non parum alioqui copiosam prope omnium maximarum artium scientiam amplexa sit; §2.1.5et rhetorice, cui nomen vis eloquendi dedit, officia sua non detrectet nec occupari gaudeat pertinentem ad se laborem, quae, dum opere cedit, §2.1.6iam paene possessione depulsa est.
And let grammar (which those translating into Latin have called "literature") know its own boundaries, especially having advanced so far from this poverty of its name, within which those first grammarians stood; for though thin at its source, it now flows with a sufficiently full channel, having assumed the strength of historians and critics, since besides the rule of speaking correctly, which is otherwise not a little copious, it has embraced the knowledge of almost all the greatest arts; and let rhetoric, to which the force of speaking gave its name, not decline its own duties nor rejoice that the labor belonging to it is occupied, which, while it yields in activity, has now been almost driven out of its possession.
neque infitiabor, aliquem ex his, qui grammaticen profiteantur, eo usque scientiae progredi posse, ut ad haec quoque tradenda sufficiat; sed cum id aget, rhetoris officio fungetur non suo.
Nor shall I deny that someone of those who profess grammar can progress so far in knowledge as to be sufficient also for handing down these things; but when he does this, he will perform the duty of a rhetorician, not his own.
§2.1.7nos porro quaerimus, quando iis, quae rhetorice praecipit, percipiendis puer maturus esse videatur.
Further, we ask when a boy may seem mature enough to perceive those things which rhetoric prescribes.
in quo quidem non id est aestimandum, cuius quisque sit aetatis, sed quantum in studiis iam effecerit.
In which indeed we must not estimate how old anyone is, but how much he has already accomplished in studies.
§2.1.8et ne diutius disseram, quando sit rhetori tradendus, sic optime finiri credo; cum poterit.
And lest I discuss too long when he should be delivered to the rhetorician, I believe it is best defined thus: when he is able.
sed hoc ipsum ex superiore pendet quaestione.
But this very thing depends on the prior question.
nam si grammatices munus usque ad suasorias prorogatur, tardius rhetore opus est.
For if the duty of grammar is extended all the way to suasoriae, there is need of the rhetorician later.
at si rhetor prima officia operis sui non recusat, §2.1.9a narrationibus statim et laudandi vituperandique opusculis cura eius desideratur.
But if the rhetorician does not refuse the first duties of his own work, his care is required immediately from narratives and from short compositions of praising and blaming.
an ignoramus antiquis hoc fuisse ad augendam eloquentiam genus exercitationis, ut theses dicerent et communes locos et cetera citra complexum rerum personarumque, quibus verae fictaeque controversiae continentur? ex quo palam est, quam turpiter deserat eam partem rhetorices institutio, quam et primam habuit et diu solam.
Or are we ignorant that for the ancients this was a kind of exercise for increasing eloquence, that they should speak on theses and commonplaces and other things short of the complexity of circumstances and persons, by which true and feigned controversies are contained? From which it is clear how shamefully the instruction of rhetoric abandons that part which it both had first and for a long time alone.
§2.1.10quid autem est ex iis, de quibus supra dixi, quod non cum in alia, quae sunt propria rhetorum, tum certe in illud iudiciale causae genus incidat?
But what is there of those things which I have mentioned above that does not fall, as into other things which are proper to rhetoricians, so certainly into that judicial class of cause?
§2.1.11an non in foro narrandum est? qua in parte nescio an sit vel plurimum.
Or must there not be narrating in the forum? In which part I know not whether it is even the greatest.
non laus ac vituperatio certaminibus illis frequenter inseritur? non communes loci, sive qui sunt in vitia derecti, quales legimus a Cicerone compositos, seu quibus quaestiones generaliter tractantur, quales sunt editi a Quinto quoque Hortensio: ut, sitne parvis argumentis credendum,
Is not praise and blame frequently inserted in those contests? Are not commonplaces, whether those directed against vices, such as we read composed by Cicero, or those by which questions are treated generally, such as were published also by Quintus Hortensius (as, whether small arguments should be believed, both for witnesses and against witnesses), employed in the very marrow of lawsuits?
§2.1.12et pro testibus et in testes, in mediis litium medullis versantur? arma sunt haec quodammodo praeparanda semper, ut iis, cum res poscet, utare.
These are arms to be prepared in some way always, so that you may use them when the matter demands.
quae qui pertinere ad orationem non putabit, is ne statuam quidem inchoari credet, cum eius membra fundentur.
He who will not think these to belong to speech, will not believe that even a statue is begun when its limbs are being cast.
neque hanc (ut aliqui putabunt) festinationem meam sic quisquam calumnietur, tanquam eum, qui sit rhetori traditus, abducendum protinus a grammaticis putem.
Nor should anyone thus misrepresent this haste of mine (as some will think), as though I think that he who has been delivered to the rhetorician must be immediately withdrawn from the grammarians.
§2.1.13dabuntur et illis tum quoque tempora sua, neque erit verendum, ne binis praeceptoribus oneretur puer.
Their own times will be given to them also then, nor will there be need to fear lest the boy be burdened with two teachers.
non enim crescet sed dividetur, qui sub uno miscebatur, labor, et erit sui quisque operis magister utilior; quod adhuc obtinent Graeci, a Latinis omissum est, et fieri videtur excusate, quia sunt qui labori isti successerint.
For the labor, which was mixed under one, will not increase but be divided, and each master will be more useful in his own work; which the Greeks still maintain, but has been omitted by the Latins, and seems to be done with excuse, because there are those who have succeeded to that labor.