§40.8"Quid ergo? Non aliquando et insurget?" Quidni? Sed salva dignitate morum, quam violenta ista et nimia vis exuit.
"What then? Will it not sometimes also rise?" Why not? But with the dignity of morals preserved, which that violent and excessive force strips away.
Habeat vires magnas, moderatas tamen; perennis sit unda, non torrens.
Let it have great strength, yet moderated; let it be a perennial wave, not a torrent.
Vix oratori permiserim talem dicendi velocitatem inrevocabilem ac sine lege vadentem.
I would hardly allow even an orator such an irrevocable speed of speaking, proceeding without law.
Quemadmodum enim iudex subsequi poterit aliquando etiam inperitus et rudis? Tum quoque, cum illum aut ostentatio abstulerit aut affectus inpotens sui, tantum festinet atque ingerat, quantum aures pati possunt.
For how will a judge, sometimes even unskilful and ignorant, be able to follow? Even then, when either ostentation has carried him away or a passion powerless over itself, let him hasten and pour in only as much as the ears can endure.
§40.9Recte ergo facies, si non videris istos, qui quantum dicant, non quemadmodum quaerunt, et ipse malueris, si necesse est, ut P. Vinicius dicere, qui titubat.
You will therefore do rightly, if you do not look to those who seek how much they speak, not in what manner, and prefer, if it is necessary, to speak like P. Vinicius, who stumbles.
Cum quaereretur, quomodo P. Vinicius diceret, Asellius ait: "Tractim. "Nam Geminus Varius ait: "Quomodo istum disertum dicatis nescio; tria verba non potest iungere. "Quidni malis tu sic dicere, quomodo Vinicius?
When it was asked how P. Vinicius spoke, Asellius said: "Drawlingly." For Geminus Varius said: "I do not know how you call that man eloquent; he cannot join three words." Why would you not prefer to speak thus, as Vinicius did?
§40.10Aliquis tam insulsus intervenerit quam qui illi singula verba vellenti, tamquam dictaret, non diceret, ait: "Dic, numquid dicas.
Some person as silly as the one who said to him, as he was plucking out single words one by one as if dictating, not speaking: "Speak, if you are going to say anything," might have stepped in.
"Nam Q. Hateri cursum, suis temporibus oratoris celeberrimi, longe abesse ab homine sano volo; numquam dubitavit, numquam intermisit; semel incipiebat, semel desinebat.
For as for the rapid course of Q. Haterius, a very famous orator in his time, I wish it to be far removed from a sane man; he never hesitated, never paused; he began but once, and ended but once.
§40.11Quaedam tamen et nationibus puto magis aut minus convenire; in Graecis hanc licentiam tuleris; nos etiam cum scribimus, interpungere adsuevimus.
Yet I think certain things suit nations more or less; in Greeks you may tolerate this license; we, even when we write, are accustomed to punctuate.
Cicero quoque noster, a quo Romana eloquentia exiluit, gradarius fuit.
Our Cicero also, from whom Roman eloquence sprang, was a slow-paced horse.
Romanus sermo magis se circumspicit et aestimat praebetque aestimandum.
Roman speech looks around itself more, values itself, and offers itself to be valued.
§40.12Fabianus, vir egregius et vita et scientia et, quod post ista est, eloquentia quoque, disputabat expedite magis quam concitate, ut posses dicere facilitatem esse illam, non celeritatem.
Fabianus, an excellent man in life, in knowledge, and, what is after those, in eloquence also, used to dispute easily rather than rapidly, so that you could say that was facility, not speed.
Hanc ego in viro sapiente recipio, non exigo; ut oratio eius sine impedimento exeat, proferatur tamen malo quam profluat.
This I accept in a wise man, I do not demand it; I prefer that his speech should go out without hindrance, yet that it should be delivered rather than flow forth.
§40.13Eo autem magis te deterreo ab isto morbo, quod non potest tibi ista res contingere aliter quam si te pudere desierit; perfrices frontem oportet et te ipse non audias.
But I deter you the more from that disease, because this thing cannot happen to you otherwise than if you cease to be ashamed; you must rub your forehead and not hear yourself.
Multa enim inobservatus ille cursus feret, quae reprehendere velis.
For that unobserved course will carry many things which you would wish to censure.
Non potest, inquam, tibi contingere res ista salva verecundia.
This thing, I say, cannot happen to you with modesty preserved.
Praeterea exercitatione opus est cotidiana et a rebus studium transferendum est ad verba.
Besides, there is need of daily exercise, and study must be transferred from things to words.
§40.14Haec autem etiam si aderunt et poterunt sine ullo tuo labore decurrere, tamen temperanda sunt.
But even if these things are present and can run down without any labor of yours, yet they must be tempered.
Nam quemadmodum sapienti viro incessus modestior convenit, ita oratio pressa, non audax.
For just as a more modest gait becomes a wise man, so does a pressed, not a bold, speech.
Summa ergo summarum haec erit: tardilocum esse te iubeo.
Therefore, the sum of sums will be this: I bid you be slow of speech.
VALE.
FAREWELL.