Kitap 12
1.27
Was not this the man conceived by Virgil and described as quelling a riot when torches and stones have begun to fly: Aen. i. 151 sqq. Then, if before their eyes some statesman grave Stand forth, with virtue and high service crowned, Straight are they dumb and stand intent to hear. Here then we have one who is before all else a good man, and it is only after this that the poet adds that he is skilled in speaking: His words their minds control, their passions soothe. Again,
1.28
will not this same man, whom we are striving to form, if in time of war he be called upon to inspire his soldiers with courage for the fray, draw for his eloquence on the innermost precepts of philosophy? For how can men who stand upon the verge of battle banish all the crowding fears of hardship, pain and death from their minds, unless those fears be replaced by the sense of the duty that they owe their country, by courage and the lively image of a soldier's honour?
1.29
And assuredly the man who will best inspire such feelings in others is he who has first inspired them in himself. For however we strive to conceal it, insincerity will always betray itself, and there was never in any man so great eloquence as would not begin to stumble and hesitate so soon as his words ran counter to his inmost thoughts.
