第22页 / 共62页

[26]'Well, if the ancient Greeks ever wrote anything like this,

let those who know decide it: for me, if I dare say so, I never

read any invective of Cato's so fine as your encomtum. O if my

Lord[27] could be sufficiently praised, sufficiently praised he

would have been undoubtedly by you! This kind of thing is not

done nowadays.[28] It were easier to match Pheidias, easier to

match Apelles, easier in a word to match Demosthenes himself, or

Cato himself; than to match this finisht and perfect work. Never

have I read anything more refined, anything more after the

ancient type, anything more delicious, anything more Latin. O

happy you, to be endowed with eloquence so great! O happy I, to

be tinder the charge of such a master! O arguments,[29] O

arrangement, O elegance, O wit, O beauty, O words, O brilliancy,

O subtilty, O grace, O treatment, O everything!