But Seneca giveth an excellent check to eloquence,
Nocet illis eloquentia, quibus non rerum cupiditatem facit, sed sui.
Doctrine should be such as should make men in love with the lesson,
and not with the teacher; being directed to the auditor's benefit,
and not to the author's commendation. And therefore those are of
the right kind which may be concluded as Demosthenes concludes his
counsel, Quae si feceritis, non oratorem dumtaxat in praesentia
laudabitis, sed vosmetipsos etiam non ita multo post statu rerum
vestraram meliore.
(3) Neither needed men of so excellent parts to have despaired of a
fortune, which the poet Virgil promised himself, and indeed
obtained, who got as much glory of eloquence, wit, and learning in
the expressing of the observations of husbandry, as of the heroical
acts of AEneas:
"Nec sum animi dubius, verbis ea vincere magnum
Quam sit, et angustis his addere rebus honorem."
And surely, if the purpose be in good earnest, not to write at
leisure that which men may read at leisure, but really to instruct
and suborn action and active life, these Georgics of the mind,
concerning the husbandry and tillage thereof, are no less worthy
than the heroical descriptions of virtue, duty, and felicity.
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