complete his pieces, but those rich and glowing colours which had not then been invented. As to the above Oration of Crassus, he himself, perhaps, could have written better, if he had been willing to take the trouble; but nobody else, I believe, could have mended it. You have no reason, therefore, to think I spoke _ironically_, when I mentioned it as the guide and _tutoress_ of my Eloquence: for though you seem to have a higher opinion of my capacity, in its present state, you must remember that, in our youth, we could find nothing better to imitate among the Romans. And as to my admitting so _many_ into my list of Orators, I only did it (as I have already observed) to shew how few have succeeded in a profession, in which all were desirous to excel. I therefore insist upon it that you do not consider _me_ in the present case, as an _Ironist_; though we are informed by C. Fannius, in his History, that _Africanus_ was a very excellent one."--"As you please about _that_," cried Atticus: "though, by the bye, I did not imagine it would have been any disgrace to you, to be what Africanus and Socrates have been before you."--"We may settle _this_ another time," interrupted Brutus: "but will you be so obliging," said he, (addressing himself to _me_) "as to give us a critical analysis of some of the old speeches you have mentioned?"--"Very willingly," replied I; "but it must be at Cuma, or Tusculum, when opportunity offers: for we are near neighbours, you know, in both places. At present, let us return to _Hortensius_, from whom we have digressed a second time."