*68* Iam illud non sunt admonendi (est enim in promptu), ut animadvertant, cum iuvare alios velint, ne quos offendant. Saepe enim aut eos laedunt, quos non debent, aut eos, quos non expedit; si imprudentes, neglegentiae est, si scientes, temeritatis. Utendum etiam est excusatione adversus eos, quos invitus offendas, quacumque possis, quare id, quod feceris, necesse fuerit nec aliter facere potueris, ceterisque operis et officiis erit id, quod violatum videbitur,[234] compensandum. [230] _consilio iuvare_ MSS., Ed.; bracketed by Muther, Müller, Heine. [231] _dicendi gravior facultas_ B H b; _gravior facultas_ L c p; _dicendi_ [_gravior_] _facultas_ Ed.; _dicendi facultas_ Lambinus. [232] _huic quoque ergo_ B H L b c, Bt.; _huic ergo_ Facciolati; _huic_ [_quoque_] _ergo_ Ed. [233] _in toga dignitatis_ L c p, Edd.; _in tota dignitatis_ B H b; _in tota dignitate_ a. [234] _videbitur_ L c p, Edd.; not in B H b; _est_ a. #(2) personal service.# *65* XIX. Again, the kindnesses shown not by gifts of money but by personal service[AU] are bestowed sometimes upon the community at large, sometimes upon individual citizens. To protect a man in his legal rights [,to assist him with counsel,] and to serve as many as possible with that sort of knowledge tends greatly to increase one's influence and popularity. #The profession of the law.# Thus, among the many admirable ideas of our ancestors was the high respect they always accorded to the study and interpretation of the excellent body of our civil law. And down to the present unsettled times the foremost men of the state have kept this profession exclusively in their own hands; but now the prestige of legal learning has departed along with offices of honour and positions of dignity; and this is the more deplorable, because it has come to pass in the lifetime of a man[AV] who in knowledge of the law would easily have surpassed all his predecessors, while in honour he is their peer. Service such as this, then, finds many to appreciate it and is calculated to bind people closely to us by our good services. #Eloquence at the bar.# *66* Closely connected with this profession, furthermore, is the gift of eloquence; it is at once more popular and more distinguished. For what is better than eloquence to awaken the admiration of one's hearers or the hopes of the distressed or the gratitude of those whom it has protected? It was to eloquence, therefore, that our fathers assigned the foremost rank among the civil professions. The door of opportunity for generous patronage to others, then, is wide open to the orator whose heart is in his work and who follows the custom of our forefathers in undertaking the defence of many clients without reluctance and without compensation. #The decline of eloquence.#