Some have complained of the partiality, or jealousy of the rhetorician, who allows Celsus only a moderate share of genius. Others esteem it no diminution to be placed in a rank below the writers above named. Without doubt, this would do him very great honour: but if we even take the character literally, still we are to consider Quintilian as having every where in view the perfection of oratory. Now this, it should appear, Celsus hardly affected, by his confining the orator to questions in dispute[B]; which in great measure excludes the descriptive and moving parts of the art: therefore Quintilian’s man of middling genius may be a perfect writer in the instructive manner, though he want the qualifications for the bar or the forum. But to do Celsus some farther honour, may it not be supposed, that had Quintilian been as competent a judge of his medical, as of his rhetorical writings, he would not have stiled him, _Vir mediocri ingenio_. I have made bold to hazard this observation from an opinion, that none but a physician can form a just idea of the excellence of this work; much less could any but a physician be the author of it. Celsus the physician might very well write on agriculture, &c. but it by no means follows, that Celsus, not versed in the practice of physic, could have written accurately on diseases. If then this notion be just, it may reasonably be concluded, that his medical writings were the most perfect, as being the fruit of his principal and particular studies. [B] Id. lib. iii. c. 5. Columella (_De re rustica_) often quotes him with great deference to his authority; he equals him to the most learned writers on husbandry; and when he is correcting a vulgar error, expresses his surprise that Cornelius Celsus could be misled, “who was not only skilled in agriculture, but took in the whole compass of natural knowledge[C].” I shall not recite all the passages, where he mentions Celsus, but cannot help transcribing one, it is so expressive of our author’s manner. It is on the article of bees, “concerning which (says he) it is impossible to surpass the diligence of Hyginus, the profusion of ornaments in Virgil, and the _elegance_ of Celsus. Hyginus has with great industry collected the precepts, which lay scattered in the ancients; Virgil has adorned the subject with poetic flowers; and in Celsus we find a judicious mixture of both these manners[D].” [C] Columell. lib. 2. c. 2. [D] Id. lib. ix. c. 2.