Page:Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto volume 2 Haines 1920.djvu/83

M. CORNELIUS FRONTO

the controller of messages, Apollo the author of paeans, Liber the defender of dithyrambs, the Fauns inspirers of prophecies, Calliope the instructress of Homer, Homer the instructor of Ennius, and Sleep.^[1]

14. Again, if the study of philosophy were concerned with practice alone, I should wonder less at your despising words^[2] so much. That you should, however, learn horn-dilemmas,^[3] heap-fallacies,^[4] liar-syllogisms,^[5] verbal quibbles and entanglements,^[6] while neglecting the cultivation of oratory, its dignity and majesty and charm and splendour—this shews that you prefer mere speaking to real speaking, a whisper and a mumble to a trumpet-note. Do you rank the words of Diodorus and Alexinus^[7] higher than the words of Plato and Xenophon and Antisthenes? as though anyone with a passion for the stage should copy the acting of Tasurcus rather than Roscius; as though in swimming, were both possible, one would choose to take pattern by a frog rather than by a dolphin, and flit rather on the puny wings of quails than soar with the majesty of an eagle.

15. Where is that shrewdness of yours? where your discernment? Wake up and hear what Chrysippus himself prefers. Is he content to teach, to disclose the subject, to define, to explain? He is not content: but he amplifies as much as he can,

1. See i. p. 94, and cp. Hor. Ep. II. i. 52, somnia Pythagorea.
2. It is by no means clear that Marcus despised words, but he did despise dialectics; see Thoughts, i. 7; vii. 67; viii. 1.
3. "Have you lost your horns?" If "yes," then you had horns; if "no," then you still have them.
4. "How many grains make a heap?" Do two, or three, or what exact number? As heap is an indefinite term, the answer cannot be given in any definite number of grains. See Hor. Ep. II. i. 47, Elusus ratione ruentis acervi.
5. "If a man says he is lying, is he lying or speaking the truth?"
   For these fallacies see Diog. Laert. Euclides, iv., and Zeller, Socrates, ch. xii.
6. Lit. twisted, or intricate, and entangling.
7. A captious disputant who made use of the horn-dilemma. Cicero mentions him with Diodorus, and speaks of his contorta sophismata. See next page.

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