Of imitation; necessity of it, and remarks upon it, § 1-13. Not every quality, even in eminent authors, is to be imitated; necessity of judgment in the choice of models for imitation, 14-21. We are not to imitate one author only, 22-26. Not to imitate style only, 27, 28. 1. FROM these authors and others worthy to be read, a stock of words, a variety of figures, and the art of composition must be acquired. Our minds must be directed to the imitation of all their excellences, for it cannot be doubted that a great portion of art consists in imitation, since, though to invent was first in order of time and holds the first place in merit, it is of advantage to copy what has been invented with success. 2. Indeed the whole conduct of life is based on the desire of doing ourselves that which we approve in others. Thus boys follow the traces of letters in order to acquire skill in writing, musicians follow the voice of their teachers, painters look for models to the works of preceding painters, and farmers adopt the system of culture approved by experience. We see, in short, that the beginnings of every kind of study are formed in accordance with some prescribed rule. 3. We must, indeed, be either like or unlike those who excel, and nature rarely forms one like, though imitation does so frequently. But the very circumstance that renders the study of all subjects so much easier for us than it was to those who had nothing to imitate will prove a disadvantage to us, unless it be turned to account with caution and judgment. 4. Undoubtedly, then, imitation is not sufficient of itself, if for no other reason than that it is the mark of an indolent nature to rest satisfied with what has been invented by others. For what would have been the case if, in those times which were without any models, humans had thought that they were not to execute or imagine anything but what they already knew? Assuredly nothing would have been invented. 5. Why then is it unlawful for anything to be devised by us which did not exist before? Were our rude forefathers led by the mere natural force of intellect to the discovery of so many things, and shall we not be roused to inquiry by the certain knowledge which we possess that those who sought found? 6. When those who had no master in any subject have transmitted so many discoveries to posterity, shall not the experience which we have in some things assist us to bring to light others, or shall we have nothing but what we derive from other men's bounty, as some painters aim at nothing more than to know how to copy a picture by means of compasses and lines? 7. It is dishonorable even to rest satisfied with simply equalling what we imitate. For what would have been the case, again, if no one had accomplished more than he whom he copied? We should have nothing in poetry superior to Livius Andronicus; nothing in history better than the Annals of the Pontiffs; we should still sail on rafts; there would be no painting but that of tracing the outlines of the shadow which bodies cast in the sunshine. 8. If we take a view of all arts, no one can be found exactly as it was when it was invented, no one that has confined itself within its original limits, unless, indeed, we have to convict our own times, beyond all others, of this unhappy deficiency and to consider that now at last nothing improves, for certainly nothing does improve by imitation only. 9. But if it is not allowable to add to what has preceded us, how can we ever hope to see a complete orator, when among those whom we have hitherto recognized as the greatest, no one has been found in whom there is not something defective or censurable? Even those who do not aim at the highest excellence should rather try to excel, than merely follow, their predecessors, for he who tries to advance beyond another will possibly, if he does not pass him, get abreast of him. 10. But assuredly no one will come even with him in whose steps he thinks he must tread, for he who follows another must of necessity always be behind him. Besides, it is generally easier to do more than to do precisely the same, since exact likeness is attended with such difficulty that not even nature herself has succeeded in contriving that the simplest objects, thought most alike, shall not be distinguished by some perceptible difference. 11. Moreover, everything that resembles something else must necessarily be inferior to that of which it is a copy, as the shadow to the substance, the portrait to the natural face, and the player's acting to the real feeling. The same is the case with regard to oratorical composition, for in the originals we take for our models there is nature and real power, while every imitation, on the contrary, is something counterfeit and seems adapted to an object not its own. 12. Hence, declamations have less spirit and force than actual pleadings, because in one the subject is real, in the other fictitious. In addition to all this, whatever excellences are most remarkable in an orator are inimitable, just as natural talent, invention, energy, easiness of manner, and whatever cannot be taught by art. 13. In consequence, many students, when they have selected certain words or acquired a certain rhythm of composition from any orator's speeches, think that what they have read is admirably represented in their own sentences. Words come into use or fall into disuse according to the fashion of the day, as the most certain rule for their use is found in custom. They are not in their own nature either good or bad (for in themselves they are only sounds), but just as they are suitably and properly applied or otherwise. When our composition is best adapted to our subject, it becomes most pleasing from its variety. 14. Everything related to this area of study is to be considered with the finest judgment. First of all, we must be cautious as to the authors we would imitate, for many have desired to resemble the worst and most faulty originals. In the next place, we must examine what, in the authors we have chosen for models, we should set ourselves to attain, for even in great writers there occur faulty passages and blemishes that have been censured by the learned in their remarks on one another. I wish our youth would improve in their oratory by imitating what is good, as much as they are deteriorated by copying what is bad. 15. Nor let those who have sufficient judgment for avoiding faults, be satisfied with forming a semblance, a mere cuticle of excellence, if I may so express myself, or rather one of those images of Epicurus, which he says are perpetually flying off from the surfaces of bodies. 16. This, however, is the fate of those who, having no thorough insight into the merits of a style, adapt their manner, as it were, to the first aspect of it. Even when their imitation proves most successful and they differ but little from their original author in language and harmony, they yet never fully attain to his force or fertility of language. Instead, they commonly degenerate into something worse, lay hold on such defects as border on excellences, and become tumid instead of great, weak instead of concise, rash instead of bold, licentious instead of exuberant, tripping instead of dignified, and careless instead of simple. 17. Accordingly, those who have produced something dry and inane, in a rough and inelegant dress, fancy themselves equal to the ancients; those who reject embellishment of language or thought compare themselves to the Attic writers; those who become obscure by curtailing their periods excel Sallust and Thucydides; the dry and jejune are rivals of Pollio; and the dull and languid, if they but express themselves in a long period, declare that Cicero would have spoken just like themselves. 18. Indeed, I have known some who thought they had admirably represented the divine orator's manner in their speeches, when they had put at the end of a period esse videatur. Therefore, the first consideration for the student is to understand what he proposes to imitate and why it is excellent. 19. Next, in entering this task, let him consult his own powers (for some things are inimitable by those whose natural weakness is not sufficient for attaining them, or whose natural inclination is repugnant to them), lest he who has but a feeble capacity should attempt only what is arduous and rough, or lest he who has great but rude talent should waste his strength in the study of refinement and fail to attain the elegance which he desires, for nothing is more ungraceful than to treat of delicate subjects with harshness. 20. Indeed, I did not suppose that the teacher, whose instruction I described in my second book, should teach only those things to which he might see his pupils severally adapted by nature. Instead, he ought to improve whatever good qualities he finds in them; supply, as far as he can, what is deficient; and correct some things and alter others. He is the director and regulator of the minds of others; to mold his own nature may be more difficult. 21. But not even such a teacher, however he may wish everything that is right to be found in the highest excellence in his pupils, will labor to any purpose in that to which he shall see that nature is opposed. There is another thing also to be avoided, a matter in which many err—we must not suppose that poets and historians are to be the objects of our imitation in oratorical composition, or orators and declaimers in poetry or history. 22. Every species of writing has its own prescribed law, each its own appropriate dress. For comedy does not strut in tragic buskins, nor does tragedy step along in the slipper of comedy. Yet all eloquence has something in common, and let us look on that which is common as what we must imitate. 23. Those who have devoted themselves to one particular kind of style generally suffer this inconvenience: if, for example, the roughness of some writer has taken their fancy, they cannot divest themselves of it in pleading those causes which are of a quiet and subdued nature. Or if a simple and pleasing manner has attracted them, they become unequal to the weight of their subject in complex and difficult causes. Yet it is not only when the nature of one cause is different from that of another, but the nature of one part of a cause differs from that of another part, and some portions are to be delivered gently, others roughly, some in a vehement tone, others in an easy one, some for the purpose of informing the hearer, others with a view to excite his feelings, all of which require a different and distinct style. 24. I should not, therefore, advise a student to devote himself entirely to any particular author, so as to imitate him in all respects. Of all the Greek orators, Demosthenes is by far the most excellent, yet others, on some occasions, may have expressed themselves better, and he himself has expressed many things better on some occasions than on others. But he who deserves to be imitated most is not the only author to be imitated. 25. "What then?" the reader may ask, "Is it not sufficient to speak on every subject as Cicero spoke?" To me, assuredly, it would be sufficient, if I could attain all his excellences. Yet what disadvantage would it be to assume, on some occasions, the energy of Caesar, the asperity of Caelius, the accuracy of Pollio, or the judgment of Calvus? 26. In addition to a judicious student appropriating, if he can, whatever is excellent in each author, it is also to be considered that if, in a matter of such difficulty as imitation, we fix our attention only on one author, scarcely any one portion of his excellence will allow us to become masters of it. Accordingly, since it is almost denied to human ability to copy fully the pattern which we have chosen, let us set before our eyes the excellences of several, that different qualities from different writers may fix themselves in our minds and that we may adopt, for any subject, the style which is most suitable to it. 27. But let imitation (for I must frequently repeat the same precept) not be confined merely to words. We ought to contemplate what propriety was observed by those great men, with regard to things and persons, what judgment, what arrangement, and how everything, even what seems intended only to please, was directed to the attainment of success in their cause. Let us notice what is done in their exordium; how skilful and varied is their statement of facts; how great is their ability in proving and refuting; how consummate was their skill in exciting every species of emotion; and how even the applause which they gained from the public was turned to the advantage of their cause, applause which is most honorable when it follows unsolicited, not when it is anxiously courted. If we gain a thorough conception of all these matters, we shall then be such imitators as we ought to be. 28. But he who shall add to these borrowed qualities excellences of his own, so as to supply what is deficient in his models and to retrench what is redundant, will be the complete orator whom we desire to see. Such an orator ought now surely to be formed, when so many more examples of eloquence exist than fell to the lot of those who have hitherto been considered the best orators, for to them will belong the praise, not only of surpassing those who preceded them, but of instructing those who followed.
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