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[27] Theophrastus1 says that the reading of poets is of great service to the orator, and has rightly been followed in this view by many. For the poets will [p. 19] give us inspiration as regards the matter, sublimity of language, the power to excite every kind of emotion, and the appropriate treatment of character, while minds that have become jaded owing to the daily wear and tear of the courts will find refreshment in such agreeable study. Consequently Cicero2 recommends the relaxation provided by the reading of poetry.

1 In one of his lost rhetorical treatises.

2 Pro Arch. 12.

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