[37]
Even the lesser
orators of Greece have their own havens where they
may ride in safety,1 while we as a rule carry more
sail. Let stronger gales fill our canvas, and yet let
us not always keep the high seas; for at times we
must cling to shore. The Greeks can easily traverse
any shallows; I must find a deeper, though not
much deeper, channel, that my bark may not run
aground.
1 Owing to the subtlety and delicacy of the Greek language even second-rate talent will he able to win distinction in dealing with minor things. But the coarser and more full-blooded nature of Latin makes this difficult.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.