whether they agree with Messala as to the cause that occasioned a
rapid decline: or whether they can produce new reasons of their own.


Section 4.

[a] Secundus proceeds to give his opinion. This is managed by Brotier
with great art and judgement, since it is evident in the original text
that Maternus closed the debate. According to what is said in the
introduction to the Dialogue, Secundus agrees with Messala upon most
points, but still assigns different, but probable reasons. A
revolution, he says, happened in literature; a new taste prevailed,
and the worst models were deemed worthy of imitation. The emotions of
the heart were suppressed. Men could no longer yield to the impulse of
genius. They endeavoured to embellish their composition with novelty;
they sparkled with wit, and amused their readers with point,
antithesis, and forced conceits. They fell into the case of the man,
who, according to Martial, was ingenious, but not eloquent:

Cum sexaginta numeret Casselius annos;
Ingeniosus homo est: quando disertus erit?
Lib. vii. epig. 8.

[b] Enough, perhaps, has been already said in the notes, concerning
the teachers of rhetoric; but it will not be useless to cite one
passage more from Petronius, who in literature, as well as convivial
pleasure, may be allowed to be _arbiter elegantiarum_. The
rhetoricians, he says, came originally from Asia; they were, however,
neither known to Pindar, and the nine lyric poets, nor to Plato, or
Demosthenes. They arrived at Athens in evil hour, and imported with