[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.
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.