Chapter 24.—The Effects Produced by the Majestic Style.

53.  If frequent and vehement applause follows a speaker, we are not to suppose on that account that he is speaking in the majestic style; for this effect is often produced both by the accurate distinctions of the quiet style, and by the beauties of the temperate.  The majestic style, on the other hand, frequently silences the audience by its impressiveness, but calls forth their tears.  For example, when at Cæsarea in Mauritania I was dissuading the people from that civil, or worse than civil, war which they called Caterva (for it was not fellow-citizens merely, but neighbors, brothers, fathers and sons even, who, divided into two factions and armed with stones, fought annually at a certain season of the year for several days continuously, every one killing whomsoever he could), I strove with all the vehemence of speech that I could command to root out and drive from their hearts and lives an evil so cruel and inveterate; it was not, however, when I heard their applause, but when I saw their tears, that I thought I had produced an effect.  For the applause showed that they were instructed and de lighted, but the tears that they were subdued.  And when I saw their tears I was confident even before the event proved it, that this horrible and barbarous custom (which had been handed down to them from their fathers and their ancestors of generations long gone by and which like an enemy was besieging their hearts, or rather had complete possession of them) was overthrown; and immediately that my sermon was finished I called upon them with heart and voice to give praise and thanks to God.  And, lo, with the blessing of Christ, it is now eight years or more since anything of the sort was attempted there.  In many other cases besides I have observed that men show the effect made on them by the powerful eloquence of a wise man, not by clamorous applause so much as by groans, sometimes even by tears, finally by change of life.

54.  The quiet style, too, has made a change in many; but it was to teach them what they were ignorant of, or to persuade them of what they thought incredible, not to make them do what they knew they ought to do but were unwilling to do.  To break down hardness of this sort, speech needs to be vehement.  Praise and censure, too, when they are eloquently expressed, even in the temperate style, produce such an effect on some, that they are not only pleased with the eloquence of the encomiums and censures, but are led to live so as themselves to deserve praise, and to avoid living so as to incur blame.  But no one would say that all who are thus delighted change their habits in consequence, whereas all who are moved by the majestic style act accordingly, and all who are taught by the quiet style know or believe a truth which they were previously ignorant of.

CAPUT XXIV. Sublime dicendi genus quid efficiat.

53. Non sane si dicenti crebrius et vehementius acclametur, ideo granditer putandus est dicere: hoc enim et acumina submissi generis, et ornamenta faciunt temperati. Grande autem genus plerumque pondere suo voces premit, sed lacrymas exprimit. Denique cum apud Caesaream Mauritaniae populo dissuaderem pugnam civilem, vel potius plus quam civilem, quam Catervam vocabant; neque enim cives tantummodo, verum etiam propinqui, fratres, postremo parentes ac filii lapidibus inter se in duas partes divisi, per aliquot dies continuos, certo tempore anni solemniter dimicabant, et quisque ut quemque poterat occidebat: egi quidem granditer, quantum valui, ut tam crudele atque inveteratum malum de cordibus et moribus eorum avellerem, pelleremque dicendo; non tamen egisse aliquid me putavi, cum eos audirem acclamantes, sed cum flentes viderem. Acclamationibus quippe se doceri et delectari, flecti autem lacrymis indicabant. Quas ubi aspexi, immanem illam consuetudinem a patribus et avis, longeque a majoribus traditam, quae pectora eorum hostiliter obsidebat, vel potius, possidebat, devictam, antequam re ipsa id 0116 ostenderent, credidi. Moxque sermone finito ad agendas Deo gratias corda atque ora converti. Et ecce jam ferme octo vel amplius anni sunt, propitio Christo, ex quo illic nihil tale tentatum est . Sunt et alia multa experimenta quibus didicimus, homines, quid in eis fecerit sapientis granditas dictionis, non clamore potius quam gemitu, aliquando etiam lacrymis, postremo vitae mutatione monstrasse.

54. Submisso etiam dicendi genere sunt plerique mutati: sed ut quod nesciebant, scirent, aut quod eis videbatur incredibile, crederent; non autem ut agerent quod agendum jam noverant, et agere nolebant. Ad hujusmodi namque duritiam flectendam, debet granditer dici. Nam et laudes et vituperationes quando eloquenter dicuntur, cum sint in genere temperato, sic afficiunt quosdam, ut non solum in laudibus et vituperationibus eloquentia delectentur, verum et ipsi laudabiliter appetant, fugiantque vituperabiliter vivere. Sed numquid omnes qui delectantur, mutantur , sicut in grandi genere omnes qui flectuntur, agunt; et in submisso genere omnes qui docentur, sciunt, aut credunt verum esse quod nesciunt?