" Id, quod Grsece Ttpknov dicitur, decorum dici Latine potest ; hujus vis ea est, ut ab honesto non queat separari." — Cic. Off. I. 27. — (Eu.)
" Caput artis est," says Quinctilian, " decere." " The first principle of art is to observe decorum." No one should ever rise to speak in public, without forming to himself a just and strict idea of what suits his own age and character; what suits the hearers, the place, the occasion ; and adjust ing the whole train and manner of his speaking on this idea. All the ancients insist much on this. Consult the first chapter of the eleventh book of Quinctilian, which is employed wholly on this point, and is full of good sense. Cicero's admonitions in his Orator ad Brutum, I shall give in his own words, which should never be forgotten by any who speak in public : "Est Eloquentise, sicut reliquarum rerum, fundamentum, sapientia; ut enim in vita, sic in oratione nihil est difficilius quam quod deceat videre," etc.—J3lair, Lecture XXVII.
See also Explanation of Technical terms in voc. — (I. B )
ceiving, and abstain from meddling with what he is unable to comprehend.
There are many classes of those who undertake to illustrate the Sacred Books by Commentaries : and it sometimes happens that they despise each other's plans and love only their own. For my part, I do not act exclusively as a Paraphrast, a Gram marian, a Scholiast, an Antiquary, a Logician, a Doctrinal Expositor, a Controversialist, or an Inferential Commentator ; but I take all these characters by turns, without stint or distinc tion. Each of these indeed has its own use : when that use is carried too far it degenerates into abuse : and this abuse may again be remedied by a just estimation and judicious employ ment of all the means at our disposal. I do not pass by without notice decisions, the authority of which has been generally re ceived (Dicta Classica) ; I do not ignore difficulties which are the subject of wide discussion ; but I examine with equal care the rest of Scripture, which is equally worthy of consideration. In each individual case I employ that kind of annotation which the part or passage under consideration may require to exhibit its force, to explain its words and phrases, to draw attention to the habit of mind of those who speak or of those whom they address, to bring out the true or refute the false doctrine, to elicit those maxims of piety or Christian prudence which are in volved or suggested by the sacred text, to examine quotations from the Old Testament, occurring in the New, and other parallel passages, — or to indicate the weight, and unravel the connection of the arguments employed by the sacred writer. And all these things are laid before the reader in such a manner, as to give him the opportunity and inducement to pursue the train of thought further himself. At each separate annotation the GNOMON must be supposed to say " The Text runs thus, not otherwise. This, and no other, is the noun ; this, the verb ; this, the particle ; this, the case ; this, the tense ; this is the arrangement of the words ; this is the repetition or interchange