We must be careful then, Nosoponus, not to think, as some of
your friends do, that we may become Ciceronians with no knowl-
edge of rhetoric, simply by constantly reading Cicero. For if



84 Ciceronianus

they get anything of Cicero, they get only a kind of outer skin,
shadow, and breath.
No. — I do not deny, Bulephorus, that there are many such,
and their method has never pleased me.
Bu. — There is no personal reference to you. It applies to
Hypologus and myself. With this understanding, let us con-
sider, my dear friend, whether, in the first place, it would be
proper for us; in the second, whether it would be worth the
while to buy with such vigils the honor of the name, Ciceronian?

No. — There is nothing more honorable; and what is honor-
able cannot be improper.
Bu. — To discuss the propriety: You will acknowledge I
think, that Cicero's language would not have pleased the age of
Cato, the Censor; certainly it was more ornate and more luxur-
iant than was agreeable to that age, frugal in life and in speech.
