The contents of this work, which at once became the
final and standard treatise on the theory and practice of
Latin oratory, are very elaborate and complete. In the
first book, Quintilian discusses the preliminary training
required before the pupil is ready to enter on the study of
his art, beginning with a sketch of the elementary education
of the child from the time he leaves the nursery, which is
even now of remarkable interest. The second book deals
with the general principles and scope of the art of oratory,
and continues the discussion of the aims and methods of
education in its later stages. The five books from the
third to the seventh are occupied with an exhaustive
treatment of the matter of oratory, under the heads of what
were known to the Roman schools by the names of invention
and disposition. The 'greater part of these books is, of



II.] Quintilian. 199

course, highly technical. The next four books, from the
eighth to the eleventh, treat of the manner of oratory, or
all that is included in the word style in its widest significa-
tion. It is in this part of the treatise that Quintilian, in
relation to the course of general reading both in Greek and
Latin that should be pursued by the young orator, gives
the masterly sketch of Latin literature which is the most
famous portion of the whole work. The twelfth book,
which concludes the work, reverts to education in the
highest and most extended sense, that of the moral quali-
fications of the great orator, and the exhaustive discipline
of the whole nature throughout life which must be con-
tinued unfalteringly to the end.
