these three directions, as laid down by himself, in regard to
14G ON cnniSTiAX doctrine. [book iv.
liimself seems to liave intended that the following three directions should subserve : " He, then, shall be eloquent, who can say little things in a subdued style, moderate things in a tem-: " ^ as if he had taken in also the three ends mentioned above, and had perate style, and great things in a majestic style embraced the whole in one sentence thus : " He, then, shall be eloquent, who can say little things in a subdued style, in order to give instruction, moderate things in a temperate style, in order to give pleasure, and great things in a majestic style, in order to sway the mind."
Chap, xviii.— The Christian orator is constantly dnalinrj tcith great matters.
35. Now the author I have quoted could have exemplified these three directions, as laid down by himself, in regard to legal questions : he could not, however, have done so in regard to ecclesiastical questions,—the only ones that an address such as I wish to give shape to is concerned with. For of legal questions those are called small which have reference to pecuniary transactions ; those great where a matter relating to man's life or liberty comes up. Cases, again, which have to do with neither of these, and where the intention is not to get the hearer to do, or to pronounce judgment upon anything, but only to give him pleasure, occupy as it were a middle place between the former two, and are on that account called middling, or moderate. For moderate things get their name from modus (a measure) ; and it is an abuse, not a proper use of the word moderate, to put it for little. In questions like ours, however, where all things, and especially those addressed to the people from the place of authority, ought to have reference to men's salvation, and that not their temporal but their eternal salvation, and where also the thing to be guarded against is eternal ruin, everything that we say is important so much so, that even what the preacher says about pecuniary matters, whetlier it have reference to loss or gain, wliether the amount b.e great or small, should not seem unimportant. For justice is never unimportant, and justice ought assuredly to be observed, even in small allairs of money, as our Lord says
Cicero, Orator. 29 : "Is i^ihir crit eloquens, qui poterit parva summisse, modica tcmiKTate, magna granJitcr dicere.