Brutus, or On Eminent Orators Passage 153

hic enim adtulit hanc artem omnium artium maximam quasi lucem ad ea quae confuse ab aliis aut respondebantur aut agebantur. dialecticam mihi videris dicere , inquit. Recte, inquam, intellegis; sed adiunxit etiam et litterarum scientiam et loquendi elegantiam, quae ex scriptis eius, quorum similia nulla sunt, facillime perspici potest.

For he brought to matters which others handled or answered confusedly this art, the greatest of all arts, like a light. "You seem to mean dialectic," he said. "You understand correctly," I replied. "But he also added literary knowledge and elegance of expression, which may most readily be discerned from his writings, to which nothing else is comparable."

Il apporta en effet cet art, le plus grand de tous les arts, comme une lumière sur les matières que les autres traitaient confusément dans leurs consultations ou leurs plaidoyers. «Tu me sembles parler de la dialectique», dit-il. «Tu comprends bien, répondis-je; mais il y joignit encore la connaissance des lettres et l’élégance du langage, que l’on peut très aisément reconnaître dans ses écrits, auxquels rien n’est comparable.»