relates to that A part; but in judicial contests and in those orations in which he sets forth counsels, he is capable of vying with him. Yet, with Demosthenes in these matters, the tongue at one moment surges with a great flood of speed, while at another moment it seems to breathe gently, and uses a lesser blast. In Gregory, however, as the discourse proceeds in the contests, it grows more vigorous, and the end of his overflow is like a deluge by which one is carried away; he varies his judicial discourse with hypallages and metaphors, concluding some parts with periods and expanding others with spirit. He has polished his own discourse toward every Attic muse; but he reflects Aristides more, and seems to have emulated this man more than all others, save that while the eloquence of Aristides thunders, it does not send forth lightnings. For he stirs all ears with his arguments no less than Pericles did Greece, yet with the elaboration of those same arguments he sates his listeners, and everyone would wish to restrain the orator’s tongue; but the faculty of Gregory never tires, striking from every side. For the charm of his nouns, the distributed composition of his speech, and the adornment of his figures offer pleasure to every ear. In many parts of his orations his writings are filled with Lysianic B eloquence, especially in those where he prefers to begin simply; not because he purposely prunes the magnitude of his speech, but because such, so to speak, is his nature and his care. Often we do not realize that he has also imitated the phrasing of Thucydides. He shifts his dialogues rather quickly, and after he has briefly forced intensity into the order of the oration and troubled the ears, he returns again to himself. But when he turns his attention to a solemn phrasing, he draws from the fountain of Isocrates. Receiving the streams of ideas thence, he does not pour them forth from the same mouth, but rolls them up and, as he himself says, compresses them as if in a pipe, not allowing the stream of his discourse to flow loosely. The muses of Herodotus he does not embellish with minute ornaments as that author does, but renders them dignified and august. Nor, as he is composed from many orators, does he distribute this to the individual parts of his oration; but just as mixed colors produce some other sort of image—a form that is not the same as those, but more beautiful than they—so too the color of Gregory’s orations is formed from six hundred colors, and is other than they, and much more beautiful. For extremes are not always better than the mean; but it happens that they surpass them, since they partake of both C extremes. For I do not call his oration a collection of diverse and dissimilar things, but a uniform nature, just as a rose emerges from the bowels of the earth with its natural color, though it is multiform if one were able to separate the mixture of colors through the various colors. If, therefore, as we see a monkey prepared for imitation not only of lesser things but also of greater, so a lion, preserving its terrible brow, were then to compose itself according to the manners and habits of other beasts, that would be this divine man. For in his oratory he is like a lion, full of dignity, terrible, raising his brow, inaccessible to most, or presenting a difficult D access.
Then, he imitates the voice of every beast, and is shaped to each in form, character, and carriage. And to each dialect he weaves in its proper roar. But each of the Greek orators, having adapted himself to one form of speech—whether the high, the middle, or the subtle—is fashioned toward that one alone. Such was the oratory of Gregory; he emulates all orators: for those who have existed beyond them, if they came after them, they borrowed from them; if before them, they are more beautiful images than the originals.
B 3. But Great Basil, just as he disdains all things human, so too he appears to disdain the added ornaments of art, and he wishes his speech to be, as it were, a craft itself; yet his writings are not fashioned according to art. Having conversed with all orators, he drew therefrom the power of their writing style and in this respect surpassed them by far; but since he did not desire to do harm with his orations, he for the most part does not imitate their methodical skill. His speech does not smell of studied care, but it thunders as if from the clouds, and draws out every voice. The spirit of his oratory is Demosthenic, as far as one can conjecture (for he does not proceed out of emulation of him), yet it is incomparable if one should wish to compare orations with orations. C The form of his arguments, however, one might characterize as being from the orations of Aristides. But if one were to lend an ear to both, by that orator he would immediately be dulled and would turn to another voice; but he would be disposed more sweetly to the thunders of Basil’s orations and would leap to their sound.
D 4. Such also was his brother Gregory. For I have known no one among all orators more grandiloquent than these two men. But what Nyssen is to other orators, this Great Basil is to him. For while someone might compare Basil’s eloquence to a trumpet, he would liken the brother’s voice to a flute; but when compared to Demosthenes and Aristides, he would name this man a trumpet. Yet in panegyrics he is far inferior to Basil; but when he intends to reveal the divine oracles and whatever of the sacred writings is hidden, he stands near him undaunted, and if anyone wishes to compare both in this respect, he will not give all his votes to Basil.
5. But John, golden of tongue, even if he is divine in virtue and incomparable to all, did not—like the others—disdain words; but he is, in truth, an ornament of art. For he is composed of every form, and he is a fervent emulator of civil eloquence, and he treats each of the rhetorical genres with artifice.