Cicero, De Inventione 1.2: A Translation

But if we wish to consider the origin (principium) of this thing which is called eloquence, whether it is an art or skill or some sort of training or natural talent, we will discover that it derives from the most respectable causes and that it has been developed by the best methods. For there was a time when men wandered in the fields here and there like beasts and sustained themselves with wild food; they carried out nothing according to the dictates of reason, but more often with brute strength; there was not yet a system of divine worship or human government, and no one was yet acquainted with lawful marriage; no one had any assurance that the children he beheld were his own; no one enjoyed the benefits of fair and impartial law.