Pliny on Hearing Texts Read Aloud

Epist. 2.3.9-11 (LCL, B. Radice)
To Maecilius Nepos

You may say that you have authors as eloquent [as Isaeus] whose works can be read at home; but the fact is that you can read them any time, and rarely have the opportunity to hear the real thing. Besides, we are always being told that the spoken word is much more effective; however well a piece of writing makes its point, anything which is driven into the mind by delivery and expression, the appearance and gestures of a speaker remains deeply implanted there, unless there is no truth in the tale of Aeschines when he was at Rhodes, who countered the general applause he won for his reading of one of Demosthenes’ speeches with the words, “Suppose you had heard the beast himself?” And yet, if we are to believe Demosthenes, Aeschines had a very good voice; all the same, he admitted that the speech had been much better when its author delivered it himself.
All this goes to show that you ought to hear Isaeus—if only to have the satisfaction of having done so.