7λoyía,* λογία, πρόληψης, χαρακτηρισμός, βραχυλογία, παρασιώ πησις,|| παῤῥησία, of which I say also that they are not figures. As to those authors who have made scarcely any end of seeking for names, and who have inserted among figures that which belongs to arguments, I shall pay them no attention.

100. Concerning what are really figures, too, I would briefly remark, in addition, that though they are ornaments to language when they are judiciously employed, they are extremely ridiculous when introduced in immoderate profusion. Some speakers, regardless of weight of matter or force of thought, think that, if they can but distort empty words into the guise of figures, they have attained the perfection of art, and therefore never cease to string them together, though it is as ridiculous to aim at the form of eloquence without the substance, as it would be to study dress and gesture for what is not a living body. 101. Even such figures as are happily applied ought not to be too much crowded. Changes of countenance, and expressive glances of the eye, add great effect to pleading, but if a speaker should be perpetually moulding his features into studied configurations, or should keep up a perpetual agitation in his forehead and his eyes, he would only make himself a laughing-stock; and language has, as it were, a certain natural appearance, and though it ought not to appear torpid in immoveable rigidity, it should yet generally be kept in that form which nature has assigned it. 102. But what we ought chiefly to understand in regard to pleading is, what places, persons, and occasions, require; for the greater part of figures are intended to please; but when a speaker has to labour to excite emotions of indignation, hatred, or compassion, who would endure to hear him raging, lamenting, or supplicating, in studied antitheses, balanced clauses, and similar cadences? Affected attention

When we state the equity of our cause in as brief a form of argument as possible. Rutil. Lupus, ii. 3.

† C. 2, sect. 16.

A description of the character or manners of a person, Rutil. Lup. ii. 7.

§ See sect. 50.

When we say that we forbear to state anything, yet express our selves in such a way that it is understood. Rutil. Lup. ii. 11.

When we make a bold attack on the judge. Rutil. Lup. ii. 18.

to words, in such cases, destroys all trust in his expression of feeling, and, wherever art shows itself, truth is thought to be absent.

CHAPTER IV.

Of composition, or cultivation of style; authority of Cicero acknowledged, § 1, 2. Attention to composition too much discouraged by some authors, 3, 4. In everything the powers of nature should be cultivated to the utmost, 5-7. Union of power with grace, 8, 9. Excellence of style serves not only to please but to convince the hearer, 10-13. This may be proved by altering the arrangement of words and phrases in elegant composition, 14, 15. Style not neglected by the ancients, 16-18. Prose may be more or less compact and studied, 19-21. Particulars that require attention in it, 22. Of order, 23-31. Of junctions of words, and of hiatus, 32-36. Of junctions of consonants and vowels, and the repetition of syllables, 37-43. Of members and commas, 44. Of numbers or rhythm, 45. Difference between rhythm and metre, 46-51. Of feet in prose; a remark of Cicero, 52-55. How far number or rhythm should be studied in prose, 56. Oratorical numbers or rhythm, 57-60. Attention to numbers most requisite at the beginnings and ends of periods, 61-65. What regard to be paid to the middle parts, 66-71. Of the occurrence of verses, or parts of verses, in prose, 72-76. Everything that sounds like metre should be avoided, 77, 78. Of feet, 79 -86. All kinds of feet must enter into prose composition, 87-89. Are varied by union and division, 90, 91. The force and influence of particular feet, 92-94. Of the closing feet of periods, 95-109. Of the fourth pæon, 110, 111. A speaker must not be too solicitous about his measures, 112-115. The ear must judge; many things cannot be taught by rule, 116-121. Of commata, 122, 123. Öf a period, and its members, 124-127. What kinds of sentences are eligible for particular parts of speeches, and for particular subjects, 128-130. What feet should prevail in certain sorts of composition, 131-137. Composition and delivery must be alike varied to suit different subjects, 138-141. A rough and forcible style preferable to the smooth and nerveless, 142-145. Concluding remarks, 146, 147.

1. On composition I should not presume to write after Cicero, (by whom I know not whether any part of oratory has been more carefully treated,) had not men of his own age,* in

* One of those meant is Brutus; see ad Att. xiv. 20, xv. 1. Gesner. See xii. 1, 22; 10, 12; also Dial. de Orat. c. 18. Spalding.

letters which they addressed to himself, ventured to criticise his style, and had not many writers, since his day, communicated to the world many observations on the same subject. 2. I shall however adhere to Cicero in general, and shall touch but briefly on such points as are undisputed; in some things I shall perhaps dissent from him. But even when I offer my own opinion, I shall leave my readers to form their own.

3. I know that there are some who would repudiate all at-> tention to composition, and who contend that unpolished language, such as it happens to present itself, is both more natural and more manly. But if such persons say that that only is natural which originally sprung from nature, and which preceded culture, the whole art of oratory is at an end. 4. For men of the earliest ages did not speak with our exactness and care, nor had any knowledge of preparing an audience with an exordium, enlightening them with statements of facts, convincing them with arguments, and exciting them with appeals to their feelings. They were ignorant of all these arts, and not of composition merely; and if we ought to speak in no respect better than they, huts should never have been relinquished for houses, dresses of skins for decent apparel, or mountains and forests for cities. 5. What art too, we may ask, came to perfection at once? What is not improved by culture? Why do we prune our vines? Why do we dig about them? Why do we root out brambles from our fields, when the ground naturally produces them? Why do we tame animals when they are born untamed? But, in truth, a thing is most natural, when nature has allowed it to be brought into the best condition. 6. Should we say that what is unconnected is stronger than what is compact and well-arranged? If short feet, such as those of Sotadic and Galliambic metre, and others that wanton with almost equal licence in prose, diminish the force of our matter, this is not to be imputed to too much care in composition. 7. As the current of rivers is more forcible in a descending channel, which offers no obstruction to their course, than amidst rocks that oppose their broken and struggling waters, so language that is properly connected, and flows on with a full fic od, is preferable to that which is rugged and fragmentary. Why, then, should they think that strength is relaxed by attention to beauty, when nothing attains its full strength without art, and beauty always accompanies art? 8. Do we not see that the spear,

*

which is hurled with the greatest effect, is also hurled with the most grace? The surer is the aim of those who direct arrows from the bow, the finer are their attitudes. In passages of arms, and in all the exercises of the palæstra, what blow is successfully avoided or aimed by him whose movements have not something artificial, and whose step is not assured by skill? 9. Thoughts, in like manner, appear to me to be aimed and impelled by studied composition, as javelins and arrows are by the thong or the bowstring. The most learned, indeed, are of opinion that it is of the highest efficacy not only for giving pleasure, but for producing conviction; 10. because, in the first place, nothing can fairly pass into the mind which gives offence as it enters the ear, which is, as it were, the vestibule of the mind; and because, in the second place, we are adapted by nature to feel pleasure in harmony; otherwise, it would be impossible for the notes of musical instruments, which express nothing but meaningless sounds, to excite various emotions in the hearer. 11. In the sacred games, the musicians do not excite and calm the mind with the same strains; they do not employ the same tunes when a warlike charge is to be sounded, and when supplication is to be made on the bended knee; nor is there the same concert of signals when an army is going forth to battle, as when notice is given to retreat. 12. It was the custom of the disciples of Pythagoras, when they awoke in the morning, to excite their minds with the sound of the lyre, that they might be more alert for action; and to soothe themselves with it before they lay down to sleep, in order to allay any tumultuous thoughts that might have disturbed them.

13. If, then, there is such a secret force in mere melody and modulation, there must surely be the utmost power in the music of eloquence. As it makes a difference to a thought in what words it is expressed, so it makes a difference to words in what form they are arranged, either in the body of a sentence, or in the conclusion of it. Some thoughts, indeed, that are but of slight import, and expressed with but moderate force, beauty in the language conveying them sets off and recommends. 14. In short, let the reader take to pieces any sentence that he has thought forcibly, agreeably, or gracefully expressed,

Amentis.] The Amentum was a thong attached to a javelin, that it might be hurled with greater force.

*

and alter the arrangement of the words, and all the force, agreeableness, and grace, will at once disappear. Cicero has thus taken to pieces some of his own sentences in his Orator; as, neque me divitiæ movent, quibus omnes Africanos et Lælios multi venalitii mercatoresque superarunt; and some of the following periods; in which when you effect such disarrangement, you seem to throw, as it were, broken or ill-directed weapons. 15. Cicero also corrects a sentence which he regards as having been composed inelegantly by Gracchus. This was very becoming in him; but for ourselves, we may be content with the task of rendering compact what has presented itself to us loosely while writing it. For as to seeking examples of incorrectness, which every one may find in his own compositions, to what profit would it be? I consider it quite enough to remark, that the more beautiful, in thought and expression, are the sentences that we take to pieces, the more their language appears disfigured; for the faultiness in arrangement is seen more clearly by the light of their brilliant phraseology.

16. At the same time that I admit, however, that the art of composition, I mean the perfection of the art, was the last that was attained by orators, I consider that it was counted among objects of study by the ancients as far as their skill had then reached; for not even Cicero himself, great as his authority is, shall persuade me that Lysias, Herodotus, and Thucydides felt but little solicitude about it. 17. They perhaps did not aim at the same sort of style as Demosthenes and Plato, (who however were quite unlike each other,) for the simple and delicate diction of Lysias was not to be vitiated by the introduction of fuller periods, as it would have lost the grace of its simple and unaffected colouring, which is seen in him in its highest excellence; and it would have lost also the credit which it commanded, as he wrote for others, and did not speak himself, so that his orations were necessarily made to appear plain and artless, a quality which is itself the effect of art. 18. As to history, which ought to flow on in a continuous stream, those clauses that break the course of oratory, those breathing-places so necessary in spoken pleadings, and those artificial modes of concluding and commencing sentences, * Orat. c. 70. The words are from his Oratio Corneliana.

+ Ibid.