The following type may be regarded as commonplace and useful only as helping to create an impression of sincerity: As the soil is improved and rendered more fertile by culture, so is the mind by education, or As physicians amputate mortified limbs, so must we lop away foul and dangerous criminals, even though they be bound to us by ties of blood. Far finer is the following from Cicero's Pro Arch. viii. 19. defence of Archias: Rock and deserts reply to the voice of man, savage beasts are oft-times tamed by the power of music and stay their onslaught, and the rest.

This type of simile has, however, sadly degenerated in the hands of some of our declaimers owing to the license of the schools. For they adopt false comparisons, and even then do not apply them as they should to the subjects to which they wish them to provide a parallel. Both these faults are exemplified in two similes which were on the lips of everyone when I was a young man, Even the sources of mighty rivers are navigable, and The generous tree bears fruit while it is yet a sapling.

In every comparison the simile either precedes or follows the subject which it illustrates. But sometimes it is free and detached, and sometimes, a far better arrangement, is attached to the subject which it illustrates, the correspondence between the resemblances being exact, an effect produced by reciprocal representation, which the Greeks style ἀνταπόδοσις. For example, the simile already quoted,

Thence like fierce wolves beneath the cloud of night, Aen. ii. 355. precedes its subject. On the other hand, an example of the simile following its subject is to be found in the first Georgic, where, after the long lamentation over the wars civil and foreign that have afflicted Rome, there come the lines: As when, their barriers down, the chariots speedLap after lap; in vain the charioteerTightens the curb: his steeds ungovernableSweep him away nor heeds the car the rein.Georg. i. 512. There is, however, no antapodosis in these similes.

Such reciprocal representation places both subjects of comparison before our very eyes, displaying them side by side. Virgil provides many remarkable examples, but it will be better for me to quote from oratory. In the pro Murena Cicero Pro Mur. xiii. 29. says, As among Greek musicians (for so they say), only those turn flute-players that cannot play the lyre, so here at Rome we see that those who cannot acquire the art of oratory betake themselves to the study of the law.

There is also another simile in the same speech, Pro Mur. xvii. 36. which is almost worthy of a poet, but in virtue of its reciprocal representation is better adapted for ornament: For as tempests are generally preceded by some premonitory signs in the heaven, but often, on the other hand, break forth for some obscure reason without any warning whatsoever, so in the tempests which sway the people at our Roman elections we are not seldom in a position to discern their origin, and yet, on the other hand, it is frequently so obscure that the storm seems to have burst without any apparent cause.

We find also shorter similes, such as Wandering like wild beasts through the woods, or the passage from Cicero's speech against Clodius: Now lost. He fled from the court like a man escaping naked from a fire. Similar examples from everyday speech will occur to everyone. Such comparisons reveal the gift not merely of placing a thing vividly before the eye, but of doing so with rapidity and without waste of detail.

The praise awarded to perfect brevity is well-deserved; but, on the other hand, brachylogy, which I shall deal with when I come to speak of figures, that is to say, the brevity that says nothing more than what is absolutely necessary, is less effective, although it may be employed with admirable results when it expresses a great deal in a very few words, as in Sallust's description of Mithridates as huge of stature, and armed to match. But unsuccessful attempts to imitate this form of terseness result merely in obscurity.

A virtue which closely resembles the last, but is on a grander scale, is emphasis, which succeeds in revealing a deeper meaning than is actually expressed by the words. There are two kinds of emphasis: the one means more than it says, the other often means something which it does not actually say.

An example of the former is found in Homer, Od. xi. 523. where he makes Menelaus say that the Greeks descended into the Wooden Horse, indicating its size by a single verb. Or again, there is the following example by Virgil: Aen. ii. 262. Descending by a rope let down, a phrase which in a similar manner indicates the height of the horse. The same poet, Aen. iii. 631. when he says that the Cyclops lay stretched throughout the cave, by taking the room occupied as the standard of measure, gives an impression of the giant's immense bulk.

The second kind of emphasis consists either in the complete suppression of a word or in the deliberate omission to utter it. As an example of complete suppression I may quote the following passage from the pro Ligario, 4 where Cicero says: But if your exalted position were not matched by your goodness of heart, a quality which is all your own, your very own—I know well enough what I am saying—— Here he suppresses the fact, which is none the less clear enough to us, that he does not lack counsellors who would incite him to cruelty. The omission of a word is produced by aposiopesis, which, however, being a figure, shall be dealt with in its proper place. v. 15: The passage goes on, Then your victory would have brought bitter grief in its train. For how many of the victors would have wished you to be cruel! Where then is the suppression? Quintilian is probably quoting from memory and has forgotten the context. ix. ii. 54; iii. 60.

Emphasis is also found in the phrases of every day, such as Be a man! or He is but mortal, or We must live! So like, as a rule, is nature to art. It is not, however, sufficient for eloquence to set forth its theme in brilliant and vivid language: there are many different ways of embellishing our style.

For even that absolute and unaffected simplicity which the Greeks call ἀφέλεια has in it a certain chaste ornateness such as we admire also in women, while a minute accuracy in securing propriety and precision in our words likewise produces an impression of neatness and delicacy. Again copiousness may consist either in wealth of thought or luxuriance of language.

Force, too, may be shown in different ways; for there will always be force in anything that is in its own way effective. Its most important exhibitions are to be found in the following: δείνωσις or a certain sublimity in the exaggerated denunciation of unworthy conduct, to mention no other topics; φαντασία or imagination, which assists us to form mental pictures of things; ἐξεργασία or finish, which produces completeness of effect; ἐπεξεργασία an intensified form of the preceding, which reasserts our proofs and clinches the argument by repetition;

and ἐνέργεια, or vigour, a near relative of all these qualities, which derives its name from action and finds its peculiar function in securing that nothing that we say is tame. Bitterness, which is generally employed in abuse, may be of service as in the following passage. from Cassius: What will you do when I invade your special province, that is, when I show that, as far as abuse is concerned, you are a mere ignoramus? Cassius Severus was famous for his powers of abuse. His opponent was abusive. Cassius says that he will take a leaf out of his book and show him what real abuse is. Pungency also may be employed, as in the following remark of Crassus: Shall I regard you as a consul, when you refuse to regard me as a senator? But the real power of oratory lies in enhancing or attenuating the force of words. Each of these departments has the same number of methods; I shall touch on the more important; those omitted will be of a like character, while all are concerned either with words or things. I have, however,

already dealt with the methods of invention and arrangement, and shall therefore now concern myself with the way in which style may elevate or depress the subject in hand.

IV. The first method of amplification or attenuation is to be found in the actual word employed to describe a thing. For example, we may say that a man who was beaten was murdered, or that a dishonest fellow is a robber, or, on the other hand, we may say that one who struck another merely touched him, and that one who wounded another merely hurt him. The following passage from the pro Caelio, xvi. 38. provides examples of both: If a widow lives freely, if being by nature bold she throws restraint to the winds, makes wealth an excuse for luxury, and strong passions for playing the harlot, would this be a reason for my regarding a man who was somewhat free in his method of saluting her to be an adulterer?

For here he calls an immodest woman a harlot, and says that one who had long been her lover saluted her with a certain freedom. This sort of amplification may be strengthened and made more striking by pointing the comparison between words of stronger meaning and those for which we propose to substitute them, as Cicero does in denouncing Verres Verr. I. iii. 9. : I have brought before you, judges, not a thief, but a plunderer; not an adulterer, but a ravisher; not a mere committer of sacrilege, but the enemy of all religious observance and all holy things; not an assassin, but a bloodthirsty butcher who has slain our fellowcitizens and our allies.

In this passage the first epithets are bad enough, but are rendered still worse by those which follow. I consider, However, that there are four principal methods of implication: augmentation, comparison, reasoning and accumulation. Of these, augmentation is most impressive when it ends grandeur even to comparative insignificance. This may be effected either by one step or by everal, and may be carried not merely to the highest degree, but sometimes even beyond it.

A single example from Cicero Verr. v. lxvi. 170. will suffice to llustrate all these points. It is a sin to bind a Roman citizen, a crime to scourge him, little short if the most unnatural murder to put him to death; chat then shall I call his crucifixion? If he had merely been scourged, we should have had but one tep, indicated by the description even of the lesser offence as a sin, while if he had merely been killed,