far beyond what is necessary.  That is unconnected, which is not derived from the cause itself, and is not joined to the whole speech as a limb is to the body.  That is borrowed, which effects some other end than that which the kind of cause under discussion requires; as if a man were to occupy himself in rendering his hearer inclined to receive information, when the cause requires him only to be well disposed towards the speaker:  or, if a man uses a formal beginning of a speech, when what the subject requires is an address by which the speaker may insinuate himself into the good graces of his hearer.  That is contrary to received rules, which effects no one of those objects for the sake of which the rules concerning exordiums have been handed down.  This is the sort of blunder which renders him who hears it neither well disposed to one, nor inclined to receive information, nor attentive; or (and that indeed is the most disastrous effect of all) renders him of a totally contrary disposition.  And now we have said enough about the exordium.

XIX.  Narration is an explanation of acts that have been done, or of acts as if they have been done.  There are three kinds of narration.  One kind is that in which the cause itself and the whole principle of the dispute is contained.  Another is that in which some digression, unconnected with the immediate argument, is interposed, either for the sake of criminating another, or of instituting a comparison, or of provoking some mirth not altogether unsuitable to the business under discussion, or else for the sake of amplification.  The third kind is altogether foreign to civil causes, and is uttered or written for the sake of entertainment, combined with its giving practice, which is not altogether useless.  Of this last there are two divisions, the one of which is chiefly conversant about things, and the other about persons.  That which is concerned in the discussion and explanation of things has three parts, fable, history, and argument.  Fable is that in which statements are expressed which are neither true nor probable, as is this—­

  “Huge winged snakes, join’d by one common yoke.”

History is an account of exploits which have been performed, removed from the recollection of our own age; of which sort is the statement, “Appius declared war against the Carthaginians.”  Argument is an imaginary case, which still might have happened.  Such is this in Terence—­

  “For after Sosia became a man.”

But that sort of narration which is conversant about persons, is of such a sort that in it not only the facts themselves, but also the conversations of the persons concerned and their very minds can be thoroughly seen, in this way—­

  “And oft he came to me with mournful voice,
  What is your aim, your conduct what?  Oh why
  Do you this youth with these sad arts destroy? 
  Why does he fall in love?  Why seeks he wine,
  And why do you from time to time supply
  The means for such excess?  You study dress
  And folly of all kinds; while he, if left
  To his own natural bent, is stern and strict,
  Almost beyond the claims of virtue.”