papers like written speeches.  For the sentence is first composed in the mind; and then words come immediately:  and then they are immediately sent forth by the mind, than which nothing is more rapid in its movements; so that each falls into its proper place.  And then their regular order is settled by different terminations in different sentences; and all the expressions at the beginning and in the middle of the sentence ought to be composed with reference to the end.  For sometimes the torrent of an oration is rapid; sometimes its progress is moderate; so that from the very beginning one can see how one wishes to come to the end.  Nor is it in rhythm more than in the other embellishments of a speech that we behave exactly as poets do; though still, in an oration, we avoid all resemblance to a poem.

LX.  For there is in both oratory and poetry, first of all the material, then the execution.  The material consists in the words, the execution in the arrangement of the words.  But there are three divisions of each,—­of words there is the metaphorical, the new, and the old-fashioned; for of appropriate words we say nothing at present; but of arrangement there are those which we have mentioned, composition, neatness, and rhythm.  But the poets are the most free and frequent in the use of each; for they use words in a metaphorical sense not only more frequently, but also more daringly; and they use old-fashioned words more willingly, and new ones more freely.  And the case with respect to rhythm is the same; in which they are obliged to comply with a kind of necessity:  but still these things must be understood as being neither too different, nor yet in any respect united.  Accordingly we find that rhythm is not the same in an oration as in a poem; and that that which is pronounced to be rhythmical in an oration is not always effected by a strict attention to the rules of rhythm; but sometimes either by neatness, or by the casual arrangement of the words.

Accordingly, if the question is raised as to what is the rhythm of an oration, it is every sort of rhythm; but one sort is better and more suitable than another.  If the question is, what is the place of this rhythm? it is in every portion of the words.  If you ask where it has arisen; it has arisen from the pleasure of the ears.  If the principle is sought on which the words are to be arranged; that will be explained in another place, because that relates to practice, which was the fourth and last division which we made of the subject.  If the question is, when; always:  if, in what place; it consists in the entire connexion of the words.  If we are asked, What is the circumstance which causes pleasure? we reply, that it is the same as in verse; the method of which is determined by art; but the ears themselves define it by their own silent sensations, without any reference to principles of art.