“Nam ubi libido dominatur innocentiae leve praesidium est.”

For here the order of the words produces rhythm without any apparent design on the part of the orator.  Therefore, the suitable and rhythmical sentences which occur in the works of the ancients, I mean Herodotus, and Thucydides, and all the writers of that age, were produced, not by any deliberate pursuit of rhythm, but by the arrangement of the words.  For there are some forms of oratory in which there is so much neatness, that rhythm unavoidably follows.  For when like is referred to like, or contrary opposed to contrary, or when words which sound alike are compared to other words, whatever sentence is wound up in that manner must usually sound rhythmically.  And of this kind of sentence we have already spoken and given instances, so that this abundance of kinds enables a man to avoid always ending a sentence in the same manner.

Nor are these rules so strict and precise that we are unable to relax them when we wish to.  It makes a great difference whether an oration is rhythmical—­that is to say, like rhythm—­or whether it consists of nothing but rhythm.  If it is the latter, that is an intolerable fault; if it is not the former, then it is unconnected, and barbarous, and languid.

LXVI.  But since it is not only not a frequent occurrence, but actually even a rare one, that we ought to speak in compressed and rhythmical periods, in serious or forensic causes, it appears to follow that we ought to consider what these clauses and short members which I have spoken of are.  For in serious causes they occupy the greater part of the speech.  For a full and perfect period consists of four divisions, which we call members, so as to fill the ears, and not be either shorter or longer than is just sufficient.  Although each of those defects does happen sometimes, or indeed often, so that it is necessary either to stop abruptly, or else to proceed further, lest our brevity should appear to have cheated the ears of our hearers, or our prolixity to have exhausted them.  But I prefer a middle course; for I am not speaking of verse, and oratory is not so much confined.  A full period, then, consists of four divisions, like hexameter verses.  In each of these verses, then, there are visible the links, as it were, of the connected series which we unite in the conclusion.  But if we choose to speak in a succession of short clauses, we stop, and when it is necessary, we easily and frequently separate ourselves from that sort of march which is apt to excite dislike; but nothing ought to be so rhythmical as this, which is the least visible and the most efficacious.  Of this kind is that sentence which was spoken by Crassus:—­

“Missos faciant patronos; ipsi prodeant.”

If he had not paused before “ipsi prodeant,” he would have at once seen that an iambic had escaped him,—­“prodeant ipsi” would sound in every respect better.  But at present I am speaking of the whole kind.