Institutio Oratoria

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

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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. )

1. 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.