those accents are all in the wrong, and Ephorus is wholly in
fault. For those who pass over the paeon, do not perceive that a most
delicate, and at the same time most dignified rhythm is passed over by
them. But Aristotle's opinion is very different, for he considers that
the heroic rhythm is a grander one than is admissible in prose, and
that an iambic is too like ordinary conversation. Accordingly, he does
not approve of a style which is lowly and abject, or of one which is
too lofty and, as it were, on stilts: but still he wishes for one full
of dignity, in order to strike those who hear it with the greater
admiration. But he calls a trochee, which occupies the same time as a
choreus, [Greek: kordax], because its contracted and brief character
is devoid of dignity. Accordingly, he approves of the paeon; and says
that all men employ it, but that all men are not themselves aware when
they do employ it; and that there is a third or middle way between
those two, but that those feet are formed in such a way, that in every
one of them there is either a time, or a time and a half, or two
times. Therefore, those men of whom I have spoken have considered
convenience only, and disregarded dignity. For the iambic and the
dactyl are those which are most usually employed in verse; and,
therefore, as we avoid verses in making speeches, so also a recurrence
of these feet must be avoided. For oratory is a different thing from
poetry, nor are there any two things more contrary to one another than
that is to verses. But the paeon is that foot which, of all others, is
least adapted to verse, on which account oratory admits it the more
willingly. But Ephorus will not even admit that the spondee, which he
condemns, is equivalent to the dactyl, which he approves of. For he
thinks that feet ought to be measured by their syllables, not by their
quantity; and he does the same in regard to the trochee, which in its
quantity and times is equivalent to an iambic; but which is a fault in
an oration, if it be placed at the end, because a sentence ends better
with a long syllable.

And all this, which is also contained in Aristotle, is said by
Theophrastus and Theodectes about the paeon. But my opinion is, that
all feet ought to be jumbled together and confused, as it were, in an
oration; and that we could not escape blame if we were always to use
the same feet; because an oration ought to be neither metrical, like
a poem, nor inharmonious, like t