nning with the
necessity for exertion, which is the point he wishes to urge upon them,
he first gives them the reason for that necessity in the words, "a
hair's breadth now decides our destiny," so that his words seem
unpremeditated, and forced upon him by the crisis.

3
Thucydides surpasses all other writers in the bold use of this figure,
even breaking up sentences which are by their nature absolutely one and
indivisible. But nowhere do we find it so unsparingly employed as in
Demosthenes, who though not so daring in his manner of using it as the
elder writer is very happy in giving to his speeches by frequent
transpositions the lively air of unstudied debate. Moreover, he drags,
as it were, his audience with him into the perils of a long inverted
clause.

4
He often begins to say something, then leaves the thought in suspense,
meanwhile thrusting in between, in a position apparently foreign and
unnatural, some extraneous matters, one upon another, and having thus
made his hearers fear lest the whole discourse should break down, and
forced them into eager sympathy with the danger of the speaker, when he
is nearly at the end of a period he adds just at the right moment,
_i.e._ when it is least expected, the point which they have been waiting
for so long. And thus by the very boldness and hazard of his inversions
he produces a much more astounding effect. I forbear to cite examples,
as they are too numerous to require it.

XXIII

The juxtaposition of different cases, the enumeration of particulars,
and the use of contrast and climax, all, as you know, add much vigour,
and give beauty and great elevation and life to a style. The diction
also gains greatly in diversity and movement by changes of case, time,
person, number, and gender.

2
With regard to change of number: not only is the style improved by the
use of those words which, though singular in form, are found on
inspection to be plural in meaning, as in the lines--

"A countless host dispersed along the sand
With joyous cries the shoal of tunny hailed,"

but it is more worthy of observation that plurals for singulars
sometimes fall with a more impressive dignity, rousing the imagination
by the mere sense of vast number.

3
Such is the effect of those words of Oedipus in Sophocles--

"Oh fatal, fatal ties!
Ye gave us birth, and we being born ye sowed
The self-same seed, and gave the world to view
Sons, brothers, sires, dom