If Rome must fall, that we are innocent.
2. There was a time, then, my fellow citizens, when the Lacedæmonians were sovereign masters both by sea and land; when their troops and forts surrounded the entire circuit of Attica; when they possessed Eubœa, Tanagra, the whole Bœotian district, Megara, Ægina, Cleone, and other islands; while this state had not one ship—no, not—one—wall.
3. Or shall I—who was born I might almost say, but certainly brought up, in the tent of my father—that most excellent general!—shall I the conqueror of Spain and Gaul, and not only of the Alpine nations, but what is greater yet, of the Alps themselves—shall I compare myself with this half-year-captain,—a captain—before whom, should one place the two armies without their ensigns, I am persuaded he would not know to which of them he is consul.
“It is usual to subdivide Antithetic Emphasis into Single, Double, and Treble Emphasis;[5] and to give rules for the proper pronunciation of emphatic words in each case. But the simple principles we have adopted render all such rules superfluous; for in all cases of antithesis the antithetic terms must be either expressed or understood; if they are expressed, which is usually the case, there can be no difficulty with regard to emphasis; for when the words which are opposed to each other in the sentence are expressed in it, the mind instantly perceives the opposition between them and the voice instinctively marks it in the pronunciation. The following are examples:—
SINGLE EMPHASIS.
1. Study not so much to show knowledge as to acquire it.
2. He that cannot bear a jest should not make one.
3. We think less of the injuries we do, than of those we suffer.
4. It is not so easy to hide one’s faults, as to mend them.
5. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,