continuous. The euphonious flow of the passage is due to these circumstances, combined with the balance of the clauses and the cycle of the periods which has about it something rounded and well-defined and perfectly regulated in respect of symmetrical adjustment. Above all there are the rhetorical figures, full of youthful exuberance: antithesis, parallelism in sound, parallelism in structure, and others like these, by which the language of panegyric is brought to its highest perfection. I do not think it necessary to lengthen the book by dealing with the points that are still untouched. This kind of composition also has now received adequate treatment on all points where it was appropriate.
CHAPTER XXIV
HARMONIOUSLY-BLENDED, OR INTERMEDIATE, COMPOSITION
The third kind of composition is the mean between the two already mentioned. I call it harmoniously blended for lack of a proper and better name. It has no form peculiar to itself, but is a sort of judicious blend of the two others and a selection from the most effective features of each. This kind, it seems to me, deserves to win the first prize; for it is a sort of mean, and excellence in life and conduct [and the arts] is a mean, according to Aristotle and the other philosophers of his school. As I said before, it is to be viewed not narrowly but broadly. It has many specific varieties. Those who have adopted it have not all had the same
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8. καὶ: i.e. ‘by going through details as well (as by taking this general view).’
9. This chapter (c. 23) should be compared throughout with chapter 40 of the de Demosth., which begins ἡ δὲ μετὰ ταύτην ἡ γλαφυρὰ καὶ θεατρικὴ καὶ τὸ κομψὸν αἱρουμένη πρὸ τοῦ σεμνοῦ τοιαύτη, κτλ.
10. The treatment of the third harmony in this chapter seems somewhat curt and vague.
12. The third style (Dionysius means) has no special character of its own: it is a combination of the best things in the two others: this, in fact, constitutes its superiority, since, according to Aristotle, virtue is a mean (Aristot. Eth. Nic. ii. 5, 1106 b 27 μεσότης τις ἄρα ἐστὶν ἡ ἀρετή, στοχαστική γε οὖσα τοῦ μέσου).
13. ἐκλογή τις τῶν ἐν ἑκατέρᾳ κρατίστων: it is interesting to find Homer represented ([248] 8-10) as a kind of eclectic in style. There are many indications that Dionysius regards him as a diligent literary craftsman. See generally de Demosth. c. 41 init. τῆς δὲ τρίτης ἁρμονίας ... ῥήτορες.