that we may not be thought to assume off-hand the truth of a doubtful proposition.
CHAPTER III
THE MAGICAL EFFECT OF COMPOSITION, OR WORD-ORDER
Every utterance, then, by which we express our thoughts is either in metre or not in metre. Whichever it be, it can, when aided by beautiful arrangement, attain beauty whether of verse or prose. But speech, if flung out carelessly at random, at the same time spoils the value of the thought. Many poets, and prose-writers (philosophers and orators), have carefully chosen expressions that are distinctly beautiful and appropriate to the subject matter, but have reaped no benefit from their trouble because they have given them a rude and haphazard sort of arrangement: whereas others have invested their discourse with great beauty by taking humble, unpretending words, and arranging them with charm and distinction. It may well be thought that composition is to selection what words are to ideas. For just as a fine thought is of no avail unless it be clothed in beautiful language, so here too pure and elegant expression, is useless unless it be attired in the right vesture of arrangement.
But to guard myself against the appearance of making an unsupported assertion, I will try to show by an appeal to facts
4 ἄμετρος ἣ δ’ (ex ἥδ’ corr.) ἔμμετρος F,E || καλ(ῶς) P || μὲν om. M 5 οἵα τ’ M: οἷά τ’ PV: οἷά τε F,E || καὶ τὸ FE: τὸ PMV 6 ἔτυχεν] ἔοικε M || ῥιπτομένη PMVE: ῥιπτουμένη F 7 τὸ om. F1 || γοὖν καὶ F,E: γοῦν PMV 10 ἀποδόντες E γρ M: [ἀποδόν]τες cum litura F: περιθέντες PV: παραθέντες M 12 δὲ PMV 13 δε PV || ἀντὰ P1 || ἰδίως EFM1: ἡδέως ex ἱδίως P1: ἰδέως M2 || τ(ῶ) λόγ(ω) P: τῶν λόγων M 14 ἂν om. M 16 ἐστὶ ante διανοίας ponunt EF 17 κόσμον * * * * * P || ἀποδώσῃ F 18 καὶ ἐνταῦθα EF || πούργου P1 (ρ suprascr. P2): προὔργον V || καλλιῥήμονα FM,P: καλλιῤῥήμονα V 19 τίς F: τ(ῆς) P,MV 21 φασὶν libri: corr. Krueger || ἀναπόδεικτον P: ἀναπόδεικτα F2MV: ἀπόδεικτα F1 22 κρεῖττον] καὶ κρεῖττον F || τελεώτερον M
1. ἐξ ἑτοίμου λαμβάνειν: cp. [78] 13 ἐξ ἑτοίμου λαβὼν ἐχρήσατο.
9. There is much similarity, both in thought and in expression, between this passage and the de Sublimitate xl. 2: ἀλλὰ μὴν ὅτι γε πολλοὶ καὶ συγγραφέων καὶ ποιητῶν οὐκ ὄντες ὑψηλοὶ φύσει, μήποτε δὲ καὶ ἀμεγέθεις, ὅμως κοινοῖς καὶ δημώδεσι τοῖς ὀνόμασι καὶ οὐδὲν ἐπαγομένοις περιττὸν ὡς τὰ πολλὰ συγχρώμενοι, διὰ μόνου τοῦ συνθεῖναι καὶ ἁρμόσαι ταῦτα δ’ ὅμως ὄγκον καὶ διάστημα καὶ τὸ μὴ ταπεινοὶ δοκεῖν εἶναι περιεβάλοντο, καθάπερ ἄλλοι τε πολλοὶ καὶ Φίλιστος, Ἀριστοφάνης ἔν τισιν, ἐν τοῖς πλείστοις Εὐριπίδης, ἱκανῶς ἡμῖν δεδήλωται. The author of the de Subl. had, as he himself tells us, dealt with the subject of composition ἐν δυσὶν συντάγμασιν (xxxix. 1 ibid.).
13. ἰδίως may be right, meaning with περιττῶς ‘in a special and distinctive manner.’
14. The Aristotelian ἀναλογία is before the author’s mind here, just as is the Aristotelian doctrine of τὸ μέσον later in the treatise ([246] 16).