ἔτι (5) τοῖς ἀνάλογον μὴ πᾶσιν ἅμα χρήσασθαι (οὕτω γὰρ κλέπτε(6)ται ὁ ἀκροατής)·
λέγω δὲ οἷον ἐὰν τὰ ὀνόματα σκληρὰ ᾖ, (7) μὴ καὶ τῇ φωνῇ καὶ τῷ προσώπῳ [καὶ] τοῖς ἁρμόττουσιν·
(8) εἰ δὲ μή, φανερὸν γίνεται ἕκαστον ὅ ἐστιν.
ἐὰν δὲ τὸ μὲν (9) τὸ δὲ μή, λανθάνει ποιῶν τὸ αὐτό.
ἐὰν οὖν τὰ μαλακὰ (10) σκληρῶς καὶ τὰ σκληρὰ μαλακῶς λέγηται, πιθανὸν γίγνεται.
(11) τὰ δὲ ὀνόματα τὰ διπλᾶ καὶ [τὰ] ἐπίθετα πλείω καὶ τὰ ξένα (12) μάλιστα ἁρμόττει λέγοντι παθητικῶς·
συγγνώμη γὰρ ὀργιζο(13)μένῳ κακὸν φάναι οὐρανόμηκες, ἢ πελώριον εἰπεῖν,
καὶ ὅταν (14) ἔχῃ ἤδη τοὺς ἀκροατὰς καὶ ποιήσῃ ἐνθουσιάσαι ἢ ἐπ(15)αίνοις ἢ ψόγοις ἢ ὀργῇ ἢ φιλίᾳ,
οἷον καὶ Ἰσοκράτης ποιεῖ (16) ἐν τῷ Πανηγυρικῷ ἐπὶ τέλει “φήμην δὲ καὶ μνήμην” καὶ “οἵ(17)τινες ἔτλησαν”·
φθέγγονται γὰρ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐνθουσιάζοντες, (18) ὥστε καὶ ἀποδέχονται δηλονότι ὁμοίως ἔχοντες.
διὸ καὶ τῇ (19) ποιήσει ἥρμοσεν· ἔνθεον γὰρ ἡ ποίησις.
ἢ δὴ οὕτως δεῖ, ἢ (20) μετ’ εἰρωνείας, ὥσπερ Γοργίας ἐποίει καὶ τὰ ἐν τῷ Φαίδρῳ.
for then people feel it must be all right for him to talk thus, since he certainly knows what he is doing.
Further, it is better not to have everything always just corresponding to everything else—your hearers will see through you less easily thus.
I mean for instance, if your words are harsh, you should not extend this harshness to your voice and your countenance and have everything else in keeping.
If you do, the artificial character of each detail becomes apparent;
whereas if you adopt one device and not another, you are using art all the same and yet nobody notices it.
(To be sure, if mild sentiments are expressed in harsh tones and harsh sentiments in mild tones, you become comparatively unconvincing.)
Compound words, fairly plentiful epithets, and strange words best suit an emotional speech.
We forgive an angry man for talking about a wrong as ‘heaven—high’ or ‘colossal’;
and we excuse such language when the speaker has his hearers already in his hands and has stirred them deeply either by praise or blame or anger or affection,
as Isocrates, for instance, does at the end of his Panegyric, with his ‘name and fame’ and ‘in that they brooked’.
Men do speak in this strain when they are deeply stirred, and so, once the audience is in a like state of feeling, approval of course follows.
This is why such language is fitting in poetry, which is an inspired thing.
