[2]
For since the ornaments of style are varied and
manifold and suited for different purposes, they will,
unless adapted to the matter and the persons concerned, not merely fail to give our style distinction,
but will even destroy its effect and produce a result
quite the reverse of that which our matter should
produce. For what profit is it that our words should
be Latin, significant and graceful, and be further
embellished with elaborate figures and rhythms,
unless all these qualities are in harmony with the
views to which we seek to lead the judge and mould
his opinions?
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.