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51. But we are not to suppose that it is against rule to mingle
these various styles: taste. For when we keep monotonously to one
style, we fail to retain the hearer's attention; but when we pass
from one style to another, the discourse goes off more gracefully,
even though it extend to greater length. Each separate style, again,
has varieties of its own which prevent the hearer's attention from
cooling or becoming languid. We can bear the subdued style, however,
longer without variety than the majestic style. For the mental emotion
which it is necessary to stir up in order to carry the hearer's
feelings with us, when once it has been sufficiently excited, the
higher the pitch to which it is raised, can be maintained the shorter
time. And therefore we must be on our guard, lest, in striving to
carry to a higher point the emotion we have excited, we rather lose
what we have already gained. But after the interposition of matter
that we have to treat in a quieter style, we can return with good
effect to that which must be treated forcibly, thus making the tide of
eloquence to ebb and flow like the sea. It follows from this, that
the majestic style, if it is to be long continued, ought not to be
unvaried, but should alternate at intervals with the other styles; the
speech or writing as a whole, however, being referred to that style
which is the prevailing one.
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