[36]
On the other hand Demosthenes and Cicero
show a sense of proportion in the way in which they
face the problem. For the coalescence of two letters,
known as συναλοιφή, may make our language run
more smoothly than if every word closed with its
own vowel, while sometimes hiatus may even prove
becoming and create an impression of grandeur, as
in the following case, pulchra oratione ista iacta te.1
For syllables which are naturally long and rich in
sound gain something from the time which intervenes between two vowels, as though there were a
perceptible pause.
1 “Boast yourself of that fine speech of yours.”
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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