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‘Such then is the loose (‘jointed’ Mure, H.G.L.) kind of style; the compact, condensed, concentrated, kind is the periodic, that which is constructed in periods: by period I mean a sentence (lit. kind of style or composition) having a beginning and end in itself, and a magnitude such as can be readily taken in at one view’. The other style is ἄπειρος, perpetua, indefinite, continuous, running on without end, and without proper divisions; and therefore can't be comprehended in one view. εὐσύνοπτον, comp. Pol. IV (VII) 4, ult. ἡ μεγίστη ὑπερβολὴ πλήθους...εὐσύνοπτος, (for purposes of supervision). So of a tragedy, Poet. VII 10. 74, ἔχειν μὲν μέγεθος, τοῦτο δὲ εὐσύνοπτον εἶναι. On the construction ἡ εἰρομένη τῆς λέξεως, for ἡ εἰρομένη λέξις, see the examples in Matthiae's Gr. Gr. 442. 2. Add this, and Isocr. Paneg. § 132, τῆς χώρας τὴν μὲν πλείστην αὐτῆς, ib. § 148, τὴν ἀοίκητον τῆς χώρας. Plat. Protag. 329 A, δόλιχον τοῦ λόγου. Arist. Pol. VIII (V) 10, 1312 b 20, πολλαὶ τῶν καταλύσεων. ‘A style of this kind is agreeable, and easy to be learnt’ (εὐμαθής, passive; see Aesch. Eum. 442, Soph. Aj. 15, Trach. 611, where ‘easy to be learnt’ means ‘readily intelligible’); ‘agreeable, because it is the contrary of the endless, indefinite, and also because the listener is constantly thinking by reason of this constant definite conclusion (or limitation of each sentence) that he has got hold of something (got something in his grasp—in the way of a conclusion) for himself (αὑτῷ, retained by Bekker and Spengel; quaere αὐτῷ?); whereas, to have nothing to look forward to (no conclusion to anticipate) either to be, or to be finished (ἀνύειν, ὥστε τινὰ ἀνύειν), either fact, or effect, is disagreeable’. It occurred to me that εἶναι, which seems superfluous, might have arisen from a repetition of the εῖν in προνοεῖν. The translation will then be, ‘nothing to look forward to nor to finish (get done, effect)’: ἀνύειν identifying the hearer with the speaker, as if he himself had to come to the conclusion. Comp. § 6, ὁρμῶν ἐπὶ τὸ πόῤῥω, καὶ τὸ μέτρον, οὗ ἔχει ἐν ἑαυτῷ ὅρον, ἀντισπασθῇ παυσαμένου. ‘And easy to be learnt because easily recollected: and this because the periodic style can be numbered, and number is of all things the most easily recollected’. The proportions, or relations of the several parts or members of the period to the whole, and to one another—its symmetrical structure—can be expressed in numbers, like the numerical relations of rhythm, c. 8. This gives the periodic structure a hold upon the memory, by its definite proportions, which is entirely wanting to the continuous and indefinite succession of the other. ‘And this is why every one recollects metres (verses) better than (disorderly) irregular prose; because it has number which serves to measure it’. τῶν χύδην] is the soluta oratio (Cic. Orat. § 228, alibi), the διαλελυμένη or διεῤῥιμένη λέξις (Demetrius): the incoherent style, words poured out at random, in confused mass, one after another, without order or discrimination. Thus, in distinguishing the symmetrical structure of verse from the comparative confusion and disorder of prose, Plato, Legg. VII 811 D, writes λόγων, οὓς ἐν ποιήμασιν ἢ χύδην οὕτως εἰρημένους (where οὕτως is, Platonice, ‘just as they are’, ‘just as it happens’, ‘indiscriminately’, ‘without order or regularity’; or ‘without consideration’, ‘just as it may be’. Heindorf Gorg. § 127 and Ast's Lex. Plat. s. v.); Phaedr. 264 B, οὐ χύδην δοκεῖ βεβλῆσθαι τὰ τοῦ λόγου (helter-skelter, like rubbish shot out of a cart; Thompson). Rep. VII 537 C, τά τε χύδην μαθήματα...γενόμενα (taught promiscuously). Isocr. Panath. § 24, ὅμοιος ἂν εἶναι δόξαιμι τοῖς εἰκῆ καὶ φορτικῶς καὶ χύδην ὅτι ἂν ἐπέλθῃ λέγουσιν (who utter at random, promiscuously anything that comes into their head). Arist. Pol. IV (VII) 2, 1324 b 5, τῶν πλείστων νομίμων χύδην ὡς εἰπεῖν κειμένων (shot out in a heap, indiscriminately, at random, without order or system), de part. An. IV 5. 27, ᾠὰ διεσπαρμένα χύδην. The passage of Plato, Legg. u.s., is referred to by Dionysius, Ars Rhet. X 6 (V 381 ed. Reiske), οὐ χύδην, ὡς ἔτυχον βεβλῆσθαι τὰ ἐνθυμήματα.
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