[113]
since
the man who exhausts himself by such painful diligence will have no time for more important considerations; for he will disregard the weight of his
subject matter, despise true beauty of style and, as
Lucilius says, will construct a tesselated pavement of
phrases nicely dovetailed together in intricate patterns.1
The inevitable result will be that his passions will
cool and his energy be wasted, just as our dandies
destroy their horses' capacity for speed by training
them to shorten their paces.
1 In Or. xliv. 149, the lines are actually quoted “quam lepide lexeis compostae Ut tesserulae oinnes arte pavimnento atque emblemate verniculato.” “How neatly his phrases are put together, like a cunningly tesselated pavement with intricate inlay.”
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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