ceived in the mind of the speaker, before any system of rhythm for
the sake of tickling the ears was invented.

LVI. Therefore Herodotus also, and his age, and the age preceding him,
had no idea of rhythm, except at times by chance, as it seems. And the
very ancient writers have left us no rules at all about rhythm, though
they have given us many precepts about oratory. For that which is the
more easy and the more necessary will always be the first thing
known. Therefore, words used in a metaphorical sense, or inverted, or
combined, were easily invented because they were derived from ordinary
use, and from daily conversation. But rhythm was not drawn from a
man's own house, nor had it any connexion of relationship to oratory.
And therefore it was later in being noticed and observed, bringing as
it did the last touch and lineaments to oratory. But if there is
one style of oratory narrow and concise, and another more vague and
diffuse, that must clearly be owing, not to the nature of letters,
but to the difference between long and short paragraphs; because an
oration made up and compounded of these two kinds is sometimes
steady, sometimes fluent, and so each character must be kept up by
corresponding rhythm. For that circuitous way of speaking, which we
have often mentioned already, goes on more impetuously, and hurries
along, until it can arrive at its end, and come to a stop. It is quite
plain, therefore, that oratory ought to be confined to rhythm, and
kept clear of metre.

But the next question is, whether this rhythm is poetical, or whether
it is of some other kind. There is, then, no rhythm whatever that
is not poetical; because the different kinds of rhythm are clearly
defined. For all rhythm is one of three kinds. For the foot which
is employed in rhythm is divided into three classes; so that it is
necessary that one part of the foot must be either equal to the other
part, or as large again, or half as large again. Accordingly, the
dactyl is of the first class, the paeon of the last, the iambic of the
second. And how is it possible to avoid such feet in an oration?
And then when they are arranged with due consideration rhythm is
unavoidably produced.

But the question arises, what rhythm is to be employed; either
absolutely, or in preference to others. But that every kind of rhythm
is at times suitable to oratory, may be seen from this,--that in
speaking we often make a verse without intending it, (which, howev