A History of Classical Greek Literature Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1880 edition. Excerpt: ... him as, next to Lysias, the highest model of pure Attic diction, using the simplest and best recognised terms, and even too timid in avoiding the bold tropes and metaphors so striking in Demosthenes. However splendid the subject, and however noble the diction, it is everywhere remarkable how the effect is produced essentially by the composition, by a careful and artistic arrangement of common terms, seldom by the use of grand and poetical words. This is indeed the secret of a great artist, which he might teach by constant showing and correcting, never by any definite collection of rules.1 Occasional departures from this simplicity are caused by the necessities of the case. On the other hand, so many words and combinations of-words are rejected by the purism of the author, that it is easy to find in a spurious speech like the Demonicus numerous violations of his usage. This Benseler has done, but it ought to make the same critic hesitate in rejecting other speeches merely on the ground of the hiatus, which is a far more fallible test than the accumulation of many phrases and constructions not found in the recognised works of so very consistent and careful a stylist. 458. As to the composition of the words, there are a few rules quoted from the alleged techne. First to avoid hiatus in utterance, which must arise if we end a word, and commence the next, with vowels. And this is only a salient instance of the great importance he attached to melodious utterance, and the avoidance of all harsh and difficult combinations of sounds. But in most of these, our ignorance of the real pronunciation makes it impossible to guess his reasons; in the case of hiatus we have a law common in French and other modern languages. This matter was first thoroughly...