mingle these various styles : on the contrary, every variety of
CHAP. XXII.J USE OF VARIETY IX STYLE. 161 hide tliy comeliness ? If tliou art plain, why dost thou lyingly pretend to be beautiful, when thou canst not enjoy the pleasure of the lie either in thine own consciousness or in that of another ? For he loves another woman, thou desirest to please another man ; and thou art angry if he love another, though he is taught adultery in thee. Thou art the evil promptress of thine own injury. For even the woman who has been the victim of a pander shrinks from acting the pander's part, and though she be vile, it is herself she sins against and not another. The crime of adultery is almost more tolerable than thine ; for adultery tampers with modesty, but thou with nature."^ It is sufficiently clear, I think, that this eloquence calls passionately npon women to avoid tampering with their appearance by deceitful arts, and to cultivate modesty and fear. Accordingly, we notice that the style is neither subdued nor temperate, but majestic throughout. Now in these two authors whom I have selected as specimens of the rest, and in other ecclesiastical writers who both speak the truth and speak it well,—speak it, that is, judiciously, pointedly, and with beauty and power of expression,—many examples may be found of the three styles of speech, scattered through their various writings and discourses ; and the diligent student may by assiduous reading, intermingled with practice on his own part, become thoroughly imbued with them all.
Chap. xxii.— The necessity of variety in style.
51. But we are not to suppose that it is against rule to mingle these various styles : on the contrary, every variety of style should be introduced so far as is consistent with good taste. For when we keep monotonously to one style, we fail to retain the hearer's attention; but when we pass from one style to another, the discourse goes off" more gracefully, even though it extend to greater length. Each separate style, again, has varieties of its own which prevent the hearer's attention from cooling or becoming languid. We can bear the subdued style, however, longer without variety than the' majestic style. For the mental emotion which it is necessary to stir up in order to carry the hearer's feelings with us, when
1 Ambrose, de Virginibus, lib. ii.
CIIR. DOCT. L