The following particulars contribute to the amplitude of diction: To use definition or description instead of a name; as instead of saying a circle to say, a plane figure in which all lines drawn from the middle to the circumference are equal. But the contrary contributes to conciseness, viz. to use the name instead of the definition. Amplitude of diction is also effected, if when any thing disgraceful or indecorous is to be expressed, to use the name, when the disgraceful thing is in the definition, but the definition, if it is in the name. It is likewise effected by rendering a thing manifest by metaphors, and epithets, avoiding at the same time what is poetical. And by causing one thing to be many, i.e. by using the plural instead of the singular number, which the poets do. For when there is but one part, they nevertheless say, “into the Achaian parts.” And instead of saying, “the complication of an epistle,” they say, “the complications of epistles.” Amplitude is also effected, by separating what we can conjoin, as, “this woman, this our wife.” But if we wish to speak concisely, we must say on the contrary, “this woman our wife.” And it is effected by using a conjunction; but if we wish to speak concisely, we must not employ a conjunction, yet the sentence must not be unconnected; as in the first case, “Going and speaking to him;” and in the second, “Going, I spoke to him.” The method of Antimachus likewise is useful for this purpose, viz. to enumerate particulars, which a thing does not possess, which he does, speaking of the hill Teumessus; for he says, “A little hill there is, expos’d to wind.” For thus we may amplify to infinity. And this may take place both in what is good, and what is bad, by enumerating what is not inherent, in whatever way it may be useful to the oration. Hence, also poets derive the words, chordless, and lyreless melody; for these words are derived from privations. But what we have just said, is adopted in metaphors, taken from the analogous; such for instance as to say, “That the sound of a trumpet is a lyreless melody.”
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