Chapter 5: Novelty

Surely all of these impressive qualities in speeches and writings grow naturally because of one cause—the concern for novelty, for which most men nowadays are in a corybantic frenzy indeed. You see, what is vicious in us loves to come into being from almost the very same sources as what is good. Thus, finely structured sentences, sublimities, and pleasing touches contribute to correctness; but just as with a lucky result, these very same things also contribute to their opposites. Something of the same is true for variation, hyperbole, and the use of the plural number; but I shall demonstrate later the dangers of these. For just this reason it is now necessary to discuss how one may escape the vices which are mingled in with the sublime.