Page:The New Latin Primer (Postgate).djvu/209

Rh (2) By separating words which would ordinarily come together: cōnsĭliŭm excōgĭtāvĭt immāne He devised a horrible scheme.

(3) By putting together words which would ordinarily be separated: hŏmĭnēs hūmānā carnĕ vescī! Men to eat human flesh!

(4) When pairs of words are contrasted, the order of the words in one pair is often the reverse of that in the other. Thus in the line; Vilitis argentum est aurō, virtūtibŭs aurum Silver is cheaper than gold, gold than virtues, argentum is contrasted with aurum, and aurō with virtūtībŭs.

This is called chiasmus from the arrangement of the words resembling the Greek letter chi:

§ 439. —The Latin writers take great care that their sentences shall be so arranged that they shall be easy to read and pleasant to hear. But no rules can be given here for securing this. The student's own observation must be his guide. But it must be observed that no arrangement of words, however rhythmical, is admissible if it is obtained by sacrificing Clearness or Emphasis.

Note that words must not be so arranged in Prose as to form a verse or a considerable part of a verse.

§ 440. —The order of words in Poetry is largely determined by the metre, and often differs widely-from that of prose, e.g., sōlŭs ăvem caelō dēiēcĭt ăb altō He alone brought down the bird from the high skies, would be in prose: sōlŭs a caelō altō ăvem dēiēcĭt. But the requirements of metre never justify any arrangement which obscures the sense.