[14]
When this occurred, the
old orators, such as Cicero,1 used to say that some god
had inspired the speaker. But the reason is obvious.
For profound emotion and vivid imagination sweep
on with unbroken force, whereas, if retarded by the
slowness of the pen, they are liable to grow cold and,
it put off for the moment, may never return. Above
all, if we add to these obstacles an unhealthy tendency
to quibble over the choice of words, and check our
advance at each step, the vehemence of our onset
loses its impetus; while even though our choice of
individual words may be of the happiest, the style
will be a mere patchwork with no regular pattern.
1 No such saying is found in Cicero's extant works.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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