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[14] A greater source of obscurity is, however, to be found in the construction and combination of words, and the ways in which this may occur are still more numerous. Therefore, a sentence should never be so long that it is impossible to follow its drift, nor should its conclusion be unduly postponed by transposition or an excessive use of hyperbaton.1 Still worse is the result when the order of the words is confused as in the line2
“In the midmost sea
Rocks are there by Italians altars called.
Again,

1 See viii. vi. 62.

2 Aen. i. 109. The awkwardness of the order cannot be brought out in English.

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