[80]
There is also another simile in the same
speech,1 which is almost worthy of a poet, but in
virtue of its reciprocal representation is better adapted
for ornament: “For as tempests are generally preceded by some premonitory signs in the heaven, but
often, on the other hand, break forth for some obscure
reason without any warning whatsoever, so in the
tempests which sway the people at our Roman
elections we are not seldom in a position to discern
their origin, and yet, on the other hand, it is frequently so obscure that the storm seems to have
burst without any apparent cause.”
1 Pro Mur. xvii. 36.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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