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[61] Still it is far from uncommon even in oratory, though [p. 337] in such cases it is always used with greater restraint. For whatever might have been expressed with greater brevity, but is expanded for purposes of ornament, is a periphrasis, to which we give the name circumlocution, though it is a term scarcely suitable to describe one of the virtues of oratory. But it is only called periphrasis so long as it produces a decorative effect: when it passes into excess, it is known as perissology: for whatever is not a help, is a positive hindrance.

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load focus Introduction (Harold Edgeworth Butler, 1922)
load focus Latin (Harold Edgeworth Butler, 1922)
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