a certain prolixity and diffusiveness.

[Footnote 1: Comp. i. 4. 26.]

2
The most general definition of amplification would explain it to consist
in the gathering together of all the constituent parts and topics of a
subject, emphasising the argument by repeated insistence, herein
differing from proof, that whereas the object of proof is logical
demonstration, ...

Plato, like the sea, pours forth his riches in a copious and expansive
flood.

3
Hence the style of the orator, who is the greater master of our
emotions, is often, as it were, red-hot and ablaze with passion, whereas
Plato, whose strength lay in a sort of weighty and sober magnificence,
though never frigid, does not rival the thunders of Demosthenes.

4
And, if a Greek may be allowed to express an opinion on the subject of
Latin literature, I think the same difference may be discerned in the
grandeur of Cicero as compared with that of his Grecian rival. The
sublimity of Demosthenes is generally sudden and abrupt: that of Cicero
is equally diffused. Demosthenes is vehement, rapid, vigorous, terrible;
he burns and sweeps away all before him; and hence we may liken him to a
whirlwind or a thunderbolt: Cicero is like a widespread conflagration,
which rolls over and feeds on all around it, whose fire is extensive and
burns long, breaking out successively in different places, and finding