Attic Nights, Vol. II

it cannot be avoided, but that you will be said to have either eagerly sought them long ago or now rashly rejected them.

4 The flow, therefore, and the sound of this round and rolling sentence delighted us exceptionally and uniquely, all the more so because we saw that such composition was dear to C. Gracchus, a man illustrious and severe. 5 But indeed, when those same words were read more frequently at our request, we were admonished by Castricius to consider what the force or what the substance of that sentence was, and not to allow our ears, flattered by the aptly falling rhythms of the speech, to also flood our minds with empty pleasure.
And when he had made us more attentive by that admonition: "Examine," he said, "thoroughly what these words achieve, and let one of you, I ask, tell me if there is any gravity or grace in this sentence: 'The things which you have eagerly sought and desired through these years, if you rashly reject them, it cannot be avoided but that you will be said to have either eagerly sought them long ago or now rashly rejected them.' For to whom among all men does it not come to mind that it happens in practice that, what you have eagerly sought, you are said to have eagerly sought, and what you have rashly rejected, you are said to have rashly rejected? But if," he says, "it had been written thus: 'The things which you have sought and desired through these years, if now you reject them, it cannot be avoided but that you will be said to have either eagerly sought them long ago or now rashly rejected them,' if," he said, "it were spoken thus, the sentence would surely become more grave and solid, and would receive some just expectation in the hearing; but now, however, these words 'eagerly' and 'rashly', in which words all the momentum of the matter lies, are not only spoken in the concluding of the sentence, but are also placed above, where they were not yet required, and those things which ought to have been born and originated from the very conception of the matter are said entirely before the matter demands them."