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LONGINUS 139
Caecilius censures it,
without telling us why.
"
Philip," says
the historian, "showed a marvellous alacrity in taking doses
oj trouble." \Ye see from this that the most honu-ly lan-
Ljuaije is sometimes far more vivid than the most ornamental,
beinij recognized at onee as the lan^uaire of common life,
and
gaining immediate eurreney by its familiarity. In speaking,
then, of Philip us " taking doses of trouble," Theopompus has
laid hold on a phrase which describes with peculiar vividness
one who for the sake of advantage endured what was base and
sordid with patience and cheerfulness. The same may be
observed of two passages in Herodotus:
" Cleomenes having
lost his wits, cut his own flesh into pieces with a short sword,
until by gradually mincing his whole body he destroyed
himself ";
* and " Pythes continued fighting on his ship until
he was entirely hacked to pieces." f Such terms come home
at once to the vulgar reader, but their own vulgarity is rened
by their expressiveness.
XXXII
Concerning the number of metaphors to be employed together
Carilius seems to give his vote with those critics who
make a law that not more than two, or at the utmost thn
should be combined in the same place. The use, however,
must be determined by the occasion. Those outbursts of
passion which drive onwards like a winter torrent draw
with them as an indispensable accessory whole masses of
metaphor. It is thus in that passage of Demosthenes (who
here also is our safest "
guide) Those vile
fawning :
wretches,
of whom has lopped from his country
her fairest
members, who have toasted away their liberty, first to Philip,
now to Alexander, who measure happiness by their belly and
their vilest
appetites, who have overthrown the old landmarks
* vi. 75. f vii. 181.