"You rushed like a madman upon your best supporters; you vented your fury on your enemies withput mercy." The whole is afterwards supported by a full period, as by a solid basis;--"Depressam, caecam, jacentem domum, pluris quam te, et fortunas tuas aestimasti." "You have shewn more regard to an unprosperous, an obscure, and a fallen family, than to your own safety and reputation." This sentence ends with a _dichoree_, but the preceeding one in a _double spondee_. For in those sentences which are to be used like daggers for close-fighting, their very shortness makes our numbers less exceptionable. They frequently consist of a single number;-- generally of _two_, with the addition perhaps of half a foot to each: and very seldom of more than three. To speak in _commas_ or _colons_ has a very good effect in real causes; and especially in those parts of an Oration where it is your business either to prove or refute: as in my second defence of Cornelius, where I exclaimed, "O callidos homines! O rem excogitatam! O ingenia metuenda!" "What admirable schemers! what a curious contrivance! what formidable talents!" Thus far I spoke in _colons_; and afterwards by _commas_; and then returned to the colon, in "_Testes dare volumus_," "We are willing to produce our witnesses." This was succeeded by the following _period_, consisting of two _colons_, which is the shortest that can be formed,--"_Quem, quaeso, nostrum sesellit ita vos esse facturos?_" "Which of us, think you, had not the sense to foresee that you would proceed in this manner?" There is no method of expressing ourselves which, if properly timed, is more agreeable or forcible, than these rapid turns, which are completed in two or three words, and sometimes in a single one; especially, when they are properly diversified, and intermingled here and there with a _numerous_ period; which _Egesias_ avoids with such a ridiculous nicety, that while he affects to imitate _Lysias_ (who was almost a second _Demosthenes_) he seems to be continually cutting capers, and clipping sentence after sentence. He is as frivolous in his sentiments as in his language: so that no person who is acquainted with his writings, need to seek any farther for a coxcomb. But I have selected several examples from Crassus, and a few of my own, that any person, who is so inclined, may have an opportunity of judging with his own ears, what is really _numerous_, as well in the shortest as in any other kind of sentences.