The period is proper for the exordiums of greater causes, where the
matter requires solicitude, commendation, pity. Also in common places
and in every sort of amplification; but if you accuse, it ought to be
close and compact; if you praise, it should be full, round, and flowing.
It is likewise of good service in perorations, and may be used without
restriction wherever the composition requires to be set off in a
somewhat grand and noble manner, and when the judge not only has a
thorough knowledge of the matter before him, but is also captivated with
the beauty of the discourse and, trusting to the orator, allows himself
to be led away by the sense of pleasure.
History does not so much stand in need of a periodical flow of words, as
it likes to move around in a sort of perpetual circle, for all its
members are connected with each other, by its slipping and gliding along
from one subject to the next, just as men, strengthening their pace,
hold and are held, by grasping each other by the hand. Whatever belongs
to the demonstrative kind has freer and more flowing numbers. The
judicial and deliberative, being varied in their matter, occasionally
require a different form of composition.