I must first remark that I am not satisfied with the definition of
amplification generally given by authorities on rhetoric. They explain
it to be a form of language which invests the subject with a certain
grandeur. Yes, but this definition may be applied indifferently to
sublimity, pathos, and the use of figurative language, since all these
invest the discourse with some sort of grandeur. The difference seems to
me to lie in this, that sublimity gives elevation to a subject, while
amplification gives extension as well. Thus the sublime is often
conveyed in a single thought,[1] but amplification can only subsist with
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
its fuel now here, now there.
5
Such points, however, I resign to your more competent judgment.
To resume, then, the high-strung sublimity of Demosthenes is appropriate
to all cases where it is desired to exaggerate, or to rouse some
vehement emotion, and generally when we want to carry away our audience
with us. We must employ the diffusive style, on the other hand, when we
wish to overpower them with a flood of language. It is suitable, for
example, to familiar topics, and to perorations in most cases, and to
digressions, and to all descriptive and declamatory passages, and in
dealing with history or natural science, and in numerous other cases.