The only difference is that with the act
the impression has to be made without explanation; whereas with the
spoken word it has to be produced by the speaker, and result from his
language. What, indeed, would be the good of the speaker, if things
appeared in the required light even apart from anything he says?
As regards the Diction, one subject for inquiry under this head is the
turns given to the language when spoken; e.g. the difference between
command and prayer, simple statement and threat, question and answer,
and so forth. The theory of such matters, however, belongs to
Elocution and the professors of that art. Whether the poet knows these
things or not, his art as a poet is never seriously criticized on that
account. What fault can one see in Homer's 'Sing of the wrath,
Goddess'?--which Protagoras has criticized as being a command where a
prayer was meant, since to bid one do or not do, he tells us, is a
command. Let us pass over this, then, as appertaining to another art,
and not to that of poetry.
20
The Diction viewed as a whole is made up of the following parts: the
Letter (or ultimate element), the Syllable, the Conjunction, the
Article, the Noun, the Verb, the Case, and the Speech.
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