Book 9
1.15
Some writers have held that there is only one kind of figure, although they differ as regards the reasons which lead them to adopt this view. For some of them, on the ground that a change of words causes a corresponding change in the sense, assert that all figures are concerned with words, while others hold that figures are concerned solely with the sense, on the ground that words are adapted to things. Both these views are obviously quibbling.
1.16
For the same things are often put in different ways and the sense remains unaltered though the words are changed, while a figure of thought may include several figures of speech. For the former lies in the conception, the latter in the expression of our thought. The two are frequently combined, however, as in the following passage: Now, Dolabella, [I have no pity] either for you or for your children : Cic. Verr. I. xxx. 77. iam iam is a figure, as being a reduplication, and liberum as being a contraction. for the device by which he turns from the judges to Dolabella is a figure of thought, while iam iam ( now ) and liberum ( your children ) are figures of speech.
