But the "disjointed sentences" and endless alliterations such as Augustine used for his popular "rhymed sermons" are the necessary norm of oral prose and poetry alike. (Witness the Elizabethan Euphues.) It is easy to gauge the degree of acceptance of print culture in any time or country by its effect in eliminating pun, point, alliteration, and aphorism from literature. Thus, the Latin countries even today retain maxims, sententiae, and aphorism at a respectable level.