This, then, is what we are principally to learn; this is what we can not
attain without the help of art; this ought to be the object of our
study, our exercise, our imitation; this may be full employment for our
whole life; by this, one orator excels another; and from this proceeds
diversity of style.


THE PROPER VALUE OF WORDS

It should not be inferred from what is said here that all our care must
be about words. On the contrary, to such as would abuse this concession
of mine, I declare positively my disapprobation of those persons who,
neglecting things, the nerves of causes, consume themselves in a
frivolous study about words. This they do for the sake of elegance,
which indeed is a fine quality when natural but not when affected. Sound
bodies, with a healthy condition of blood, and strong by exercise,
receive their beauty from the very things from which they receive their
strength. They are fresh-colored, active, and supple, neither too much
nor too little in flesh. Paint and polish them with feminine cosmetics,
and admiration ceases; the very pains taken to make them appear more
beautiful add to the dislike we conceive for them. Yet a magnificent,
and suitable, dress adds authority to man; but an effeminate dress, the
garb of luxury and softness, lays open the corruption of the heart
without adding to the ornament of the body. In like manner, translucent
and flashy elocution weakens the things it clothes. I would, therefore,
recommend care about words, but solicitude about things.

The choicest expressions are for the most part inherent in things, and
are seen in their own light, but we search after them as if always
hiding and stealing themselves away from us. Thus we never think that