sensible, or conformable to the opinions and manners of men. These
inviolably retained and adhered to, he makes ample allowance for
whatever else may contribute to illustrate a discourse. And thus it is
that metaphors, superlatives, epithets, compound, and synonymous words,
if they seem to express the action and fully represent things, seldom
fail to please.

We should avoid the fault which makes a sentence appear not full enough,
on account of something defective, tho this is rather a vice of
obscurity than want of ornament in speech. But when it is done for some
particular reason, then it becomes a figure of speech. We should
likewise be aware of tautology, which is a repetition of the same word
or thought, or the use of many similar words or thoughts. Tho this does
not seem to have been much guarded against by some authors of great
note, it is, notwithstanding, a fault, and Cicero himself often falls
into it.

Similarity of expression is a still greater vice, because the mind is
wearied by lack of the graces of variety, and the discourse being all of
one color, shows a great deficiency in the art of oratory. It, besides,
creates loathing, and at length becomes insupportable, both to the mind
and ear, through the tedious repetition of the same cold thoughts,
figures, and periods.

There is another fault, that of being over-nice, which is caused by
extreme anxiety to be exact, but which is as far distant from exactness
as superstition is from true religion. In short, every word that
contributes neither to perspicuity nor ornament, may be called vicious.

A perverse affectation is faulty in all respects. All bombast, and