thing twice over when saying it once would do as well, and even better?
Everything should be made as plain as possible from the first. When you
have made things as plain as you can, there will be some that will find
it as much as they can do to catch your meaning. If you talk in an
unknown tongue they cannot get at your meaning at all, but only sit, and
stare, and sigh. Some poor silly souls may admire and applaud you; for
there are always some who, when they hear a man that they cannot
understand, will cry out, What a great preacher! But what good or
sensible man would wish for the praise of such creatures as those? Talk
intelligibly. Talk so that folks can tell what you are talking about. If
you have nothing worth saying, hold your tongues. If you _have_
something worth saying, say it so that people can understand it. Make
everything as clear as possible. We might as well be without tongues as
talk unintelligibly. Even things without life, giving sound, whether
pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it
be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet give an uncertain
sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise ye, except
ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be
known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. There are, no one
knows how many voices in the world; and none of them without
signification. The voices of birds and the voices of beasts are endless
in variety; yet each has its own distinct intelligible meaning. All
creatures, though destitute of language like that of man, make
themselves properly understood by their mates, their kindred, and their
associates. They even make themselves intelligible to men. Talk of great
preachers;--why the man that cannot or will not preach so as to make
himself understood, is smaller, lower, less in the esteem of God, and
of good, sensible, Christian men and women, than the lowest animal, or
the smallest insect, on the face of the earth. Every sheep that bleats,
every ox that lows, every ass that brays, every bird that sings, and