Dissimulatio, compendiaria sapientia. CONTRA. Quibus artes civiles supra captum ingenii sunt, iis dissi Sepes consiliorum, dissimu- mulatio pro prudentia erit. Omnis medicina innovatio. Qui nova remedia fugit, nova mala operitur. Novator maximus tempus: quidni igitur tempus imitemur? Morosa morum retentio, res turbulenta est, æque ac novitas. Cum per se res mutentur in deterius, si consilio in melius non mutentur, quis finis erit mali? CONTRA. Nullus auctor placet, præter tempus. Nulla novitas absque injuria; nam præsentia convellit. Quæ usu obtinuere, si non bona, at saltem apta inter se sunt. Quis novator tempus imitatur, quod novationes ita insinuat, ut sensus fallant? Quod præter spem evenit, cui prodest, minus acceptum ; cui obest, magis molestum. PRO TESTIBUS CONTRA ARGUMENTA. Secundum oratorem, non secundum causam pronunciat, qui argumentis nititur. Tutum foret argumentis credere, si homines nihil absurdi facerent. Argumenta, cum sint contra testimonia, hoc præstant, ut res mira videatur, non autem ut non vera. CONTRA. Si testibus credendum sit contra argumenta, sufficit, tantum judicem esse non surdum. lis probationibus tutissimo creditur, quæ rarissime menti untur. [AA]. Introd. § 4. p. 34. "Sometimes men will tell us that they prefer a natural and artless eloquence, and that very diligent preparation is inconsistent with such qualities. We verily believe that this fallacy, though it lurks under an almost transparent ambiguity, is of most prejudicial consequence. Nature and Art, so far from being always opposed, are often the very same thing. Thus, to adduce a familiar example, and closely related to the present subject it is natural for a man who feels that he has not given adequate expression to a thought, though he may have used the first words suggested, to attempt it again and again. He, each time, approximates nearer to the mark, and at length desists, satisfied either that he has done what he wishes, or that he cannot perfectly do it, as the case may be. A writer, with this end, is continually transposing clauses, reconstructing sentences, striking out one word and putting in another. All this may be said to be art, or the deliberate application of means to ends; but is it art inconsistent with nature? It is just such art as this that we ask of the preacher and no other; simply that he shall take diligent heed to do what he has to do as well as he can. Let him depend upon it, that no such art as this will ever make him appear the less natural. "A similar fallacy lurks under the unmeaning phrases which are often bestowed upon simplicity. We love simplicity as much as any of its eulogists can do; but we should probably differ about the meaning of the word. While some men talk as if to speak naturally were to speak like a Natural, others talk as if to speak with simplicity meant to speak like a simpleton. True simplicity does not consist in what is trite, bald, or commonplace. So far as regards the thought, it means, not what is already obvious to every body, but what, though not obvious, is immediately recognized, as soon as propounded, to be true and striking. As it regards the expression, it means, that thoughts worth hearing are expressed in language that every one can understand. In the first point of view, it is opposed to what is abstruse; in the second, to what is obscure. It is not what some men take it to mean, threadbare commonplace, expressed in insipid language. It |