"The noblest literary study of an Englishman is the study of the English language. The noblest literary THE noblest literary study of an Englishman is the study of the English language. The noblest literary gain of the educated man is the power of wielding that language well.-THRING. "Verbaque prævisam rem non invita sequentur." The basis of all excellence is truth.-DR. JOHNSON. HORACE. He always understands himself, and his readers always understand him. -DR. JOHNSON (of Swift). His language never has more than one meaning, which it never requires a second thought to take.-SIR J. MACKINTOSH (of Hobbes). No writer has said more exactly what he meant to say.-MACAULAY (of Bunyan). Since it is English that an English gentleman will have constant use of, that is the language he should chiefly cultivate, and wherein most care should be taken to polish and to perfect his style.-LOCKE. Le style n'est que l'ordre et le mouvement qu'on met dans ses pensées. Si on les enchaîne étroitement, si on les serre, le style devient ferme, nerveux, et concis; si on les laisse se succéder lentement, et ne se joindre qu'à la faveur des mots, quelque élégans qu'ils soient, le style sera diffus, lâche et traînant.-BUFFON. One of the ways of discovering a falso theory is to compare it with practice. This is the true touchstone of all theories which regard man and the affairs of men.-BURke. To clothe low-creeping matter with high-flown language is not fine fancy but flat foolery. It rather loads than raises a wren to fasten the feathers of an ostrich to her wings.-Fuller. |