CHAPTER III.

OF THE THINGS THAT MAKE AN ORATION FLAT.

The things that make an oration _flat_ or _insipid_, are four:

1. _Words compounded._ And yet a man may compound a word, when the composition is necessary for want of a simple word, and easy, and seldom used.

2. _Foreign words._ As for example, such as are newly derived from the Latin; which though they were proper among them whose tongue it is, are foreign in another language: and yet these may be used, so it be moderately.

3. _Long_, _impertinent_, and _often epithets_.

4. _Metaphors indecent_ and _obscure_. _Obscure_ they are, when they are far-fetched. _Indecent_, when they are _ridiculous_, as in _comedies_; or _too grave_, as in _tragedies_.

==========