CHAPTER VII.

OF THE CONVENIENCE OR DECENCY OF ELOCUTION.

_Elocutions_ are made _decent_:

1. By speaking _feelingly_; that is, with such passion as is fit for the matter he is in; as, _angerly_ in matter of _injury_.

2. By speaking as becomes the _person_ of the _speaker_; as for a _gentleman_ to speak _eruditely_.

3. By speaking _proportionably_ to the matter; as of _great affairs_ to speak in a _high_, and of _mean_, in a _low_ style.

4. By abstaining from _compounded_, and from _out-landish words_: unless a man speak _passionately_, and have already moved, and, as it were, inebriated his hearers; or _ironically_.

It confers also to persuasion very much, to use these ordinary forms of speaking; _all men know_, _it is confessed by all_, _no man will deny_, and the like. For the hearer consents, surprised with the fear to be esteemed the only ignorant man.

It is good also, having used a word that signifies more than the matter requires, to abstain from the _pronunciation_ and _countenance_ that to such a word belongs; that the disproportion between it and the matter may the less appear. And when a man has said too much, it will show well to correct himself: for he will get belief by seeming to consider what he says. But in this a man must have a care not to be too precise in showing of this consideration. For the ostentation of carefulness is an argument oftentimes of lying; as may be observed in such as tell particularities not easily observed, when they would be thought to speak more precise truth than is required.

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