Or to avoid obsceneness, or sometimes for
pleasure, and variety, as travellers turn out of the highway, drawn
either by the commodity of a footpath, or the delicacy or freshness
of the fields. And all this is called [Greek text] or figured
language.
Oratio imago animi.--Language most shows a man: Speak, that I may
see thee. It springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of
us, and is the image of the parent of it, the mind. No glass
renders a man's form or likeness so true as his speech. Nay, it is
likened to a man; and as we consider feature and composition in a
man, so words in language; in the greatness, aptness, sound
structure, and harmony of it.
Structura et statura, sublimis, humilis, pumila.--Some men are tall
and big, so some language is high and great. Then the words are
chosen, their sound ample, the composition full, the absolution
plenteous, and poured out, all grave, sinewy, and strong. Some are
little and dwarfs; so of speech, it is humble and low, the words
poor and flat, the members and periods thin and weak, without
knitting or number.
Mediocris plana et placida.--The middle are of a just stature.
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