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26. For teaching, of course, true eloquence consists, not in
making people like what they disliked, nor in making them do what they
shrank from, but in making clear what was obscure; yet if this be done
without grace of style, the benefit does not extend beyond the few
eager students who are anxious to know whatever is to be learnt,
however rude and unpolished the form in which it is put; and who, when
they have succeeded in their object, find the plain truth pleasant food
enough. And it is one of the distinctive features of good intellects
not to love words, but the truth in words. For of what service is a
golden key, if it cannot open what we want it to open? Or what
objection is there to a wooden one if it can, seeing that to open what
is shut is all we want? But as there is a certain analogy between
learning and eating, the very food without which it is impossible to
live must be flavored to meet the tastes of the majority.
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