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24. Now a strong desire for clearness sometimes leads to neglect of
the more polished forms of speech, and indifference about what sounds
well, compared with what dearly expresses and conveys the meaning
intended. Whence a certain author, when dealing with speech of this
kind, says that there is in it "a kind of careful negligence." Yet
while taking away ornament, it does not bring in vulgarity of speech;
though good teachers have, or ought to have, so great an anxiety about
teaching that they will employ a word which cannot be made pure Latin
without becoming obscure or ambiguous, but which when used according to
the vulgar idiom is neither ambiguous nor obscure) not in the way the
learned, but rather in the way the unlearned employ it. For if our
translators did not shrink from saying, "Non congregabo conventicula
eorum de sanguinibus," because they felt that it was important for the
sense to put a word here in the plural which in Latin is only used in
the singular; why should a teacher of godliness who is addressing an
unlearned audience shrink from using assure instead of os, if he fear
that the latter might be taken not as the singular of ossa, but as the
singular of ora, seeing that African ears have no quick perception of
the shortness or length of vowels? And what advantage is there in
purity of speech which does not lead to understanding in the hearer,
seeing that there is no use at all in speaking, if they do not
understand us for whose sake we speak? He, therefore, who teaches
will avoid all words that do not teach; and if instead of them he can
find words which are at once pure and intelligible, he will take these
by preference; if, however, he cannot, either because there are no
such words, or because they do not at the time occur to him, he will
use words that are not quite pure, if only the substance of his thought
be conveyed and apprehended in its integrity.
25. And this must be insisted on as necessary to our being
understood, not only in conversations, whether with one person or with
several, but much more in the case of a speech delivered in public:
for in conversation any one has the power of asking a question; but
when all are silent that one may be heard, and all faces are turned
attentively upon him, it is neither customary nor decorous for a person
to ask a question about what he does not understand; and on this
account the speaker ought to be especially careful to give assistance to
those who cannot ask it. Now a crowd anxious for instruction generally
shows by its movements if it understands what is said; and until some
indication of this sort be given, the subject discussed ought to be
turned over and over, and put in every shape and form and variety of
expression, a thing which cannot be done by men who are repeating words
prepared beforehand and committed to memory. As soon, however, as
the speaker has ascertained that what he says is understood, he ought
either to bring his address to a close, or pass on to another point.
For if a man gives pleasure when he throws light upon points on which
people wish for instruction, he becomes wearisome when he dwells at
length upon things that are already well known, especially when men's
expectation was fixed on having the difficulties of the passage
removed. For even things that are very well known are told for the
sake of the pleasure they give, if the attention be directed not to the
things themselves, but to the way in which they are told. Nay, even
when the style itself is already well known, if it be pleasing to the
hearers, it is almost a matter of indifference whether he who speaks be
a speaker or a reader. For things that are gracefully written are
often not only read with delight by those who are making their first
acquaintance with them, but re-read with delight by those who have
already made acquaintance with them, and have not yet forgotten them;
nay, both these classes will derive pleasure even from hearing another
man repeat them. And if a man has forgotten anything, when he is
reminded of it he is taught. But I am not now treating of the mode of
giving pleasure. I am speaking of the mode in which men who desire to
learn ought to be taught. And the best mode is that which secures that
he who hears shall hear the truth, and that what he hears he shall
understand. And when this Joint has been reached, no further labor
need be spent on the truth itself, as if it required further
explanation; but perhaps some trouble may be taken to enforce it so as
to bring it home to the heart. If it appear right to do this, it
ought to be done so moderately as not to toad to weariness and
impatience.
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