besides, a variety of other expedients for
embellishing a discourse. Thus it is that a simple and unaffected style
is not without beauty, but it is a beauty entirely pure and natural,
such as is admired in women. Beauty is also annexed to propriety and
justness of expression, and this beauty is the more elegant as it shows
but little care. There is an abundance that is rich, an abundance that
smiles amidst the gaiety of flowers, and there is more than one sort of
power, for whatever is complete in its kind can not be destitute of its
proper strength and efficacy.

COMPOSITION AND STYLE

I well know that there are some who will not sanction any care in
composition, contending that our words as they flow by chance, however
uncouth they may sound, are not only more natural, but likewise more
manly. If what first sprang from nature, indebted in nowise to care and
industry, be only what they deem natural, I admit that the art of
oratory in this respect has no pretensions to that quality. For it is
certain that the first men did not speak according to the exactness of
the rules of composition; neither were they acquainted with the art of
preparing by an exordium, informing by a narration, proving by
arguments, and moving by passions. They were deficient in all these
particulars, and not in composition only; and if they were not allowed
to make any alterations for the better, of course they would not have
exchanged their cottages for houses, nor their coverings of skins for
more decent apparel, nor the mountains and forests in which they ranged
for the abode of cities in which they enjoy the comforts of social
intercourse. And, indeed, what art do we find coeval with the world, and
what is there of which the value is not enhanced by improvement? Why do
we restrain the luxuriance of our vines? Why do we dig about them? Why
do we grub up the bramble-bushes in our fields? Yet the earth produces
them. Why do we tame animals? Yet are they born with intractable
dispositions. Rather let us say that that is very natural which nature
permits us to meliorate in her handiwork.

THE POWER OF SKILFUL COMPOSITION

How can a jumble of uncouth words be more manly than a manner of
expression which is well joined and properly placed? If some authors
weaken the subjects of which they treat, by straining them into certain
soft and lascivious measures, we must not on that account judge that
this is the fault of composition. As the cu