it is seen to lack reason. Certainly, to
leave aside familiar terms and to search out unusual ones is wholly
foreign to reason. However, there is added to this natural source of
offense another that proceeds from opinion. Since such words are
commonly condemned, there is associated with them a certain distaste
and contempt such that it is scarcely possible to pronounce them
without immediately arousing the associated feelings.

Consequently, the intelligent writer will willingly comply with usage
so as not to give grounds for displeasure--whether this displeasure
springs from nature or opinion. Though he is aware that usage is
unstable and changes day by day, nevertheless he will prefer rather to
please at one time than never. He will be careful, however, in his
written work not to make use of the current jargon, especially of the
French court and women's circles, or of any locutions that are not yet
generally received. For the life of such expressions is too short to
be bound into a lasting work--not to speak of the detestable
affectation which detracts from the weight and dignity of the writing.

To conclude, there is a beauty and charm in propriety and elegance of
diction which is not to be scorned, though it is but of a time, and,
since it rests on opinion, by which usage is determined, will pass
away with a change of opinion. Hence those who write not for an age
but for all time should try to attain something else, something that
has no admixture of opinion: Such is the agreement of words with
nature, which we will now explain.

_The inner and more intimate agreement of words and nature._

If one wishes to look deeply into the nature of the human mind and to
search out its inner sources of delight, he will find there something
of strength conjoined with something of weakness, and out of this
circumstance arises variety and irregularity. The mind's vexation with
a continual relaxation derives from its strength, while from its
weakness stems the fact that it cannot bear a continual straining.
Hence it is that nothing pleases the human mind very long, nothing
that is all of one piece. So in music it rejects a wholly perfect
harmony, and for this reason musicians deliberately intercalate
discordant sounds--what are technically called dissonances. So,
finally, it happens that physical exercise, even if it was at first
undertaken for pleasure, becomes a torture when continued without
interruption.

This point has