[78]
For straightforward eloquence
requires the highest gifts to commend itself to
the audience, while these circuitous and indirect
methods are merely the refuge of weakness, for those
who use them are like men who, being unable to
escape from their pursuers by speed, do so by
doubling, since this method of expression, which
is so much affected, is really not far removed from
jesting. Indeed it is positively assisted by the
tact that the hearer takes pleasure in detecting
the speaker's concealed meaning, applauds his own
penetration and regards another man's eloquence as
a compliment to himself.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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