Now, had that man attempted to become Demosthenes instead of himself he would have succeeded in becoming ridiculous.
2.—Be natural in composition
The natural outpouring of thought has a relish and a resistlessness of force that no art can rival. The scent of a sprig of wild woodbine holds a charm beyond all the perfumes of the chemist's shop.
In order to be natural there is no necessity to ignore the elegancies of style; for what is style? Le style est l'homme. The style is the man. A perfect style, then, is attained when the written page is the exact expression of the train of thought as it lies in the writer's head. A style is absolutely perfect when it is absolutely natural.
Artificial embroidery, purple patches, and golden vapour are often the defects and not the perfection of style.
Language can be simple, however, without being vulgar or commonplace.
What book will ever equal the Bible for simplicity, yet what dignity? What preacher ever approached OUR DIVINE LORD; and, humanly speaking, what was the source of His strength?
He accommodated Himself to His hearers. From the open book of nature He made the realms of grace familiar to the minds of children. He pointed to the lilies of the field, to the ravens of the wood, to the ripening bud and the angry cloud. "Ut ex iis quae animus novit, surgat ad incognita quae non novit."[a]1]
[a]1] Third Nocturn for Non-Virgins.
He used the world around us to lift our thoughts to the world above us.