Word: plainest
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...acquainted with. To those distrusting their ability to make a success at the bar, feeling a want of eloquence and facility in speaking, he gives a word of encouragement. "Eloquence is not to be got by mere high-sounding words. It often makes itself felt in the plainest and homeliest terms, speaking from the heart to the heart." The ready speaker who indulges in rhetorical displays produces as much effect as fire-works, which they so much resemble, receiving attention and admiration but for a moment. The slow, careful, consistent thinker, who proceeds in a methodical way to prove...
There will be occasional criticisms upon the methods of instruction and government followed here. We may differ from those who teach us, but in every case we shall be careful not to say anything unworthy ourselves or them. Wild and general accusations, in which the plainest thing is the author's bitterness, do not get or deserve much attention. But to a carefully considered, temperate article nobody ought to object; for, though its ideas are unsound, they are less likely to be harmful if stated fully and clearly than if left to spread through the college in the disjointed form...