Institutio Oratoria

For my own part (for I will not conceal my opinion, though it rests rather on actual examples than on rules), I hold that the statement of fact more than any portion of the speech should be adorned with the utmost grace and charm. But much will depend on the nature of the subject which we have to set forth.

In slighter cases, such as are the majority of private suits, the decoration must be restrained and fit close to the subject, while the utmost care must be exercised in choice of words. The words which in our purple passages are swept along by the force of our eloquence and lost in the profusion of our language, must in cases such as these be clear and, as Zeno says,

steeped with meaning.