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In imitating this conciseness, he is the happiest instance of a writer illustrating the Horatian adage of "striving to be brief, and becoming obscure": "Brevis esse laboro, Obscurus fio."
JOHNSON. 'To a man of mere animal life, you can urge no argument against going to America, but that it will be some time before he will get the earth to produce. But a man of any intellectual enjoyment will not easily go and immerse himself and his posterity for ages in barbarism. He and my lord spoke highly of Homer. JOHNSON. 'He had all the learning of his age. Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
But enough of this, for there is truth in the old saying: 'Si brevis esse volo, obscurus fio', and I believe that, without offending against modesty, I can apply to myself the following words of my dear Virgil: 'Nec sum adeo informis: nuper me in littore vidi Cum placidum ventis staret mare.
The obscure passages is often affected, brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio; the desire of expressing perhaps a common idea with sententious and oracular brevity: alas! how fatal has been the imitation of Montesquieu!
It is not for a moment to be supposed that there was any covert intention here, but the incident illustrates the value to rubric-makers of the Horatian warning Brevis esse labor o, obscurus fio. Passing by the Proper Sentences for special Days and Seasons, against which no serious complaint has been entered, we come to the proposed short alternative for the Declaration of Absolution.
DON PEDRO. Vente conmigo. DON EDUARDO. Pero Sr. D. Pedro.... DON PEDRO. ¡Eh! DON EDUARDO. Decía que yo también me retiraba para no ofender a usted más con mi presencia. DON PEDRO. Bien hecho.... Vamos. DOÑA MATILDE. Adiós, Eduardo. DON EDUARDO. Adiós, Matilde. DON PEDRO. Vamos, repito. DOÑA MATILDE. Fíate en mi constancia. DON EDUARDO. Ya me fío. DOÑA MATILDE. Adiós. DON EDUARDO. Adiós.
Farther, my language has nothing in it that is facile and polished; 'tis rough, free, and irregular, and as such pleases, if not my judgment, at all events my inclination, but I very well perceive that I sometimes give myself too much rein, and that by endeavouring to avoid art and affectation I fall into the other inconvenience: "Brevis esse laboro, Obscurus fio." Hor., Art.
But enough of this, for there is truth in the old saying: 'Si brevis esse volo, obscurus fio', and I believe that, without offending against modesty, I can apply to myself the following words of my dear Virgil: 'Nec sum adeo informis: nuper me in littore vidi Cum placidum ventis staret mare.
He of the meaner sort must be content if, at rare heaven-sent intervals while thinking, perhaps, of nothing less there escape from his lips the unpremeditated flawless circle. Then ``deus fio'' he is moved to cry, at that breathless moment when his creation hangs solid and complete, ere the particles break away and blend with the baser atmosphere.
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