[37]
one of our inventions seems a little
risky, we must take certain measures in advance to
save it from censure, prefacing it by phrases such as
“so to speak,” “if I may say so,” “in a certain
sense,” or “if you will allow me to make use of such
a word.” The same practice may be followed in the
case of bold metaphors, and it is not too much to
say that almost anything can be said with safety
provided we show by the very fact of our anxiety
that the word or phrase in question is not due to an
error of judgment. The Greeks have a neat saying
on this subject, advising us to be the first to blame
our own hyperbole.1
1 Ar. Rhet. III. vii. 9.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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