[19]
The next step is for each student to consult his
own powers when he shoulders his burden. For
there are some things which, though capable of
imitation, may be beyond the capacity of any given
individual, either because his natural gifts are insufficient or of a different character. The man whose
talent is for the plain style should not seek only
what is bold and rugged, nor yet should he who has
vigour without control suffer himself through love of
subtlety at once to waste his natural energy and
fail to attain the elegance at which he aims: for
there is nothing so unbecoming as delicacy wedded
to ruggedness.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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