A briefe of the art of rhetorique Containing in substance all that Aristotle hath written in his three bookes of that subject, except onely what is not applicable to the Engligh tongue.

Of the Purity of Language.

FOure things are necessary to make Language Pure.

• 1. The right rendring of those Particles which some antecedent Particle does require: As to a Not onely, a Not also; and then they are rendred right, when they are not suspended too long.
• 2 The use of Proper Words, ra∣ther than Circumlocutions, un∣lesse there be motive to make one doe it of purpose.
• 3. That there be nothing of double construction, unlesse there be cause to doe it of purpose.

• As the Prophets (of the Heathen) who speake in generall termes, to the end they may the better maintaine the truth of their Pro∣phecies; which is easilier main∣tained in generalls, than in parti∣culars. For tis easier to divine, whether a number be even or odd, then how many; and that a thing will be, then when it will be.
• 4. Concordance of Gender, Number, and Person; as not to say Him for Her; Man for Men; Hath for Have.

In summe; a Mans Language ought to be easie for another to read, pronounce, and point.

Besides, to divers Antece∣dents, let divers Relatives, or one Common to them all, be Cor∣respondent: as, He saw the Co∣lour; He heard the Sound; or hee perceived both Colour and Sound: but by no meanes, Hee heard, or saw both.

Lastly, that which is to be in∣terposed by Pare••thesis, let it be done quickly: as, I purposed ha∣ving spoken to him (to this, and this purpose) afterward to be gone. For to put it off thus; I resolved after I had spoken to him, to be gone, but the subject of my speech was to this and this purpose, is vitious.