The Hall (15-16)

“Well, gentlemen of the jury,” says Mr. Point o’ View, “the last speaker has made many striking points in praise of the hall, and has adorned it with his words. I myself am so far from intending to criticise it that I have in mind to add the points which he omitted, for the more beautiful you think it, the more hostile to the speaker's interest it will be, as I shall show.

“First, then, since he has mentioned women, jewelry and gold, permit me also to make use of the comparison. I assert that, far from contributing to the good looks of a beautiful woman, abundant

The same thing is bound to happen, I think, to a man who tries to show his eloquence among works of art like these. Amid the mass of beautiful things, what he says goes unheeded, vanishes and is absorbed, as if a candle were taken toa great fire and thrown in, or’ an ant pointed out on the back of an elephant or a camel. This danger, certainly, the speaker must guard against, and also that his voice be not disturbed when he speaks in a hall so musical and echoing, for it resounds, replies, refutes—in fact, it drowns his utterance, just as the trumpet drowns the flute when they are played together, and as the sea drowns chanty-men when they undertake to sing for the rowers against the noise of the surf. For the great volume of sound overpowers and crushes into silence all that is weaker.