Notes
1. De Vulgari Eloquentia, Bk 2, Ch 1, cited in Reynolds (Citation2007, p. 58). Or as Thomas Reid, the Scottish philosopher, wrote years later, ‘Men generally find means to express distinctly what they have conceived distinctly. Horace observes, that proper words spontaneously follow distinct conceptions, “verbaque provisam rem non invita sequunter”. But it is impossible that a man should distinctly express what he has not distinctly conceived’ (Citation1822, 333). The reverse might also be equally true. Once we have found the right words we will have learned to think rightly, that is why we have poets, people who help us to find the right words.