Abstract
Locke is eloquent in defence of plain speech. In a famous, or notorious, passage at close of chapter X of Book III of the Essay: “Of the Abuse of Words,” though he admits that “since wit and fancy find easier entertainment than dry truth and real knowledge, figurative speeches and allusions in language will hardly be admitted as an imperfection of it,” Locke insists that nevertheless,
if we would speak of things as they are, we must allow that all the art of rhetoric, besides order and clearness; all the artificial and figurative applications of words eloquence hath invented, are for nothing else than to insinuate wrong ideas, move the passions, and thereby mislead the judgement; and so indeed are perfect cheats.