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Rumor is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,
And of so easy and so plain a read more
Rumor is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,
And of so easy and so plain a stop
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it.
The rolling fictions grow in strength and size,
Each author adding to the former lies.
The rolling fictions grow in strength and size,
Each author adding to the former lies.
Nature abhors a vacuum but why do most people hasten to fill in the blanks with garbage?
Nature abhors a vacuum but why do most people hasten to fill in the blanks with garbage?
What some invent the rest enlarge.
What some invent the rest enlarge.
Rumor doth double, like the voice and echo,
The numbers of the feared.
Rumor doth double, like the voice and echo,
The numbers of the feared.
Straightway throughout the Libyan cities flies rumor;--the report
of evil things than which nothing is swifter; it flourishes by read more
Straightway throughout the Libyan cities flies rumor;--the report
of evil things than which nothing is swifter; it flourishes by
its very activity and gains new strength by its movements; small
at first through fear, it soon raises itself aloft and sweeps
onward along the earth. Yet its head reaches the clouds. . . . A
huge and horrid monster covered with many feathers: and for
every plume a sharp eye, for every pinion a biting tongue.
Everywhere its voices sound, to everything its ears are open.
[Lat., Extemplo Libyae magnas it Fama per urbes:
Fama malum quo non velocius ullum;
Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo;
Parva metu primo; mox sese attollit in auras,
Ingrediturque solo, et caput inter nubilia condit.
. . . .
Monstrum, horrendum ingens; cui quot sunt corpore plumae
Tot vigiles oculi subter, mirabile dictu,
Tot linquae, totidem ora sonant, tot subrigit aures.]
Rumor does not always err; it sometimes even elects a man.
Rumor does not always err; it sometimes even elects a man.
The flying rumours gather'd as the roll'd,
Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told;
And all read more
The flying rumours gather'd as the roll'd,
Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told;
And all who told it added something new.
And all who heard it made enlargements too.
