The surest way of wearying your readers is to say everything that can be said on the subject.

The couplet runs, Mais malheur à l’auteur qui veut toujours instruire, Le secret dennuyer, etc. Boileau had already enunciated the same truth in L’Art Poétique 1, 63, Qui ne sait se borner ne sut jamais écrire—“The man who cannot keep himself within bounds will never write anything.” | Forcible style