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ἐξ ὑπογυίου] See note on I 1. 7, p. 11. The phrase is applied here to circumstances that arise out of the occasion, which you must seize on as well as you can; extemporaneous, sudden, unpremeditated, and therefore unprepared; temporary accidents of the subject in hand, quae repente eveniunt (Victorius). These we must collect as well as we can, on the spur of the moment; but the same rules are to be observed as in the other cases. Poste, u. s., p. 24, “singular circumstances.” περιγράφοντας] περιγράφειν and περιγραφή are usually applied to the outline of a drawing, so περιγεγράφθω τἀγαθόν of a rough sketch or outline of good (opposed to ἀναγράψαι, to fill up, lit. draw over, this outline) Eth. N. I 7, init. and περιγραφή Ib. 1098 a 23: but this is not applicable here. Praefinientem seponentemque says Victorius. The meaning required seems to be that of ‘enclosing’, for the purpose of keeping things separate from others, so that you may be able to lay your hand upon them at once when you want them, and not have to sort them at the time: for this purpose you draw a line of demarcation round them, which keeps them from getting mixed up with other things that resemble them, or at all events that you don't want just then. [Metaph. K 7, 1064 a 2, ἑκάστη γὰρ τούτων περιγραψαμένη τι γένος αὑτῇ περὶ τοῦτο πραγματεύεται.] ἧττον κοινά] ‘less general’, and therefore more special, ἴδια. κοινά is illustrated in the next section; from which it appears that it means here the wider and higher generalisations which are attributes of very large classes, and have therefore nothing special, distinctive, and characteristic, about them. Neither of them is used in a technical sense, as genus and species. ἴδια are peculiarities and peculiarities of individuals. In contrast with what is here said of the selection of rhetorical topics compare Anal. Pr. I 27, 43 b 1 seq., on the selection of topics for demonstrative syllogisms: in these the major premisses and conclusions must be universal and necessary, and the rules laid down are in conformity with that. Near the end of the chapter, ληπτέον δέ κ.τ.λ. 43 b 32, seq. a supplementary note is added, on probable (τὰ ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ) questions and their syllogisms, referring to dialectical and rhetorical proofs.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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