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[16]
In
saying this, I do not for a moment mean to suggest
that we should ever omit to exercise ourselves in
speaking. I merely urge that we should not grow old
over one special form of exercise. We have been in a
position to acquire varied knowledge, to familiarise
ourselves with the principles that should guide our
life, and to try our strength in the courts, while we
were still attending the schools. The theory of speaking is of such a nature that it does not demand
many years for its acquisition. For any one of the
various branches of knowledge which I have mentioned will, as a rule, be found to be comprised in
a few volumes, a fact which shows that instruction
does not require an indefinite amount of time to be
devoted to it. The rest depends entirely on practice,
which at once develops our powers and maintains
them, once developed.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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