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[12]
In support of this contention they adduce
the fact that Demades was a waterman and Aeschines
an actor, but both were orators. Their reasoning is
false. For no man can be an orator untaught and it
would be truer to say that these orators learned
oratory late in life than that they never learned at all;
although as a matter of fact Aeschines had an
acquaintance with literature from childhood since his
father was a teacher of literature, while as regards
Demades, it is quite uncertain that he never studied
rhetoric and in any case continuous practice in
speaking was sufficient to bring him to such proficiency as he attained: for experience is the best of all
schools.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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