[14]
thus abandoned by the
orators, became the prey of weaker intellects. As
a consequence certain persons, disdaining the toil of
learning to speak well, returned to the task of
forming character and establishing rules of life and
kept to themselves what is, if we must make a
division, the better part of philosophy, but presumptuously laid claim to the sole possession of the
title of philosopher, a distinction which neither the
greatest generals nor the most famous statesmen
and administrators have ever dared to claim for themselves. For they preferred the performance to the
promise of great deeds.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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