[25]
For despite their
greatness they are still but mortal men, and it will
sometimes happen that their reader assumes that
anything which he finds in them may be taken as a
canon of style, with the result that he imitates their
defects (and it is always easier to do this than to
imitate their excellences) and thinks himself a
perfect replica if he succeeds in copying the
blemishes of great men.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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