[5]
Such a procedure is most valuable in the examination of witnesses, but is differently employed in a set
speech. For there the orator either answers his
own questions or makes an assumption of that which
in dialogue takes the form of a question. “What is
[p. 275]
the finest fruit? The best, I should imagine. What
is the finest horse? The swiftest. So too the
finest type of man is not he that is noblest of birth,
but he that is most excellent in virtue.”
All arguments of this kind, therefore, must be
from things like or unlike or contrary. Similes are,
it is true, sometimes employed for the embellishment of the speech as well, but I will deal with
them in their proper place;1 at present I am concerned with the use of similitude in proof.
1 VIII iii. 72 sqq.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.