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‘Now the arguments or inferences by way of fables (τὰ διά, with genitive, which are conveyed ‘through the channel of’, are conveyed ‘by’,) are easier to supply (provide) oneself with, but those by way of facts (historical parallels) are more serviceable for deliberation; because the future for the most part resembles the past’. We can therefore argue with probability from the results of circumstances past, to the results of similar circumstances, which are now under deliberation, in the future. Men are much the same in all ages; human nature is tolerably constant in its operations and effects; the same motives prevail, and lead to similar actions; what has been in the past, will be in the future.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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