E. M. Cope, Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle

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‘And all fearful things are more fearful, in dealing with which (Victorius) any mistake we happen to make cannot be rectified, i. e. remedied—when the consequences of an error of judgment in providing against them are fatal, and can never be repaired where the remedy (of the error and its consequences) is either absolutely impossible, or is not in our own power but in that of our adversaries’. When we are threatened with any formidable danger, from the machinations (suppose) of an enemy, if we make any fatal or irreparable mistake in the precautions we take to guard against it, the danger is greatly aggravated: our precautions and defences have failed, and we lie unprotected and exposed to the full weight of the enemy's blow. ‘And those dangers which admit of no help or means of rescue, either none at all, or not easy to come by. And, speaking generally, all things are to be feared which when they happen in the case of others, or threaten them, excite our pity’. Comp. c. 8. 13, ὅσα ἐφ᾽ αὑτῶν φοβοῦνται, ταῦτα ἐπ̓ ἄλλων γιγνόμενα ἐλεοῦσιν.

‘Such then are pretty nearly, as one may say, the principal objects of fear, and things that people dread: let us now pass on to describe the state of mind or feelings of the subjects of the emotions themselves’.

ἐλεεινός, as Aristotle, according to the MSS, is accustomed to write it, violates Porson's rule, Praef. ad Med. p. viii, that ἐλεινός and not ἐλεεινός is the Attic form of the word.