[49]
It will suffice for our purpose that
there are a number of problems which it is difficult
to solve in any other way, which are as a rule solved
by these linear demonstrations, such as the method
of division, section to infinity,1 and the ratio of increase in velocity. From this we may conclude that,
if as we shall show in the next book an orator has
to speak on every kind of subject, he can under
no circumstances dispense with a knowledge of
geometry.
XI. The comic actor will also claim a certain
amount of our attention, but only in so far as our
future orator must be a master of the art of delivery.
For I do not of course wish the boy, whom we are
training to this end, to talk with the shrillness of a
woman or in the tremulous accents of old age.
1 Quintilian is perhaps referring to the measurement of the area of an irregular figure by dividing it into a number of small equal and regular figures the size of which was calculable.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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