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[3]
It
was, then, nature that created speech, and observation that originated the art of speaking. Just as men
discovered the art of medicine by observing that some
things were healthy and some the reverse, so they
observed that some things were useful and some useless in speaking, and noted them for imitation or
avoidance, while they added certain other precepts
according as their nature suggested. These observations were confirmed by experience and each man
proceeded to teach what he knew.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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