[16]
As to the subject under discussion
its practicability is either certain or uncertain. In
the latter case this will be the chief, if not
the only point for consideration; for it will often
happen that we shall assert first that something
ought not to be done, even if it can be done, and
secondly, that it cannot be done. Now when
the question turns on such points as to whether the
Isthmus can be cut through, the Pontine Marshes
drained, or a harbour constructed at Ostia, or whether
Alexander is likely to find land beyond the Ocean,1
we make use of conjecture.
1 the theme of a suasoria of the elder Seneca (Suas. i.). “Alexander deliberates whether to sail forth into the ocean.”
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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