[11]
to say that there is nothing
not merely in oratory, but in all the tasks of life
that is more important than sagacity and that without it all formal instruction is given in vain, while
prudence unsupported by learning will accomplish
more than learning unsupported by prudence. It is
sagacity again that teaches us to adapt our speech to
circumstances of time and place and to the persons
with whom we are concerned. But since this topic
covers a wide field and is intimately connected with
eloquence itself, I shall reserve my treatment of it
till I come to give instructions on the subject of
appropriateness in speaking.1
1 In XI. i. cp. I. v. 1.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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