[25]
But in
our search for such questions we follow an order
quite different from that which we employ in actual
speaking.1 For that which as a rule occurs to us first,
is just that which ought to come last in our speech:
as for instance the conclusion, “You have no right
to choose another man's wife.” Consequently undue
haste will spoil our division of the subject. We
must not therefore be content with the thoughts
that first offer themselves, but should press our
inquiry further till we reach conclusions such as
that he ought not even to choose a widow: a further
advance is made when we reach the conclusion that
be should choose nothing that is private property, or
last of all we may go back to the question next in
order to the general question, and conclude that he
should choose nothing inequitable.
1 cp. III. ix. 6.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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