[2]
For there are
countless occasions when the sudden necessity may be
imposed upon him of speaking without preparation
before the magistrates or in a trial which comes on
unexpectedly. And if any such sudden emergency
befalls, I will not say any innocent citizen, but some
one of the orator's friends or connexions, is he to
stand tongue-tied and, in answer to those who seek
salvation in his eloquence and are doomed, unless
they secure assistance, to ask for delay of proceedings and time for silent and secluded study, till such
moment as he can piece together the words that fail
him, commit them to memory and prepare his voice
and lungs for the effort?
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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