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I have now arrived at the point when I must
begin to deal with that portion of the art at which
those who have omitted the preceding stages generally commence. I can see, however, that certain
critics will attempt to obstruct my path at the very
outset: for they will urge that eloquence can dispense with rules of this kind and, in smug satisfaction with themselves and the ordinary methods
and exercises of the schools, will laugh at me for
my pains; in which they will be only following the
example of certain professors of no small reputation.
One of these gentlemen, I believe, when asked to
define a figure and a thought, replied that he did not
know what they were, but that, if they had anything
[p. 281]
to do with the subject, they would be found in
his declamation.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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