[4]
Nor is it
sufficient to have read the poets only; every kind of
writer must be carefully studied, not merely for the
subject matter, but for the vocabulary; for words
often acquire authority from their use by a particular
author. Nor can such training be regarded as complete if it stop short of music, for the teacher of
literature has to speak of metre and rhythm: nor
again if he be ignorant of astronomy, can he understand the poets; for they, to mention no further points,
frequently give their indications of time by reference
to the rising and setting of the stars. Ignorance of
philosophy is an equal drawback, since there are
numerous passages in almost every poem based on
the most intricate questions of natural philosophy,
while among the Greeks we have Empedocles and
among our own poets Varro and Lucretius, all of
[p. 65]
whom have expounded their philosophies in verse.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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