[46]
Still, many fall into this error either
because they have acquired the habit in declamation
or simply owing to a passion for hearing their own
voice, thereby affording fine sport to those who
reply: for sometimes the latter will remark sarcastically that they never said anything of the kind and
have no intention of saying anything so idiotic, and
sometimes that they are grateful for the admirable
[p. 341]
warnings so kindly given by their opponent: but
most often they will say, and this is the strongest
line that they can take, that their opponent would
never have replied to objections which had never
been raised had he not realised that these objections
were justified and been driven to admit it by his
consciousness of the fact.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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