[22]
With regard to the
conclusion, we may either deny its truth when it
infers something which does not logically result
from the premises, or we may treat it as irrelevant.
The truth is denied in the following case: “We
are justified in killing one who lies in wait for us;
for since, like an enemy, he threatens us with
violence, we ought to repulse his attack as though
he were an enemy: therefore Milo was justified in
killing Clodius as an enemy.” The conclusion is not
valid, since we have not yet proved that Clodius lay
in wait for him But the conclusion that we are
therefore justified in killing one who lies in wait
for us is perfectly true, though irrelevant to the
case, for it is not yet clear that Clodius lay in wait
for Milo.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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