[93]
It has also been asked how figures may best be
met. Some hold that they should always be
exposed by the antagonist, just as hidden ulcers
are laid open by the surgeon. It is true that
this is often the right course, being the only means
of refuting the charges which have been brought
against us, and this is more especially the case
when the question turns on the very point at which
the figures are directed. But when the figures are
merely employed as vehicles of abuse, it will sometimes even be wisest to show that we have a clear
conscience by ignoring them.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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