[19]
As, however, in the natural course of things we
conceive ideas before we express them, I must take
figures of thought first. Their utility is at once great
and manifold, and is revealed with the utmost clearness in every product of oratory. For although it
may seem that proof is infinitesimally affected by
the figures employed, none the less those same figures
lend credibility to our arguments and steal their
way secretly into the minds of the judges.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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