[34]
The task not
merely of division, but of invention as well, is rendered materially easier by this method of examining
all possible arguments and arriving at the best by a
process of elimination. Milo is accused of killing
Clodius. Either he did or did not do the deed.
The best policy would be to deny the fact, but that
is impossible. It is admitted then that he killed
him. The act must then have been either right or
wrong. We urge that it was right. If so, the act
must have either been deliberate or under
[p. 27]
compulsion of necessity, for it is impossible to plead
ignorance.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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