[48]
Again, with regard to words, we must
distinguish between those whose meaning is clear
and those whose significance is doubtful. The latter
will necessarily give less assistance to either side, be
they our own words or another's. On the other hand,
any ambiguity in our own words will always tell
against us, as, for example, in the following controversial theme. “A son, on being asked where his
father was, replied: 'Wherever he is, he is alive.'
But the father was found dead at the bottom of a
well.”
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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