[3]
Similarly all the topics
of demonstrative1 oratory involve a qualitative basis.
[p. 107]
The facts are admitted, and the question turns on
their quality, the dispute being entirely concerned
with rewards or penalties or their quantity. The
case is therefore of two kinds, simple or comparative, the former dealing with what is just, the latter
with what is juster, or most just. When the point
for decision is the penalty to be inflicted, the duty
of the pleader will be to defend, extenuate or excuse
the act on which the charge is based, or even,
according to some, to plead for mercy.
1 See III. iv. 12 sqq.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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