It is also necessary to avoid the fault to which the majority of students are so prone, namely, the idea that in composing speeches we should imitate the poets and historians, and in writing history or poetry should copy orators and declaimers.
[21]
But not even our
[p. 87]
ideal teacher, however much he may desire that
everything that is correct should prevail in his
school to the fullest extent, will waste his labour in
attempting to develop qualities to the attainment of
which he perceives nature's gifts to be opposed.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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