[14]
One should appeal to such witnesses for the
past,
but also to interpreters
of oracles for the future; thus, for instance, Themistocles interpreted the
wooden wall to mean that they must fight at sea.1 Further,
proverbs, as stated,2 are evidence; for instance, if one man
advises another not to make a friend of an old man, he can appeal to the
proverb, “Never do good to an old man.” And if he advises another
to kill the children, after having killed the fathers, he can say, “
Foolish is he who, having killed the father, suffers the children to
live.3
”
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Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 22, translated by J. H. Freese. Aristotle. Cambridge and London. Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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