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[13] Moreover, with reference to acts of legislation, it is useful not only to understand what form of government is expedient by judging in the light of the past, but also to become acquainted with those in existence in other nations, and to learn what kinds of government are suitable to what kinds of people. It is clear, therefore, that for legislation books of travel are useful, since they help us to understand the laws of other nations, and for political debates historical works.1 All these things, however, belong to Politics and not to Rhetoric.

Such, then, are the most important questions upon which the would-be deliberative orator
must be well informed. Now let us again state the sources whence we must derive our arguments for exhortation or discussion on these and other questions.

1 This rendering, although convenient, hardly represents the Greek, which, literally translated, is “the investigations of those who write about human actions” (cf. ἱστορικός, 4.8).

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