[5]
But I
would not have paraphrase restrict itself to the
bare interpretation of the original: its duty is
rather to rival and vie with the original in the
expression of the same thoughts. Consequently,
I disagree with those who forbid the student to
parahrase speeches of our own orators, on the
ground that, since all the best expressions have
already been appropriated, whatever we express
differently must necessarily be a change for the
worse. For it is always possible that we may discover expressions which are an improvement on
those which have already been used, and nature
did not make eloquence such a poor and starveling
thing, that there should be only one adequate
expression for any one theme.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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