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[6]
For, although it is essential to bring
with us into court a supply of eloquence which has
been prepared in advance in the study and on which
we can confidently rely, there is no greater folly
than the rejection of the gifts of the moment.
Therefore our premeditation should be such that
fortune may never be able to fool us, but may, on
the contrary, be able to assist us. This end will be
obtained by developing the power of memory so
that our conceptions may flow from us without fear
of disaster, and that we may be enabled to look
ahead without anxious backward glances or the
feeling that we are absolutely dependent on what
we can call to mind. Otherwise I prefer the rashness of improvisation to the coherence given by
premeditation.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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