[49]
For the loss of even a single word that we
have chosen is always a matter for regret, and it is
hard to supply a substitute when we are searching
for the word that we had written. But even this
is no remedy for a weak memory, except for those
who have acquired the art of speaking extempore.
But if both memory and this gift be lacking, I
should advise the would-be orator to abandon the
toil of pleading altogether and, if he has any literary
capacity, to betake himself by preference to writing.
But such a misfortune will be of but rare occurrence.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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