[25]
Some authorities hold that the Academy will be the
most useful school, on the ground that its habit of
disputing on both sides of a question approaches
most nearly to the actual practice of the courts.
And by way of proof they add the fact that this
school has produced speakers highly renowned for
their eloquence. The Peripatetics also make it their
boast that they have a form of study which is near
akin to oratory. For it was with them in the main
that originated the practice of declaiming on general
questions1 by way of exercise. The Stoics, though
driven to admit that, generally speaking, their teachers
have been deficient both in fullness and charm of
eloquence, still contend that no men can prove more
acutely or draw conclusions with greater subtlety
than themselves.
1 See II. i. 9. III. v. 5. and 10.
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