[83]
Those, however, who are
engaged in instructing the ignorant will find it useful
at first to adopt a slightly less rigid method: the road
will not be absolutely straight to begin with, but it
will be more open and will provide easier going. I
would have them therefore learn above all things
[p. 453]
that there are four different methods which may be
employed in every case, and he who is going to plead
should study them as first essentials. For, to begin
with the defendant, far the strongest method of self-defence is, if possible, to deny the charge. The
second best is when it is possible to reply that the
particular act with which you are charged was never
committed. The third and most honourable is to
maintain that the act was justifiable. If none of
these lines of defence are feasible, there remains the
last and only hope of safety: if it is impossible either
to deny the charge or justify the act, we must evade
the charge with the aid of some point of law, making
it appear that the action has been brought against us
illegally
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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