[19]
But all credibility,
and it is with credibility that the great majority of
arguments are concerned, turns on questions such
as the following: whether it is credible that a father
has been killed by his son, or that a father has committed incest with his daughter, or to take questions
of an opposite character, whether it is credible that
a stepmother has poisoned her stepchild, or that a
man of luxurious life has committed adultery; or
again whether a crime has been openly committed,
or false evidence given for a small bribe, since each
of these crimes is the result of a special cast of
character as a rule, though not always; if it were
[p. 213]
always so, there would be no room for doubt, and
no argument.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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