[71]
As there are three divisions of time, so the order
of events falls into three stages. For everything has a
beginning, growth and consummation, as for instance
[p. 241]
a quarrel, blows, murder. Thus arise arguments which
lend each other mutual support; for the conclusion
is inferred from the beginnings, as in the following
case: “I cannot expect a purple-striped toga, when
I see that the beginning of the web is black”; or the
beginning may be inferred from the conclusion:
for instance the fact that Sulla resigned the dictatorship is an argument that Sulla did not take up
arms with the intention of establishing a tyranny.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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