[4]
The
most effective kind of enthymeme seems however to
be that in which a reason is subjoined to a dissimilar
or contrary proposition as in the following passage
from Demosthenes1: “For if at any time an act
has been committed contrary to law and you have
imitated it, it does not therefore follow that you
should go scot free; on the contrary it is an
additional reason why you should be condemned.
For if any of those who transgressed the law had
been condemned, you would not have proposed this,
and further, if you are condemned, no one else will
propose anything of the kind.”
1 in Androt. § 7; in Aristocr. § 99.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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