There is, however, a certain affinity between
all these bases.1 For in definition we enquire into the
meaning of a term, and in the syllogism, which is
closely connected with definition,2 we consider what
was the meaning of the writer, while it is obvious
that in the case of contrary laws there are two bases,
one concerned with the letter, and the other with
the intention. Again, definition is in itself a kind of
ambiguity, since it brings out two meanings in the
same term.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.