[21]
In such cases the defence must always come
first for three reasons. In the first place, we naturally prefer to secure our own safety than to injure
our opponent, while secondly, our accusation will
carry greater weight if we have first proved our
own innocence, and thirdly, we shall thus secure
a double line of defence. For the man who says,
“I did not kill him,” is then free to go on to say,
“You killed him,” whereas it is superfluous for the
man who says, “You killed him,” to go on to say,
“I did not kill him.”
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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