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[29] I will, however, quote a passage from the pro Caecina1 in which Cicero includes brief proofs drawn from origins, causes, effects, antecedents and consequents: “Why then did they fly? Because they were afraid. What were they afraid of? Obviously of violence. Can you then deny the beginning, when you have admitted the end?” But he also argued from similarity:2 “Shall not that which is called violence in war be called violence in peace as well” Arguments may also be drawn from contraries, as for instance in the question whether a love-potion can be a poison, in view of the fact that a poison is not a love-potion.

In order that my young students (and I call them mine, because the young student is always dear to me) may form a clearer conception of this second kind of definition, I will once more quote a fictitious controversial theme.

1 XV. 44.

2 XV. 43.

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load focus Introduction (Harold Edgeworth Butler, 1922)
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