[28]
Attenuation is effected by the same method, since
there are as many degrees of descent as ascent.
I shall therefore content myself with quoting but
one example, namely, the words used by Cicero1 to
describe the speech of Rullus: “A few, however, who
stood nearest to him suspected that he had intended
to say something about the agrarian law.” This passage may be regarded as providing an example of
attenuation or of augmentation, according as we consider its literal meaning or fix our attention on the
obscurity attributed to Rullus.
1 Leg. Agr. II. V. 13.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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