[52]
The statement of fact will be credible, if in the first
place we take care to say nothing contrary to nature,
secondly if we assign reasons and motives for the
facts on which the inquiry turns (it is unnecessary to
do so with the subsidiary facts as well), and if we
make the characters of the actors in keeping with
the facts we desire to be believed: we shall for
instance represent a person accused of theft as
covetous, accused of adultery as lustful, accused of
homicide as rash, or attribute the opposite qualities
to these persons if we are defending them: further
we must do the same with place, time and the like.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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