[377]. Whether its correct title be Institutiones Oratoriæ, or De Institutione Oratoria, and whether this be better translated Principles of Oratory, or Of the Education of an Orator, are questions not very important to us. The sense of “Institutes” may be illustrated by the old division of academical chairs in, for instance, Medicine into “Institutes” (i.e., “Theory”) and “Practice.” But Quintilian includes a good deal of the practical side. All the editions of Quintilian are either antiquated by, or more or less based upon, that of Spalding and Zumpt, with Lexicon, &c., by Bonnell, Leipsic, 1798-1834. I find the little Tauchnitz print of the text (ibid., 1829) very useful. The Bohn translation, by the ill-starred J. S. Watson, though not impeccable, will serve English readers well enough.
[378]. For these technical terms v. ante, bk. i. chap. iv., or the Index.
[379]. II. v. 5-9.
[380]. Crebra, as it were “attacking on all sides,” “redoubling blows.”
[381]. Asperitas, which some would rather translate “trenchancy.” But there was an idea in ancient times (not quite unknown in modern) that in hostile argument politeness (“treating your adversary with respect,” as Johnson said) was out of place.
[382]. Quæ virtus ei contraria, that is to say, I suppose, brevity and pregnancy. “Transferred” just below, in the sense of translatio, “metaphor,” “what ingenuity of metaphor.”
[383]. Virtus quæ risum judicis movet, VI. iii.
[384]. Hoc semper humile.
[385]. §§ 101-112.