C. P. Something discovered which has a probable influence in producing belief.
C. F. How, then, do you divide these two heads?
C. P. Those things which come into the mind without art I call remote arguments, such as testimony.
C. F. What do you mean by those topics which exist in the thing itself?
C. P. I cannot give a clearer explanation of them.
C. F. What are the different kinds of testimony?
C. P. Divine and human. Divine,—such as oracles, auspices, prophecies, the answers of priests, soothsayers, and diviners: human,—which is derived from authority, from inclination, and from speech either voluntary or extorted; and under this head come written documents, covenants, promises, oaths, inquiries.
C. F. What are the arguments which you say belong to the cause?
C. P. Those which are fixed in the things themselves, as definition, as a contrary, as those things which are like or unlike, or which correspond to or differ from the thing itself or its contrary, as those things which have as it were united, or those which are as it were inconsistent with one another, or the causes of those things which are under discussion, or the results of causes, that is to say, those things which are produced by causes, as distributions, and the genera of parts, or the parts of genera, as the beginnings and as it were outriders of things, in which there is some argument, as the comparisons between things, as to which is greater, which is equal, which is less, in which either the natures or the qualities of things are compared together.
III. C. F. Are we then to derive arguments from all these topics?