QUINTILIAN

BOOK X

We shape many things by mutation: I know "I am not ignorant" and "it does not escape me" and "it does not elude me" and "who does not know?" 13 and "it is doubted by no one." But it is also pleasing to borrow from nearby. For "I understand" and "I feel" and "I see" often have the same value as "I know." Reading will give us an abundance and wealth of these, so that we may use them not only when they occur, but as we ought. 14 For these do not always perform the same function for one another; just as I might rightly say "I see" regarding the intellect of the mind, I cannot say "I understand" regarding the vision of the eyes; nor does mucro (point) show gladium (sword) in the same way that gladius shows mucronem. 15 But just as a store of words is prepared this way, one must read or listen not for the sake of the words alone. For examples of everything we teach are more powerful even than the arts themselves that are handed down, once the student has been led to the point where he can understand them without a teacher and follow them with his own strength, because what the teacher commands, the orator demonstrates. 16 But reading and listening help in different ways. The one who speaks stirs us with his very spirit, nor with images and circuits...