Institutio Oratoria
Quintilian
Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.
But in this latter case we may say that a person is tacitly implied. For the mention of a tyrant doubles the question, and there is an implicit admission of time and quality; but all the same you would scarcely be justified in calling it a cause or definite question. Those questions which I have styled indefinite are also called general: if this is correct, we shall have to call definite questions special questions. But in every special question the general question is implicit, since the genus is logically prior to the species.
And perhaps even in actual causes wherever the notion of quality comes into question, there is a certain intrusion of
Milo killed Clodius: he was justified in killing one who lay in wait for him.Does not this raise the general question as to whether we have the right to kill a man who lies in wait for us? What again of conjectures? May not they be of a general character, as for instance,
What was the motive for the crime? hatred? covetousness?or
Are we justified in believing confessions made under torture?or
Which should carry greater weight, evidence or argument?As for definitions, everything that they contain is undoubtedly of a general nature.