XXI.

When your opponent uses a merely superficial or sophistical argument and you see through it, you can, it is true, refute it by setting forth its captious and superficial character; but it is better to meet him with a counter-argument which is just as superficial and sophistical, and so dispose of him; for it is with victory that you are concerned, and not with truth. If, for example, he adopts an _argumentum ad hominem_, it is sufficient to take the force out of it by a counter _argumentum ad hominem_ or _argumentum ex concessis_; and, in general, instead of setting forth the true state of the case at equal length, it is shorter to take this course if it lies open to you.