CHAPTER XXVI.

OF THE PLACES OF SEEMING ENTHYMEMES.

Of _seeming_ enthymemes, one place may be from _the form of speaking_. As when a man has repeated divers sentences, he brings in his conclusion as if it followed necessarily, though it do not.

A second from _an ambiguous word_.

A third from that which is _true, divided_, to that which is _false, joined_; as that of Orestes, _It was justice that I should revenge my father’s death, and it was justice my mother should die for killing my father: therefore I justly killed my mother_. Or from that which is _true, joined_, to that which is _false, divided_; as, _one cup of wine, and one cup of wine, are hurtful; therefore one cup of wine is hurtful_.

A fourth, from _amplification of the crime_. For neither is the _defendant_ likely to have committed the crime he _amplifies_; nor does the _accuser_ seem, when he is passionate, to want ground for his accusation.

A fifth from _signs_; as, when a man concludes the doing of the fact from the manner of his life.

A sixth from _that which comes by chance_. As if from this, that the tyranny of Hipparchus came to be overthrown from the love of Aristogeiton to Harmodius, a man should conclude that in a free commonwealth loving of boys were profitable.

A seventh from the _consequence_; as, _Banishment is to be desired, because a banished man has choice of places to dwell in_.

An eighth from _making that the cause which is not_; as, _In Demosthenes' government the war began; therefore Demosthenes governed well. With the Peloponnesian war began the plague, therefore Pericles, that persuaded that war, did ill._

A ninth from _the omission of some circumstance_; as, _Helen did what was lawful when she ran away with Paris, because she had her father’s consent to choose her own husband_; which was true only during the time that she had not chosen.

A tenth from that which is _probable_, in _some case_, to that which is _probable simply_; as, _It is probable he foresaw that if he did it he should be suspected; therefore it is probable he did it not_. From this place one may infer both ways that _he did it not_. For if he be not likely to do it, it may be thought _he did it not_: again, if he were likely to do it, it may be thought _he did it not_, for this, _that he knew he should be suspected_.

Upon this place was grounded the art which was so much detested in Protagoras, of making the better cause seem the worse, and the worse the better.

==========