rongfully. Comparison is, when it is argued that some
other action has been a right or an advantageous one, and then it is
contended that this deed which is now impeached was committed in order
to facilitate the accomplishment of that useful action.

In the fourth kind of statement of a case, which we call the one which
assumes the character of a demurrer, that sort of statement contains a
dispute, in which an inquiry is opened who ought to be the accuser or
pleader, or against whom, or in what manner, or before whom, or under
what law, or at what time the accusation ought to be brought forward;
or when something is urged generally tending to alter the nature of,
or to invalidate the whole accusation. Of this kind of statement of
a case Hermagoras is considered the inventor: not that many of the
ancient orators have not frequently employed it, but because former
writers on the subject have not taken any notice of it, and have not
entered it among the number of statements of cases. But since it has
been thus invented by Hermagoras, many people have found fault with
it, whom we considered not so much to be deceived by ignorance (for
indeed the matter is plain enough) as to be hindered from admitting
the truth by some envy or fondness for detraction.

XII. We have now then mentioned the different kinds of statements of
cases, and their several divisions. But we think that we shall be
able more conveniently to give instances of each kind, when we are
furnishing a store of arguments for each kind. For so the system of
arguing will be more clear, when it can be at once applied both to the
general classification and to the particular instance.

When the statement of the case is once ascertained, then it is proper
at once to consider whether the argument be a simple or a complex one,
and if it be a complex one, whether it is made up of many subjects
of inquiry, or of some comparison. That is a simple statement which
contains in itself one plain question, in this way--"Shall we declare
war against the Corinthians, or not?" That is a complex statement
consisting of several questions in which many inquiries are made, in
this way.--"Whether Carthage shall be destroyed, or whether it shall
be restored to the Carthaginians, or whether a colony shall be led
thither." Comparison is a statement in which inquiry is raised in the
way of contest, which course is more preferable, or which is the most
preferable course of all, in this way.