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Dedication
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Quintilian to Trypho1
Wishing Health
You have prevailed on me, by your daily importunity, to proceed at once to publish the books on the education of an orator,
which I had addressed to my friend Marcellus, for, for my own part, I
thought that they were not yet sufficiently advanced towards perfection.
On the composition of them, as you know, I spent little more than two
years while distracted by so many other occupations, and this time was
devoted not much to the labor of writing as to that of research for the
almost boundless work which I had undertaken and to the perusal of
authors, who are innumerable. Following, besides, the advice of Horace,
who, in his Art of Poetry, recommends that publication
should not be hurried and that a work should be retained till the ninth
year, I allowed time for reconsidering them, in order that when the
ardor of invention had cooled, I might judge of them, on a more careful
re-perusal, as a mere reader. Yet if they are so much demanded, as you
say, let us give our sails to the winds and pray for success as we loose
our cable. But much also depends on your faithfulness and care, that
they may come into the hands of the public in as correct a state as
possible.
1 An eminent bookseller at Rome, mentioned by Martial,iv. 72; xiii 3.
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