In the defence of Orestes, a familiar ancient assignment, the _status_ could not, except by mere ingenious perversion, be _coniecturalis_. The facts of his killing of Clytemnestra and of her previous killing of Agamemnon had to be admitted. The _status_ might, indeed, be _definitivus_ for some one who cared to split hairs about what we now call murder or homicide; but naturally it was the third (_generalis_, _an recte sit_). Orestes was justified on the ground of the sacred duty to avenge the murder of his father. _The_ issue was whether even a criminal mother should be executed by her own son. College debaters defending the maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine settled on the third _status_. The forcing of the second by their opponents they found themselves prepared to rebut. The issues of democracy, protection, peace seemed to them vital as offering valid arguments for and against, i.e., as being real clashes of actual opinion; and all these issues fell under _status generalis_. _Status coniecturalis_ could never be made determining. _Status definitivus_ would lead to quibbling costly for opponents who should raise it. _Status generalis_ held _the_ issue. This sort of forecast, surveying the whole trend, the ancients regarded as so vital that they reduced it to a system. The classified _status_ is typical of their pedagogy of rhetoric. Their teaching of _inventio_ did not stop with investigation; it promoted reflection directly and guided it so systematically that no essential aspect could be ignored. Such questioning for focus and line in our day of statistical accumulation is not less, but more valuable. (4) _The Parts of a Speech_ The traditional parts of an oration Quintilian discusses (IV-VI) under their traditional subdivisions. The exordium (IV. i), for instance, may be drawn from the case, from the persons, from the occasion, or from rebuttal of one’s opponent; and its threefold aim is to remove prejudice, to win attention, and to open the way for understanding.[12] But Quintilian often constructively recombines the traditional items, and often interprets them from teaching experience. The statement of facts (_narratio_, IV. ii) is not limited to pure exposition; even rehearsal may contribute to persuasion. Its cardinal virtue of clearness he reasserts in rebuke of those students whom an itch to be always impressive makes impatient of the obligation. “When they have experienced the whole range, they will find nothing in eloquence more difficult than to say what every hearer thinks he would have said himself, because it seems to him not good, but true.” IV. ii. 38.