That is false in which there is evidently a lie; in this manner:--"That man cannot be wise who neglects money. But Socrates neglected money; therefore he was not wise." That is common which does not make more in favour of our adversaries than of ourselves; in this manner:--"Therefore, O judges, I have summed up in a few words, because I had truth on my side." That is ordinary which, if the admission be now made, can be transferred also to some other case which is not easily proved; in this manner:--"If he had not truth on his side, O judges, he would never have risked committing himself to your decision." That is trifling which is either uttered after the proposition, in this way:--"If it had occurred to him, he would not have done so;" or if a man wishes to conceal a matter manifestly disgraceful under a trifling defence, in this manner:-- "Then when all sought your favour, when your hand Wielded a mighty sceptre, I forsook you; But now when all fly from you, I prepare Alone, despising danger, to restore you." XLIX. That is remote which is sought to a superfluous extent, in this manner:--"But if Publius Scipio had not given his daughter Cornelia in marriage to Tiberius Gracchus, and if he had not had the two Gracchi by her, such terrible seditions would never have arisen. So that all this distress appears attributable to Scipio." And like this is that celebrated complaint-- "Oh that the woodman's axe had spared the pine That long on Pelion's lofty summit grew."[57] For the cause is sought further back than is at all necessary. That is a bad definition, when it either describes common things in this manner:--"He is seditious who is a bad and useless citizen;" for this does not describe the character of a seditious man more than of an ambitious one,--of a calumniator, than of any wicked man whatever, in short. Or when it says anything which is false; in this manner:--"Wisdom is a knowledge how to acquire money." Or when it contains something which is neither dignified nor important; in this way:--"Folly is a desire of inordinate glory." That, indeed, is one folly; but this is defining folly by a species, not by its whole genus. It is controvertible when a doubtful cause is alleged, for the sake of proving a doubtful point; in this manner:-- "See how the gods who rule the realms above And shades below, and all their motions sway, Themselves are all in tranquil concord found."