Institutio Oratoria, Book I
Preface
1 Marcus Fabius Quintilianus to his friend Trypho, greeting. You have daily importuned me with the request that I should at length take steps to publish the book on the Education of an Orator which I dedicated to my friend Marcellus. For my own view was that it was not yet ripe for publication. As you know I have spent little more than two years on its composition, during which time moreover I have been distracted by a multitude of other affairs. These two years have been devoted not so much to actual writing as to the research demanded by a task to which practically no limits can be set and to the reading of innumerable authors.
2 Further, following the precept of Horace who in his Art of Poetry deprecates hasty publication and urges the would-be author To withhold His work till nine long years have passed away, I proposed to give them time, in order that the ardour of creation might cool and that I might revise them with all the consideration of a dispassionate reader.
3 But if there is such a demand for their publication as you assert, why then let us spread our canvas to the gale and offer up a fervent prayer to heaven as we put out to sea. But remember I rely on your loyal care to see that they reach the public in as correct a form as possible.