Oro te, Maxime, si litterae, ita ut partim vocales dicuntur, etiam propriam vocem usurparent, si verba, ita ut poetae aiunt, pinnis apta vulgo volarent, nonne, cum primum epistulam istam Rufinus mala fide excerperet, pauca legeret, multa et meliora sciens reticeret, nonne tunc ceterae litterae sceleste se detineri proclamassent, verba suppressa de Rufini manibus foras evolassent, totum forum tumultu complessent?
I ask you, Maximus: if a letter, some components of which are called vowels, were also to speak in its own voice, if words, as the poets say, were to be fitted with wings and fly everywhere, then surely, as soon as Rufinus treacherously excerpted that letter, reading out just a bit and deliberately suppressing the much longer and more favorable part, would not the other letters have cried out that they were being wickedly imprisoned? Would not the suppressed words have flown from Rufinus hands and filled the whole town square with their shouting?
final_alignments\Apuleius_Apologia.json