Argon Argon Argon is a chemical element with symbol Ar and atomic number 18. It is in group 18 of the periodic table and is a noble gas. Argon is the third-most abundant gas in the Earth's atmosphere, at 0.934% (9340 ppmv). It is more than twice as abundant as water vapor (which averages about 4000 ppmv, but varies greatly), 23 times as abundant as carbon dioxide (400 ppmv), and more than 500 times as abundant as neon (18 ppmv). Argon is the most abundant noble gas in Earth's crust, comprising 0.00015% of the crust. Nearly all of the argon in
Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style on Quintillian's rhetorical guide, "Institutio Oratoria". The first chapter of book 10 in Quintillian's "Oratoria" is titled ""De copia verborum"". This is quite possibly where Erasmus received his most direct inspiration for the book. In that 10th chapter, Quintillian declined to give examples for employing the abundant style, on the grounds that each individual case requires a unique solution. This left the door open for Erasmus to detail the abundant style in "Copia". Erasmus acknowledges Quintillian in the preface, and borrows from him (and other classical authors) throughout "Copia", sometimes citing, sometimes not. As further revisions of "Copia" are printed,