Note 363 — Chapter II · THE CONTEMPORARIES OF QUINTILIAN.
Reading edition
There is another interesting critical remark at the end of the famous description of the villa (v.6): “I think it the first duty of a writer to read his own title, and constantly ask himself what he sat down to write, and to be sure that if he sticks to his subject he will never be too long, but will be hopelessly so if he drags other matters in.”