The Tales of John Oliver Hobbes/A Study in Temptations/Epigraph

by John Oliver Hobbes

"In order to judge whether what is said or done by any character be well or ill, we are not to consider that speech or action alone, whether in itself it be good or bad, but also by whom it is spoken or done, to whom, at what time, in what manner, or for what end. . . .

"To opinion, or what is commonly said to be, may be referred even such things as are improbable and absurd; and it may also be said that events of that kind are, sometimes, not really improbable; since, 'it is probable that many things should happen contrary to probability.'"—Aristot., Poet.