Aristotle is its philosopher.
Quintilian applied to general literature the same principles by which he had been accustomed to judge of the declamations of his pupils.

He looks for nothing but rhetoric, and rhetoric not of the highest order.

He speaks coldly of the incomparable works of Aeschylus.

He admires, beyond expression, those inexhaustible mines of common-places, the plays of Euripides.

He bestows a few vague words on the poetical character of Homer.