s given in the examination must
be weighed by arguments and by conjecture. And these are for the most
part the divisions of an accusation.

XXXV. But the first division of a defence is the invalidating of the
motives alleged for the action,--either as having no real existence,
or as not having been so important, or as not having been likely to
influence any one but the person accused; or we may urge that he could
have attained the same object more easily; or that he is not a man
of such habits, or of such a character; or that he was not so much a
slave to sudden impulses, or at all events not to such trifling ones.
And the advocate for the defence will disparage the means alleged
to be in the power of the accused person, if he shows that either
strength, or courage, or power, or resources were wanting to him; or
that the time was unfavourable, or the place unsuitable; or that there
were many witnesses, not one of whom he would have chosen to trust; or
that he was not such a fool as to undertake a deed which he could not
conceal; nor so senseless as to despise the penalties of the law and
the courts of justice. And he will do away with the effect of the
consequences alleged, by explaining that those things are not certain
proofs of an act which might have happened even if the act had never
been done; and he will dwell on the details, and urge that they belong
as much to what he himself alleges was the fact, as to that which is
at present the ground of accusation: or if he agrees with the accuser
on those points, still he will say that ought to be of avail rather as
a defence to himself against danger, than as an engine for injuring
his safety; and he will run down the whole body of witnesses and
examinations under torture, generally, and also in detail as far as
he can, by the use of the topics of reprehension which have been
explained already. The openings of these causes which are intended to
excite suspicion by their bitterness will be thus laid down by the
accuser; and the general danger of all intrigues will be denounced;
and men's minds will be excited so as to listen attentively. But the
person who is being accused will bring forward complaints of charges
having been trumped up against him, and suspicions ferreted out from
all quarters; and he will speak of the intrigues of the accuser, and
also of the common danger of all citizens from such proceedings: and
so he will try to move the minds of the judges to pity,