o incline toward the
side which corresponds with his disposition, or to admit some mitigation
or softening where it runs counter to it.

It may happen sometimes, too, that the judge is our enemy, or the
opponent's friend. This is a circumstance requiring the circumspection
of both parties, yet I think the favored advocate should behave with
great caution, for a judge of a biased disposition will sometimes choose
to pass sentence against his friends, or in favor of those to whom he
bears enmity, that he may not appear to act with injustice.

AROUSING EMOTIONS

Judges have also their private opinions and prejudices, which we must
either strengthen or weaken, according as we see necessary. Fear, too,
sometimes must be removed, as Cicero, in his defense of Milo, endeavors
to assure the judges that Pompey's army, drawn up about the Forum, is
for their protection; and sometimes there will be an occasion to
intimidate them, as the same orator does in one of his pleadings against
Verres.

There are two ways of proceeding in this last case, the first plausible,
and frequently used, as when it is hinted to them that the Roman people
might entertain an ill opinion of them, or that there might be an appeal
from their judgment; the other desperate, and not so much used, as when
threatened with prosecution themselves if they suffer themselves to be
corrupted. This is a hazardous point, and is conducted with more safety
to the orator when in a large assembly where corrupt judges are
restrained by fear, and the upright have the majority. But I would never
counsel this before a single judge, unless every other resource was
wanting. If necessity requires it, I can not say that it is the business
of the art of oratory to give directions in the matter, any more than to
lodge an appeal, tho that, too, is often of service, or to cite the
judge in justice before he passes sentence, for to threaten, denounce,
or indict may be done by any one else as well as the orator.

If the cause itself should furnish sufficient reason for gaining the
good will of the judge, out of this whatever is most specious and
favorable may be inserted in the exordium. It will be unnecessary to
enumerate all the favorable circumstances in causes, they being easily
known from the state of facts; besides, no exact enumeration can take
place on account of the great diversity of law-suits. It is the cause
itself, therefore, that must teach us to find and improve th