others: they should appear in their
due light. In the second case, being naturally weak, they should be made
to support each other. If, therefore, they are not greatly effective in
point of quality, they may be in that of number, all of them having a
tendency to prove the same thing; as, if one were accused of killing
another for the sake of inheriting his fortune: "You did expect an
inheritance, and it was something very considerable; you were poor, and
your creditors troubled you more than ever; you also offended him who
had appointed you his heir, and you know that he intended to alter his
will." These proofs taken separately are of little moment, and common;
but collectively their shock is felt, not as a peal of thunder, but as a
shower of hail.

The judge's memory, however, is not always to be loaded with the
arguments we may invent. They will create disgust, and beget distrust
in him, as he can not think such arguments to be powerful enough which
we ourselves do not think sufficient. But to go on arguing and proving,
in the case of self-evident things, would be a piece of folly not unlike
that of bringing a candle to light us when the sun is in its greatest
splendor.

To these some add proofs which they call moral, drawn from the milder
passions; and the most powerful, in the opinion of Aristotle, are such
as arise from the person of him who speaks, if he be a man of real
integrity. This is a primary consideration; and a secondary one, remote,
indeed, yet following, will be the probable notion entertained of his
irreproachable life.

THE BEST ORDER OF THE ARGUMENT

It has been a matter of debate, also, whether the strongest proofs
should have place in the beginning, to make an immediate impression on
the hearers, or at the end, to make the impression lasting with them, or
to distribute them, partly in the beginning and partly at the end,
placing the weaker in the middle, or to begin with the weakest and
proceed to the strongest. For my part I think this should depend on the
nature and exigencies of the cause, yet with this reservation, that the
discourse might not dwindle from the powerful into what is nugatory and
frivolous.

Let the young orator, for whose instruction I make these remarks,
accustom himself as much as possible to copy nature and truth. As in
schools he often engages in sham battles, in imitation of the contests
of the bar, let him even then have an eye to victory, and learn to
strike ho