e the place to anticipate whatever it is
thought the opponent may do or say, for it makes the judges more
circumspect regarding the sacredness of their oath, and by it the answer
to the pleading may lose the indulgence which it is expected to receive,
together with the charm of novelty in all the particulars which the
accuser has already cleared up. The judges, besides, may be informed of
the answer they should make to those who might threaten to have their
sentence reversed; and this is another kind of recapitulation.

The persons concerned are very proper objects for affecting the mind of
the judge, for the judge does not seem to himself to hear so much the
orator weeping over others' misfortunes, as he imagines his ears are
smitten with the feelings and voice of the distrest. Even their dumb
appearance might be a sufficiently moving language to draw tears, and as
their wretchedness would appear in lively colors if they were to speak
it themselves, so proportionately it must be thought to have a powerful
effect when exprest, as it were, from their own mouths. Just so, in
theatrical representations, the same voice, and the same emphatic
pronunciation, become very interesting under the masks used for
personating different characters. With a like view Cicero, tho he gives
not the voice of a suppliant to Milo, but, on the contrary, commends his
unshaken constancy, yet does he adapt to him words and complaints not
unworthy of a man of spirit: "O my labors, to no purpose undertaken!
Deceiving hopes! Useless projects!"

This exciting of pity, however, should never be long, it being said, not
without reason, that "nothing dries up so soon as tears." If time can
mitigate the pangs of real grief, of course the counterfeit grief
assumed in speaking must sooner vanish; so that if we dally, the auditor
finding himself overcharged with mournful thoughts, tries to resume his
tranquility, and thus ridding himself of the emotion that overpowered
him, soon returns to the exercise of cool reason. We must, therefore,
never allow this kind of emotion to become languid, but when we have
wound up the passions to their greatest height, we must instantly drop
the subject, and not expect that any one will long bewail another's
mishap. Therefore, as in other parts, the discourse should be well
supported, and rather rise, so here particularly it should grow to its
full vigor, because that which makes no addition to what has already
been said se