Book 4
pr.120
When on the other hand the subject is on a larger scale, we have a chance to excite horror by our narration of abominable wrongs or pity by a tale of woe: but we must do so in such a way as not to exhaust our stock of emotions on the spot, but merely to indicate our harrowing story in outline so that it may at once be clear what the completed picture is like to be.
pr.121
Again I am far from disapproving of the introduction of some striking sentence designed to stimulate the judge's jaded palate. The best way of so doing is the interposition of a short sentence like the following: Milo's slaves did what everyone would have wished his own slaves to do under similar circumstances pro Mil. x. 29. : at times we may even be a little more daring and produce something like the following: The mother-in-law wedded her son-in-law: there were no witnesses, none to sanction the union, and the omens were dark and sinister. pro Clu. v. 14.
pr.122
If this was done in days when every speech was designed for practical purposes rather than display and the courts were far stricter than to-day, how much more should we do it now, when the passion for producing a thrill of pleasure has forced its way even into cases where a man's life or fortunes are in peril? I shall say later to what extent I think we should indulge popular taste in this respect: in the meantime I shall admit that some such indulgence is necessary.
