[36]
I have spoken of accusers and accused because it
is in situations involving danger that the emotional
appeal is most serviceable. But private cases also
admit of both kinds of peroration, namely, that which
consists in the recapitulation of the proofs and that
which takes the form of an appeal for pity, the
latter being employed when the position or reputation of the litigant seems to be in danger. For to
[p. 407]
embark on such tragic methods in trivial cases would
be like putting the mask and buskins of Hercules
on a small child.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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