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 seems to diminish it, and a passion soon evaporates that once
begins to subside.

Tears are excited not only by words but by doing certain things, whence
it is not unusual to present the very persons who are in danger of
condemnation, in a garb suitable to their distress, together with their
children and relations. Accusers, too, make it a custom to show a bloody
sword, fractured bones picked out of wounds, and garments drenched in
blood. Sometime, likewise, they unbind wounds to show their condition,