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which deals with the ‘Peroration’: the concluding speech in which the orator gives his summation. InJudicial or Forensic oratory (Quintilian’s main focus) this is the point at which appeals to the emotionsare called upon as a final means of persuading the judge to be sympathetic to the orator’s case. Havingused all other means available to present his argument, the speaker sums up his position, usingimpressive speech to reaffirm his case, and to amplify those things in his favour, while denigrating theclaims of his opponents. At the same time, he makes the fullest use of appeals to the emotions, thoughalways in a subtle manner, aiming to move the judge or jury towards a state of mind sympathetic to thefeelings of the speaker. 18 It is, as Quintilian demonstrates, a great art.He begins his discussion by stating, ‘The peroration is the most important part of forensicpleading, and in the main consists of appeal to the emotions’. The careful handling of an emotionalappeal is considered to be the most powerful, but also the most difficult task so far considered in theInstitutes: ‘oratory has no more important contribution to make than this…this form of oratory isQueen of all’. The aim of the emotional appeal is to turn the judge’s mind away from matters of facttowards matters of feeling. ‘The judge, when overcome by his emotions, abandons all attempt toenquire into the truth of the arguments, is swept along by the tide of passion, and yields himselfunquestioning to the torrent’ (VI ii 6). Once the orator has produced tears in the eye of the judge, thejudge can be considered to be giving a verdict that all can see. ‘It is in power over the emotions that thelife and soul of oratory is to be found’, and Quintilian quotes from Virgil at this point: ‘hoc opus, hiclabor est’ (Aeneid VI 28).In discussing his use of emotional appeals, Quintilian described himself drawing on ‘ancienttradition’ that ‘had divided the emotions into two classes, one designated pathos, the other ethos.’ Theformer is translated into Latin as adfectus:the other is called ethos, a word for which in my opinion Latin had no equivalent; it ishowever represented by mores (morals or manners) and consequently the branch ofphilosophy known as ethics is styled moral philosophy by us. (VI ii 8)Like Cicero in the Tusculans, Quintilian finds some Greek concepts do not translate easily into Romanones, and he effectively creates a new meaning. Aristotle’s understanding of ethos related torepresentations of character; the orator would present the facts of a case in a ‘manner’ that led thejudge and the jury, to approve of his character, and therefore feel sympathetic to his argument. Cicerohad already adapted Aristotle’s use of such appeals, and when Quintilian later set out hisunderstanding of the ethos/pathos formula in his Institutes he was drawing on Cicero’s usage inmaintaining that ‘ethical’ appeals produced the arousal of mild states of emotion. This was distinctfrom Aristotle’s understanding in which appeals to ethos were only rational, and all emotional appealswere subsumed under appeals to pathos. 19 Quintilian re-defines ethos according to the understanding18 Book XIII of The Prelude fulfils all the requirement of a formal peroration. The choice of location - thesummit of the highest mountain in England and Wales complements the high or ‘grand’ style required inWordsworth’s summation as he uses impressive rhetoric in his final, emotional, appeal to Coleridge.19 For a more detailed discussion of these distinctions sees James M. May’s and Jakob Wisse’s Introduction toOn the Ideal Orator p. 34.227