[2]
This practice
originated in the display of the schools of declaration and thence extended to the courts as soon as
causes came to be pleaded, not for the benefit of the
parties concerned, but to enable the advocates to
flaunt their talents. I imagine that they feared that
if the slender stream of concise statement, such as is
generally required, were followed by the pugnacious
tone inevitable in the arguing of the case, the speech
would fall flat owing to the postponement of the
pleasures of a more expansive eloquence.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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