"Vulgar chess-players have to play their game out; nothing short of the brutality of an actual checkmate satisfies their dull apprehensions. But look two masters of that noble game! White stands well enough, so far as you can see; but Red says, Mate in six moves; - White looks,- nods; - the game in over." (Holmes, Breakfast-Table.)

"Without positively asserting much more than he can prove, he gives prominence to all the circumstances which support his case; he glides lightly over those which are unfavourable to it; his own witnesses are applauded and encouraged; the statements which seem to throw discredit on them are controverted; the contradictions into which they fall are explained away; a clear and connected abstract of their evidence is given. Every thing that is offered on the other side is scrutinized with the utmost severity; every suspicious circumstance is a ground for comment and invective; what cannot be denied is extenuated, or passed by without notice; concessions even are sometimes made; but this insidious candor only increases the effect of the vast mass of sophistry."6

And always, and from the start, the advocate is preparing for his conclusion, or peroration. All along he is writing up and perfecting his summation in a special place found in the back of his trial note book, the parts of which, in those last few weeks before trial, is being written and rewritten as the essential points of the case are polished up. With care, and from the start, the pieces of evidence needed to support the final arguments are gathered and systematically gotten out. The arguments and the evidence must be built together as the case, over time, is prepared for trial.