In oratory, the peroration is the conclusion of a speech or discourse, where the speaker recapitulates his argument and presses it a final time with renewed vigor. The ending of a speech or an essay is not the time to raise a new substantive point: it is the time to remind, to reflect, and to send off the reader with a satisfied feeling. Somehow the very best endings possess a near-paradoxical quality—a sense of closure and completeness, and yet at the same time a suggestion of new open spaces to explore, armed with the ideas or information the essay has provided.