them when her legions, incited by the voice, and inspired by the example, of their mighty leader, rushed again and again to the onset tell me, if, for an instant, when to hesitate for that instant was to be lost, the "aliens" blenched? And when at length the moment for the last and decisive movement had arrived, and the valor which had so long been wisely checked was at length let loose when, with words familiar but immortal, the great captain exclaimed: "Up, lads, and at them!"- tell me, if Ireland, with less heroic valor than the natives of your own glorious Isle, precipitated herself upon the foe? The blood of England, of Scotland, and of Ireland, flowed in the same stream · on the same field. When the still morning dawned, their dead lay cold and stark together- in the same deep pit their bodies were deposited; the green corn of spring is now breaking from their commingled dust the dew falls from heaven upon their union in the grave. Partakers in every peril in the glory shall we not be permitted to participate? and shall we be told as a requital, that we are estranged from the noble country for whose salvation our life-blood was poured out? -- SHEIL: Speeches. asserted in Parliament by Sheil confirms his denial This persuasive refutation denies the fact, Lord Lyndhurst, that the Irish were aliens. by facts in the life of Wellington, especially by the battle of Waterloo. The vehemence, the direct appeal to the listeners, the concrete details, are some of the reasons why this passage is justly celebrated. Subjects Refute vigorously these statements : "Americans are mere money makers." "The study of the classics is a waste of time." "Democracy is a failure." "Poetry is useless.” 6. This is not the only point on which the noble lord's speech is quite at variance with his own conduct. He appeals to the fifth article of the Treaty of Union. He says that, if we touch the revenues and privileges of the Established Church, we shall violate that article; and to violate an article of the Treaty of Union is, it seems, a breach of public faith of which he cannot bear to think. But, sir, why is the fifth article to be held more sacred than the fourth, which fixes the number of Irish members who are to sit in this House? The fourth article, we all know, has been altered. And who brought in the bill in which was altered that article? The noble lord himself. - MACAULAY: State of Ireland. Here is exemplified a kind of refutation often used by speakers. It consists in proving a contradiction between the opponent's former acts and priciples and his present course (personal argument). It does not touch the argument directly, but indirectly, by trying to discredit the opponent. Attack for inconsistency: Subjects Caesar ambitioning a crown. A student interested in sport and not in study. A guilty nation's condemnation of another nation. A mother's treatment of her own and a neighbor's child. 7. Only this morning the opponents of our plan circulated a paper in which they confidently predict that free competition will do all that is necessary, if we will only wait with patience. Why, we have been waiting ever since the Heptarchy. How much longer are we to wait? Till the year 2847? Or till the year 3847? That the experiment has as yet failed you do not deny. And why should it have failed? Has it been tried in unfavorable circumstances? Not so; it has been tried in the richest, and in the freest, and in the most charitable country in all Europe. Has it been tried on too small a scale? Not so: millions have been subjected to it. Has it been tried during too short a time? Not so; it has been going on during ages. The cause of the failure, then, is plain. Our whole system has been unsound. We have applied the principle of free competition to a case to which that principle is not applicable. -MACAULAY: Education. In the refutation Macaulay denies with scorn that the system of competition in education has not had a fair trial, and then by a process of elimination, rejecting other possible reasons, he arrives at the real cause, the system itself. Subjects By eliminating all excuses, refute the defense of : A bad administration. A defective machine. A poor athletic team. The blameworthy career of some one. An unsuccessful campaign or movement. 8. They find the Briton better off than the Pole; and they immediately come to the conclusion that the Briton is so well off because his bread is dear, and the Pole is ill off because his bread is cheap. Why, is there a single good which in this way Iould not prove to be an evil, or a single evil which I could not prove to be a good? Take lameness. I will prove that it is the best thing in the world to be lame: for I can show you men who are lame, and yet much happier than many men who have the full use of their legs. I will prove health to be a calamity. For I can easily find you people in excellent health whose fortunes have been wrecked, whose character has been blasted, and who are more wretched than many invalids. But is that the way in which any man of common sense reasons? No; the question is: Would not the lame be happier if you restored to him the use of his limbs? would not the healthy man be more wretched if he had gout and rheumatism in addition to all his other calamities? Would not the Englishman be better off if food were as cheap here as in Poland? Would not the Pole be more miserable if food were as dear in Poland as here? More miserable indeed he would not long be, for he would be dead in a month. MACAULAY: Corn Laws. A striking refutation may sometimes be made, as here, by showing the absurd consequences that would follow from the opponent's contention. Subjects Refute by absurd consequences: School should be closed because some have fallen sick there. Many have succeeded without Latin and Greek; therefore their study is useless. I can hire some one to write for me. Why should I learn composition? Of what use is poetry? Few, if any, have made a living at it. The post office is carried on at a loss and should be abolished. Take the ballot away from women. They are not using it. CHAPTER VIII PERSUASION 53. The purpose of persuasion is to procure action through language. Persuasion, exciting the emotions by presenting the good or evil of a course, endeavors to cause in the will a resolution to follow or avoid that course. Argumentation convinces the mind, and where the truth is clearly shown, it is accepted by the mind without other aid; but when the will is called upon to resolve and to act, especially where the writer or speaker strives to influence large numbers, the evidence of truth is of itself usually not sufficient. The emotions of love and hate, desire and fear, joy and sadness, hope and despair, pity and anger, are required to effect results. These emotions are the source of most action in daily life. For abiding results the language of persuasion must indeed prove convincingly the good or evil, but it does so in warm and imaginative and impassioned diction rather than by cold and formal logic. Argumentation presents proofs for an assertion; persuasion offers motives for a course of action. I. The Motives 54. Accumulate for motives select circumstances, significant parts and striking effects of your subject (accumulation of detail). Experience proves that the emotions are aroused where the imagination sees vividly the good or evil, and the imagination is reached not by general and abstract statements but by concrete detail. One word, "fire," is enough to excite emotions where the danger is imminent, but in most cases where the speaker or writer wishes action, there is no such keen realization of its necessity. Hence choice details, given with some fullness, are required to intensify the feelings. Motives should be arranged in the order of importance (climax), the last receiving fullest and most feeful expression (proportion) EXERCISE 27 1. Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upo Massachusetts; she needs none. There she is, behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain forever. The bones of her sons, falling in the great struggle for Independence, now lie mingled with the soil of every State from New England to Georgia; and there they will lie forever. And, sir, where American Liberty raised its first voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives in the strength of its manhood and full of its original spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound it; if party strife and blind ambition shall hawk at and tear it; if folly and madness, if uneasiness under salutary and necessary restraint, shall succeed in separating it from that Union by which alone its existence is made sure; it will stand, in the end, by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked; it will stretch forth its arm with whatever of vigor it may still retain, over the friends who gather round it; and it will fall at last, if fall it must, amidst the proudest monuments of its own glory and on the very spot of its origin. WEBSTER: To Hayne. Webster awakens admiration for his State by recounting its past and present struggle for liberty and intensifies the feeling through pity at its future fate if it should lose liberty and union. The historic names, the personification, the concrete terms (bones, voice, cradle, etc.), are effective means of arousing the desired emotion. Subjects With change of details and of pictures, awaken : Admiration for your own State or City. |