Studies 1. Find three descriptive passages in The Ambitious Guest; three in Wee Willie Winkie. Which story contains the greater number of descriptive passages? 2. Look for argumentative passages in The Great Stone Face. 3. Look for expository passages in the narratives of the first two Parts. 4. Can you find narrative in any of the essays of Parts Three and Four? 5. Select a passage from Emerson's Self-Reliance and set forth in logical order the steps in his exposition. Orations With the study of the oration we enter a new department of literature. The essay is written to be read, the oration to be heard; the essay is to please, to entertain, perhaps to instruct, sometimes to convince; the oration is to arouse the feelings, to carry conviction, to stir the public to action. It is a formal production, addressed directly to its hearers; it is in form or meaning in the second person. Even when descriptive or eulogistic it is a direct address. The orator says, "These are my opinions and here are my reasons for so thinking. Will you not accept my view and think and act accordingly?" The oration naturally divides itself into three sections. There is an introduction in which the speaker clears the way, opens the question and lays down the principles he proposes to advocate, or indicates the course of his argument. The body follows. Here the principles are elucidated, the arguments advanced and properly established, or the descriptions elaborated and finished. The last section is the conclusion which may consist of a brief review or summary of the inferences drawn, or of a plea for belief and for action in accordance with the principles of the speaker. As a final part of the conclusion there is often a paragraph or so of most eloquent diction, the peroration. It is intended to appeal particularly to the emotions of the hearers, to carry them out of themselves, to move them in spite of themselves and to leave them feeling intensely the earnestness and sincerity of the speaker. Before the art of printing was invented, public opinion was molded almost entirely by public speaking, and for a great many years afterward the orator was the greatest of leaders. By the magic of his eloquence he changed the views of men and inspired them to deeds of greatest valor. The fiery orations of a Demosthenes, of a Cicero; the thrilling words of a Peter the Hermit or a Savonarola; the unanswerable arguments of a Burke or a Webster, have more than once turned the course of history. But when the newspaper first found its way into the hands of thinking men the power of the orator felt the influence of its silent opponent and began to wane. To-day it is not often that multitudes are swayed by a single voice. The debates and stump-speeches of a political campaign change but few votes. The preacher no longer depends wholly upon the convincing power of his rhetoric to make his converts. The representatives of a people in a parliament or a congress speak that their words may be heard through the newspapers by their constituents more than with the expecta |