Supplementary Readings The two orations given are political in their nature and there are many others that are interesting reading. G. P. Putnam's Sons of New York publish a series of four small volumes called American Orations in which the speeches are arranged in chronological order so that a student may follow the history of his country in the orations its famous men have delivered. The first volume gives those of the colonial period and during the rise of the national spirit, the second and third relate to the antislavery struggle and secession, the fourth to the Civil war, reconstruction, free trade, and civil service reform. The orations of Wendell Phillips are published in two rather larger volumes by Lee & Shepard of Boston. In the First Series are his antislavery speeches and among others in the Second Series are The Lost Arts and The Scholar in a Republic, two of the more famous. A very fine collection is that of the orations of George William Curtis, edited by Charles Eliot Norton and published in three large volumes by Harper & Brothers of New York. As a companion to American Orations, G. P. Putnam's Sons publish British Orations, a collec tion of the most famous political speeches of English orators. In an introduction to this set, Charles Kendall Adams says of the men whose speeches are given, "Eliot and Pym formulated the grievances against absolutism, a contemplation of which led to the revolution that established Anglican liberty on its present basis. Chatham, Mansfield, and Burke elaborated the principles which on the one hand drove the American colonies into independence and on the other enabled their independence to be won and secured." Review Questions 1. Compare Webster and Burke in regard to their political positions and influence. 2. Which of the two speaks in the more figurative language? Which is the easier to follow in his line of argument? Which the more entertaining to read? 3. Compare the final paragraphs of The Great Stone Face, Lamb's Dream Children, Emerson's Self-Reliance, and Webster's Reply to Hayne. 4. Does the conclusion in all of these subserve the same purpose? Is it in any case a direct appeal to the emotions ? 5. In what respect should the study of an oration differ from the study of an essay? 6. Does the presence of such a person as Sir Roger de Coverley add to the interest of the essays in which he appears? If so, in what way and for what reason? 7. Which is the more readable, Self-Reliance or the Reply to Hayne? Why? 8. Find expository passages in the fiction of the first two Parts of this course. 9. Find descriptive prose in the two orations. 10. Compare Lincoln's Gettysburg Address with Bacon's Nature in Men. Can you see any points of similarity? What difference do you notice? |