state and condition, with an expression of our good wishes and our sympa. thies-and it was rejected."-HENRY CLAY.

Here the point of the passage lies in the statement that the bill was rejected; but this being held in suspense throughout the whole of a long sentence, is at length put forth with the greatest possible force and effect.

A famous example is found in Sheridan's description of the horrors perpetrated in Oude, in his speech against Warren Hastings.

§ 518. PREPARATION FOR WHAT IS TO FOLLOW (PRÆMUNITIO). Sometimes the speaker introduces statements in order to prepare the minds of his hearers for what he is going to say. This is often found in the exordium, and may be illustrated by the opening of Sir James Mackintosh's speech on behalf of Jean Peltier, where he states that no disrespect is intended towards the government of France, but yet that the accused requires a faithful, zealous, and fearless defence.

It is also used to introduce important points with unusual emphasis, as in the speech of Marc Antony :

"If you have tears, prepare to shed them now."

§ 519. UNEXPECTED OR SURPRISING STATEMENT (PARADOXUM). Great emphasis is sometimes given to any topic by introducing it as something unexpected or surprising.

This is illustrated in the speech of Marc Antony:

"Look you here,

Here is himself, marred, as you see, with traitors!"

Burke's description of Marie Antoinette affords another example:

"Little did I think that such disasters could have fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men !"

The following example is somewhat fuller :

...

"At the time I departed for Massachusetts, if there was an impression which I thought universal, it was that at the commencement of this session an end would be put to this measure. . . . With these impressions I arrive in this city. . . . The scene opens, and I am commanded to forget all my recollections, to disbelieve the evidence of my senses, to contradict what I have seen and felt."-JOSIAH QUINCEY.

$ 520. REFERENCE TO PAST EVENTS (ANAMNESIS).

Reference is made to the past so as to bring up old associations, and thus give greater effect by a contrast, stated or implied, with the present.

"You who have lived during the period from 1815 to 1822 may remember that this country was never in a more uneasy position. The sufferings of the working-classes were beyond description; and the difficulties and struggles and bankruptcies of the middle-classes were such as few persons have a just idea of."-JOHN BRIGHT.

The force of the following passage consists in the appeal which is made to the remembrance of the past :

"That my sketch is no fancy picture every one of you know. Every one of you can glance back over their own path, and count many and many a one among those who started from the goal at their side, with equal energy and perhaps greater promise, who has found a drunkard's grave long before this-the brightness of the bar, the ornament of the pulpit, the hope, the blessing, and stay of many a family. You know, every one of you who has reached middle life, how often on your path you set up the warning"Fallen before the temptations of the streets.'"-WENDELL PHILLIPS.

§ 521. POSSIBILITY CONTRASTED WITH REALITY (PROECTHESIS). Sometimes possibility is contrasted with reality by stating what might have been done and what has been done.

This is illustrated in the following passages :

"I believe that if this country seventy years ago had adopted the principle of non-intervention in every case in which her interests were not directly or obviously assailed, that she would have been saved from much of the pauperism and brutal crimes by which our government and people have alike been disgraced. This country might have been a garden; every dwelling might have been of marble; and every person who treads its soil might have been sufficiently educated. We should, indeed, have had less of military glory. We might have had neither a Trafalgar nor a Waterloo; but we should have set the high example of a Christian nation, free in its institutions, courteous and just in its conduct towards all foreign states, and resting its policy on the unchanging foundation of Christian morality."JOHN BRIGHT.

"Had I served a weak or wicked master, and implicitly obeyed his dictates, obedience to his commands might have been my only justification. But as it has been my good fortune to serve a master who wants no bad ministers, and would have hearkened to none, my defence must rest on my own conduct."-SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.

§ 522. EXPLANATION.

3. The force of an argument depends upon its clearness, and this is greatly assisted by frequent explanations.

In the following passage the explanation is at once full and forcible:

"The senator from Delaware calls this metaphysical reasoning which he cannot comprehend. If by metaphysical reasoning he means the scholastic refinement which makes distinctions without a difference, no one can hold it in more utter contempt than I do; but if, on the contrary, he means the power of analysis and combination-that power which reduces the most complex idea into its elements—which traces causes to their first principles, and by the power of generalization and combination unites the whole in a harmonious system-then, so far from deserving contempt, it is the highest attribute of the human mind. It is the power which raises man above the brute, or which distinguishes his faculties from mere sagacity which he holds in common with inferior animals. It is this power which has raised the astronomer from being a mere gazer at the stars to the high intellectual eminence of a Newton or a Laplace, and astronomy itself from a mere observation of insulated facts into that noble science which displays to our admiration the system of the universe."-CALHOUN,

§ 523. STATEMENT OF THE REASON FOR A THING (AITIOLOGIA). Another kind of explanation consists in the statement of a reason for a thing.

"As Cæsar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor him; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him."

§ 524. ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS (ANTERRESIS).

4. In the course of arguments advocating any cause, it is common to reply to objections, and refute them, if possible. The following are examples:

"The boy emperor of Austria, expelled from his most important territory, has the right, it is said, to call in the Cossacks to cut the throats of his own subjects. If this be admitted, there is an end to all responsibility of governments to their people."-COBDEN.

In this passage, as in the following, the objection is stated, and met by an instantaneous refutation.

"Another gentleman has said the Catholics have got much, and ought to be content. Why have they got that much? Is it from the minister? Is it from the Parliament, who threw their petition over the bar? No; they got it by the great revolution of human affairs, by the astonishing march

of the human mind-a march that has collected too much momentum in its advance to be now stopped in its progress."-CURRAN.

In the following passage the objection is answered with great dexterity and fulness:

"The first argument of the gentleman that I shall notice is the unprepared state of the country. Whatever weight this argument might have in a question of immediate war, surely it has little in that of preparation for it."-CALHOUN.

The argument of weakness is thus disposed of by Patrick Henry :

"They tell us, sir, that we are weak-but when shall we be stronger?"— PATRICK HENRY.

Lord Chatham meets the objection of Lord Suffolk with an outburst of indignation:

"It is perfectly allowable, says Lord Suffolk, to use all the means which God and nature have put into our hands. . . . I am astonished, I am shocked to hear such sentiments avowed."-CHATHAM.

Fox, in his speech on the Russian Armament, turns aside to answer the arguments for continuing the armament, which are, Ist, that the emperor might insist on better terms from the Turks; 2d, that Russia might have insisted on harder terms; 3d, that the armament could not be discontinued till the sentiments of Prussia were known. These are all answered with that orator's usual vigor and completeness.

§ 525. ANTICIPATION OF OBJECTIONS (PROLEPSIS, ANTHYPOPHORA).

Objections are often anticipated and answered. This case differs from the preceding one in this, that the speaker does not wait for the objections of his opponent, but brings them forward of his own accord, with the express purpose of replying to them by anticipation.

This is illustrated in the following passage:

"I am aware of the difficulties I have to encounter in bringing forward this business; I am aware how ungracious it would be for this House to show that they are not the real representatives of the people; I am aware that the question has been formerly agitated on different occasions by great and able characters, who have deserted the cause from despair of success; and I am aware that I must necessarily go into what may, perhaps, be supposed trite and worn-out arguments."-LORD GREY.

In this case the objections are all stated before the reply is given; in the following each objection is answered as it is stated:

"Tell me not of the honor of belonging to a free country. I ask, does our liberty bear generous fruits? Does it exalt us in manly spirit, in public virtue, above countries trodden under foot by despotism? Tell me not of the extent of our country. I care not how large it is if it multiply degenerate men. Speak not of prosperity. Better be one of a poor people, plain in manners, reverencing God, and respecting themselves, than belong to a rich country which knows no higher good than riches."-WM. Ellery CHANNING.

The next example is of a somewhat different kind, and anticipates a question rather than an objection :

"And now, if it be asked why, in considering the true grandeur of nations, I dwell thus singly and exclusively on war, it is because war is utterly and irreconcilably inconsistent with true greatness.”—Charles Sumner.

CHAPTER VI.

THE ARTIFICES OF ORATORY.

$526. ARTIFICES OF ORATORY.

5. MANY modes of statement are devised by the speaker for the purpose of gaining an ascendency over his opponent or his auditors. These are distinguished by the term artifices.

§ 527. EXPRESSION OF DOUBT OR IGNORANCE (DUBITATIO, APORIA).

In the first place, there is that kind of artifice by which the speaker represents himself as in a state of doubt, ignorance, hesitation, or the like.

The expression of doubt or of ignorance is generally made use of in order to introduce statements with greater emphasis:

"I know not how it has happened, but it really seems that while his Grace was meditating his well-considered censure upon me, he fell into a sort of sleep."-BURKE.