force,1 and the passage accounting for the spirit of the colonies in the Speech on Conciliation.2 A good example of grouping by contrast is the antithesis between Burke's policy toward the colonies and Lord North's, in the same address.3

"If a student take the affirmative of a common debating-club proposition, Suffrage should be extended to women,' he will find after collecting his proofs, that they need to be sorted and arranged. For example, the following may occur to him : (a) Woman suffrage is in successful operation in several states.

(b) Women who pay taxes are entitled to representation. (c) On the score of individuality, women are entitled to a voice in public affairs.

(d) More intimate connection with public affairs would react favorably on women's training of their children.

(e) Woman suffrage tends to elevate the tone of politics. (f) Women are not adequately represented at present.

It will be seen on examination that (d) and (e) bear on the desirability of woman suffrage, (a) has to do with its practicability, while (b), (c), and (ƒ) relate to the justice of the

measure.

These arguments can therefore be arranged :

1. Woman suffrage is demanded by justice.

2. It is desirable for the advantage of

(a) The woman,

(b) The home,

(c) The nation at large.

3. It is practicable."4

It is difficult to show in an outline the method of transition from stage to stage of the discourse, unless the transition is made by means of a special Transition. paragraph. And yet nothing conduces more

to mark the progress of reasoning, to give an idea of

1 Page 25. 2 Select Works, I. 178.

8 Ibid, 228.

4 Educational Review, October, 1897, page 290.

unity, and to preserve the continuity of the whole, than does a natural, easy, graceful transition from one division to another. If there is a link paragraph, it may be noted in the plan. Ordinarily the transition is made by closing the last paragraph of a division with a statement which reaches over into the next division and prepares the way for it, or else by beginning a division with a statement which reaches back to something in the preceding discussion or retains something of what has gone before. Such transitions cannot be indicated in an outline. How transitions may be most effectively made depends on the order of arguments, and must be taken into account when the plan is made. Burke sometimes reaches forward, sometimes backward:

"I shall therefore endeavor, with your leave, to lay before you some of the most material of these circumstances in as full and as clear a manner as I am able to state them. The first thing we have to consider with regard to the nature of the object is the number of people in the colonies." 2

"But the population of this country, the great and growing population, though a very important consideration, will lose much of its weight if not combined with other circumstances. The commerce of your colonies is out of all proportion beyond the numbers of the people.'

He makes the transition from the discussion of the condition of the colonies to their spirit, by the entire passage of five paragraphs against the use of force; and the transition from this passage to the discussion of the spirit of the colonies is made by means of a paragraph the first part of which looks backward upon

1 Page 191 et seq.

2 Select Works, I. 168.

3 Ibid. 169.

what has been said, and the second half of which, looking forward to what is coming, paves the way for it.

"First, Sir, permit me to observe that the use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment, but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again; and a nation is not governed which is perpetually to be conquered.

"My next objection is its uncertainty. Terror is not always the effect of force, and an armament is not a victory. If you do not succeed, you are without resource; for, conciliation failing, force remains; but, force failing, no further hope of reconciliation is left. Power and authority are sometimes bought by kindness; but they can never be begged as alms by an impoverished and defeated violence.

"A further objection to force is, that you impair the object by your very endeavor to preserve it. The thing you fought for is not the thing which you recover; but depreciated, sunk, wasted and consumed in the contest. Nothing less will content me than whole America. I do not choose to consume its strength along with our own, because in all parts it is the British strength that I consume. I do not choose to be caught by a foreign enemy at the end of this exhausting conflict; and still less in the midst of it. I may escape; but I can make no insurance against such an event. Let me add, that I do not choose wholly to break the American spirit; because it is the spirit that has made the country.

"Lastly, we have no sort of experience in favor of force as an instrument in the rule of our colonies. Their growth and their utility have been owing to methods altogether different. Our ancient indulgence has been said to be pursued to a fault. It may be so. But we know, if feeling is evidence, that our fault was more tolerable than our attempt to mend it; and our sin far more salutary than our penitence.

"These, Sir, are my reasons for not entertaining that high opinion of untried force by which many gentlemen, for whose sentiments in other particulars, I have great respect, seem to be so greatly captivated."

1

1 Burke, Select Works, I. 177.

The purpose of an outline is to enable the arguer so to arrange and present his arguments, facts and illustrations, as to be convincing and persuasive; and in addition to this, to make them most easily Summary. grasped and most firmly held in memory. Effectiveness depends on skillful planning. Planning depends on thorough analysis of material. Analysis implies thorough mastery and full possession of all the facts, circumstances and evidence, bearing on the proposition to be established or overthrown. When an adequate plan is conceived and completed, the arguer is a long way toward the completion of his discourse. It is possible, however, that a good plan may, through slipshod development, underlie a worthless production; and it is equally certain that a poor plan will not give the framework for an excellent structure.

Proposition and

II. BODY OF ARGUMENT.

The body of any discourse the aim of which is conviction or persuasion, consists in general of proposition and proof. The proposition is that which is put forward to be proved or disproved. When established, it is also called the conclusion. Proof. Proof is anything serving, immediately or mediately, to convince the mind of the truth or falsehood of a proposition, "the sufficient reason for assenting to a proposition as true."1 Proof becomes argument when it is used to convince another. Argument 2 differs from proof in implying unbelief which is to be combated, a proposition which is to be established against the tacit or avowed opposition of certain persons. Many terms, 1 Wharton, Law of Evidence, 4. 2 Page 73.

like argument, proposition, proof, definition, subject, have both a logical and a rhetorical meaning. They are used here in their rhetorical sense.

Evidence

and Proof.

Evidence 1 is a portion of truth, "anything which generates proof: any matter of fact the effect, tendency or design of which is to produce in the mind a persuasion affirmative or disaffirmative of some other matter of fact."2 Proof, in law, is a broader term than evidence. Evidence includes the reproduction of the admissions of parties and of facts relevant to the issue. Proof includes, in addition, presumptions of law and of fact, and citations of law. Evidence is adduced by witnesses and documents; proof may be adduced by counsel in arguments, or by the judge in his charge.

Only

While either a term or a statement may be the subject of exposition, only a statement is susceptible of proof or disproof. The subject of argumentation, therefore, must always be expressed in the form of a proposition. The advocate may have to Propositions make clear by exposition what larceny or arson is, but he cannot argue the terms, "arson and "larceny;" he can argue that "the prisoner is guilty of arson," or that "the prisoner is innocent of larceny."

Argued.

The first business of the writer or speaker who would convince others, is to have clearly in mind his proposition as well as the logical processes by which he himself has come to his belief regarding it.

Proposition.

Indeed, this is an advantage whether the dis- Necessity of course is to be argumentative, expository or hortatory. A proposition will hold the writer's efforts