injure its good name by their acts. Finally, he might appeal to their sense of gratitude to benefactors. Theodore Roosevelt, in an address on The Manly Virtues and Politics, touches lightly on the motive of self-interest, and then appeals to the higher motive of duty:— It is a good thing to appeal to citizens to work for good government because it will better their estate materially, but it is a far better thing to appeal to them to work for good government because it is right in itself to do so. Doubtless, if we can have clean, honest politics, we shall be better off in material matters. A thoroughly pure, upright, and capable administration of the affairs of New York City results in a very appreciable increase of comfort to each citizen. We should have better systems of transportation; we should have cleaner streets, better sewers, and the like. But it is sometimes difficult to show the individual citizen that he will be individually better off in his business and in his home affairs for taking part in politics. I do not think it is always worth while to show that this will always be the case. The citizen should be appealed to primarily on the ground that it is his plain duty, if he wishes to deserve the name of freeman, to do his full share in the hard and difficult work of self-government. He must do his share unless he is willing to prove himself unfit for free institutions, fit only to live under a government where he will be plundered and bullied because he deserves to be plundered and bullied on account of his selfish timidity and short-sightedness. A speaker may offset the persuasion of an opponent in one or both of two ways. First, he may himself respond to the emotional appeal of his adversaries, and show that his own position is quite consistent with these worthy emotions. Second, he may appeal to higher emotions and show that they are higher. This is effective only when the audience respond. to this higher appeal. If a debate turns out to be dull, after the subject has been chosen with due regard to the suggestions we have given, the speakers must not blame the subject. There are possibilities of interest and delight-sources of persuasion - in every debatable question, and there are speakers who can always find and use those possibilities. Such speakers should be studied at every opportunity. III. THE OCCASION The occasion itself may be inspiring. The air may be vibrant with persuasive influences, to which the speaker has only to yield himself. Party enthusiasts in the heat of a political rally and students celebrating an athletic victory greet the most stupid words with prolonged applause. The speaker has only to enter into the spirit of the occasion. Usually, however, the speaker is lost whose power depends on the inspiration of the occasion; he must master the occasion through his power. The ordinary attitude of the modern audience is indifference. At the outset, the speaker can almost hear them say, "Come, now, if you have anything worth saying, say it right away and say it well, or we are done with you." There is persuasion latent in every occasion. Whether the speaker summons it forth depends on his ability to adapt his subject to the occasion. This, in turn, depends in part on his knowledge of the occasion. No fact is too insignificant to be of possible aid to him in adaptation. He must know the attitude of his audience. Ruskin, in the first lecture of Sesame and Lilies, said: "I never can go on with an address unless I feel or know that my audience are either with me or against me. I do not much care which, in beginning; but I must know where they are." The hearers must be made to feel that the whole address is meant for them on that particular occasion. Earmarks of previous use are almost fatal. Let the audience once discover that the speech was prepared for another time and place, and is now served up to them as a cold after-thought, and their own feelings cool. Adaptation is the secret of persuasion. EXERCISES FOR THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER 1. Enumerate the sources of persuasion mentioned by Emerson in his Essay on Eloquence. 2. Write a letter to a boy in a preparatory school asking him to enter your college. The letter should be so clearly adapted to this boy that the other members of the class, on hearing it read, will be able to tell about the boy's position, habits, temperament, interests, and desires. 3. Attend a lecture (to be prescribed for the whole class) and take note of the sources of persuasion (a) in the man, (b) in the subject, and (c) in the occasion. 4. By what methods does Burke endeavor, in the Introduction to his speech on conciliation, to arouse interest, overcome prejudice, and gain favorable consideration for his plan? 5. What are the persuasive qualities in Burke's Speech, from paragraph 142 to the end? To what motives does he appeal? 6. What objections do you find to the following quotations from argumentative speeches? a. "Labor's demands can no longer be dismissed with contempt. A man may not agree with us, but he must now show why he does not, and the logic is always on our side because we are right." Samuel Gompers. b. "Mr. Speaker, I rise under some embarrassment occasioned by a feeling of delicacy toward one half of the house, and of sovereign contempt for the other half." Edmund Burke. (c. "My opponent has tried to make you think that I favored the control of intra-state railways by the Federal government. But he cannot deceive so intelligent an audience by willful misinterpretation. Any fair-minded man must see that I have absolutely proved my proposition." - Student in debate. 7. Discuss the persuasive adaptation of the subject to the special time and audience in one of the following speeches: Phillips Brooks, Fourth of July Address. Booker T. Washington, Address at the Atlanta Exposition. Wendell Phillips, Toussaint L'Ouverture. (These speeches are all included in G. P. Baker's The Forms of Public Address.) 8. Let each member of the class rewrite one of his arguments for the purpose of adapting it persuasively to a special audience. If possible, arrange for the actual delivery of the speech before the audience for which it is prepared. (For further suggestions, turn to the article on "College Courses in Public Speaking," in The Nation, April 11, 1907.) TWELFTH CHAPTER DEBATING "The supreme advantage of debate is that it compels a man to think. A man is not a man unless he is a thinker — he is a fool, having no ideas of his own. If he happens to live among men who do think, he browses, like an animal, on their ideas. He is a sort of kept man, being supported by the thoughts of others. He is what in England we call a pauper, who subsists upon outdoor relief allowed him by men of intellect." -J. G. HOLYOAKE. THE oral presentation of argument under fixed rules, whereby each side of the question is given a limited hearing and immediate opportunity to reply to the other side, is called formal debate. Nearly all that we have said about argumentation applies as well to the art of debate. Debating not mere contentiousness. Debating, as the term is here used, does not mean mere contentiousness, discussion carried on "just for the sake of argument." It was said of one man: "He is a born debater. There is nothing he likes better than an argument. He will not even eat anything that agrees with him." The trained debater is not of this class. The more he knows about the science of logic and the art of debate, the more reluctant he is to engage in futile argument. And disputes are, for the most part, futile. They set out on their wanderings from nowhere and arrive nowhere; they are without common ground; there are no truths accepted as a basis of debate; and the more contentious the disputants become, the more likely it is that they know not what they are discussing. Such disputes are parodies on argumentation. Burden of proof and presumption. We have seen that the proposition should be so phrased as to place the burden of proof upon the affirmative and make the presumption in |