to excite the feelings and perhaps cultivate the moral sentiments. It was a kind of moral suasion, the nearest approach to our pulpit oratory, and, like it, in close alliance with poetry. The subject-matter of the Epideictic addresses included both gods and men. The eulogistic funeral oration was a common example.

The impulses of pity, generosity, or disinterestedness, are greatly strengthened, when the object of them inspires our love or esteem; while, on the other hand, they are neutralized by positive bad qualities. Accordingly, the orator in calling for our sympathy and help, joins commendation of the sufferer to the recital of his sufferings. The speech of Mark Antony is a skilful union of both modes of appeal.

To the present head belongs the stirring up of the strong affections of kindred or family, social fraternity, party, and country. The influence of the family sentiments as an engine of persuasion is seen in the memorable incident of the condemnation of the ten generals at Athens. (Grote's Greece, Chap. 64.)

The love of country is addressed and inflamed by the political orator. But this usually appears under the much stronger feeling of party; the political attachments of individuals taking the special direction of some one line of policy-conservatism or improvement, aristocracy or democracy. Still, an orator thinks it not altogether vain to appeal in a great emergency to the pure sentiment of country. "Irksome as is my task this day," said the younger Pitt, in a critical moment of his career, "the necessities of the country call upon me not to shrink from it; and I confide in the good sense and the patriotism of the people of England."

The sentiment of esteem, respect, admiration, or reverence, towards any one, inclines us to defer to his opinions and views, and is in that way a means of persuasion; being called, in ancient times, the argument ad verecundiam. Great men in the state acquire an ascendency over the minds of a large number of people; and it is enough, for ensuring a disposition favorable to any measure, to cite Washington or Jefferson, Pitt or Fox.

When there is a hostile feeling, so strong as to refuse a hearing to what is proposed, an appeal to venerable authorities is of the greatest efficacy. The dislike to innovation is often soothed down in this way.

The speaker's own authority counts as an element. If he is held in esteem, his assertions have weight, apart from their evidence, and obversely. A large proportion of speaking and writing consists of unproved assertions, and, unless a hearer's dispositions or his information be adverse, some effect is produced by them. To this the tone or manner of the speaker, in respect of carnestness, emphasis, or energy, greatly contributes.

The religious sentiment, embracing fear, love, and wonder or the feeling of the sublime, is nourished by appealing to these several emotions in connection with the great object of worship. Pulpit oratory has varied the appeal in almost every possible way; while many poets, as such, have adopted the theme.

The whole of the present class of emotions may attain the height of passion, through mere natural intensity of feeling, excessive indulgence, or one-sidedness of character. We have frequent examples in the maternal feeling, in hero-worship, in party spirit, and in religion carried to bigotry.

(3.) Vanity, Pride, and the Sentiment of Power. These feelings are distinct but allied, and conjointly they make up the egotism of the human character. The orator appeals to them by compliment, praise, or flattery, regulated according to the susceptibilities of the audience; he also observes a courteous demeanor and the forms of politeness.

Oratorical flattery is administered through such commonplaces as the natural equality of men (addressed to those in an inferior position), the natural goodness and dignity of human nature, the sound judgment of the feelings or the heart, the good sense of the common people, the admirable instincts of women, the innocence of childhood.

The argument ad captandum is either an appeal to some vulgar prejudice, or a strong dose of flattery.

The extreme and impassioned form of the egotistic impulses is called Ambition, to which human nature, and especially youth, is easily inflamed by examples of men elevated to fame or power. By the intoxicating idea of glory, many, in all ages, have been tempted to incur the hazards of the profession of arms. Napo leon stimulated his troops by the carrière ouverte,—the laying open of the highest rank to the hopes of the common soldier The line of Homer,

αἱὲν ἀριστεύειν καὶ ὑπείροχον ἔμμεναι άλλων,

has been often recited to fire the ambition of ardent minds. The high self-regarding sentiments of pride, dignity, indopendence, self-respect, may operate as aids to morality, and are therefore frequently appealed to in the oratory of moral suasion.

Anger, or

(4.) Anger, Indignation, Hatred, Antipathy. irascible emotion, is a state superadded to mere aversion, consequent on pain or suffering caused by some other sentient being. The angry person is excited to unusual energy, and also derives pleasure from retaliating upon the author of the pain. When we contract a permanent disposition to inflict harm on those that give us pain, we are said to entertain malevolent affection, or Hatred. When the hatred is intense, and aggravated by fear or disgust, it is called Antipathy. In all its forms, the malevolent sentiment is sufficiently powerful to demand the consideration of the orator.

By representing persons as having specially injured us, or by attributing to them bad qualities, a speaker rouses against them the angry feelings of an audience. Vituperation, abuse, depreciation, calumny, find a place in the oratory of all ages. Demosthenes, Cicero, Chatham, Fox, Burke, Pitt, Sheridan, and John Randolph, of Roanoke, all wielded the instrument, and probably to excess. In a jury trial arising out of the impeachment of Warren Hastings, Erskine describes the speeches against Hastings as "anathemas of superhuman eloquence."

Besides craving the sweets of ordinary revenge, men are prone to special antipathies, by which they may be swayed to

acts of violent hostility. Such were the sentiments of the Jews towards foreigners, and the antipathy in the Middle Ages to a heretic or a witch.

Party feeling has, at various times, as in the Roman Republic, and during the first French Revolution, reached a degree of virulent hatred that nothing but the extermination of opponents would satisfy. In that state of feeling, to denounce a man was to ensure his ruin.

The most favorable aspect of the vindictive feeling is what is termed moral or righteous indignation. The orator appeals to it by making out a case of aggravated criminality. Such doubtless was the aim of Burke, Fox, and Sheridan, in the Hastings impeachment.

(5.) Ridicule, Derision, Contempt. It is chiefly under the malignant extreme, called Ridicule, that the ludicrous is instrumental in persuasion. Seeking out the mean and despicable side of an opponent, with a view to weaken and destroy his influence, the orator brings to bear upon him a flood of degrading illustration.

The Provincial Letters of Pascal are an example of the power of irony, humor, and ridicule brought in aid of argument. Swift and Voltaire are perhaps the two greatest masters of the art. Paul Louis Courier and Sydney Smith, have more recently displayed powers of a high order in the same department. It is usual to combine, as in Junius, ridicule with vituperation.

Comic and satiric poetry has in all ages been used as an oratorical weapon, often more powerful than speeches. Aristophanes had no small share in the condemnation of Socrates.

Extravagance and Sentimentality are the natural butt of derision and ridicule. We cannot wonder at Francis's reply to Burke's passage on Marie Antoinette :—“ Are you such a determined champion of beauty as to draw your sword in defence of any jade upon earth, provided she be handsome?"

(6.) The Emotions of Fine Art. The elements of Poetry may be introduced to heighten the effect of oratory, when the orator combines the genius of the poet. The poetic charm or fascination thrown around a subject is a bribe to gain over the

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audience to the opinions of the speaker. A highly poetical oratory may be seen in Jeremy Taylor, Burke, Robert Hall, Macaulay, Shiel, Chalmers, Carlyle, and many others.

The address to any of the feelings partakes of the method of Poetry. The preacher, for example, who has to draw out and strengthen the religious and moral sentiments, must proceed by appropriate descriptions, combinations, and narrations. in the manner of an artist.

The laws that regulate the appeal to the feelings in a work of Art, apply to an Oration by which feeling is to be stirred, or interest excited. The chief maxims are two :-first, to proceed from the gentler to the stronger effects in the manner of a climax; and, secondly, to alternate the different emotions, or kinds of interest. There should also be a concentration of the interest at points, or stages, as in the evolution of a story.

(7.) The Moral Sentiment. In so far as the sentiment of right and wrong is made up (as it must be to a large extent through the kindred nature of the things) of our prudence as regards self, and of our sympathies as regards others, it is stimulated by an appeal to those principles of action. Anything that it may contain distinct or apart from these, in the shape of habits of acting according to the recognized rules of morality, is brought into play by a reference to the rule in each case, and to the weight of authority in its favor.

It is a species of indirect flattery, not without effect, to assume in the hearers a greater sense of duty than perhaps actually belongs to them. Still, it is desirable, for the sake of keeping up a high tone of address, never to lose sight of the moral sentiment in the choice of weapons of persuasion.

Much of the oratory of moral suasion operates chiefly in presenting to the mind ideals, as in poetry; there being no serious care or endeavor on the part of the hearers to adapt their conduct to the high-toned precepts of the orator.

116. There are certain things to be noted respecting the management of the Feelings generally.

(1.) As regards the speaker's own manifestations of feeling,