drowning, but the flock must perish from hunger. Tempests occasionally shake our dwellings and dissipate our commerce; but they scourge before them the lazy elements which without them would stagnate into pestilence. In like manner liberty herself, the last and best gift of God to his creatures, must be taken just as she is—you might pare her down into bashful regularity, and shape her into a perfect model of severe scrupulous law, but she would then be liberty no longer; and you must be content to die under the lash of this inexorable justice which you had exchanged for the banners of freedom."

§ 380. DIMINUTION.

4. Diminution is closely associated with amplification, and, like it, has already been considered. Its importance in argument is equally great:

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Along with its natural protectors and guardians, learning will be cast into the mire, and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude."BURKE.

The lower orders have in all ages been stigmatized by contemptuous epithets, such as "ignobile vulgus," "profanum vulgus," "sans-culottes," "canaille," "mob," "the unwashed," but none of these terms have more depreciative force than Burke's "swinish multitude."

In the following passages the same subject, namely, the increase of population in the American colonies, is treated with amplification and diminution. The first passage is from Burke's speech on Conciliation with America:

"But whether I put the present numbers too high or too low is a matter of little moment. Such is the strength with which population shoots in that part of the world that, state the numbers as high as we will, while the dispute continues the exaggeration ends. While we are discussing any given magnitude, they are growing to it. While we spend our time in deliberating on the mode of governing two millions, we shall find that we have two millions more to manage. Your children do not grow faster from infancy to manhood than they spread from families to communities, and from villages to nations."

Johnson, in Taxation no Tyranny, treats the same proposition with depreciation :

"We are told that the continent of North America contains three millions, not only of men, but of Whigs—of Whigs fierce for liberty and disdainful of dominion; that they multiply with the fecundity of their rattlesnakes, so that every quarter of a century they double their numbers."

§ 381. CONDENSATION.

5. Instead of amplifying propositions, it is sometimes necessary to condense them, so as to present one or more in a compact mass.

An example of this may be found in the speech of Burke, just quoted. He shows that force ought not to be used against the colonists, and gathers into a brief compass four propositions of great weight:

Ist. That the use of force alone is but temporary.

2d. That it is uncertain.

3d. That it impairs the object aimed at.

4th. That there is no experience in favor of force in the rule of the colonies.

§ 382. COMPREHENSIVENESS.

6. By comprehensiveness is meant the exhibition of a complete mastery of the subject, both in itself and in relation to others. This was a marked characteristic of Burke, whose mind was always full of his theme; who was always ready not only to reply to objections that had been made, but also to answer all others by anticipation; and whose delight it was to pour forth from the fulness of his knowledge a copious stream of examples, illustrations, and analogies, by which his argument was enriched and enforced. The same quality is also very manifest in the writings of Macaulay. A recent writer says of him: "He always seems to make us travel on a high causeway, from which the country to right and left, the prospect behind and that in front, lie visibly stretched beneath us, like a plain from a mountain-ridge."

$ 383. GENERALIZATION.

7. Generalization is the application of the principle of induction, so as to rise from particular instances to general laws. It is effective in oratory, as enabling the speaker to deduce from certain facts, or truths, conclusions of the most weighty character. This habit of generalization is a characteristic of Burke more than of any other orator, and some of his most memorable passages are presented in this form. In his speech on American Taxation, he says:

'Nothing in the world can read so awful and so instructive a lesson as the conduct of the ministry in this business, upon the mischief of not having large and liberal ideas in the management of affairs."

The following is an example from his speech on the East India Bill:

“This bill, and those connected with it, are intended to form the Magna . Charta of Hindostan. Whatever the Treaty of Westphalia is to the liberty of the princes and free cities of the empire, and to the three religions there professed; whatever the Great Charter, the Statute of Tallage, the Petition of Right, and the Declaration of Right are to Great Britain, these bills are to the people of India."

On the Nabob of Arcot's Debts :

"I think I can trace all the calamities of this country to the single source of our not having had steadily before our eyes a general, comprehensive, well-connected and well-proportioned view of the whole of our dominions, and a just sense of their true bearings and relations. . . . If we make ourselves too little for the sphere of our duty, if we do not stretch and expand our minds to the compass of their object, be well assured that everything about us will dwindle by degrees, until at length our concerns are shrunk to the dimensions of our minds. It is not a predilection to mean sordid cares that will avert the consequences of a false estimate of our interest, or prevent the shameful dilapidation into which a great empire must fall by mean reparations upon mighty ruins."

$384. THE DEFINITE.

8. It has already been shown that the definite is more forcible than the indefinite, the concrete than the abstract. In the case of oratory, abstract discussions are listened to with impatience or indifference; the preacher who expounds dogmatic theology may be orthodox, but he is not persuasive. The great orators deal directly with facts, and only discuss principles when it is forced upon them. This preference for the concrete is very remarkable in Burke, who himself makes no secret of it. In his speech on the East India Bill of Fox, he says:

"I do not presume to condemn those who argue à priori against the propriety of leaving such extensive political powers in the hands of a company of merchants. I know much is, and much more may be said against such a system; but, with my particular ideas and sentiments, I cannot go that way to work. I feel an insuperable objection in giving my hand to destroy any established principle of government upon a theory, however plausible that theory may be."

He then goes on to give facts as reasons.

The same preference for the concrete and depreciation of the abstract may be found in the following passage from his speech on Conciliation with America:

"They are therefore not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas and principles. Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found. Liberty inheres in some sensible object, and every nation has formed to itself some favorite point which by way of eminence becomes the criterion of their happiness. It happened, you know, sir, that the great contests for freedom in this country were from the earliest times chiefly upon the question of taxation."

$ 385. DESCRIPTION IN ORATORY.

9. Description is very effective in oratory. It deals with that which is definite and concrete; enlarges upon it, and presents a scene to the imagination of the hearer.

Famous examples occur in the speeches of all great orators. The description by Demosthenes of the panic in Athens after the capture of Elateia; by Sheridan, of the horrors perpetrated in Oude; by Brougham, of the French Revolution, are wellknown instances. No one, however, can surpass the description given by Burke of the descent of Hyder Ali upon the Carnatic, of which the following is a portion :

"While the authors of all these evils were idly and stupidly gazing upon this menacing meteor, which blackened all their horizon, it suddenly burst, and poured down the whole of its contents upon the plains of the Carnatic. Then ensued a scene of woe the like of which no eye had seen, no heart conceived, and which no tongue can adequately tell. All the horrors of war before known or heard of were mercy to that new havoc. A storm of universal fire blasted every field, consumed every house, destroyed every temple. The miserable inhabitants, flying from their flaming villages, in part were slaughtered; others, without regard to age, to sex, to the respect of rank, or sacredness of function; fathers torn from their children, husbands from wives, enveloped in a whirlwind of cavalry, and, amid the goading spears of drivers and the trampling of pursuing horses, were swept into captivity in an unknown and hostile land. Those who were able to evade this tempest fled to the walled cities; but, escaping from fire, sword, or exile, they fell into the jaws of famine."

§ 386. EMPHASIS OF PROPOSITIONS.

The subject of emphasis has already been considered with reference to words. When applied to propositions it gives them greater force, and not only calls attention to them, but also

makes them of more importance in the argument.

There are

various ways of emphasizing propositions, the chief of which are the following:

$387. ASSERTION.

1. Strong emphasis is laid upon propositions when they are put forth with a positive declaration of their truth; for then the speaker assumes that from his assertion there can be no appeal :

"Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission or slavery."-P. HENRY.

"This embargo must be repealed. You cannot enforce it for any important period of time longer."-JoSIAH QUINCEY.

§ 388. DENIAL.

2. Denial is merely another form of assertion, the negative being employed instead of the positive: as—

"It was not I who inspired the Hungarian people. No. It was the Hungarian people who inspired me."-KOSSUTH.

$389. APOPHTHEGM.

3. Sometimes a proposition is summed up in the form of an apophthegm, and is thereby rendered more impressive and emphatic. Burke's speeches and writings abound in this:

"The blood of man should never be shed but to redeem the blood of

"Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom, and a great empire and little minds go ill together."

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soil."

Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed that grows in every

"My hold of the colonies is in the close affection that grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are strong as links of iron."

"Parsimony is not economy."

"Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government."

§ 390. DIGRESSION.

4. Digression is often useful. This has already been sufficiently illustrated. Sometimes it is made not so much for