The Art of the Orator

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A. and C. Black, 1912 - 177 pages
 

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Page 41 - Yet there happened, in my time, one noble speaker who was full of gravity in his speaking. His language, where he could spare, or pass by, a jest, was nobly censorious. No man ever spake more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of his own graces. His hearers could not cough, or look aside from him, without loss. He commanded where he spoke, and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion.
Page 111 - Modern discoveries have not been made by large collections of facts, with subsequent discussion, separation, and resulting deduction of a truth thus rendered perceptible. A few facts have suggested an hypothesis, which means a supposition, proper to explain them. The necessary results of this supposition are worked out, and then, and not till then, other facts are examined to see if these ulterior results are found in nature.
Page 136 - For instance, instead of proving that "this Prisoner has committed an atrocious fraud," you prove that " the fraud he is accused of is atrocious :" instead of proving (as in the well-known tale of Cyrus and the two coats) that the taller boy had a right to force the other boy to exchange coats with him...
Page 117 - A vague and loose mode of looking at facts very easily observable, left men for a long time under the belief that a body ten times as heavy as another falls ten times as fast; — that objects immersed in water are always magnified, without regard to the form of the surface ; — that the magnet exerts an irresistible force ; — that crystal is always found associated with ice; — and the like.
Page 42 - No man ever spoke more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of his own graces. His hearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss. He commanded where he spoke, and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his power. The fear of every man that heard him was lest he should make an end.
Page 123 - ... another sets down much more than he sees, confounding it with what he imagines, or with what he infers ; another takes note of the kind of all the circumstances, but being inexpert in estimating their degree, leaves the quantity of each vague and uncertain . another sees indeed the whole, but makes such an awkward division of it into parts, throwing things into one mass which require to be separated, and separating others which might more conveniently be considered as one, that the result is...
Page 138 - Thus, when in a discussion one party vindicates, on the ground of general expediency, a particular instance of resistance to Government in a case of intolerable oppression, the opponent may gravely maintain, that " we ought not to do evil that good may come :" a proposition which of course had never been denied ; the point in dispute being "whether resistance in this particular case were doing evil or not.
Page 138 - ... which he perhaps holds in abhorrence. Thus, when in a discussion one party vindicates, on the ground of general expediency, a particular instance of resistance to government in a case of intolerable oppression, the opponent may gravely maintain, ' that we ought not to do evil that good may come ;' a proposition which of course had never been denied, the point in dispute being, ' whether resistance in this particular case were doing evil or not.
Page 123 - To determine that point, we must endeavor to effect a separation of the facts from one another, not in our minds only, but in nature. The mental analysis, however, must take place first. And every one knows that in the mode of performing it, one intellect differs immensely from another.
Page 137 - It is evident that ignoratio elenchi may be employed as well for the apparent refutation of your opponent's proposition, as for the apparent establishment of your own; for it is substantially the same thing, to prove what was not denied or to disprove what was not asserted : the latter practice is not less common, and it is more offensive, because it frequently amounts to a personal affront, in attributing to a person opinions, &c., which he perhaps holds in abhorrence.

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