In Judicial Eloquence, thus, arguments embodying pure legal principles are generally uninviting and with difficulty intelligible to a jury; and the advocate who would secure a favorable hearing, will need to use much address and art. So, purely metaphysical discussions on religious subjects before a popular audience generally repel and offend. Men, moreover, are loath to hear of their own faults or weaknesses and the speaker who is obliged to recur to them has reason to fear that, unless due precaution is taken, their unwillingness to hear will entirely prevent the intended effect of his discourse.

§ 182. In the same way, the circumstances in which the speaker appears before his audience may render them indisposed to a favorable hearing, in which case the arts of conciliation suitable to the case will be needful.

The military array which Pompey had thrown around the tribunal on the trial of Milo so influenced the minds of the judges that Cicero felt it necessary, at the commencement of his oration, to allay their fears and turn to his own account the influence of Pompey, which at first seemed to the judges to be arrayed against him.

§ 183. Several of these varieties of Conciliatory Introduction, it may often happen, must be combined in the same action.

The speeches of Demosthenes on the Crown, and of Cicero in the case of Milo, alluded to above, are examples of the various combinations of these different kinds of introduction.

§ 184. Confirmation admits all the various kinds of Peroration enumerated in § 64. Recapitulation, moreover, will here be especially useful.

EXERCISES IN CONFIRMATION. Prove the following propositions by resolving their subjects, or their predicates, or both:

National prosperity depends on a pure morality.

Geological science corroborates the Mosaic history of cre

ation.

The press ought to be free.

Free institutions must triumph in Europe.

Labor is a blessing.

Scientific culture is favorable to the arts.

The fine arts are favorable to morality.

Popular favor is precarious.

Models are necessary to culture.

Find a priori proofs of the following propositions:

Rotation in office is expedient.

Games of chance are hurtful to character.

There is more happiness in a civilized than in a savage

state.

Immigration should be encouraged in a new country.
Genius is irritable.

Levity of manners is hostile to virtue.

Self-respect wins the respect of others.
Relaxation is necessary.

Bad manners make bad morals.

Virtue is its own reward.

Find a posteriori proofs of the following propositions:

The work of creation was progressive.

The feudal system was favorable to civilization.
The human race was one in its origin.

Aaron Burr was a traitor to his country.

The book of Job was written before the time of Moses.

The Epistle to the Hebrews was written by the Apostle Paul.

The "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" were composed by Homer. Warren Hastings was guilty of the charges brought against him by Burke.

Brutus was a true patriot.

The exodus of the Jews from Egypt was miraculous.
Mohammed was an impostor.

Find examples as proofs of the following propositions:

Populous cities are dangerous to national morality.

Men of genius are deficient in conversational power. What is once known is never wholly obliterated from the mind.

Great diversity of pursuits is fatal to success.

Knowledge is power.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Conscience makes cowards of us all..

Sumptuary laws are unwise.

GENERAL INTRODUCTORY VIEW.

§ 185. IN Excitation the object of discourse is to move the feelings, either by awakening some new affection, or by strengthening or allaying one already existing.

The propriety of ranking excitation among the several objects of discourse, and of founding upon this object a distinct species governed by its own laws and characterized by peculiar features, will hardly be questioned by any who recognize the feelings or affections as a distinct class of mental phenomena. In fact, we find a class of discourses constructed in particular reference to this object, and distinguished from all others by peculiar characteristics. To this class belong most of what have been denominated demonstrative discourses, particularly those pronounced on funeral and triumphal occasions, in which the object is to awaken admiration, joy, grief, or other emotion. Here belongs, likewise, a considerable part of pulpit oratory, namely, that part the object of which is to awaken or cherish some Christian affection or grace, or to allay or remove some improper passion in actual indulgence.

That this object has not been distinctly recognized in systems of general rhetoric as one of those which give specific character to discourse and furnish the grounds of classifica

tion, is to be attributed mainly to the fact that in deliberative and judicial eloquence this can seldom if ever be proposed as a leading object, and such systems have been constructed chiefly in reference to those departments of oratory.

In forensic speaking, however, excitation often enters in a subordinate office; and there continues subject to its own regulating principles, although modified somewhat by the controlling aim of such discourse. Indeed, as has been observed elsewhere, the various forms of oratory, as explanation, confirmation, excitation, and persuasion, often mingle together, each retaining its characteristic features in the same discourse; while, still, it remains true that one or the other must in every case predominate and give character to the whole discourse, and the others be only subservient to this main design.

§ 186. The work of excitation is accomplished either by the appropriate presentation of the object of feeling merely, or by this combined with the power of sympathy.

The two departments of excitation are, accordingly, PATHETIC EXPLANATION and EMPLOYMENT OF SYM

PATHY.

The feelings, like the intellect, belong to the spontaneities of the mind; and are only indirectly controlled by the will. They move necessarily more or less on the presentation of their appropriate objects. They are, nevertheless, as phenomena of the same mind, subject to an influence from the will and the understanding, as well as from the general tone and habits of the mind.

It will sometimes be necessary in excitation to prove a fact or truth. But this process is only incidental; whereas explanation is the direct means of awakening feeling.

§ 187. The more general unity of the discourse in excitation will consist in the singleness of the theme;