75. Argumentation. In argumentation the writer's purpose is to convince his readers or hearers of the truth of a proposition, and to this end special care must be taken to present the arguments and conclusions from them in proper order. Statements the truth of which might reasonably be a matter of doubt should not be made without giving something in the nature of reasons or proofs in support of them. In argumentative discourse the relation of cause and effect will generally be very prominent throughout. Often, however, the proofs of the statements must consist of illustrative facts, showing like conditions or causes that make presumptive like results.. 6. 1. The remedy for oppression, then, is to bring in men who cannot be oppressed. 2. This is the remedy our fathers sought; we shall find no other. 3. The problem of life is not to make life easier, but to make men stronger, so that no problem shall be beyond their solution. 4. It will be a sad day for the Republic when life is easy for ignorance, indolence, and apathy. 5. The social order of the present we cannot change much if we would. The real work of each generation is to mold the social orders of the future. 7. The grown-up men and women of to-day are, in a sense, past saving. 8. The best work of the republic is to save the children. 9. The one great duty of a free nation is education, education, wise, thorough, universal; the education not of cramming, but of training; the education which no republic. has ever given, and without which all republics must be in whole or in part failures. 10. If this generation should leave as its legacy to the next the real education, training in individual power and skill, breadth of outlook on the world and on life,—the problems of the next century Iwould take care of themselves. II. There can be no industrial problem where each is capable of solving his own individual problem for himself. DAVID STARR JORDAN, in the Independent, Dec. 29, 1898. Here sentence I contains the statement of the thing for which the writer is contending, and this statement is made more clear and definite in sentence 8. Sentence 2 is an illustrative fact stated as a presumptive reason for sentence I. as a cause for sentence 1. a cause for sentence 3. as a cause for sentence 6, which is itself a fact stated as a cause for sentences I and 8. Sentence 7 is a fact stated as a cause for sentence 5 and sentence 8. Sentence 9 is both a fuller statement of sentence 8, and also a fact stated as a cause for sentence 8. Sentences 10 and II are facts stated as causes for sentences 8 and I. Note throughout this paragraph that, while some statements are made which must rely upon the reader's voluntary assent, those that might fail of that assent are supported by others which bear to them the relation of causes or of reasons. Sentence 3 is a fact stated 2. 1. But, however correct in theory, such views, it will be suspected, are, after all, remote and impracticable. How, especially, can we hope to bring our intractable democracy upon so high a ground of principle? 3. I cannot entirely sympathize with such impressions. tory clearly indicates the fact that republics are more ductile than any other form of government, and more favorable to the admission of high-toned principles and the severer maxims of government. 5. The confederate republics of Crete, and the daughter republic of Sparta, were no other than studied and rigorous systems of direct personal discipline upon the people, in which wealth and ease were in nowise sought, but sternly rejected. 6. And in what monarchy, or even despotism, of the world, where but in plain republican Rome, the country of Cato and Brutus, is a censor of manners and morals to be endured, going forth with his note-book, and for any breach of parental or filial duty observed, for seduction of the youth, for dishonor in the field, for a drinking-bout, or even luxurious manners, inflicting a civil degradation upon the highest citizens and magistrates? 7. The beginnings, too, of our own history are of the same temperament, and such as perfectly to sympathize with the highest principles of government? 8. Indeed, I have felt it to be in the highest degree auspicious, that the ground I vindicate before you requires no revolution, being itself the true American ground. 9. May we not also discover even now, in the worst forms of radicalism and political depravation among us, a secret elemental force, a law of republican feeling, which, if appealed to on high and rigid principles, would yield a true response? 10. We fail in our conservative attempts, more because our principles are too low than because they are too high. II. A course of administration, based on the pursuit of wealth alone, though bad in principle anywhere, is especially bad in a republic. 12. It is more congenial to the splendors and stately distinctions of monarchy. 13. It concentrates the whole attention of the nation upon wealth. 14. It requires measures to be debated only as they bear upon wealth. 15. It produces thus a more egregious notion of its dignity continually, both in the minds of those who have it and of those who have it not, and thus it exasperates every bad feeling in a republic, till it retaliates destruction upon it. 16. But a system of policy based on the high and impartial principles of philosophy, one that respects only manly bodies, high talents, great sentiments and actions, one that values excellence of person, whether found in the palaces of the rich or the huts of the poor, holding all gilded idleness and softness in the contempt they deserve — such a system is congenial to a republic. 17. It would have attractions to our people. 18. Its philosophic grounds, too, can be vindicated by a great variety of bold arguments, and the moral absurdity of holding wealth in higher estimation than personal value can be played out in the forms of wit and satire, so as to raise a voice of acclamation, and overwhelm the mercenary system with utter and final contempt. HORACE BUSHNELL: True Wealth or Weal of Nations. Here the speaker is arguing that "republics are more ductile," etc., as in sentence 4. Sentences I and 2 are introductory, stating the views of objectors to his opinion, and sentence 3 is a sentence of transition to his own thought. Sentences 5 and 6 give specific instances in the way of presumptive proof that like results should follow in our republic. Sentences 7 and 8 are facts stated as a cause for sentence 4, and sentence 9 is a fact stated in the form of a rhetorical question as a cause for sentence 4. Sentence 10 is a fact stated as an effect from sentence 4, and so in the mind of the reader implying the truth of sentence 4. Sentences II and 12 are facts stated as effects from sentences 13, 14, and 15. Sentence 16 is a fact stated as a cause for sentence 4; and sentences 17 and 18 are facts stated as causes for sentence 16, and therefore also as causes for sentence 4. Of course a paragraph is not sufficient to illustrate fully the course of an elaborate argument. It can show only the close texture, the inwrought dependence of part upon part, in good argumentative discourse. should be kept carefully in mind that such argument as is contained in sentences 5 and 6 of this quotation is not of the most convincing sort. Argument from analogy must always be uncertain because of the improbability of having in both cases exactly similar conditions. It is, however, the sort of argument most readily furnished by history, and is effective in making a conclusion from historical facts probable, but probable only. 76. Exercises in Argumentation. On the following outline write an essay of 500 words, taking care to leave no doubtful statements without some sort of support in the way of causes, reasons, or proofs. European countries should maintain smaller armies. 1. (Cause.) War is the soldier's business, and the soldier is inclined to look upon the prospect of war with favor. (Reasons.) 2. (Effect.) The military spirit is a menace to the peaceful interests of a nation. (Proofs.) 3. (Effect and Cause.) the chance of war. (Proofs.) A standing army increases 4. (Effect.) A state of war is a reversion to barbarism, impeding the progress of civilization. (Proofs.) 5. (Cause and Effect.) Armies are expensive, and entail great indebtedness. (Specific instances.) 6. (Cause and Effect.) Great military armaments take the strength of a nation from productive enterprises. (Reasons.) On the following outline write an essay of 400 words, taking care to have the essay properly connected in |