This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IX PERSUASION So far as we have been considering chiefly that part of debating which has to do with the reasoning processes, which is directed primarily to the mind, and results in conviction. But an argument which appeals only to the understanding may be barren of results. The cold logic of Brutus was easily overcome by the persuasive appeals of Antony. For the hearer to accept your reasoning is one thing, but for him to cast aside his prejudices and inertia is another thing. You want him to accept your argument in fact as well as in theory; in other words, to act upon it, be the action expressed in the verdict of a jury, by a vote in a deliberative body, or by any other line of conduct. It would take little argument, for instance, to convince the ordinary citizen that he should exercise his right of suffrage; but something more might be needed to impel him to go to the polls on a particular election day. That part of debating which wins the disposition of the hearers, directs motives, arouses emotions, and touches the springs of action is called persuasion. The importance of Persuasion in debate cannot be overestimated, for it is the climax of all argument proper. "Is it not," says Emerson, " the end of eloquence, to alter in a pair of hours, perhaps in a half-hour's discourse, the convictions and habits of years?" And yet, unlike the processes of pure conviction, the sources of persuasion are too ill-defined and elusive for any systematic treatment. All reasonable men reason substantially alike. But men act from different motives; and in the use of persuasion in debate much must depend upon the individual debater's tact in appreciating the particular motives that appertain to a particular audience. Generally considered, ...