I.
Classical| The best judges among the ancients have represented Pronunciation, which they likewise called Action, as the principal part of an orator's province, from whence he is chiefly to expect success in the art of persuasion. When Cicero, in the person of Crassus, has largely and elegantly discoursed upon all the other parts of oratory, coming at last to speak of this, he says, "All the former have their effect as they are pronounced. It is the action alone which governs in speaking: without which the best orator is of no value; and is often defeated by one, in other respects, much his inferior." And he lets us know, that Demosthenes was of the same opinion; who, when he was asked what was the principal thing in oratory, replied, Action; and being asked again a second and a third time, what was next considerable, he still made the same answer. |
| You see mankind the same in every age: Heroic fortitude, tyrannic rage, Boundless ambition, patriotic truth, And hoary treason, and untainted youth, Have deeply mark'd all periods and all climes, The noblest virtues, and the blackest crimes. Did Cesar, drunk with power, and madly brave, Insatiate burn, his country to enslave? Did he for this, lead forth a servile host To spill the choicest blood that Rome could boast? The British Cesar too hath done the same, And doom'd this age to everlasting fame. Columbia's crimson'd fields still smoke with gore; Her bravest heroes cover all the shore: The flower of Britain, in full martial bloom, In this sad war, sent headlong to the tomb. Did Rome's brave senate noble dare t'oppose The mighty torrent, stand confess'd their foes, And boldly arm the virtuous few, and dare The desp'rate horrors of unequal war? Our senate too the same bold deed have done, And for a Cato, arm'd a Washington; A chief, in all the ways of battle skill'd, Great in the council, mighty in the field. |
Characteristics include: Inflammatory Style
References to Enlightenment ideals, Revolutionary heroes
Appeals to individual liberty, reason, innovation, natural law
Examples: Tom Paine, Common Sense
…O! ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth! every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the Globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind. |
| …After this I went to sleep again, and sleeping a short time I awoke. It was yet dark and no appearance of day or moonshine, and as I opened my eyes I saw a light in my chamber at the apparent distance of five feet, about nine inches diameter, of a clear, easy brightness and near the center the most radiant. As I lay still without any surprise looking upon it, words were spoken to my inward ear which filled my whole inward man. They were not the effect of thought nor any conclusion in relation to the appearance, but as the language of the Holy One spoken in my mind. The words were, "Certain Evidence of Divine Truth," and were again repeated exactly in the same manner, whereupon the light disappeared. |
| …The sense I had of the state of the churches brought a weight of distress upon me. The gold to me appeared dim and the fine gold changed, and though this is the case too generally, yet the sense of it in these parts hath in a particular manner borne heavily upon me. It appeared to me that through the prevailing of the spirit of this world the minds of many were brought to an inward desolation, and instead of the spirit of meekness, gentleness, and heavenly wisdom, which are the necessary companions of the true sheep of Christ, a spirit of fierceness and the love of dominion too generally prevailed. |
| From small beginnings in error great buildings by degrees are raised and from one age to another are more and more strengthened by the general concurrence of the people; and as men of reputation depart from the Truth, their virtues are mentioned as arguments in favour of general error, and those of less note, to justify themselves, say, "Such and such good men did the like." By what other steps could the people of Judah arise to that height in wickedness as to give just ground for the prophet Isaiah to declare in the name of the Lord that none called for justice nor pleaded for the Truth? Or for the Almighty to call upon the great city Jerusalem, just before the Babylonish captivity, to find a man who executed judgment and sought the Truth, and he would pardon it? [Isa 59:4, Jer 5:1] |
| The prospect of a road lying open to the same degeneracy in some parts of this newly settled land of America, in respect to our conduct towards the Negroes, hath deeply bowed my mind in this journey… |