she is so pettish and over-run with cholers against me, that if I had the good happiness to have my dwelling (which is placed by my creat-cranfather upon the pottom of an hill) no farther distance but twenty miles from the Lofer's Leap, I would indeed indefour to preck my neck upon it on purpose. Now, good mister Spictatur of Crete Pritain, you must know it, there is in Caernarvanshire a very pig mountain, the clory of all Wales, which is named Penmainmaure, and you must also know, it is no crete journey on foot from me; but the road is stony and bad 10 for shooes. Now, there is upon the forehead of this mountain a very high rock, like a parish steeple, that cometh a huge deal over the sea; so when I am in my melancholies, and I do throw myself from it, I do desire my fery good friend to tell me in his Spictatur, if I shall be cure of my griefous lofes; for there is the sea clear as glass, and as creen as the leek: then likeways if I be drown, and preak my neck, if Mrs. Gwinifrid will not lofe me afterwards. Pray be speedy in your answers, for I am in creat haste, and it is my tesires to do my pusiness without loss of time. I remain with cordial affections, your ever loving friend,

20

'DAVYTH AP SHENKYN.'

'P.S. My law suits have brought me to London, but I have lost my causes; and so have made my resolutions to go down and leap before the frosts begin; for I am apt to take colds.'

Ridicule, perhaps, is a better expedient against love than sober advice, and I am of opinion, that Hudibras and Don Quixote may be as effectual to cure the extravagancies of this passion, as any of the old philosophers. I shall therefore publish very speedily the translation of a little Greek manuscript, which is sent me by a learned friend. It appears to have been a piece 30 of those records which were kept in the temple of Apollo, that stood upon the promontory of Leucate. The reader will find it to be a summary account of several persons who tried the lover's leap, and of the success they have found in it. As there seem to be in it some anachronisms and deviations from the ancient orthography, I am not wholly satisfied myself that it is authentic, and not rather the production of one of those Grecian sophisters, who have imposed upon the world several spurious works of this nature. I speak this by way of precaution, because I know there are several writers of uncommon erudition, who would not

fail to expose my ignorance, if they caught me tripping in a matter of so great moment.-C.

No. 239. Different methods of Disputation; Greek Philosophers; the Schoolmen; Club Law; the logic of Kings; arguing by torture-by bribery.

Bella, horrida bella!-VIRG. Æn. vi. 86.

I have sometimes amused myself with considering the several methods of managing a debate which have obtained in the world. The first races of mankind used to dispute, as our ordinary people do now-a-days, in a kind of wild logic, uncultivated by rules of art.

Socrates introduced a catechetical method of arguing. He would ask his adversary question upon question, till he had con10 vinced him out of his own mouth that his opinions were wrong. This way of debating drives an enemy up into a corner, seizes all the passes through which he can make an escape, and forces him to surrender at discretion.

Aristotle changed this method of attack, and invented a great variety of little weapons, called syllogisms. As in the Socratic way of dispute you agree to every thing which your opponent advances, in the Aristotelic you are still denying and contradicting some part or other of what he says. Socrates conquers you by stratagem, Aristotle by force: the one takes the town by sap, the 20 other sword in hand.

The universities of Europe for many years carried on their debates by syllogism, insomuch that we see the knowledge of several centuries laid out into objections and answers, and all the good sense of the age cut and minced into almost an infinitude of distinctions ".

When our universities found that there was no end of wrangling this way, they invented a kind of argument, which is not reducible to any mood or figure in Aristotle. It was called the argumentum basilinum, (others write it bacilinum, or baculinum) which 30 is pretty well expressed in our English word club-law. When they were not able to confute their antagonist, they knocked him down. It was their method in their polemical debates, first to discharge their syllogisms, and afterwards to betake them

ΙΟ

20

EFFECTUAL ARGUMENTS.

445

selves to their clubs, till such time as they had one way or other confounded their gainsayers. There is in Oxford a narrow defile, (to make use of a military term,) where the partizans used to encounter, for which reason it still retains the name of Logiclane. I have heard an old gentleman, a physician, make his boast that, when he was a young fellow, he marched several times at the head of a troop of Scotists, and cudgelled a body of Smiglesians half the length of High-street, till they had dispersed themselves for shelter into their respective garrisons.

This humour, I find, went very far in Erasmus's n time. For that author tells us, That upon the revival of Greek letters, most of the universities in Europe were divided into Greeks and Trojans. The latter were those who bore a mortal enmity to the language of the Grecians, insomuch that if they met with any who understood it, they did not fail to treat him as a foe. Erasmus himself had, it seems, the misfortune to fall into the hands of a party of Trojans, who laid on him with so many blows and buffets, that he never forgot their hostilities to his dying day.

There is a way of managing an argument not much unlike the former, which is made use of by states and communities, when they draw up an hundred thousand disputants on each side, and convince one another by dint of sword. A certain grand monarch n was so sensible of his strength in this way of reasoning, that he writ upon his great guns-Ratio ultima regum, the logic of kings; but, God be thanked, he is now pretty well baffled at his own weapons. When one has to do with a philosopher of this kind, one should remember the old gentleman's saying, who had been engaged in an argument with one of the Roman emperors. 30 Upon his friend's telling him, That he wondered he would give

up the question, when he had visibly the better of the dispute; I am never ashamed, says he, to be confuted by one who is master of fifty legions".

I shall but just mention another kind of reasoning, which may be called arguing by poll; and another which is of equal force, in which wagers are made use of as arguments, according to the celebrated line in Hudibras ".

But the most notable way of managing a controversy, is that which we may call arguing by torture. This is a method of 40 reasoning which has been made use of with the poor refugees",

and which was so fashionable in our country during the reign of Queen Mary, that in a passage of an author quoted by Monsieur Baylen it is said the price of wood was raised in England, by reason of the executions that were made in Smithfield. These disputants convince their adversaries with a Sorites", commonly called a pile of faggots. The rack is also a kind of syllogism which has been used with good effect, and has made multitudes of converts. Men were formerly disputed out of their doubts, reconciled to truth by force of reason, and won over to opinions 10 by the candour, sense, and ingenuity of those who had the right on their side; but this method of conviction operated too slowly. Pain was found to be much more enlightening than reason. Every scruple was looked upon as obstinacy, and not to be removed but by several engines invented for that purpose. In a word, the application of whips, racks, gibbets, galleys, dungeons, fire and faggot, in a dispute, may be looked upon as popish refinements upon the old heathen logic ".

There is another way of reasoning which seldom fails, though it be of a quite different nature to that I have last mentioned. 20 I mean, convincing a man by ready money, or, as it is ordinarily called, bribing a man to an opinion. This method has often proved successful, when all the others have been made use of to no purpose. A man who is furnished with arguments from the mint will convince his antagonist much sooner than one who draws them from reason and philosophy. Gold is a wonderful clearer of the understanding; it dissipates every doubt and scruple in an instant; accommodates itself to the meanest capacities; silences the loud and clamorous; and brings over the most obstinate and inflexible. Philip of Macedon was a man of most 30 invincible reason this way". He refuted by it all the wisdom of Athens, confounded their statesmen, struck their orators dumb, and at length argued them out of all their liberties.

Having here touched upon the several methods of disputing, as they have prevailed in different ages of the world, I shall very suddenly give my reader an account of the whole art of cavilling; which shall be a full and satisfactory answer to all such papers and pamphlets as have yet appeared against the Spectator.-C.

WOMEN BORN ORATORS.

447

No. 247. Rhetoric comes natural to Women; Female Orators; the Scolds; the Censorious; the Gossips; the Coquettes; the causes of this remarkable fluency.

Τῶν δ ̓ ἀκάματος ῥέει αὐδὴ

Ἐκ στομάτων ἡδεῖα.

HESIOD,

Their untir'd lips a wordy torrent pour.

We are told by some ancient authors that Socrates was instructed in eloquence by a woman, whose name, if I am not mistaken, was Aspasia. I have indeed very often looked upon that art as the most proper for the female sex, and I think the universities would do well to consider, whether they should not fill the rhetoric-chairs with she-professors.

It has been said in the praise of some men, that they could talk whole hours together upon any thing; but it must be owned to the honour of the other sex, that there are many among them 10 who can talk whole hours together upon nothing. I have known a woman branch out into a long extempore dissertation upon the edging of a petticoat, and chide her servant for breaking a china cup, in all the figures of rhetoric.

Were women admitted to plead in courts of judicature, I am persuaded they would carry the eloquence of the bar to greater heights than it has yet arrived at. If any one doubts this, let him but be present at those debates which frequently arise among the ladies of the British fishery.

The first kind therefore of female orators which I shall take 20 notice of, are those who are employed in stirring up the passions, a part of rhetoric in which Socrates his wife had perhaps made

a greater proficiency than his above-mentioned teacher.

The second kind of female orators are those who deal in invectives, and who are commonly known by the name of the Censorious. The imagination and elocution of this set of rhetoricians is wonderful. With what fluency of invention, and copiousness of expression, will they enlarge upon every little slip in the behaviour of another? With how many different circumstances, and with what variety of phrases, will they tell over 30 the same story? I have known an old lady make an unhappy marriage the subject of a month's conversation. She blamed the bride in one place; pitied her in another; laughed at her in