(5) "Our petition." What petition was this? To whom was the petition made? What fate had it met? (Remember the date at which this speech was made, and look up the question in your histories.)

(6) "A snare to your feet." Is there a figure here? (See Jeremiah xviii, 22.)

What is the allusion

(7) "Betrayed with a kiss." here? (Read Mark xiv, 44, 45.) (8) "Comports." Agrees. (9) "Which cover our waters." What are the preparations that "cover our waters"? (British warships.) (10) "Darken our land." What were these preparations?

(11) "Are fleets and armies, etc." Does Patrick Henry expect his hearers to answer this question to him? Does he expect them to make an answer to him in their own minds? What answer does he expect? What is the effect of such a question as this? (It is a very emphatic way of saying that fleets and armies are not necessary to a work of reconciliation.)

(12) "Gentlemen, sir." Note use of "gentlemen." This method of speech is an old parliamentary practice.

(13) "Bind and rivet upon us those chains." Here is an allusion to the way in which the captives in war were brought home as slaves by conquering leaders. There is also a figure of speech. What is it?

d. Paragraph 4. (1) "Oppose to them." What is the antecedent of "them"?

(2) "Held the subject up." Could you actually hold a subject up in the light? What could you hold up in the light? What figure of speech is this which substitutes one thing for another, a symbol for the thing? (Metonymy.)

(3) "Avert the storm." Is it a real storm he would avert? What, then, is the figure of speech here used? (4) "Petitioned... remonstrated. . . supplicated." Compare these words in meaning. Which is the stronger, "petitioned" or "remonstrated"? "Remonstrated" or "supplicated"? Which two words are nearest alike in meaning?

(5) "Prostrated ourselves." Is this a literal expression? Do you suppose that the representatives whom America had sent to England did literally prostrate themselves before the king? Are there nations where subjects prostrate themselves before the king? Is it sometimes a part of a religious ceremonial? If this is a figurative expression, what is the figure?

(6) "Tyrannical hands." Does he mean to stop the "hands" of the ministry? What is this figure in which "hands" is used to mean the body and hence the "acts" of the ministry? (Synecdoche.)

(7) "Spurned . . . from the foot of the throne.” What two figures are found in this clause of the sentence? Paragraph 5. (1) "Fond." Does this word mean "dear" or "foolish”?

e.

(2) "Appeal to arms." of this figure?

What is the literal meaning

(3) "God of Hosts." What allusion is there here? (Psalms lxxx, 7, 14, 19.) Does the "God of Hosts" differ from any other God? If not, what characteristic of God is shown by the expression "God of Hosts"? (The God of Hosts is God in his warlike capacity, as a leader of the ancient hosts of Israel.)

f. Paragraph 6. (1) "They tell us." Who tell us? (Doubtless the leaders of the opposition, who have just spoken against the measure Patrick Henry introduced.)

(2) "Stationed in every house." Is this hyperbole? What is the usual effect of hyperbole? Does it have the usual effect here?

(3) "Supinely." Literally, the word "supine" means "reclining." Figuratively, "supinely" means "heedlessly" or "indolently."

(4) "Lying supinely, etc." What figure is expressed in the words quoted and what continues through the sentence? Is more than one figure given here? What is a "delusive phantom"? Actually, what is the meaning of "hugging the delusive phantom"? How many figures in this sentence?

(1)

g. Paragraph 7. "Three millions of people armed, etc." Is there hyperbole here? Is the effect of the

exaggeration forcible? Is the exaggeration in the number of people or in the claim that all would be armed?

(2) "Holy cause." Could the cause of the colonists properly be called a "holy cause"?

(3) "Presides over the destinies." What is the literal meaning of this?

(4) "Raise up friends." What is the literal meaning of this? What friends were "raised up" for the colonists? (Lafayette; the French; Pulaski.)

(5) "The battle... is not to the strong alone." To what is this an allusion? (See Ecclesiastes ix, 11.) (6) "Election." Choice. Is this a common usage of the word "election"?

(7) "Chains are forged." What figure is this? In how many instances in the oration does he use figures relating to chains?

(8) "Our chains are forged." What kind of a sentence is this? How many of these exclamatory sentences are there in the speech? How many exclamations are there that are not sentences? How many questions are used in the speech? Are some of these questions really exclamations? (See paragraph 8: "Why stand we here idle"? "What would they have?") Do any of these questions anticipate an answer? What is the effect of these exclamatory and interrogative sentences?

(9) "Boston." What had happened in Boston prior to the date of this speech? Had Patrick Henry heard of any fighting at or near Boston, or was he expecting to hear it? (See paragraph 8.) How long a time was then required to carry news from Massachusetts to Virginia? How long a time is necessary now?

h. Paragraph 8. (1) "Extenuate." lessen the importance of.

Excuse, or

(2) "Peace, peace, etc." For the allusion, see Jeremiah, vi, 14, and viii, 11.

(3) "The war is actually begun!" Is this hyperbole? Where did the war begin? Did Patrick Henry know that it had begun in Massachusetts?

(4) "The next gale." Why does he use the word "gale"? Does he mean literally that the Virginians would

hear the clash of arms in Massachusetts? What, then, is

the figure?

(5) "Brethren

in the field."

Who were the Who were the

brethren? Where were they in the field? Minute Men?

(6) "Peace so sweet." What is the figure? (7) "Price." What figure of speech?

(8) "Forbid it, Almighty God!" Note the exclamatory sentence and the fact that this is an apostrophe.

2. ANALYSIS OF THE ARGUMENT. a. Structure of the speech. Structurally, this speech is an excellent one to study, for it contains a very distinct introduction, that is followed by a body of arguments, which lead to a distinct conclusion and terminate in an eloquent peroration. Paragraph 1 is the introduction; paragraphs 2 to 7 constitute the body of the oration, and paragraph 8 contains the conclusion and the peroration.

b. Introduction. (1) I respect my opponents but I see things differently.

(2) I shall speak without reserve because:

This is no time for ceremony.

This is a vital question.

This is a question of freedom or slavery. Speaking without reservation is the only way to get the truth.

Silence would be treason to my country.

Silence would be disloyalty to God, whose commands are more binding than those of George III. c. Body. (1) Hope is gone (par. 1). (2) We are blind (par. 2).

(3) I wish to know the truth and provide for it (par. 2).

(4) I can judge the future only by the past (par. 3). (5) The past shows me nothing to hope for (par. 3). (6) The British talk favorably, but they make warlike preparations (par. 3).

Send unnecessary fleets and armies here (par. 3).

(7) These preparations mean war and subjugation to us (par. 3).

(8) We can not free ourselves by argument; we have tried that for ten years (par. 4).

(9) We have exhausted every other means of opposition (par. 4).

(10) We must abandon all hope of reconciliation (par. 5).

(11) We must fight (par. 5).

(12) We are stronger now than we will be if we wait irresolutely (par. 6).

(13) We are really strong now, and God will fight with us (par. 7).

(14) Moreover, we can be vigilant, active and brave, which is better than to be strong (par. 7).

(15) We should prepare to fight at once (par. 7).

d. Conclusion and Peroration. (1) Really, we have no choice in the matter, for the war is actually begun. (2) Life is not dear enough to be purchased by chains and slavery.

(3) I prefer death to loss of liberty.

3. CLIMAX. When a series of words occurs in a sentence, the most forcible arrangement is to place the words so that ideas follow one another in the order of importance. In paragraph 4 is a good example of this arrangement: "We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have suplicated; we have prostrated ourselves In the next sentence also the ideas are presented in such a way as to lead to a climax at the end.

Not only are the words arranged this way, but the most effective arrangement of sentences leads up to a climax. In fact, the idea is carried still further in any good oration -each paragraph may end in a climax, and the whole oration leads to one grand climax at the end. Considering this speech, we find that each paragraph is in itself a climax and that there are four climaxes, in the larger sense, of which the last is the highest.

You will see that when Mr. Henry begins, there is no feeling or emotion apparent in what he says, but that by the end of the first paragraph he has risen to some excitement. Then he pauses and drops back to where he began, addresses the president again, and in the second paragraph