consideration, promised to observe them; and we are informed that he was accustomed to hear prayers at six o’clock in the morning!  It is to such considerations as these, together with his Vandyke dress, his handsome face, and his peaked beard, that he owes, we verily believe, most of his popularity with the present generation.

Appealing to Prejudice or Passions.  The question is also ignored when the speaker appeals to the prejudices or passions of his audience (argumentum ad populum).  Persons of some intellect resent this as almost an insult if they are in the audience, yet it is often resorted to by speakers who would rather produce the effect they desire by the use of any methods, right or wrong.  Its use in court by unscrupulous lawyers to win decisions is checked by attempts on the part of judges to counteract it in their charges to the jury, but its influence may still persist.  Mark Antony in Shakespere’s play, Julius Caesar, used it in his oration over the dead body of Caesar to further his own ends.

Taking Advantage of Ignorance.  Just as a speaker may take advantage of the prejudices and passions of an audience, so he may take advantage of their ignorance.  Against the blankness of their brains he may hurl unfamiliar names to dazzle them, cite facts of all kinds to impress them, show a wide knowledge of all sorts of things, “play up to them” in every way, until they become so impressed that they are ready to accept as truth anything he chooses to tell them.  Any daily paper will provide examples of the sad results of the power of this kind of fallacious reasoning.  The get-rich-quick schemes, the worthless stock deals, the patent medicine quacks, the extravagantly worded claims of new religions and faddist movements, all testify to the power this form of seemingly convincing argument has over the great mass of the ignorant.

The Fallacy of Tradition.  In discussing the burden of proof it was said that such burden rests upon the advocate of change, or novel introductions, etc.  This tendency of the people at large to be rather conservative in practice links with the fallacy of tradition, the belief that whatever is, is right.  In many cases such a faith is worse than wrong, it is pernicious.  Many of the questions concerning relations of modern society—­as capital and labor—­are based upon this fallacy.  Henry Clay was guilty of it when he announced, “Two hundred years of legislation have sanctioned and sanctified negro slaves as property.”  The successful way to dispose of such a fallacy is illustrated by William Ellery Channing’s treatment of this statement.