LITMIR.BIZ

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and follow a leader in the face of guns that fire fourteen times a second. The mob becomes shorn of will-power and blindly obedient to its dictator. The Russian Government, recognizing the menace of the crowd-mind to its autocracy, formerly prohibited public gatherings. History is full of similar instances.

      How the Crowd is Created

      Today the crowd is as real a factor in our socialized life as are magnates and monopolies. It is too complex a problem merely to damn or praise it—it must be reckoned with, and mastered. The present problem is how to get the most and the best out of the crowd-spirit, and the public speaker finds this to be peculiarly his own question. His influence is multiplied if he can only transmute his audience into a crowd. His affirmations must be their conclusions.

      This can be accomplished by unifying the minds and needs of the audience and arousing their emotions. Their feelings, not their reason, must be played upon—it is "up to" him to do this nobly. Argument has its place on the platform, but even its potencies must subserve the speaker's plan of attack to win possession of his audience.

      Reread the chapter on "Feeling and Enthusiasm." It is impossible to make an audience a crowd without appealing to their emotions. Can you imagine the average group becoming a crowd while hearing a lecture on Dry Fly Fishing, or on Egyptian Art? On the other hand, it would not have required world-famous eloquence to have turned any audience in Ulster, in 1914, into a crowd by discussing the Home Rule Act. The crowd-spirit depends largely on the subject used to fuse their individualities into one glowing whole.

      Note how Antony played upon the feelings of his hearers in the famous funeral oration given by Shakespeare in "Julius Cæsar." From murmuring units the men became a unit—a mob.

      ANTONY'S ORATION OVER CÆSAR'S BODY

      Friends, Romans, countrymen! Lend me your ears;

       I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.

       The evil that men do lives after them;

       The good is oft interred with their bones:

       So let it be with Cæsar! The Noble Brutus

       Hath told you Cæsar was ambitious.

       If it were so, it was a grievous fault,

       And grievously hath Cæsar answered it.

       Here, under leave of Brutus, and the rest—

       For Brutus is an honorable man,

      So are they all, all honorable men—

       Come I to speak in Cæsar's funeral.

       He was my friend, faithful and just to me:

       But Brutus says he was ambitious;

       And Brutus is an honorable man.

       He hath brought many captives home to Rome,

       Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:

       Did this in Cæsar seem ambitious?

       When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept;

       Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:

       Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious;

       And Brutus is an honorable man.

       You all did see, that, on the Lupercal,

       I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

       Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?

       Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

       And sure, he is an honorable man.

       I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,

       But here I am to speak what I do know.

       You all did love him once, not without cause;

       What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?

       Oh, judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts,

       And men have lost their reason!—Bear with me;

       My heart is in the coffin there with Cæsar,

       And I must pause till it come back to me. [Weeps.

      1 Plebeian. Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.

      2 Ple. If thou consider rightly of the matter, Cæsar has had great wrong.

      3 Ple. Has he, masters? I fear there will a worse come in his place.

      4 Ple. Mark'd ye his words? He would not take the crown; Therefore, 'tis certain, he was not ambitious.

      1 Ple. If it be found so, some will dear abide it.

      2 Ple. Poor soul, his eyes are red as fire with weeping.

      3 Ple. There's not a nobler man in Rome than Antony.

      4 Ple. Now mark him, he begins again to speak.

      Ant. But yesterday, the word of Cæsar might Have stood against the world: now lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence.

      Oh, masters! if I were dispos'd to stir

       Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,

       I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong,

       Who, you all know, are honorable men.

       I will not do them wrong; I rather choose

       To wrong the dead, to wrong myself, and you,

       Than I will wrong such honorable men.

       But here's a parchment, with the seal of Cæsar;

       I found it in his closet; 'tis his will:

       Let but the commons hear this testament—

       Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read—

       And they would go and kiss dead Cæsar's wounds,

       And dip their napkins in his sacred blood;

       Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,

       And, dying, mention it within their wills,

       Bequeathing it as a rich legacy

       Unto their issue.

      4 Ple. We'll hear the will: Read it, Mark Antony.

      All. The will! the will! we will hear Cæsar's will.

      Ant. Have patience, gentle friends: I must not read it; It is not meet you know how Cæsar lov'd you. You are not wood, you are not stones, but men; And, being men, hearing the will of Cæsar, It will inflame you, it will make you mad: 'Tis good you know not that you are his heirs; For if you should, oh, what would come of it!

      4 Ple. Read the will; we'll hear it, Antony! You shall read us the will! Cæsar's will!

      Ant. Will you be patient? Will you stay awhile? I have o'ershot myself, to tell you of it. I fear I wrong the honorable men Whose daggers have stab'd Cæsar; I do fear it.

      4 Ple. They were traitors: Honorable men!

      All. The will! the testament!

      2 Ple. They were villains, murtherers! The will! Read the will!

      Ant. You will compel me then to read the will? Then, make a ring about the corpse of Cæsar, And let me shew you him that made the will. Shall I descend? And will you give me leave?

      All. Come down.

      2 Ple. Descend. [He comes down from the Rostrum.

      3 Ple. You shall have leave.

      4 Ple. A ring; stand round.

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