ABSTRACT
WE have now to consider persuasion not so exclusively as a subjective mental process, but rather as a form of expression calculated to modify the conduct and actions of others. The principal medium or instrument that we employ ordinarily to attain this end is verbal: we seek to persuade others mainly by our words, which may be either spoken or written. But, besides words, there are other instruments of persuasion, which generally operate in conjunction with, and as more or less subsidiary to, speech: thus a speaker’s gesture and action, his voice, even his appearance, his prestige, and his personality, are potent means of persuasion. Again, we may seek to persuade others without using words at all, as by a pictorial representation of situations and events: the cinematograph, for example, is now frequently used as a means of propaganda.
