ABSTRACT
The student who is interested in history will not lack a motive for the study of public address. He cannot be indifferent to the utterances of important men on important questions of the period he is studying. He will study speeches for the light they throw on contemporary events, and he will study events for the light they throw upon speeches. Typically, a speech is an utterance meant to be heard and intended to exert an influence of some kind on those who hear it. Typically, also the kind of influence intended may be described as persuasion. The hearer is to be moved to action or argued into the acceptance of some belief. The aim of the speaker is, in the words of William Caxton “to cause another man to believe or to do that thing which thou wouldst have him for to do.”.
