Word: argument
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...questionable soundness, so we find now a couple of bits that we recognize as exceedingly familiar and as thoroughly worthless as when they first dropped into the tide of discussion that sets so regularly towards Harvard. In the first place we would in no way discourage the use in argument of any harmless little fiction of an elective system, whose effects externally, internally, and eternally are the explanation of every new wrinkle and every old familiar feature at Harvard. Yet in our own college circle the elective system has so long been humorously employed as the open sesame...
There were several essays, however, that are worthy of note, either from their own merits or their subject. Mr. Croswell read an essay, a third of which was Latin poetry, "De Lunae natura; utrum viridis casei sit aut contra." His strongest argument was that the moon was a matter of square feet and inches, while it was impossible to cut in-ches out of cheese. Mr. Emerson wrote on "A Shabby Monarch, or Napoleon out at Elba." Mr. Gerrish's subject was, "Whirly and Late, or the Last Waltz" (whirly for early, you know, because you whirl when you dance...
...Jenkins's argument, apart from being illogical, fallacious, and absurd, is wholly unsupported by the facts of the case; further on in this selfsame Essay now under discussion, we find: "I helped elect Messrs. Harrison, Taylor, Lincoln, and Grant, all without...
...uncompromising self-criticism. Liberal to all mankind. Dr. Walker had far too strong a conviction for God's personal presence, a reverence for the Bible, a love for the Author of Christianity and his doctrine, to give any quarter to scepticism in theory or viciousness in practice. His argument forced you to go down to the roots of things, but placed you, when arrived, on a basis of rock; his appeals stirred your conscience to its depths, only to give new life to every better thought...
...themselves. Most men do not care, or are too indolent to take the trouble, to "grasp the action as a whole"; it is even often considered "a low trick," and not a proof of some knowledge of his duties, when an instructor gives notice that a synopsis of the argument may be required for examination. You will rarely find a good scholar who grumbles at being forced to pay attention to "the details of grammar, of philology, of history, of geography," etc.; in fact, the scholarly mind often takes great pleasure in them, or at any rate recognizes their necessity...