1) According to George Campbell, moving the passions of the audience is one of the most important factors in rhetoric and persuasion. 2) Campbell claims that by rousing the passions, one can awaken strong emotions in the audience's heart and move them to love, pity, grief, or hatred through persuasive speech. 3) Campbell argues that while reason guides rhetoric, passion is what moves people to action, so passion must be engaged for successful persuasion and argumentation.

1. Jordan Faust
E305
2/24/11
Précis 3: Campbell and Pathos
According to George Campbell, eloquence, or “That art or talent by which the discourse
is adapted to its end” (902), is the most important factor in rhetoric, or the art of persuasion.
He claims that the ends of speaking are intended to do four things, and moving the passions is
one of the most important factors. The passions, or emotions, are “the natural spurs to volition
or action” (903), so they hold the most importance in persuasion and accomplishment for the
speech’s intentions.
By rousing the passions, one has the ability of “awakening all the tenderest emotions of
the heart” (903), and as if it “were by some magical spell, hurries them ere they are aware, into
love, pity, grief, terror, desire, aversion, fury, or hatred” (903). This is comparable to Gorgias’s
description of the effect of speech over the condition of the soul to “the power of drugs over
the nature of bodies” (46). These passions are extremely vital in the art of persuading since
they are able to move the judgments and actions of the hearer. While reason is the guide in
rhetoric, “passion is the mover to action” (927) because “when persuasion is the end, passion
also must be engaged” (926). In order for argumentation to occur, the first thing is “to excite
some desire or passion in the hearers” (927). After this is done, a connection must be made
between the action and “the gratification of the desire or passion which he excites” (927). Thus,
the hearer must be pleased in his desires by his actions after he is persuaded to take that
action. In order to move these passions, one must appeal to the senses since “A passion is most
strongly excited by sensation” (929); There are seven circumstances that are instrumental in

2. operating the passions, and one of the key factors is the relation to the persons concerned,
because “It is the persons, not the place, that are the immediate objects of love or hatred, pity
or anger, envy or contempt” (934). These emotions will ultimately lead the hearer to make
judgment and take action in alignment with the purpose of the discourse.