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Current Issues and Enduring Questions

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vi PREFACE

it: Did X do such and such? If so, was the action bad? If bad, how bad?
(Finding an issue or stasis — a position where one stands — by asking
questions is discussed in Chapter 6.)
In keeping with our emphasis on writing as well as reading, we raise
issues not only of what can roughly be called the “content” of the essays but
also of what can (equally roughly) be called the “style” — that is, the ways
in which the arguments are set forth. Content and style, of course, can-
not finally be kept apart. As Cardinal Newman said, “Thought and meaning
are inseparable from each other. . . . Style is thinking out into language.” In our
Topics for Critical Thinking and Writing we sometimes ask the student
• To evaluate the effectiveness of an essay’s opening paragraph,
• To explain a shift in tone from one paragraph to the next, or
• To characterize the persona of the author as revealed in the whole
essay.
In short, the book is not designed as an introduction to some power-
ful ideas (though in fact it is that, too); it is designed as an aid to writing
thoughtful, effective arguments on important political, social, scientific,
ethical, legal, and religious issues.
The essays reprinted in this book also illustrate different styles of
argument that arise, at least in part, from the different disciplinary back-
grounds of the various authors. Essays by journalists, lawyers, judges,
social scientists, policy analysts, philosophers, critics, activists, and other
writers — including first-year undergraduates — will be found in these
pages. The authors develop and present their views in arguments that
have distinctive features reflecting their special training and concerns.
The differences in argumentative styles found in these essays foreshadow
the differences students will encounter in the readings assigned in many
of their other courses.
Parts One and Two, then, offer a preliminary (but we hope substan-
tial) discussion of such topics as
• Identifying assumptions;
• Getting ideas by means of invention strategies;
• Finding, evaluating, and citing printed and electronic sources;
• Interpreting visual sources;
• Evaluating kinds of evidence; and
• Organizing material
as well as an introduction to some ways of thinking.

Part Three Further Views on Argument consists of Chapters 8 through 13.


• Chapter 8, A Philosopher’s View: The Toulmin Model, is a summary
of the philosopher Stephen Toulmin’s method for analyzing

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PREFACE vii

arguments. This summary will assist those who wish to apply


Toulmin’s methods to the readings in our book.
• Chapter 9, A Logician’s View: Deduction, Induction, Fallacies,
offers a more rigorous analysis of these topics than is usually found
in composition courses and reexamines from a logician’s point of
view material already treated briefly in Chapter 3.
• Chapter 10, A Psychologist’s View: Rogerian Argument, with an
essay by psychotherapist Carl R. Rogers and an essay by a student,
complements the discussion of audience, organization, and tone in
Chapter 6.
• Chapter 11, A Rhetorician’s View: Rhetorical Analysis of Nontra-
ditional Texts, offers students strategies for analyzing and writing
about artifacts of popular culture, from public service announce-
ments to reality television.
• Chapter 12, A Literary Critic’s View: Arguing about Literature,
should help students to see the things literary critics argue about
and how they argue. Students can apply what they learn not only
to the literary readings that appear in the chapter (poems by Robert
Frost and Andrew Marvell and a story by Kate Chopin) but also to
the readings that appear in Part Six, Enduring Questions: Essays, a
Story, Poems, and a Play. Finally, Part Three concludes with
• Chapter 13, A Debater’s View: Individual Oral Presentations and
Debate, which introduces students to standard presentation strate-
gies and debate format.
• In e-Pages, A Moralist’s View: Ways of Thinking Ethically, consists
of a discussion of amoral, immoral, and moral reasoning; A Check-
list for Moral Reasoning; two challenging essays; and three short
responses to highly specific moral questions.
• Also in e-Pages, A Lawyer’s View: Steps toward Civic Literacy,
introduces students to some basic legal concepts, such as the distinc-
tion between civil and criminal cases, and then gives majority and
minority opinions in two cases: searching students for drugs and
establishing the right to an abortion. We accompany these judicial
opinions with questions that invite the student to participate in
these exercises in democracy.

The Anthology
Part Four Current Issues: Occasions for Debate (Chapters 14–18)
begins with some comments on binary, or pro-con, thinking. It then
gives a Checklist for Analyzing a Debate and reprints five pairs of
arguments — on student loan debt (should it be forgiven?), using inte-
grated instead of handheld devices while driving (is it safer?), the local
food movement (is it a better way to eat?), the death penalty, and

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viii PREFACE

genetic modification of human beings. Here, as elsewhere in the book,


many of the selections (drawn from popular journals and newspapers)
are very short — scarcely longer than the 500-word essays that students
are often asked to write. Thus, students can easily study the methods the
writers use, as well as the issues themselves.

Part Five Current Issues: Casebooks (Chapters 19–25) presents seven


chapters on issues discussed by several writers. For example, the first
casebook concerns the nature and purpose of a college education: Is col-
lege a place where students learn citizenship, a place for vocational train-
ing, or some combination of these?

Part Six Enduring Questions: Essays, a Story, Poems, and a Play (Chap-
ters 26–28) extends the arguments to three topics: Chapter 26, What
Is the Ideal Society? (the nine voices here range from Thomas More,
Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Luther King Jr. to literary figures W. H.
Auden, Langston Hughes, and Ursula K. Le Guin); Chapter 27, How
Free Is the Will of the Individual within Society? (among the authors
are Plato, Susan Glaspell, and George Orwell); and Chapter 28, What Is
Happiness? (among the nine selections in this chapter are writings by
Epictetus, C. S. Lewis, and the Dalai Lama).

WHAT’S NEW IN THE TENTH EDITION

We have made some significant changes in the tenth edition that we


believe enrich the book and make the content more accessible.
Fresh and timely new readings. Thirty-eight of the essays (about
one-third of the total) are new, as are a dozen topics such as student loan
debt, government regulation of large sodas, social media dependency,
women in combat, the regulation of firearms, and hydraulic fracturing.
(In fact, the number of new readings is more than thirty-eight because
some of these new essays were editorials and op-ed pieces that generated
letters, some of which we have reprinted.)
New debates and casebook topics. New debates include Student
Loans: Should Some Indebtedness Be Forgiven?, Are Integrated Devices
Safer Than Using Handheld Devices While Driving?, The Local Food
Movement: Is It a Better Way to Eat?, and The Death Penalty: Is It Ever
Justified? New casebooks include Junk Food: Should the Government
Regulate Our Intake?, Hydraulic Fracturing: Is Fracking Worth the Envi-
ronmental Cost?, and Facebook: How Has Social Networking Changed
How We Relate to Others?
A new chapter on rhetorical analysis of popular culture
(Chapter 11) gives students a framework for making arguments about
popular culture, from public service announcements to Here Comes Honey
Boo Boo.

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PREFACE ix

More help for research. This edition includes a new MLA research
paper on corporate social responsibility and additional material about
working with sources, including a heavily revised section on summary,
paraphrase, and patchwriting (the practice of copying and pasting mate-
rial from sources without appropriate integration or attribution).
More help with writing strategies. Three new Idea Prompts, or
templates, offer strategies for establishing ethos, varying tone, and con-
structing Toulmin arguments. Three new checklists break down strategies
for considering audience and conducting sound rhetorical analysis.
e-Pages for Current Issues and Enduring Questions take advan-
tage of what the Web can do with coverage of ethical and legal
arguments as well as additional multimodal readings, from speeches to
documentary film trailers. For example, students can watch a speech
by President Obama on the death of Osama bin Laden and then answer
questions about how such a speech seeks to connect with both Ameri-
cans and a broader world audience. For a complete list of e-Pages, see the
book’s table of contents. Instructors can also use the free tools accom-
panying the e-Pages to upload a syllabus, readings, and assignments to
share with the class.
You and your students can access the e-Pages at bedfordstmartins
.com/barnetbedau, the media page for Current Issues and Enduring
Questions. Students receive access automatically with the purchase of a
new book. If the activation code printed on the inside back cover of the
student edition doesn’t work, it might have expired. Students can pur-
chase access at bedfordstmartins.com/barnetbedau. To get instructor
access, register as an instructor at this site.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Finally, it is our pleasant duty to thank those who have strengthened


this book by their comments and advice on the ninth edition: Anton
Agafonov, Jamestown Community College; Liana Andreasen, South
Texas College; Joseph Bizup, Boston University; Jennifer Chunn, Harris-
burg Area Community College; Patrick Clauss, University of Notre Dame;
Mary Grace Collier-Kisler, Jamestown Community College–Cattarugus
County; Denise Diamond, College of the Desert; Helen Doss, Wilbur
Wright College; Jessica Enoch, University of Maryland; Paul Gagliardi,
Carroll University; Karen Gardiner, University of Alabama; Michael
George, Millikin University; Steven Harless, Wake Technical Commu-
nity College; Doris Jellig, Tidewater Community College; John McKinnis,
Buffalo State College; Kay Mizell, Collin College; Gary Montano,
Tarrant County College; Michael Moreau, Glendale Community College;
Matthew Newcomb, SUNY New Paltz; Christina Nunez, Allan Hancock
College; Karla Odenwald, Mass College of Art & Design; Martin Orzeck,
Community College of Philadelphia; Jenni Runte, Metropolitan State

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x PREFACE

University; Judy Schmidt, Harrisburg Area Community College; Jerry


Scott, Cardinal Stritch University; Sarah Sims, Campbellsville University;
Renee Shea, Bowie State University; Jason Tougaw, Queens College; Paul
Walker, Murray State University; and Sabine Winter, Eastfield College.
We would also like to thank Anthony Atkins, who graciously pro-
vided his feedback on the text and contributed a new chapter on rhetori-
cal analysis and popular culture, and Martha Friedman, Connie Gardner,
Linda Winters, and Margaret Gorenstein, who adeptly managed art
research and text permissions.
We are also deeply indebted to the people at Bedford/St. Martin’s,
especially to our editor, Adam Whitehurst, who is wise, patient, sup-
portive, and unfailingly helpful. Steve Scipione, Maura Shea, and John
Sullivan, our editors for all of the preceding editions, have left a last-
ing impression on us and on the book; without their work on the first
nine editions, there probably would not be a tenth. Others at Bedford/
St. Martin’s to whom we are deeply indebted include Charles H.
Christensen, Joan E. Feinberg, Denise Wydra, Shuli Traub, and Harold
Chester, all of whom have offered countless valuable (and invaluable)
suggestions. Intelligent, informed, firm yet courteous, persuasive — all of
these folks know how to think and how to argue.

YOU GET MORE DIGITAL CHOICES FOR


CURRENT ISSUES AND ENDURING QUESTIONS

Current Issues and Enduring Questions doesn’t stop with a book. Online,
you’ll find both free and affordable premium resources to help stu-
dents get even more out of the book and your course. You’ll also
find convenient instructor resources, such as downloadable sample
syllabi, classroom activities, and even a nationwide community of
teachers. To learn more about or order any of the products below,
contact your Bedford/St. Martin’s sales representative, e-mail sales
support (sales_support@bedfordstmartins.com), or visit the Web site
at bedfordstmartins.com.

Student Resources
ReWriting 3.0, bedfordstmartins.com/rewriting. The best collec-
tion of open writing resources on the Web, Re:Writing 3.0 gives you and
your students even more ways to think, watch, practice, and learn
about writing concepts. Listen to Nancy Sommers on using a teacher’s
comments to revise. Try a logic puzzle. Consult our resources for writing
centers. Send your students to free and open resources, choose flexible
premium resources to supplement your print text, or upgrade to an
expanding collection of innovative digital content.
Bedford e-Book to Go for Current Issues and Enduring Ques-
tions. Let students choose their format. Students can purchase Current

01_BAR_2260_FM_i_xxxiv.indd x 7/4/13 2:55 PM


PREFACE xi

Issues and Enduring Questions in downloadable e-book formats for com-


puters, tablets, and e-readers. For more details, visit bedfordstmartins
.com/cieq/formats.
VideoCentral is a growing collection of videos for the writing
class that captures real-world, academic, and student writers talk-
ing about how and why they write. VideoCentral can be packaged
for free with Current Issues and Enduring Questions. An activation code
is required. To order VideoCentral packaged with the print book, use
ISBN 978-1-4576-7682-6.

i-series
Add more value to your text by choosing one of the following tutorial
series, free when packaged with Current Issues and Enduring Questions.
This popular series presents multimedia tutorials in a flexible for-
mat — because there are things you can’t do in a book. To learn more
about package options or any of the products below, contact your Bed-
ford/St. Martin’s sales representative or visit bedfordstmartins.com.
i-claim: visualizing argument 2.0. (available online) shows students
how to analyze and compose arguments in words, images, and sounds
with six tutorials, an illustrated glossary, and over seventy multimedia
arguments. To order i-claim: visualizing argument packaged with the print
book, use ISBN 978-1-4576-7680-2.
ix visualizing composition 2.0. (available online) helps students put
into practice key rhetorical and visual concepts. To order ix visualizing
composition packaged with the print book, use ISBN 978-1-4576-7681-9.

Instructor Resources
You have a lot to do in your course. Bedford/St. Martin’s wants to make
it easy for you to find the support you need — and to get it quickly.
Resources for Teaching Current Issues and Enduring Questions is
available in a PDF file that can be downloaded from bedfordstmartins
.com/barnetbedau/catalog. In addition to chapter overviews and dis-
cussion prompts, Resources for Teaching includes suggested answers to the
questions in the text.
TeachingCentral (bedfordstmartins.com/teachingcentral) offers
the entire list of Bedford/St. Martin’s print and online professional
resources in one place. You’ll find landmark reference works, source-
books on pedagogical issues, award-winning collections, and practical
advice for the classroom — all free for instructors.
Bits (bedfordbits.com) collects creative ideas for teaching a range
of composition topics in an easily searchable blog. A community of
teachers — leading scholars, authors, and editors — discusses revision,
research, grammar and style, technology, peer review, and much more.
Take, use, adapt, and pass the ideas around. Then, come back to the site
to comment or share your own suggestions.

01_BAR_2260_FM_i_xxxiv.indd xi 7/4/13 2:55 PM


Brief Contents

Preface iii

PART ONE CRITICAL THINKING AND READING 1


1 Critical Thinking 3
2 Critical Reading: Getting Started 34
3 Critical Reading: Getting Deeper into Arguments 74
4 Visual Rhetoric: Images as Arguments 141

PART TWO CRITICAL WRITING 177


5 Writing an Analysis of an Argument 179
6 Developing an Argument of Your Own 228
7 Using Sources 267

PART THREE FURTHER VIEWS ON ARGUMENT 335


8 A Philosopher’s View: The Toulmin Model 337
9 A Logician’s View: Deduction, Induction, Fallacies 349
10 A Psychologist’s View: Rogerian Argument 392
11 A Rhetorician’s View: Rhetorical Analysis of Nontraditional
Texts 404
12 A Literary Critic’s View: Arguing about Literature 420

xii

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BRIEF CONTENTS xiii

13 A Debater’s View: Individual Oral Presentations and


Debate 450
A Moralist’s View: Ways of Thinking Ethically
A Lawyer’s View: Steps toward Civic Literacy

PART FOUR CURRENT ISSUES:


OCCASIONS FOR DEBATE 461
14 Student Loans: Should Some Indebtedness Be Forgiven? 465
15 Are Integrated Devices Safer Than Using Handheld Devices
While Driving? 471
16 The Local Food Movement: Is It a Better Way to Eat? 476
17 The Death Penalty: Is It Ever Justified? 483
18 Genetic Modification of Human Beings:
Is It Acceptable? 495

PART FIVE CURRENT ISSUES: CASEBOOKS 503


19 A College Education: What Is Its Purpose? 505
20 Hydraulic Fracturing: Is Fracking Worth
the Environmental Cost? 538
21 Drugs: Should Their Sale and Use Be Legalized? 546
22 Junk Food: Should the Government Regulate Our Intake? 581
23 Facebook: How Has Social Networking Changed
How We Relate to Others? 594
24 Immigration: What Is to Be Done? 615
25 Service: Should the United States Require
Young People to Perform Public Service? 630

PART SIX ENDURING QUESTIONS:


ESSAYS, A STORY, POEMS, AND A PLAY 653
26 What Is the Ideal Society? 655
27 How Free Is the Will of the Individual within Society? 706
28 What Is Happiness? 774

Index of Authors and Titles 813


Index of Terms 820

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Contents

Preface iii

PART ONE CRITICAL THINKING AND READING 1

1 Critical Thinking 3

Thinking about Drivers’ Licenses and Photographic Identification 4


Thinking about Another Issue Concerning Drivers’ Licenses: Analyzing
and Evaluating Multiple Perspectives 9
Critical Thinking at Work: From Jottings to a Short Essay 10
IDEA PROMPT: MAPPING PROS AND CONS 11
A STUDENT’S ESSAY, DEVELOPED FROM A CLUSTER
AND A LIST 12
Play Ball! Why Homeschoolers Should Be Allowed to Play on
Public School Teams 12
The Essay Analyzed 14
Writing as a Way of Thinking 14
Getting Ideas 15

IDEA PROMPT: UNDERSTANDING CLASSICAL TOPICS 17


A CHECKLIST FOR CRITICAL THINKING 19
A Short Essay Illustrating Critical Thinking 20

For readings that go beyond the printed page,


see bedfordstmartins.com/barnetbedau.

xiv

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CONTENTS xv

HARLAN COBEN, The Undercover Parent 21


Many parents won’t consider installing spyware on their kid’s computer — but,
Coben argues, it is a good idea.
Overall View of the Essay 23

LETTER OF RESPONSE BY CAROL WESTON 25


A CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING LETTERS OF RESPONSE 27
Examining Assumptions 27
A CHECKLIST FOR EXAMINING ASSUMPTIONS 28
JENA McGREGOR, Military Women in Combat: Why Making
It Official Matters 28
“Ending the restrictions [will give] the military the best pool of talent possible
and the most diverse viewpoints for leading it.”
FIVE EXERCISES IN CRITICAL THINKING 31
OXFAM, The Truth about Women and Chocolate
[advertisement]
The international antipoverty organization uses the tricks of advertising to draw
consumers’ attention to workers’ rights abuses.
THE WHITE HOUSE, 1 Is 2 Many [public service
announcement]
Famous athletes lend their voices to a campaign to stop domestic violence.

2 Critical Reading: Getting Started 34


Active Reading 34
Previewing, 34 Skimming: Finding the Thesis, 35 Reading with
a Careful Eye: Underlining, Highlighting, Annotating, 35 “This; Therefore,
That,” 37 First, Second, and Third Thoughts, 38

Summarizing and Paraphrasing 39


Paraphrase, Patchwriting, and Plagiarism 42
A CHECKLIST FOR A PARAPHRASE 45
Last Words (Almost) about Summarizing 45

SUSAN JACOBY, A First Amendment Junkie 47


A feminist argues against those feminists who seek to ban pornography.
Summarizing Jacoby, Paragraph by Paragraph 50

A CHECKLIST FOR GETTING STARTED 53


Essays for Analysis 53

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xvi CONTENTS

ZACHARY SHEMTOB AND DAVID LAT, Executions Should


Be Televised 53
The authors argue that “a democracy demands a citizenry as informed
as possible about the costs and benefits of society’s ultimate punishment.”
GWEN WILDE (STUDENT ESSAY), Why the Pledge
of Allegiance Should Be Revised 56
A student concludes that “Those who wish to exercise religion are free to do so,
but the place to do so is not in a pledge that is required of all schoolchildren and
of all new citizens.”
A Casebook for Critical Reading: Should Some Kinds of Speech Be Censored? 60

SUSAN BROWNMILLER, Let’s Put Pornography Back


in the Closet 61
The founder of Women against Pornography argues that “contemporary
community standards” should be decisive.
CHARLES R. LAWRENCE III, On Racist Speech 64
“Whenever we decide that racist speech must be tolerated because of the
importance of maintaining societal tolerance for all unpopular speech, we are
asking blacks and other subordinated groups to bear the burden for the good
of all.”
DEREK BOK, Protecting Freedom of Expression on the
Campus 69
Prompted by the display of Confederate flags hung from the window of a
Harvard dormitory, the president of Harvard says that students have the right
to display the flags, but he expresses his “regret” and suggests that students who
are offended by the flags should simply “ignore” them.
Thinking Further about Freedom of Expression and Facebook 71

3 Critical Reading: Getting Deeper into Arguments 74


Persuasion, Argument, Dispute 74
IDEA PROMPT: ESTABLISHING TRUSTWORTHINESS AND
CREDIBILITY 76
Reason versus Rationalization 77
Some Procedures in Argument 78
Definition 78

IDEA PROMPT: WAYS TO GIVE DEFINITIONS 83


Assumptions, 84 Premises and Syllogisms, 85 Deduction, 85
Sound Arguments, 87 Induction, 90 Evidence: Experimentation,
Examples, Authoritative Testimony, Statistics, 91

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CONTENTS xvii

A CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING STATISTICAL EVIDENCE 101


Nonrational Appeals 102
Satire, Irony, Sarcasm, Humor, 102 Emotional Appeals, 103

Does All Writing Contain Arguments? 105


A CHECKLIST FOR ANALYZING AN ARGUMENT 106
An Example: An Argument and a Look at the Writer’s Strategies 107
GEORGE F. WILL, Being Green at Ben and Jerry’s 107
Statistics and humor are among the tools this essayist uses in arguing on behalf
of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
George F. Wills’s Strategies 110

Arguments for Analysis 114


STANLEY FISH, When “ Identity Politics” Is Rational 114
“Is it so irrational and retrograde to base one’s vote on the gender or race or
religion or ethnicity of a candidate? Not necessarily.”
GLORIA JIMÉNEZ (STUDENT ESSAY), Against the Odds, and
against the Common Good 117
A student analyzes the arguments for state-run lotteries and concludes that
“state legislators who genuinely have the interests of their constituents at heart
will not pass bills that . . . cause the state to engage in an activity that is close to
pickpocketing.”
ANNA LISA RAYA (STUDENT ESSAY), It’s Hard Enough
Being Me 121
An undergraduate, who in college discovered that she was a Latina, objects to
being stereotyped and explains how she decided to try to be true to herself, not
to the image that others have constructed for her.
RONALD TAKAKI, The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority 123
The image of Asian Americans as a “model minority” is not only harmful but
false, writes a professor of ethnic studies.
JAMES Q. WILSON, Just Take Away Their Guns 125
A professor explains why he favors “encouraging the police to make street frisks”
to get guns out of the hands of those most likely to use them for criminal purposes.
KAYLA WEBLEY, Is Forgiving Student Loan Debt a Good
Idea? 129
“Why should taxpayers — especially those who never attended college in the first
place — foot the bill for the borrowers’ education?”
ALFRED EDMOND JR., Why Asking for a Job Applicant’s
Facebook Password Is Fair Game 132
A businessman says that, at least for certain kinds of operations — he cites
“the childcare industry” — the employer can reasonably request the potential
employee’s Facebook password.

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xviii CONTENTS

SHERRY TURKLE, The Flight from Conversation 136


A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology argues that, in an
age of texting, “We live in a technological universe in which we are always
communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.”
AURORA MENEGHELLO AND SERGE BAKALIAN, Trailer for
Default: The Student Loan Movie
This documentary trailer features statistics and interviews on student loan debt
in an effort to propose a solution to what the filmmakers see as a worsening
problem among the nation’s college students.

4 Visual Rhetoric: Images as Arguments 141


Some Uses of Images 141
Appeals to the Eye 141
Are Some Images Not Fit to Be Shown? 146
Politics and Pictures 149

EXERCISE 150
EXERCISES: THINKING ABOUT IMAGES 153
Reading Advertisements 153
A CHECKLIST FOR ANALYZING IMAGES (ESPECIALLY
ADVERTISEMENTS) 157
Writing about a Political Cartoon 158
A CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING AN ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL
CARTOONS 159
IDEA PROMPT: ANALYSIS OF A POLITICAL CARTOON 160
JACKSON SMITH (STUDENT ESSAY), Pledging Nothing? 161
Visuals as Aids to Clarity: Maps, Graphs, Tables,
and Pie Charts 163
A CHECKLIST FOR CHARTS AND GRAPHS 163
A Note on Using Visuals in Your Own Paper 163
A Note on Formatting Your Paper: Document Design 165
Additional Images for Analysis 167
NORA EPHRON, The Boston Photographs 170
Arguing against the widespread view that newspapers ought not to print
pictures of dead bodies, Ephron suggests that, since “death happens to be one of
life’s main events,” it is “irresponsible” for newspapers to fail to show it.

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CONTENTS xix

JOSH HARKINSON/MOTHER JONES, How Industrial Pot Growers


Ravage the Land: A Google Earth Tour
An environmental sociologist uses Google Earth to illustrate the ecological
impact of illegal marijuana farming.
UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT,
“How to Feed the Future” and “Mobile Phones Tackling
Poverty”
Two infographics use statistics to help Americans understand poverty in
developing nations.

PART TWO CRITICAL WRITING 177

5 Writing an Analysis of an Argument 179


Analyzing an Argument 179
Examining the Author’s Thesis, 179 Examining the Author’s Purpose, 180

IDEA PROMPT: DRAWING CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLYING


PROOF 180
Examining the Author’s Methods, 181 Examining the Author’s
Persona, 182 Examining Persona and Intended Audience, 183

A CHECKLIST FOR ANALYZING AN AUTHOR’S INTENDED


AUDIENCE 184
Summary 185

A CHECKLIST FOR ANALYZING A TEXT 186


An Argument, Its Elements, and a Student’s Analysis of the Argument 186

NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, For Environmental Balance,


Pick Up a Rifle 186
“Let’s bring back hunting.”
The Essay Analyzed 188

BETSY SWINTON (STUDENT ESSAY), Tracking Kristof 192


An Analysis of the Student’s Analysis 195
A CHECKLIST FOR WRITING AN ANALYSIS OF AN
ARGUMENT 195
Arguments for Analysis 196

JEFF JACOBY, Bring Back Flogging 196


A journalist argues that, for many offenses, flogging would be an improvement
over prison.

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xx CONTENTS

GERARD JONES, Violent Media Is Good for Kids 199


The author of numerous comic books argues that gangsta rap and other forms
of “creative violence” do more good than harm.
JUSTIN CRONIN, Confessions of a Liberal Gun Owner 203
A lifelong Democrat makes a case for the right to bear arms.
PETER SINGER, Animal Liberation 207
Should supporters of equality for women and minorities support equality for
animals? Yes, says a philosopher, who explains why.
JONATHAN SWIFT, A Modest Proposal 220
A satirist writes about poverty and overpopulation in eighteenth-century
Ireland.
BARACK OBAMA, President Obama on the Death of
Osama bin Laden
President Obama gives a speech announcing the death of Osama bin Laden
while navigating an international and multicultural audience.

6 Developing an Argument of Your Own 228


Planning, Drafting, and Revising an Argument 228
Getting Ideas: Argument as an Instrument of Inquiry, 229 The Thesis
or Main Point, 237

A CHECKLIST FOR A THESIS STATEMENT 237


Imagining an Audience, 238 The Audience as Collaborator, 239

A CHECKLIST FOR IMAGINING AN AUDIENCE 242


The Title, 242 The Opening Paragraphs, 243 Organizing and Revising
the Body of the Essay, 246 The Ending, 249

IDEA PROMPT: USING TRANSITIONS IN ARGUMENT 250


Two Uses of an Outline, 251 A Last Word about Outlines, 252

A CHECKLIST FOR ORGANIZING AN ARGUMENT 253


Tone and the Writer’s Persona, 253

IDEA PROMPT: VARYING TONE 255


We, One, or I? 257

A CHECKLIST FOR ATTENDING TO THE NEEDS


OF THE AUDIENCE 258
Avoiding Sexist Language 259

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CONTENTS xxi

Peer Review 259


A PEER REVIEW CHECKLIST FOR A DRAFT
OF AN ARGUMENT 260
A Student’s Essay, from Rough Notes to Final Version 261
EMILY ANDREWS, Why I Don’t Spare “Spare Change” 264
The Essay Analyzed 266
EXERCISE 266
CASEY NEISTAT, Calorie Detective
A filmmaker tests the truth of calorie labeling.

7 Using Sources 267


Why Use Sources? 267
Choosing a Topic 270
Finding Material 271
Finding Quality Information on the Web 272

A WORD ABOUT WIKIPEDIA 273


Finding Articles Using Library Databases, 273 Locating Books, 275

Interviewing Peers and Local Authorities 275


Evaluating Your Sources 277
Taking Notes 280
A CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING PRINT SOURCES 281
A CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING ELECTRONIC SOURCES 282
A Note on Plagiarizing, Paraphrasing, and Using Common
Knowledge 283
A CHECKLIST FOR AVOIDING PLAGIARISM 285
Compiling an Annotated Bibliography 286
A Rule for Writers: Citation Generators 287

Writing the Paper 287


Organizing Your Notes, 287 The First Draft, 288 Later Drafts, 288
A Few More Words about Organization, 289 Choosing a Tentative
Title, 289 The Final Draft, 290

Quoting from Sources 290


Incorporating Your Reading into Your Thinking: The Art and Science of
Synthesis, 290 The Use and Abuse of Quotations, 292 How to Quote, 293

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xxii CONTENTS

IDEA PROMPT: SIGNAL PHRASES 294


A CHECKLIST FOR USING QUOTATIONS RATHER THAN
SUMMARIES 294
Documentation 295
A Note on Footnotes (and Endnotes), 295 MLA Format: Citations
within the Text, 296 MLA Format: The List of Works Cited, 301
APA Format: Citations within the Text, 313 APA Format: The List of
References, 314

A CHECKLIST FOR PAPERS USING SOURCES 317


An Annotated Student Research Paper in MLA Format 318
LESLEY TIMMERMAN, An Argument for Corporate
Responsibility 319
An Annotated Student Research Paper in APA Format 326
LAURA DeVEAU, The Role of Spirituality and Religion
in Mental Health 327

PART THREE FURTHER VIEWS ON ARGUMENT 335

8 A Philosopher’s View: The Toulmin Model 337


The Claim 338
Grounds 338
Warrants 339
Backing 340
Modal Qualifiers 341
Rebuttals 343
IDEA PROMPT: CONSTRUCTING A TOULMIN ARGUMENT 344
Putting the Toulmin Method to Work: Responding to an Argument 345

JAMES E. McWILLIAMS, The Locavore Myth: Why Buying


from Nearby Farmers Won’t Save the Planet 345
A CHECKLIST FOR USING THE TOULMIN METHOD 346
Thinking with Toulmin’s Method 347

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CONTENTS xxiii

9 A Logician’s View: Deduction, Induction, Fallacies 349


Deduction 349
Induction 361
Observation and Inference, 361 Probability, 363 Mill’s Methods, 365
Confirmation, Mechanism, and Theory, 367

Fallacies 368
Fallacies of Ambiguity 369 Ambiguity, 369 Division, 369
Composition, 369 Equivocation, 370 Fallacies of Presumption 371
Distorting the Facts, 371 Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc, 371, Many
Questions, 372 Hasty Generalization, 372 The Slippery Slope, 372
False Analogy, 373 Straw Man, 374 Special Pleading, 374
Begging the Question, 374 False Dichotomy, 375 Oversimplification, 375
Red Herring, 376 Fallacies of Relevance 376 Tu Quoque, 376
The Genetic Fallacy, 376 Poisoning the Well, 377 Appeal to
Ignorance, 377 Ad Hominem, 378 Appeal to Authority, 378
Appeal to Fear, 379 Death by a Thousand Qualifications, 379
Protecting the Hypothesis, 380

A CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING AN ARGUMENT FROM A


LOGICAL POINT OF VIEW 380
EXERCISE: FALLACIES — OR NOT? 381
MAX SHULMAN, Love Is a Fallacy 383
A short story about the limits of logic: “Can you give me one logical reason why
you should go steady with Petey Bellows?”

10 A Psychologist’s View: Rogerian Argument 392


Rogerian Argument: An Introduction 392
CARL R. ROGERS, Communication: Its Blocking and Its
Facilitation 394
A psychotherapist explains why we must see things from the other person’s
point of view.
A CHECKLIST FOR ANALYZING ROGERIAN ARGUMENT 400
EDWARD O. WILSON, Letter to a Southern Baptist Minister 400
An internationally renowned evolutionary biologist appeals for help from a
literalist interpreter of Christian Holy Scripture.

11 A Rhetorician’s View: Rhetorical Analysis


of Nontraditional Texts 404
How Rhetoricians Analyze Arguments 407
Production, Distribution, and Consumption: Performing
a Rhetorical Analysis 408

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xxiv CONTENTS

A Sample Analysis: Public Service Announcement 411


Production, 411 Distribution, 413 Consumption, 414

A CHECKLIST FOR CULTURAL ANALYSIS 415


A Sample Cultural Analysis 415

MICHELLE DEAN, Here Comes the Hillbilly, Again 415


The author argues that, like the hillbilly stereotype in general, “Here Comes
Honey Boo Boo casts this socio-economic divide in especially sharp relief.”

12 A Literary Critic’s View: Arguing about Literature 420


Interpreting 421
Judging (or Evaluating) 422
Theorizing 425
A CHECKLIST FOR AN ARGUMENT ABOUT LITERATURE 425
Examples: Two Students Interpret Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” 426

ROBERT FROST, Mending Wall 426


JONATHAN DEUTSCH, The Deluded Speaker in Frost’s
“Mending Wall” 429
FELICIA ALONSO, The Debate in Robert Frost’s
“Mending Wall” 432
Exercises: Reading a Poem and a Story 435

ANDREW MARVELL, To His Coy Mistress 435


KATE CHOPIN, The Story of an Hour 438
Thinking about the Effects of Literature 441
PLATO, “The Greater Part of the Stories Current Today We Shall
Have to Reject” 443
A great philosopher argues for censorship as necessary to shape the minds of
tomorrow’s leaders.
Thinking about Government Funding for the Arts 449

13 A Debater’s View: Individual Oral Presentations


and Debate 450
Individual Oral Presentations 450
Methods of Delivery 452

A CHECKLIST FOR AN ORAL PRESENTATION 453

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CONTENTS xxv

The Audience 454


Delivery 455
The Talk 456
Formal Debates 457
Standard Debate Format 457

A CHECKLIST FOR PREPARING FOR A DEBATE 458

A Moralist’s View: Ways of Thinking Ethically


Amoral Reasoning
Immoral Reasoning
Moral Reasoning: A Closer Look
Criteria for Moral Rules
A CHECKLIST FOR MORAL REASONING
PETER SINGER, Famine, Affluence, and Morality
A moral philosopher argues that it is the responsibility of affluent nations, such
as the United States, to assist poor nations in which people are starving to death.
GARRET HARDIN, Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against
Helping the Poor
A professor of human ecology argues that a prosperous country is like a lifeboat
that is nearly full; taking on additional passengers — helping the desperately
needy of poor countries — will, he says, swamp the lifeboat.
RANDY COHEN, Three Letters (to an Ethicist)
A weekly columnist offers advice concerning the moral problems
that we face daily.

A Lawyer’s View: Steps toward Civic Literacy


Civil and Criminal Cases
Trial and Appeal
Decision and Opinion
Majority, Concurring, and Dissenting Opinions
Facts and Law
Balancing Interests
A Word of Caution
A CHECKLIST FOR ANALYZING LEGAL ARGUMENTS
A Casebook on the Law and Society: What Rights Do the Constitution and the Bill
of Rights Protect?

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xxvi CONTENTS

BYRON R. WHITE AND JOHN PAUL STEVENS,


New Jersey v. T.L.O.
May a high school official search a girl who has been caught smoking in the
lavatory? The Fourth Amendment prohibits “unreasonable searches,” but a
majority of the U.S. Supreme Court found in this case that “search was in no
sense unreasonable.”
HARRY BLACKMUN AND WILLIAM H. REHNQUIST,
Roe v. Wade
A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court voted that although limitations may be
placed on abortion, the right to privacy includes “a woman’s decision whether
or not to terminate her pregnancy.” A minority disagreed.

PART FOUR CURRENT ISSUES: OCCASIONS


FOR DEBATE 461

Debates as an Aid to Thinking 462


A CHECKLIST FOR ANALYZING A DEBATE 464

14 Student Loans: Should Some Indebtedness Be Forgiven? 465


ROBERT APPLEBAUM, Debate on Student Loan Debt Doesn’t
Go Far Enough 465
“Education should be a right, not a commodity reserved only for the rich or
those willing to hock their futures for the chance . . . to get a job.”
Analyzing a Visual: Student Loan Debt 468

JUSTIN WOLFERS, Forgive Student Loans? Worst Idea Ever 469


“If we are going to give money away, why on earth would we give it to college
grads?”

15 Are Integrated Devices Safer Than Using Handheld Devices


While Driving? 471
MITCH BAINWOL, Pro 471
Technology enables drivers to make calls while keeping their eyes on the road
and their hands on the wheel.
Analyzing a Visual: Texting While Driving 473

ROB REYNOLDS, Con 474


“We can only reduce distracted-driving crash rates by banning the activity.”

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CONTENTS xxvii

16 The Local Food Movement: Is It a Better Way to Eat? 476


STEPHEN BUDIANSKY, Math Lessons for Locavores 476
Local-food advocates need to learn, by considering statistics concerning calories
of fossil fuel energy, that it is not sinful to eat a tomato that has been shipped
across the country and it is not virtuous to eat a locally grown tomato that comes
from a heated greenhouse.
Analyzing a Visual: Local Farming 478

KERRY TRUEMAN, The Myth of the Rabid Locavore 479


Trueman responds to Budiansky, claiming that he uses “a bunch of dubious
and/or irrelevant statistics.”

17 The Death Penalty: Is It Ever Justified? 483


EDWARD I. KOCH, Death and Justice: How Capital Punishment
Affirms Life 483
Life is precious, asserts a former mayor of New York — and the death penalty
helps affirm that fact.
Analyzing a Visual: The Death Penalty 489

DAVID BRUCK, The Death Penalty 489


A lawyer responds to Koch and says, “By that logic, we also trivialize rape
unless we sodomize rapists.”

18 Genetic Modification of Human Beings: Is It Acceptable? 495


RONALD M. GREEN, Building Baby from the Genes Up 495
“Why should a child struggle with reading difficulties when we could alter the
genes responsible for the problem?”
Analyzing a Visual: Genetic Modification of Human Beings 499

RICHARD HAYES, Genetically Modified Humans? No Thanks 499


“We don’t want to run the huge risks to the human community and the human
future that would come with altering the genetic basis of our common human nature.”

PART FIVE CURRENT ISSUES: CASEBOOKS 503

19 A College Education: What Is Its Purpose? 505


ANDREW DELBANCO, 3 Reasons College Still Matters 505
“The best chance we have to maintain a functioning democracy is a citizenry
that can tell the difference between demagoguery and responsible arguments.”

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xxviii CONTENTS

PATRICK ALLITT, Should Undergraduates Specialize? 510


A graduate of the British system, where undergraduates specialize, contemplates
his daughter’s liberal arts curriculum in the United States.
LETTERS OF RESPONSE BY CAROL GEARY SCHNEIDER
AND ELLIS M. WEST 513
CARLO ROTELLA, No, It Doesn’t Matter What You
Majored In 516
“What matters is that you pursued training in the craft of mastering complexity,
which you can apply in fields from advertising to zoo management.”
ALINA TUGEND, Vocation or Exploration: Pondering the
Purpose of College 518
We do not have to choose between vocational training and the deep learning we
associate with liberal arts.
MARK EDMUNDSON, Education’s Hungry Hearts 521
Is college a good investment? For inspired students, this question is beside
the point.
MARTY NEMKO, America’s Most Overrated Product: The
Bachelor’s Degree 523
A career counselor argues that “College is a wise choice for far fewer people than
are currently encouraged to consider it.”
CHARLES MURRAY, Should the Obama Generation
Drop Out? 528
“Discarding the bachelor’s degree as a job qualification would not be difficult.
The solution is to substitute certification tests, which would provide evidence that
the applicant has acquired the skills the employer needs.”
LETTERS OF RESPONSE BY CHARLES AXILBUND, JACQUES
JIMENEZ, JEFF ADLER, LILLIAN HOODES, LARRY HOFFNER,
SANDRA SHERMAN, AND MICHEL DEDINA 530
LOUIS MENAND, Re-imagining Liberal Education 534
A college teacher tells his fellow teachers that “The only way to develop
curiosity, sympathy, principle, and independence of mind [in students] is to
practice being curious, sympathetic, principled, and independent. . . . We are the
books our students read most closely.”

20 Hydraulic Fracturing: Is Fracking Worth


the Environmental Cost? 538
DON CARNS JR., Shale Drilling Is a Disaster Waiting
to Happen 538
The author argues that if things go wrong during the drilling, radioactive
material may be released into our drinking water.

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CONTENTS xxix

SCOTT CLINE, Unfounded Fears about Shale Gas Obscure


Facts 541
A petroleum engineer argues that the public has more to fear from road salting
and from household chemicals dumped down drains than from oil and gas
operations.
AUBREY K. McCLENDON, Is Hydraulic Fracturing Good for the
Economy? Pro 542
The cofounder of an energy company, drawing on a study issued by Pennsylva-
nia State University, gives details about thousands of jobs created and billions of
dollars paid in leases and royalties.
JANNETTE M. BARTH, Is Hydraulic Fracturing Good for the
Economy? Con 544
An economist questions figures issued by the gas industry.

21 Drugs: Should Their Sale and Use Be Legalized? 546


WILLIAM J. BENNETT, Drug Policy and the Intellectuals 546
A former government official complains that “the arguments mustered against
our current drug policy by America’s intellectuals make for very thin gruel
indeed.”
JAMES Q. WILSON, Against the Legalization of Drugs 553
A political scientist claims we did not lose the war on heroin in the 1970s and
will not lose the war on cocaine — unless we decide to surrender.
MILTON FRIEDMAN, There’s No Justice in the War on
Drugs 567
A Nobel Prize–winning economist argues that the “war on drugs” has been
worse than the drug usage that it was designed to reduce.
ELLIOTT CURRIE, Toward a Policy on Drugs 570
“I think much would be gained if we followed the example of some European
countries and moved toward decriminalization of the drug user. I also think
there is a strong argument for treating marijuana differently from the harder
drugs. . . .”

22 Junk Food: Should the Government Regulate Our Intake? 581


ANONYMOUS EDITORIAL, NEW YORK TIMES,
A Ban Too Far 582
“. . . too much nannying with a ban might well cause people to tune out.”
LETTERS OF RESPONSE BY GARY TAUSTINE AND
BRIAN ELBEL 582

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xxx CONTENTS

Analyzing a Visual: The Nanny State 584


“New Yorkers Need a Mayor, Not a Nanny.”
DANIEL E. LIEBERMAN, Evolution’s Sweet Tooth 585
A biologist argues that because humans have evolved to crave sugar,“We have
evolved to need coercion.”
MARK BITTMAN, Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize
Vegetables 587
“Rather than subsidizing the production of unhealthful foods, we should . . . tax
things like soda, French fries, doughnuts, and hyperprocessed snacks.”
LETTERS OF RESPONSE BY BROWN ET AL. 592

23 Facebook: How Has Social Networking Changed


How We Relate to Others? 594
LAUREN TARSHIS, Is Facebook Making You Mean? 594
Some experts say online communication can bring out your nasty side.
STEVEN LEVY, Facebook Reset 596
Our friend lists have become bloated and awkward. It’s time to start over.
JENNA WORTHAM, It’s Not about You, Facebook. It’s about
Us. 598
“As Facebook evolves into a sustainable business, the trick will be making sure
that users don’t cool on its tactics.”
STEPHEN MARCHE, Is Facebook Making Us Lonely? 600
The author argues that despite our new connectivity, we may be lonelier than
ever before.
JOSH ROSE, How Social Media Is Having a Positive Impact
on Our Culture 612
“The Internet doesn’t steal our humanity, it reflects it. The Internet doesn’t get
inside us, it shows what’s inside us.”

24 Immigration: What Is to Be Done? 615


DAVID COLE, Five Myths about Immigration 615
A professor at Georgetown University argues that much of what we think we
know about immigration is not true.
BARRY R. CHISWICK, The Worker Next Door 619
A specialist in the labor market dismisses the idea that immigrants fill a need
for cheap labor: “The point is that with a decline in low-skilled foreign workers,
life would go on.”

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CONTENTS xxxi

JOHN TIERNEY, Ángels in America 622


A journalist whose low-skilled grandfather came to America from Ireland asks
why a comparable person cannot now come from Mexico.
VICTOR DAVID HANSON, Our Brave New World of
Immigration 624
“We ask too little of too many of our immigrants. We apparently don’t care
whether they come legally or learn English.”
CARDINAL ROGER MAHONY, Called by God to Help 627
A Roman Catholic bishop argues that “Denying aid to a fellow human being
violates a law with higher authority than Congress — the law of God.”

25 Service: Should the United States Require Young People


to Perform Public Service? 630
BARACK OBAMA, Commencement Address 630
Obama — a presidential candidate at the time — tells the graduating class that
although “There’s no community service requirement in the real world,” they
have an obligation to themselves to think beyond “fulfilling [their] immediate
wants and needs . . . because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something
larger than yourself that you realize your true potential. . . .”
PETER LEVINE, The Case for “Service” 636
“Service has the potential to restore Americans’ civic engagement, but it also has
limitations.”
THOMAS E. RICKS, Let’s Draft Our Kids 645
The author argues that conscripts should have three options: eighteen months of
military service, a slightly longer period of civilian service, or, third, libertarians
could opt out and in return forgo Medicare, subsidized college loans, and all
other government assistance.
DAVE EGGERS, Serve or Fail 648
“Colleges give their students the intellectual tools for life beyond campus, [but]
they largely ignore the part about how they might contribute to the world.”
LETTERS OF RESPONSE BY DIXIE DILLON, SHARON S. EPSTEIN,
AND PATRICIA R. KING 651

PART SIX ENDURING QUESTIONS: ESSAYS, A STORY,


POEMS, AND A PLAY 653

26 What Is the Ideal Society? 655


THOMAS MORE, From Utopia 655
The writer who coined the word utopia in the sixteenth century presents his
image of an ideal society.

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xxxii CONTENTS

NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI, From The Prince 669


What are the realities of politics? An observer of the Medici court in Renaissance
Italy speaks his mind.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, The Declaration of Independence 678
American colonists state the reasons for their break with the king of England.
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, Declaration of Sentiments and
Resolutions 682
The men and women at the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention adopt a new declara-
tion, accusing men of failures and crimes parallel to those that led Jefferson in
1776 to denounce George III.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., I Have a Dream 687
A civil rights leader shares his vision of the American dream.
W. H. AUDEN, The Unknown Citizen 691
“Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd.”
LANGSTON HUGHES, Let America Be America Again 692
An African American poet calls on America to live up to its ideals.
URSULA K. LE GUIN, The Ones Who Walk Away from
Omelas 695
This short story tells of a happy society built on injustice. What should citizens
do when they learn about the foundations of their happiness?
HELEN PREJEAN, Executions Are Too Costly — Morally 701
A Roman Catholic nun argues that allowing our government to kill citizens
compromises the deepest moral values on which this country was conceived: the
inviolable dignity of human beings.

27 How Free Is the Will of the Individual within Society? 706


Thoughts about Free Will 706
PLATO, Crito 707
Socrates, the founder of Western philosophy, argues that being wrongfully
convicted gives you no right to escape your punishment, even if the punishment
is death.
GEORGE ORWELL, Shooting an Elephant 721
“I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had [shot the
elephant] solely to avoid looking a fool.”
WALTER T. STACE, Is Determinism Inconsistent with
Free Will? 728
A philosopher explores the great question: Can we both act of our own free will
and also be subject to the laws of nature?

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CONTENTS xxxiii

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., Letter from Birmingham Jail 736


An imprisoned civil rights leader argues that victims of unjust laws have the
right to break those laws as long as they use nonviolent tactics.
PETER CAVE, Man or Sheep? 752
“When asked whether man or mouse, some of us tend to squeak and take the
cheese.”
THOMAS HARDY, The Man He Killed 755
In this poem, a man thinks about the time he killed another man in battle.
T. S. ELIOT, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock 756
“In a minute there is time/For decisions and revisions which a minute will
reverse.”
SUSAN GLASPELL, Trifles 761
Two women in this short play subvert the law because they believe it is fair to
do so.
MITSUYE YAMADA, To the Lady 771
In this contemporary poem, a woman of Japanese birth asks what she should
have done when ordered into an American internment camp in 1942.

28 What Is Happiness? 774


Thoughts about Happiness, Ancient and Modern 774
DANIEL GILBERT, Does Fatherhood Make You Happy? 775
In an essay published on Father’s Day, a professor says, “When we pay a lot for
something, we assume it makes us happy, which is why we swear to the won-
ders of bottled water and Armani socks. . . . Our children give us many things,
but an increase in our average daily happiness is probably not among them.”
HENRY DAVID THOREAU, Selections from Walden 778
“A man who has . . . found something to do will not need to get a new suit to do
it in.”
DARRIN M. McMAHON, In Pursuit of Unhappiness 783
The idea that we should be happy, the author of this short history of happiness
tells us, is only a few hundred years old.
EPICTETUS, From The Handbook 786
An ancient Stoic philosopher, born a slave, tells us that “Everything has two
handles, one by which it can be carried and one by which it cannot.” Happiness
lies in taking things by the right handle.
BERTRAND RUSSELL, The Happy Life 789
One of the most famous philosophers of the twentieth century argues that “The
happy life is to an extraordinary extent the same as the good life.”

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Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
corner; and there it still lies, without even a name on the rough lead
to indicate whose sad burthen of life is deposited within.
Her royal husband in England simply notified in the London
Gazette that a Duchess of Ahlden had died at her residence on the
date above named; but he did not add that he had thereby lost a
wife, or his children lost a mother. No intimation was given of the
relationship she held towards him or them. The quality of his
affection was illustrated by his explosion of rage when he heard that
his daughter, with the Court of Prussia, had gone into mourning for
the death of her mother. The husband of Sophia Dorothea became
of gayer humour than usual after her death. After receiving
intelligence of that event, the royal widower went to see the Italian
comedians in the Haymarket act ‘Il Mercante Prodigo,’ or ‘Harlequin
Prodigal Merchant.’ He liked this sort of entertainment so well, that, a
few nights later, he commanded the performance of ‘Pantalone,
Barone di Sloffenburgo,’ at the King’s Theatre. On Christmas Eve,
the newspapers recorded the fact that Prince Waldeck (who had
come over with despatches in November) had taken leave of his
Majesty and had returned to Hanover. Therewith seemed to have
come the end of a long, and dark, and mournful history.
In the list of the persons of note and distinction in Great Britain
and Ireland, and of the Foreign Princes who died in the year 1726—
published in the Daily Post in January 1727, no record was made of
the demise of Sophia Dorothea. On the other hand, there is an entry
of a bereavement by which her husband, the King, had been
afflicted, in the same mouth of November, namely, in the death of
‘Mr. Mahomet, valet de chambre to his Majesty.’
A story was current that Sophia Dorothea, on her death-bed, had
summoned her husband, the King, to meet her at the great judgment
seat of Heaven within a year. This summons was conveyed in a
letter addressed by her to him, but it was not delivered to the King till
after he had, in nervous restlessness, set out for Hanover.
On the night of the 2nd of June 1727, little Horace Walpole, then
ten years old, was conducted by the King’s illegitimate daughter,
Petronilla Melusina (Lady Walsingham) to the King himself, to kiss
the royal hand as his Majesty passed on his way to sup (for the last
time, as it proved) with Petronilla’s mother (the former von der
Schulenburg, now Duchess of Kendal) the King’s old mistress. This
presentation had been accorded to the prayer of the first minister’s
wife, Horace Walpole’s mother.
On the following day, the 3rd of June, the King left England. On
the night of that day week he died at Osnaburgh, aged sixty-seven
years and thirteen days. The King had landed at Vaer, in Holland, on
the 7th, and he travelled thence to Utrecht, by land, escorted by the
Guards to the frontiers of Holland. On Friday, the 9th, he reached
Dalden, at twelve at night, when he was apparently in excellent
health. He partook of supper largely, and with appetite, eating,
among other things, part of a melon, a fruit which has killed more
than one emperor of Germany. At three the next morning he
resumed his journey. According to the story to which allusion has just
been made, the letter of Sophia Dorothea was then given to him. He
read it, appeared shocked, and became ill. He was probably moved
by something more than mere sentiment, for he had not travelled two
hours when he was attacked by violent abdominal pains. He hurried
on to Linden, where dinner awaited him; but, being able to eat
nothing, he was immediately bled, and other remedies made use of.
Anxious to reach Hanover, he ordered the journey to be continued
with all speed. He fell into a lethargic doze in the carriage, and so
continued, leaning on a gentleman in waiting who was with him in
the carriage. To this attendant he feebly announced in French, ‘I am
a dead man.’ He reached the episcopal palace at Osnaburgh at ten
that night; was again bled in the arm and foot, but ineffectually; his
lethargy increased, and he died about midnight.
The King’s mistress, the Duchess of Kendal, who had gone
thither to meet him, tore her hair, beat her breast, and uttered loud
cries of despair at this bereavement. She repaired to Brunswick and
shut herself up, for three months, as the most afflicted of widows.
Subsequently, she returned to her house near Isleworth. A raven
was the last pet of this lady; and the familiarity of the two gave rise to
the popular legend that George had promised to visit his old
mistress, after death, if such circumstance were allowed, and that he
was keeping his word in the shape of the much caressed bird in
sables.
Even in her estrangement from her husband, Sophia Dorothea
never uttered a word of complaint against him. She never failed to
exhibit either mildness or dignity in her captivity: on the contrary, she
manifested both; and Coxe says of her, in his ‘Memoirs of Walpole,’
that, ‘on receiving the sacrament once every week, she never
omitted making the most solemn asseverations that she was not
guilty of the crime laid to her charge.’ Her son (George II.) had a
double fault in his father’s eyes, namely, his popularity, and, at one
time, his love for his mother—whom he loved, we are told, as much
as he hated his father. A pleasant household, a sorry hearth;
mistresses resting their rouged cheeks on the monarch’s bosom, a
wife in prison, and a son hating her oppressor, and loving, but not
redressing, the oppressed. Had Sophia Dorothea survived her
consort, her son, it is said, had determined to bring her over to
England and proclaim her Queen-dowager. Lady Suffolk, the
snubbed mistress of that son, expressed to Horace Walpole her
surprise on going (in the morning after the intelligence of the death of
George I. had reached England) to the new Queen, ‘at seeing, hung
up in the Queen’s dressing-room, a whole-length of a lady in royal
robes; and, in the bed-chamber, a half-length of the same person,
neither of which Lady Suffolk had ever seen before. The prince had
kept them concealed, not daring to produce them during the life of
his father. The whole-length he probably sent to Hanover. The half-
length I have frequently seen in the library of the Princess Amelia,
who told me it was the property of her grandmother. She bequeathed
it, with other pictures of her family, to her nephew, the Landgrave of
Hesse.’
If George II. never in his later days named his mother, it was
because the enemies of the dynasty pretended to trace in the
features of the second George a likeness to Count Königsmark, his
mother’s gallant cavalier! The Whigs had denied the legitimacy of the
son of James II., and the Tories embraced with eagerness an
opportunity to deny that of the heir of Brunswick.
The son of Sophia Dorothea was the pupil of his grandmother,
Sophia of Hanover; and his boyhood did little credit to the system, or
the acknowledged good sense of his instructress.
When the Earl of Macclesfield was at Hanover, in the year 1700,
bearing with him that Act of Succession which secured a throne for
the husband and son of Sophia Dorothea, that son, George
Augustus, was not yet out of his ‘teens.’ He was of that age at which
a prince is considered wise enough to rule kingdoms, but is yet
incapable of governing himself. At that time he was said to ‘give the
greatest hopes of himself that we, or any people on earth, could
desire.’ He was not of proud stature, indeed—and Alexander was not
six feet high; but Toland asserts, what is very hard to believe, that
George possessed a winning countenance, and a manly aspect and
deportment. In later years, he was rigid of feature, and walked as a
man does who is stiff in the joints. He was, in the days of his youth, a
graceful and easy speaker; that is, his phrases were well
constructed, and he expressed them with facility. His complexion
was fair, and his hair a light brown. Like his father, he spoke Latin
fluently; and English much better than his father, but with a decided
foreign accent, like William of Orange. As the utmost care was taken,
according to Toland, to furnish him with such other accomplishments
as are fit for a gentleman and a prince, it is a pity that he made so
unprofitable a use of so desirable a provision. He was tolerably well-
versed in history, but history to him was not philosophy teaching by
example; for though, in his earlier years, panegyrists said of him, not
only that his inclinations were virtuous, but that he was ‘wholly free
from all vice,’ his life, subsequently, could not be so characterised,
and the later practice marred the fair precedent. But let Toland limn
the object of his love.
‘These acquired parts,’ he says, ‘with a generous disposition and
a virtuous inclination, will deservedly render him the darling of our
people, and probably grace the English throne with a most knowing
prince.’ In the popular sense of the term, the last words cannot be
denied; and yet he never knew how to obtain, or cared how to merit,
his people’s love. ‘He learns English with inexpressible facility, and
has not only learned of his grandmother to have a real esteem for
Englishmen, but he likewise entertains a high notion of the wisdom,
goodness, and power of the English government, concerning which I
heard him, to my great satisfaction, ask several pertinent questions,
and such as betokened no mean or common observation. I was
surprised to find he understood so much of our affairs already; but
his great vivacity will not let him be ignorant of anything. There is
nothing more to be wished,’ says Toland, ‘but that he be proof
against the temptations which accompany greatness, and defended
from the poisonous infection of flatterers, who are the greatest bane
of society, and commonly occasion the ruin of princes, if not in their
lives, yet, at least, in their fame and reputation.’ It was under the
temptations alluded to that George Augustus made shipwreck of his
fame. His history, however, will be traced more fully hereafter. At
present we will only consider the career and character of his sister.
The daughter of Sophia Dorothea, some years younger than her
brother, was a promising girl when the Act of Succession opened a
throne to her father, but not to her mother. She had in her youth
sweetness of manners, fairness of features, and a soft and winning
voice. Her fair brown hair, as in her mother’s case, heightened the
grace and charms of a fair complexion; and her blue eyes were the
admiration of the poets, and the inspiration even of those whom the
gods had not made poetical. Her features, taken singly, were not
without defect; but the expression which pervaded them was a good
substitute for purely unintellectual beauty. The Electress Sophia was,
if not her governess, the superintendent of her governesses; and the
training, rigid and formal, failed in the development that was most to
be desired. ‘In minding her discourse to others,’ says Toland, ‘and by
what she was pleased to say to myself, she appears to have a more
than ordinary share of good sense and wit. The whole town and
court commend the easiness of her manners, and the evenness of
her disposition; but, above all her other qualities, they highly extol
her good humour, which is the most valuable endowment of either
sex, and the foundation of most other virtues. Upon the whole,
considering her personal merit and the dignity of her family, I heartily
wish and hope to see her some day Queen of Sweden.’ This hearty
wish was not to be realised. The younger Sophia Dorothea became
the wife of a brute and the mother of a hero. The old paternal
Seigneurie of ‘D’Olbreuse, dans le pays D’Aulnis,’ was raised to the
dignity of a Countship in 1729. It became the property of Sophia
Dorothea’s children, George II., King of England, and Sophia, Queen
of Prussia. They, with some propriety—but probably under constraint
of the law of France—made it over to the nearest French relative of
Eleanora D’Olbreuse, Sophia Dorothea’s mother—Alexandre
Prevost de Gayemont.
This would seem to be the end of a sad history. But the
persecution of Sophia Dorothea did not terminate with her life.
A hundred and seven years after Sophia Dorothea had ended
that unhappy life, her unhappy story was revived, and her memory
was now made to suffer under calumny that had not been thought of
in her life-time.
In the year 1833 a Swede, named Propst Wisselgren,
contributed to No. 33 of the ‘Magazin für die Literatur des Auslandes’
the copy of an alleged love-letter, the original of which existed, it was
said, in Sophia Dorothea’s hand-writing, in the archives of the Count
de la Gardie.
In the year 1836 Cramer, in his ‘Denkwürdigkeiten der Gräfin
Maria Aurora von Königsmark,’ referred to this letter, and expressed
his disbelief in its genuineness and authenticity.
Until 1847 the memory of Sophia Dorothea was left unassailed
by any further attempt against it. In that year, however, further
alleged autograph letters, not only of hers, but also others said to be
written by Königsmark, appeared in the ‘Literarische Blätter für
Unterhaltung.’ They were preceded by an introduction and
explanations by the Swedish writer Palmblad, who had selected
them, it was stated, from more than a hundred which were then in
the possession of Count Stephen de la Gardie, of Löberod, in
Schonen.
How did these alleged autograph letters find their way into
Sweden?
They had previously been kept, we are gravely told, in a drawer
in Oefiwedskloster, by the widowed Countess Amelia Ramel (a
Löwenhaupt by birth), at whose death, in 1810, they came into the
possession of her son, a Count de la Gardie. Löberod was acquired
by a Count Jacob Gustus de la Gardie in 1817.
But how did the Lady Amelia Ramel become the holder of these
extraordinary documents?
The answer is: As the descendant of General Karl von
Löwenhaupt, who had married Amelia, one of the two sisters of
Königsmark. This lady is stated to have made over this mass of
letters to her children, with this observation: Here are the letters
captured again (wiedererobert) at great peril, which cost a brother
his life and a king’s mother her freedom.
Captured, seized, recovered at great peril! When? where? by
whom? from whom?
No reply; not the smallest particle of evidence is given on these
important points. If they were obtained under circumstances of great
danger, it must have been from some one who considered them of
great importance, but who must have allowed himself to be
plundered of them with great indifference. No one ever heard of the
robbery or capture, nor of the means by which it was effected.
In 1838 one letter saw the light. In 1847 several were published
in Germany and Sweden. To all enquiry, no other answer has been
made than that the letters had existed since 1810 in the keeping of
the persons above named; that they had come down from Amelia
Königsmark, who had wedded with a Löwenhaupt; that they were
genuine letters, and that they conclusively proved the guilt of Sophia
Dorothea and Count Königsmark.
Sophia Dorothea, it must be remembered, never had the guilt
implied laid to her charge. The name of Königsmark was never once
uttered at her trial—if it may so be called. She was punished for
alleged disobedience to, and desertion of, her husband. She
retained so much of the character of a wife that she was not allowed
to marry again. She remained till her death the wife of a King of
England, with whom she would hold no association. Her husband
kept her for more than thirty years a state prisoner. How could this
cruelty be better justified than by blasting her character and memory
for ever—long after all parties were far beyond questioning? How
could this dire penalty be inflicted, after death, more easily than by
preparing a correspondence between the two personages, which
might be kept in a cloister drawer till it could be produced to serve its
infamous purpose?
The persons who held these papers in later years may have
conscientiously believed in their genuineness. Of the contemporaries
of Sophia Dorothea, the Countess von Platen and even Bernstorf are
said to have been able to imitate the handwriting of Sophia
Dorothea. We do not insinuate that they were willing to forge these
letters. But some one probably did so. Königsmark’s letters may
indeed be genuine; but it does not follow that they were addressed to
the wife of him who was afterwards George I. Without name, date, or
address, they might serve to calumniate any other lady of Sophia
Dorothea’s time.
Of the letters themselves, Palmblad, who inspected the precious
collection, states in his ‘Aurora Königsmark,’ or rather in an appendix
to the first part of that historical romance, that they consist of several
hundreds, of which two-thirds are by Königsmark, the other third by
Sophia Dorothea, and that in print they would fill a stout volume.
Those of the princess are in an elegant, somewhat flowing hand,
and, with rare exception, correct in expression. They are on fine, gilt-
edged paper. Königsmark’s letters are, we are told, on coarse, thick
paper, which hardly agreed with his fine gentlemanly style in
everything. They are legibly written, but the spelling is that of an
ignorant school-boy.
In some portions, cyphers, numbers, or disguised names were
used, the interpretation of which was easily got at, as would be the
case if the letters were forged and were intended to be easily
understood a century after the events had happened to which they
referred.
Very few of the letters—none of importance—have any address
on them. They have strayed from their envelopes, says Palmblad;
but envelopes were not then in use. Letters were folded and the
address written on the blank outside folding. Some few, according to
Palmblad, have external directions and are sealed with Königsmark’s
private seal—a heart within the motto, ‘Cosi fosse il vostro dentre il
mio’ (so may be yours within mine!). The post-mark is on some. One
of them is directed, ‘Pour la personne connue.’ Palmblad suggests
that it was originally enclosed within one ‘to the Confidant.’ Several
are addressed to ‘Mademoiselle La Frole de Knesebeck.’ The latter
name is occasionally spelt ‘Qnesbegk.’ A nearly complete (and very
convenient) absence of dates defies all attempts to place this
correspondence in anything like chronological order. Conjecturally,
the experts suggest that the dates extend from 1688 to 1693,
inclusive—six years.
When it is remembered that the princess and Königsmark were
closely watched, in order, if possible, to make a case out against
them, and that the two friends knew they were surrounded by spies,
the idea of their sending letters through the post, and of such letters
being preserved instead of destroyed, seems folly too absurd for
serious belief.
‘The contents of these letters,’ Palmblad informs us, ‘consist, for
the most part, of mutual assurances of love and everlasting fidelity;
of complaints over separation and of the constraint put on them by
the secret relations existing between them; of plans for privately
meeting, or expressed hopes of a coming uninterrupted life together;
of accounts of their occupations, pleasures, and their conversational
intercourse with others; mixed up with jealous reproaches, and
subsequent apologies for making them. When both pass an evening
at court festivals, where the princess is unable to bestow a tender
glance or a stolen word on her beloved, or has spoken or walked
with another cavalier, then Königsmark addresses to her an epistle
full of complaints at her coquetry, and her ‘airs connus.’ With the
same mistrust does the princess notice every step of her (supposed)
adorer. Nevertheless, no two persons so tenderly loved one another
as Königsmark his Leonisse—the fond pseudonym of the princess.’
As far as the above description goes, any fairly practised hand
might have invented the whole series of letters.
Even Professor Palmblad does not venture to guess when the
correspondence began. His assertion that Königsmark was at
Hanover, in the military service of that state, in 1685, is disproved by
the painstaking author of ‘Die Herzogin von Ahlden,’ who finds
Königsmark settled there not till 1688. Palmblad, with his earlier
date, points laughingly to the birth of Sophia Dorothea’s daughter, in
1687; and asks if the Prussian royal family, into which that daughter
married, has in its veins the blood of Guelph or of Königsmark. In like
easy manner, regardless of chronology, the Jacobites in England
used to speak of the son of George I. as ‘Young Königsmark!’
When Königsmark was absent campaigning, the princess, says
Palmblad, sent him her portrait, and he returned a gift of his own
portrait, painted expressly for her in Brussels. Whereupon, Palmblad
says, ‘the princess forwarded to him her diary.’ This has not yet been
found or forged, but Palmblad has no doubt as to the nature of its
contents. The whole story is founded on letters which the least
scrupulous of autograph dealers would hesitate to warrant.
What follows is to be read with the remembrance that the
plotters against Sophia Dorothea never lost sight of her or of the
count. They could not make a step without being observed by spies,
employed by principals who wished to destroy both the princess and
Königsmark. Through the very eye-holes of the tapestried figures in
the palace human eyes peered, in search of evidence to work the
ruin of those two friends. Not finding it, Königsmark was secretly
murdered, and Sophia Dorothea shut up for the remainder of her life,
on no other charge than that of deserting her husband’s society and
refusing to return to it.
This is Palmblad’s story: ‘During Königsmark’s presence at court,
he was generally admitted to the princess by her confidant, after
midnight, and he sometimes remained four-and-twenty hours with
her. He had previously declared himself indisposed and under
medical regimen as an excuse for appearing to keep within doors.
Aye,’ adds Palmblad, bolder grown, ‘the princess herself glided
secretly at night into Königsmark’s quarters’ (which were at some
distance from the palace). ‘She speaks in the most fervid
expressions of her love, her ‘ardeur,’ and declares herself ready to
sacrifice for him her reputation, and to accompany him to the
remotest corner of the world! Königsmark hesitates; his fortune is not
secure, his position uncertain, and he must first seek glory and
riches in war: but her prayers detain him in Hanover.’
These two persons could have said this and more to one another
in complete or comparative safety. To write such things down, and to
preserve what was written, was madness, fatal to life and honour if
discovered. But if these, and much worse, were not written down by
some one, how could Sophia Dorothea be made infamous for ever in
the eyes of posterity?
One can only judge of the bushel by the sample; and of the
whole correspondence, which is now in the library of the University
of Lund, by the fragmentary extracts which have been made public.
If two persons, knowing they were watched, and their letters
detained, could write such fiercely ardent assurances of mutual love,
express such utter contempt for the consequences of discovery, and
explain to one another how they were tracked and betrayed, they
must have been hopelessly insane. An enemy would bend invention
to such course as the one best calculated to destroy those against
whom it was directed. But there is one point which seems conclusive
against the genuineness of this correspondence. There are
passages in the alleged letters of Königsmark to the princess which
no man, however devoid of every manly quality, would write to a
woman whom he loved—would write to any woman at all. These
passages not even the most utterly and irretrievably abandoned of
women would be able to read without sense of insult and outrage
even to such soiled and shattered womanhood as hers. A man
writing such things, supposing they were intelligible to the person
addressed, would in that person’s eyes be loathsome and execrable
for ever.
Of course it is a horrible thought that any one could be
sufficiently wicked and cruel to forge letters with the idea of slaying
reputations by the forgery. But this wickedness and this cruelty were
not uncommon. Scores upon scores of letters have been forged in
France alone in order to destroy the reputation of Sir Isaac Newton.
As a mere matter of profitable business, the manufactory of forged
letters, simply for the market, is in the greatest possible activity. A
letter by any one, written at any time, eagerly demanded, is sure to
be supplied after a while. Letters, with other purpose in view than
mere profit—intended to turn up in long after years, in order to fasten
a calumny on some victim—are also not uncommon. One instance
may be cited in the case of the multitudinous forged letters of
Shelley. The late Mr. Moxon published a volume of Shelley letters;
and soon after he withdrew the volume, on discovery that every one
of these letters was a forgery. Stray letters of Shelley, however,
continued to come into the market. Letters to his wife of the most
confidential nature, containing vile aspersions against his father,
were bought as genuine by Sir Percy Shelley, the poet’s son. These,
too, were discovered to be forgeries and were destroyed. One of
these precious epistles, addressed to Byron, and bearing Shelley’s
signature, contained an assertion against the fidelity of ‘Harriet.’
Whoever bought it paid six guineas for a calumny against a dead
and defenceless woman, to which was appended the forged
signature of her dead and defenceless husband. Till something more
is known of the history of the alleged correspondence between
Sophia Dorothea and Königsmark—of which correspondence
nothing was known to the world till more than a century after her
death—let us put against it her own assertions of her innocence. It is
only a woman’s word; but it was asserted on solemn occasions, and
it may surely be accepted against the letters which were not put forth
till long after she, too, was dead and defenceless, who, when living,
was not charged with the guilt which this mysterious correspondence
would cast heavily upon her.
Sophia Dorothea, from the time her husband ascended the
throne of Great Britain, was, in a sort of loving sorrow, called by the
few left to love her—the Queen. She was indeed an uncrowned
Queen of England. As little really of a queen as Caroline of
Brunswick in after years. But her true place, nevertheless, is among
them. Her blood—the blood of the French Protestant, Seigneur
D’Olbreuse—has doubly asserted itself. Through the son of Sophia
Dorothea and his descendants, it flows in the veins of that honoured
lady, the Queen of Great Britain and Empress of India. Through the
daughter of Sophia Dorothea, it is inherited by the Emperor of
Germany; and the inheritance was enriched and strengthened when
the Princess Royal of England became the wife of the Crown Prince
of Prussia, the heir of the German Empire.
CAROLINE WILHELMINA
DOROTHEA,
WIFE OF GEORGE II.

Da seufzt sie, da presst sie das Herz—es war


Ja Lieb und Glück nur geträumet.
Geibel.
CHAPTER I.
BEFORE THE ACCESSION.

Birth of Princess Caroline—Her early married life—Eulogised by the poets—


Gaiety of the Court of the Prince and Princess at Leicester House—
Beauty of Miss Bellenden—Mrs. Howard, the Prince’s favourite—
Intolerable grossness of the Court of George the First—Lord Chesterfield
and the Princess—The mad Duchess—Buckingham House—Rural retreat
of the Prince at Richmond; the resort of wit and beauty—Swift’s pungent
verses—The fortunes of the young adventurers, Mr. and Mrs. Howard—
The Queen at her toilette—Mrs. Clayton, her influence with Queen
Caroline—The Prince ruled by his wife—Dr. Arbuthnot and Dean Swift—
The Princess’s regard for Newton and Halley—Lord Macclesfield’s fall—
His superstition, and that of the Princess—Prince Frederick’s vices—Not
permitted to come to England—Severe rebuff to Lord Hardwicke—Dr.
Mead—Courage of the Prince and Princess—The Princess’s friendship for
Dr. Friend—Swift at Leicester House—Royal visit to ‘Bartlemy Fair.’

Caroline Wilhelmina Dorothea was the daughter of John


Frederick, Marquis of Brandenburg Anspach, and of Eleanor
Erdmuth Louisa, his second wife, daughter of John George, Duke of
Saxe Eisenach. She was born in 1683, and married the Electoral
Prince of Hanover, afterwards George II., in the year 1705. Her
mother having re-married, after her father’s death, when Caroline
was very young, the latter left the court of her step-father, George
IV., Elector of Saxony, for that of her guardian, Frederick, Elector of
Brandenburg, afterwards King of Prussia. The Electress of
Brandenburg was the daughter of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and
sister of George I. The young Caroline was considered fortunate in
being placed under the care of a lady, who, it was said at the time,
would assuredly give her a ‘tincture of her own politeness.’
Notice has already been taken of the suitors who early offered
themselves for the hand of the youthful princess; and for what
excellent reason she selected the son of Sophia Dorothea. It was
said, when she came to share the throne of England with her
husband, that Heaven had especially reserved her in order to make
Great Britain happy. Her early married life was one of some gaiety, if
not of felicity; and Baron Pilnitz says in his Memoir, that when the
Electoral family of Hanover was called to the throne of this country,
she showed more cool carelessness for the additional grandeur than
any of the family, whose outward indifference was a matter of
admiration, in the old sense of that word, to all who beheld it. The
Princess Caroline, according to the baron, particularly demonstrated
that she was thoroughly satisfied in her mind that she could be
happy without a crown, and that ‘both her father-in-law and her
husband were already kings in her eyes, because they highly
deserved that title.’ Of her conduct during the period she was
Princess of Wales, the same writer says that she favoured neither
political party, and was equally esteemed by each. This, however, is
somewhat beside the truth.
The poets were as much concerned with the Princess of Wales
as the politicians. Some abused, and some adored her. Addison, in
1714, assured her that the Muse waited on her person, and that she
herself was

Born to strengthen and to grace our isle.

The same writer could not contemplate the daughter of Caroline,


but that his prophetic eye professed to—

Already see the illustrious youths complain,


And future monarchs doom’d to sigh in vain.

Frederick (Duke of Gloucester), the elder and less loved son of


Caroline, was not yet in England, but her favourite boy, William, was
at her side; and of him Addison said, that he had ‘the mother’s
sweetness and the father’s fire.’ The poet went on, less to prophesy
than to speculate with a ‘perhaps’ on the future destiny of William of
Cumberland; and it was well he put in the saving word, for nothing
could be less like fact than the ‘fortune’ alluded to in the following
lines:—

For thee, perhaps, even now of kingly race,


Some dawning beauty blooms in every grace.
Some Caroline, to Heaven’s dictates true,
Who, while the sceptred rivals vainly sue,
Thy inborn worth with conscious eyes shall see,
And slight th’ imperial diadem for thee.

Of the princess herself, he says more truly, that she—

with graceful ease


And native majesty is form’d to please.

And he adds, that the stage, growing refined, will draw its finished
heroines from her, who was herself known to be ‘skill’d in the labours
of the deathless muse.’ In short, Parnassus was made to echo with
eulogies of or epigrams upon this royal lady. George I., for years
together, never addressed a word to the Prince of Wales, but the
princess would compel him, as Count Broglie, the French
ambassador writes, to answer the remarks which she addressed to
him when she encountered him ‘in public.’ ‘But even then,’ says the
count, ‘he only speaks to her on these occasions for the sake of
decorum.’ She-devil was the appellation commonly employed by the
amiable King to designate his high-spirited daughter-in-law.
The Prince and Princess of Wales, on withdrawing from St.
James’s, established their court in ‘Leicester Fields.’ Of this court,
Walpole draws a pleasant picture. It must have been a far livelier
locality than that of the King, whose ministers were the older Whig
politicians. ‘The most promising,’ says Walpole, ‘of the young lords
and gentlemen of that party, and the prettiest and liveliest of the
young ladies, formed the new court of the Prince and Princess of
Wales. The apartment of the bedchamber-women in waiting became
the fashionable evening rendezvous of the most distinguished wits
and beauties: Lord Chesterfield, Lord Stanhope, Lord Scarborough,
Carr (Lord Hervey), elder brother of the more known John Lord
Hervey, and reckoned to have superior parts; General (at that time
only Colonel) Charles Churchill, and others, not necessary to
mention, were constant attendants; Miss Lepell, afterwards Lady
Hervey, my mother, Lady Walpole, Mrs. Selwyn, mother of the
famous George, and herself of much vivacity, and pretty; Mrs.
Howard, and, above all, for universal admiration, Miss Bellenden,
one of the maids of honour. Her face and person were charming;
lively she was almost to étourderie; and so agreeable she was, that I
never heard her mentioned afterwards by one of her contemporaries
who did not prefer her as the most perfect creature they ever knew.’
To this pleasant party in this pleasant resort, the Prince of Wales
often came—his chief attraction being, not the wit or worth of the
party, but the mere beauty of one of the party forming it. This was
Miss Bellenden, who, on the other hand, saw nothing in the fair-
haired and little prince that could attract her admiration. The prince
was never famous for much delicacy either of expression or
sentiment, but he could exhibit a species of wit in its way. He had
probably been contemplating the engraving of the visit of Jupiter to
the nymph Danae in a shower of gold, when he took to pouring the
guineas from his purse in Miss Bellenden’s presence. He seemed to
her, if we may judge by the comment she made upon his conduct,
much more like a villainous little bashaw offering to purchase a
Circassian slave; and on one occasion, as he went on counting the
glittering coin, she exclaimed, ‘Sir, I cannot bear it; if you count your
money any more I will go out of the room.’ She did even better, by
marrying the man of her heart, Colonel John Campbell—a step at
which the prince, when it came to his knowledge, affected to be
extremely indignant; and never forgave her for an offence, which
indeed was no offence and required no forgiveness. The prince, like
that young Duke of Orleans who thought he would suffer in
reputation if he had not a ‘favourite’ in his train, let his regard stop at
Mrs. Howard, another of his wife’s bedchamber-women, who was
but too happy to receive such regard, and to return it with all required
attachment and service.
The Princess of Wales, during the reign of her father-in-law,
maintained a brilliant court, and presided over a gay round of
pleasures. In this career she gained that which she sought after—
popularity. What she did from policy, her husband the prince did from
taste; and the encouragement and promotion of pleasure were
followed by the one as a means to an end, by the other for the sake
of the pleasure itself. Every morning there was a drawing-room at
the princess’s, and twice a week the same splendid reunion in her
apartments, at night. This gave the fashion to a very wide circle;
crowded assemblies, balls, masquerades, and ridottos became the
‘rage;’ and from the fatigues incident thereto, the votaries of fashion
found relaxation in plays and operas.
Quiet people were struck by the change which had come over
court circles since the days of ‘Queen Anne, who had always been
decent, chaste, and formal.’ The change indeed was great, but
diverse of aspect. Thus the court of pleasure at which Caroline
reigned supreme was a court where decency was respected;
respected, at least, as much as it well could be at a time when no
superabundance of respect for decency was exhibited in any quarter.
Still, there was not the intolerable grossness in the house of the
prince which was to be met with in the very presence of his sire. Lord
Chesterfield said of that sire that ‘he had nothing bad in him as a
man,’ and yet he records of him that he had no respect for women—
but some liking, it may be added, for those who had little principle
and much fat. ‘He brought over with him,’ says Chesterfield, ‘two
considerable samples of his bad taste and good stomach—the
Duchess of Kendal and the Countess of Darlington; leaving at
Hanover, because she happened to be a Papist, the Countess von
Platen, whose weight and circumference was little inferior to theirs.
These standards of his Majesty’s tastes made all those ladies who
aspired to his favour, and who were near the statutable size, strain
and swell themselves, like the frogs in the fable, to rival the bulk and
dignity of the ox. Some succeeded and others burst.’ If the house of
the son was not the abode of all the virtues, it at least was not the
stye wherein wallowed his father. Upon the change of fashion,
Chesterfield writes to Bubb Dodington, in 1716, the year when
Caroline began to be looked up to as the arbitress of fashion:—‘As
for the gay part of the town, you would find it much more flourishing
than when you left it. Balls, assemblies, and masquerades have
taken the place of dull, formal, visiting days, and the women are
much more agreeable trifles than they were designed. Puns are
extremely in vogue, and the license very great. The variation of three
or four letters in a word breaks no squares, insomuch that an
indifferent punster may make a very good figure in the best
companies.’ The gaiety at the town residence of the prince and
princess did not, however, accompany them to Richmond Lodge.
There Caroline enjoyed the quiet beauties of her pretty retreat, which
was, however, shared with her husband’s favourite, ‘Mrs. Howard.’
‘Leicester Fields’ was, nevertheless, not always such a bower of
bliss as Walpole has described it, from hearsay. If the prince and
ladies were on very pleasant terms, the princess and the ladies were
sometimes at loggerheads, with as little regard for bienséance as if
they had been very vulgar people; indeed, they often were
exceedingly vulgar people themselves.
It was with Lord Chesterfield that Caroline Wilhelmina Dorothea
was most frequently at very disgraceful issue. Lord Chesterfield was
one of the prince’s court, and he was possessed of an uncontrollable
inclination to turn the princess into ridicule. Of course she was made
acquainted with this propensity of the refined Chesterfield by some
amiable friend, who had the regard which friends, with less judgment
than what they call amiability, generally have for one’s failings.
Caroline, perhaps half afraid of the peer, whom she held to be a
more annoying joker than a genuine wit, took a middle course by
way of correcting Chesterfield. It was not the course which a woman
of dignity and refinement would have adopted; but it must be
remembered that, at the period in question, the princess was
anxious to keep as many friends around her husband as she could
muster. She consequently told Lord Chesterfield, half in jest and half
in earnest, that he had better not provoke her, for though he had a
wittier, he had not so bitter a tongue as she had, and any outlay of

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