used to fuse their individualities into one glowing whole.

 

Note how Antony played upon the feelings of his hearers in the famous funeral

oration given by Shakespeare in "Julius Caesar." From murmuring units the men

became a unit--a mob.

 

_ANTONY'S ORATION OVER CAESAR'S BODY_ Friends, Romans, countrymen! Lend me your

ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after

them; The good is oft interred with their bones: So let it be with Caesar! The

Noble Brutus Hath told you Caesar was ambitious. If it were so, it was a

grievous fault, And grievously hath Caesar answered it. Here, under leave of

Brutus, and the rest-- For Brutus is an honorable man, So are they all, all

honorable men-- Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral. He was my friend, faithful

and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honorable

man. He hath brought many captives home to Rome, Whose ransoms did the general

coffers fill: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? When that the poor have cried,

Caesar hath wept; Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: Yet Brutus says, he

was ambitious; And Brutus is an honorable man. You all did see, that, on the

Lupercal, I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse. Was

this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And sure, he is an honorable

man. I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, But here I am to speak what I do

know. You all did love him once, not without cause; What cause withholds you

then to mourn for him? Oh, judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men

have lost their reason!--Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with

Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me. [_Weeps._