How could the Devil triumph over a man whose language, described by Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, had the following characteristics? ... his clearness and downright simplicity of statement, his vast comprehensiveness of topics, his fertility in illustrations drawn from practical sources; his keen analysis, and suggestion of difficulties ; his power of disentangling a complicated proposition, and resolving it in elements so plain as to reach the most common minds; his vigor in generalizations, planting his own arguments behind the whole battery of his opponents; his wariness and caution
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What is the character of discourse expected of someone whose mind is shaped by the discourse of our current era?
