Speech to the Second Virginia Convention Reflection

In Speech to The Second Virginia Convention, the writing style is very different than the writing styles of those stories that we have been reading in this class. The writings that we have been reading have all been Puritan style writings. In Speech to The Second Virginia Convention, the writing style is different. The Puritan writings that we have been used to reading have been focused on God and religion. They have been more about staying true to your religion inside and also outside of the church. The writings that we have been reading have shown the characters or authors blaming everything, good or bad, on God. Everything that happens to them in their life, they think has to do with God. They show their religious beliefs all through their writing and they show how they relate everything to God. Speech to The Second Virginia, However, is different. It is less focused on religion and more focused on the logical side of things. Instead of automatically blaming everything on God or their religion, they think about it more and come up with a more logical approach. This style of writing is called rationalism. Rationalism is defined in the Merrium Webster dictionary as "A theory that reason is in itself a source of knowledge superior to and independent of sense perceptions. It means that they use reason to solve a problem or when thinking about things in general. One passage from Speech to The Second Virginia that I believe to be a very good example of rationalism is, "The next gale that sweeps from the North will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field; Why do we stand here idle?" (Henry 118). This passage shows Henry's rational way of thinking because you can tell that he has thought it through a lot and that he is using logical thinking to come to the conclusion that they should go to war as soon as they can because it will benefit them in the end. This passage is basically saying that Henry knows that their enemies are going to begin a war with them and if they do not do something, they will be caught by surprise so it will be more beneficial to them if they started the war and caught their enemies by surprise. This is a rational way of thinking because Henry uses logic in saying that it will help them to start a war rather than to wait for their enemies to start a war against them.
He knows that either way, the enemies are going to try to start a war with them and he thinks that it would be a better idea to be prepared instead of just waiting around for it to happen. There are many examples of rational thinking in Speech To The Second Virginia Convention, which is what makes me believe that this story is a very good example of the rational writing style of that time.

Bibliography

Henry, Patrick. "Speech to the Second Virginia Convention." Glencoe Literature. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009. 114-119. Print.