Read this excerpt from the speech "cause of the great war" delivered by british prime minister david lloyd george at the start of world war i. which line is an example of the use of ethos as a persuasive device?
before she entered the war britain made every effort to avoid it; begged, supplicated, and entreated that there should be no conflict.
i was a member of the cabinet at the time, and i remember the earnest endeavours we made to persuade germany and austria not to precipitate europe into this welter of blood. we begged them to summon a european conference to consider.
had that conference met arguments against provoking such a catastrophe were so overwhelming that there would never have been a war. germany knew that, so she rejected the conference, although austria was prepared to accept it. she suddenly declared war, and yet we are the people who wantonly provoked this war, in order to attack germany.
we begged germany not to attack belgium, and produced a treaty, signed by the king of prussia, as well as the king of england, pledging himself to protect belgium against an invader, and we said, "if you invade belgium we shall have no alternative but to defend it."
the enemy invaded belgium, and now they say, "why, forsooth, you, england, provoked this war."
it is not quite the story of the wolf and the lamb. i will tell you why - because germany expected to find a lamb and found a lion.