J. BERG ESENWEIN DALE CARNAGEY - THE ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING

not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God

of Nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people,

armed in the holy cause of Liberty, and in such a country as

that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our

enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our

battles alone. There is a just Power who presides over the

destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our

battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it

is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have

no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too

late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat, but in

submission and slavery. Our chains are forged. Their clanking

may be heard on the plains of Boston. The war is inevitable; and

let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come! It is in vain, sir,

to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry "Peace, peace!" but

there is no peace! The war is actually begun! 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

stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would

they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be

purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it,

Almighty Powers!--I know not what course others may take; but as

for me, give me liberty or give me death!

2. Live over in your imagination all the solemnity and sorrow that

Lincoln felt at the Gettysburg cemetery. The feeling in this speech is

very deep, but it is quieter and more subdued than the preceding one.

The purpose of Henry's address was to get action; Lincoln's speech was

meant only to dedicate the last resting place of those who had acted.

Read it over and over (see page 50) until it burns in your soul. Then

commit it and repeat it for emotional expression.

3. Beecher's speech on Lincoln, page 76; Thurston's speech on "A Plea

for Cuba," page 50; and the following selection, are recommended for

practise in developing feeling in delivery.

A living force that brings to itself all the resources of

imagination, all the inspirations of feeling, all that is

influential in body, in voice, in eye, in gesture, in posture,

in the whole animated man, is in strict analogy with the divine

thought and the divine arrangement; and there is no

misconstruction more utterly untrue and fatal than this: that

oratory is an artificial thing, which deals with baubles and

trifles, for the sake of making bubbles of pleasure for

transient effect on mercurial audiences. So far from that, it is

the consecration of the whole man to the noblest purposes to

which one can address himself--the education and inspiration of

his fellow men by all that there is in learning, by all that

there is in thought, by all that there is in feeling, by all

that there is in all of them, sent home through the channels of

taste and of beauty.

--HENRY WARD BEECHER.

4. What in your opinion are the relative values of thought and feeling

in a speech?

5. Could we dispense with either?

6. What kinds of selections or occasions require much feeling and

enthusiasm? Which require little?

7. Invent a list of ten subjects for speeches, saying which would give

most room for pure thought and which for feeling.

8. Prepare and deliver a ten-minute speech denouncing the (imaginary)

unfeeling plea of an attorney; he may be either the counsel for the

defense or the prosecuting attorney, and the accused may be assumed to

be either guilty or innocent, at your option.

9. Is feeling more important than the technical principles expounded in

chapters III to VII? Why?

10. Analyze the secret of some effective speech or speaker. To what is

the success due?

11. Give an example from your own observation of the effect of feeling

and enthusiasm on listeners.

12. Memorize Carlyle's and Emerson's remarks on enthusiasm.

13. Deliver Patrick Henry's address, page 110, and Thurston's speech,

page 50, without show of feeling or enthusiasm. What is the result?

14. Repeat, with all the feeling these selections demand. What is the

result?

15. What steps do you intend to take to develop the power of enthusiasm

and feeling in speaking?

16. Write and deliver a five-minute speech ridiculing a speaker who uses

bombast, pomposity and over-enthusiasm. Imitate him.

Animis opibusque parati--Ready in mind and resources.

--_Motto of South Carolina_.

In omnibus negotiis prius quam aggrediare, adhibenda est

præparatio diligens--In all matters before beginning a diligent

preparation should be made.

--CICERO, _De Officiis_.

Take your dictionary and look up the words that contain the Latin stem

_flu_--the results will be suggestive.

At first blush it would seem that fluency consists in a ready, easy use

of words. Not so--the flowing quality of speech is much more, for it is

a composite effect, with each of its prior conditions deserving of

careful notice.

_The Sources of Fluency_

Speaking broadly, fluency is almost entirely a matter of preparation.

Certainly, native gifts figure largely here, as in every art, but even

natural facility is dependent on the very same laws of preparation that

hold good for the man of supposedly small native endowment. Let this

encourage you if, like Moses, you are prone to complain that you are not

a ready speaker.

Have you ever stopped to analyze that expression, "a ready speaker?"

Readiness, in its prime sense, is preparedness, and they are most ready

who are best prepared. Quick firing depends more on the alert finger

than on the hair trigger. Your fluency will be in direct ratio to two

important conditions: your knowledge of what you are going to say, and

your being accustomed to telling what you know to an audience. This

gives us the second great element of fluency--to preparation must be

added the ease that arises from practise; of which more presently.

_Knowledge is Essential_

Mr. Bryan is a most fluent speaker when he speaks on political problems,

tendencies of the time, and questions of morals. It is to be supposed,

however, that he would not be so fluent in speaking on the bird life of

the Florida Everglades. Mr. John Burroughs might be at his best on this

last subject, yet entirely lost in talking about international law. Do

not expect to speak fluently on a subject that you know little or

nothing about. Ctesiphon boasted that he could speak all day (a sin in

itself) on any subject that an audience would suggest. He was banished

by the Spartans.

But preparation goes beyond the getting of the facts in the case you are

to present: it includes also the ability to think and arrange your

thoughts, a full and precise vocabulary, an easy manner of speech and

breathing, absence of self-consciousness, and the several other

characteristics of efficient delivery that have deserved special

attention in other parts of this book rather than in this chapter.

Preparation may be either general or specific; usually it should be

both. A life-time of reading, of companionship with stirring thoughts,

of wrestling with the problems of life--this constitutes a general

preparation of inestimable worth. Out of a well-stored mind, and--richer

still--a broad experience, and--best of all--a warmly sympathetic heart,