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

the speaker will have to draw much material that no _immediate_ study

could provide. General preparation consists of all that a man has put

into himself, all that heredity and environment have instilled into him,

and--that other rich source of preparedness for speech--the friendship

of wise companions. When Schiller returned home after a visit with

Goethe a friend remarked: "I am amazed by the progress Schiller can make

within a single fortnight." It was the progressive influence of a new

friendship. Proper friendships form one of the best means for the

formation of ideas and ideals, for they enable one to practise in giving

expression to thought. The speaker who would speak fluently before an

audience should learn to speak fluently and entertainingly with a

friend. Clarify your ideas by putting them in words; the talker gains as

much from his conversation as the listener. You sometimes begin to

converse on a subject thinking you have very little to say, but one idea

gives birth to another, and you are surprised to learn that the more you

give the more you have to give. This give-and-take of friendly

conversation develops mentality, and fluency in expression. Longfellow

said: "A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better

than ten years' study of books," and Holmes whimsically yet none the

less truthfully declared that half the time he talked to find out what

he thought. But that method must not be applied on the platform!

After all this enrichment of life by storage, must come the special

preparation for the particular speech. This is of so definite a sort

that it warrants separate chapter-treatment later.

_Practise_

But preparation must also be of another sort than the gathering,

organizing, and shaping of materials--it must include _practise_, which,

like mental preparation, must be both general and special.

Do not feel surprised or discouraged if practise on the principles of

delivery herein laid down seems to retard your fluency. For a time, this

will be inevitable. While you are working for proper inflection, for

instance, inflection will be demanding your first thoughts, and the flow

of your speech, for the time being, will be secondary. This warning,

however, is strictly for the closet, for your practise at home. Do not

carry any thoughts of inflection with you to the platform. There you

must _think_ only of your subject. There is an absolute telepathy

between the audience and the speaker. If your thought goes to your

gesture, their thought will too. If your interest goes to the quality of

your voice, they will be regarding that instead of what your voice is

uttering.

You have doubtless been adjured to "forget everything but your subject."

This advice says either too much or too little. The truth is that while

on the platform you must not _forget_ a great many things that are not

in your subject, but you must not _think_ of them. Your attention must

consciously go only to your message, but subconsciously you will be

attending to the points of technique which have become more or less

_habitual by practise_.

A nice balance between these two kinds of attention is important.

You can no more escape this law than you can live without air: Your

platform gestures, your voice, your inflection, will all be just as good

as your _habit_ of gesture, voice, and inflection makes them--no better.

Even the thought of whether you are speaking fluently or not will have

the effect of marring your flow of speech.

Return to the opening chapter, on self-confidence, and again lay its

precepts to heart. Learn by rules to speak without thinking of rules. It

is not--or ought not to be--necessary for you to stop to think how to

say the alphabet correctly, as a matter of fact it is slightly more

difficult for you to repeat Z, Y, X than it is to say X, Y, Z--habit has

established the order. Just so you must master the laws of efficiency in

speaking until it is a second nature for you to speak correctly rather

than otherwise. A beginner at the piano has a great deal of trouble with

the mechanics of playing, but as time goes on his fingers become trained

and almost instinctively wander over the keys correctly. As an

inexperienced speaker you will find a great deal of difficulty at first

in putting principles into practise, for you will be scared, like the

young swimmer, and make some crude strokes, but if you persevere you

will "win out."

Thus, to sum up, the vocabulary you have enlarged by study,[4] the ease

in speaking you have developed by practise, the economy of your

well-studied emphasis all will subconsciously come to your aid on the

platform. Then the habits you have formed will be earning you a splendid

dividend. The fluency of your speech will be at the speed of flow your

practise has made habitual.

But this means work. What good habit does not? No philosopher's stone

that will act as a substitute for laborious practise has ever been

found. If it were, it would be thrown away, because it would kill our

greatest joy--the delight of acquisition. If public-speaking means to

you a fuller life, you will know no greater happiness than a well-spoken

speech. The time you have spent in gathering ideas and in private

practise of speaking you will find amply rewarded.

1. What advantages has the fluent speaker over the hesitating talker?

2. What influences, within and without the man himself, work against

fluency?

3. Select from the daily paper some topic for an address and make a

three-minute address on it. Do your words come freely and your sentences

flow out rhythmically? Practise _on the same topic_ until they do.

4. Select some subject with which you are familiar and test your fluency

by speaking extemporaneously.

5. Take one of the sentiments given below and, following the advice

given on pages 118-119, construct a short speech beginning with the last

word in the sentence.

Machinery has created a new economic world.

The Socialist Party is a strenuous worker for peace.

He was a crushed and broken man when he left prison.

War must ultimately give way to world-wide arbitration.

The labor unions demand a more equal distribution of the wealth

that labor creates.

6. Put the sentiments of Mr. Bryan's "Prince of Peace," on page 448,

into your own words. Honestly criticise your own effort.

7. Take any of the following quotations and make a five-minute speech on

it without pausing to prepare. The first efforts may be very lame, but

if you want speed on a typewriter, a record for a hundred-yard dash, or

facility in speaking, you must practise, _practise_, _PRACTISE_.

There lives more faith in honest doubt,

Believe me, than in half the creeds.

--TENNYSON, _In Memoriam_.

Howe'er it be, it seems to me,

'Tis only noble to be good.

Kind hearts are more than coronets,

And simple faith than Norman blood.

--TENNYSON, _Lady Clara Vere de Vere_.

'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view

And robes the mountain in its azure hue.

--CAMPBELL, _Pleasures of Hope_.

His best companions, innocence and health,

And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.

--GOLDSMITH, _The Deserted Village_.

Beware of desperate steps! The darkest day,

Live till tomorrow, will have passed away.

--COWPER, _Needless Alarm_.

My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.