IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) I.I 1.25 ^ ilM I: m ■- ■■■• 6" ||| Z2 12.0 1.8 LA. mil 1.6 V} <9 /2 A '? Js y /^ Photographic Sciences Corporation ^ V ^> :\ ,v \ % ^ # \ >> %^ % V ?3 WF!;T MAiN STREET Wl'0irER,N.Y. 14580 (716) 87V-4503 CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut canadien de microreproductions historiques Tuchnical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-etre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la m6thode normale de filmage sont indiqu^s ci-dessous. □ □ D Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur □ Covers damaged/ Coi )uverture endommagee I I Cou Covers restored and/or laminated/ verture restaur^e et/ou pellicul^e □ Cover title missing/ Le litre de couverture manque □ Coloured maps/ Cartes g^ographiques en couleur Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ ore de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) □ Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur □ Bound with other material/ Relie avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La reliure serree peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge int^rieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout^es lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n ont pas ^t6 film^es. I I Coloured pages/ □ □ D D D D Pages de couleur Pages damaged/ Pages endommag^es Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaur^es et/ou pellicul^es Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages d6color6es, tachet^es ou piquees Pages detached/ Pages detachees Showthrough/ Transparence Quality of print varies/ Qualite inegale de I'impression □ Includes supplementary material/ Come iprcnd du materiel supplementaire Only edition available/ Seu'e Edition disponible Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont 6t6 film^es d nouveau de facon it obtenir la meilleure image possible. D Additional comments:/ Commentaires suppl^mentaires; This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film6 au taux de reduction indiqu6 ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X SOX T 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks to the generosity of: University of British Columbia Library L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit gr&ce & la ginirositd de: University of British Columbia Library The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Les images suivantes ont 6x6 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte t«inu de la condition et de la nettet^ de l'exemplaire film6, et en conformity avec lee conditions du contrat de filmage. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol ^^ (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand co* er, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprim^e sont film^s en commenpant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont filmds en commenpant par la premidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole —^ signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmis 6 des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 6 partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche 6 droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. It :■ a^ " 1 ' $ : ^ 1 2 3 4 5 6 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE: on, THE USE OF THE WILL IN PUBLIC SPEAKING. TALKS TO THE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS AND THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. »» NATHAN SHEPPARD, AUTHOR OP "BIIUT UP IN PAUia ; " En.TOn OP "DAUWINtSM STATED BY DAinVIM UIMSELP;" -THE DICKENS RBADEU ; " " CUAnACTKIl READIN08 i'BOM OEOliaK ELIOT;" ANU " OBOBOK KLIOT's EBBAYB." SIXTH ^DITIOy. FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY Toronto 1892 New York London Batered, according to Act of Congress, in the year iaf5d. By PUNK & WAONALLS, Ib the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Wasblngton, D. O / ii^UcU^. V^U^LUJ- hus^- ^U<^^ c Awc^^iicM^ ~^ TO THE MEMORY OF John Tulloch, D.D., PRINCIPAL OF ST. MARy's COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS, BUT FOR WHOSE WORDS OF COMMENDA- TION AND ENCOURAGEMENT THESE TALKS WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED. I CONTEI^TS. _ PAOB iNTnODUCTOIlY ^jj I. A Good Speakino Voice to be Acquired by an EXEUCISE OP THE WlLI. 11 II. Articulation to be Acquired by an Exercise oi? i HE Will 29 III. Physical EAiiNESTNEf3s 29 IV. The Self-Reliance for Public Speaking 41 V. The Art op Being Natural qq VI. The Dramatic Element in Public Speaking 77 VII. The Rhetoric for Public Speaking 03 VIII. A Talk About Audiences ng IX. How to Think of Something to Say 183 X. The Right Shape for an Audience-Room 140 INTRODUCTORY. "When I was Icctnrinf^ in Great Britain I ji^ave tliese talks on Public Spoakinf]^ to the students of the Univer- sity of St. Andrews and the studeiits of the University of Al)erdeen. I was so much enconrj.ged by the com- mendation they received from, not only the students, but the principals and ])rofessors wlio did me the honor to attend, that I continued to ^ive them at other univer- sities and colleges, notably at Allegheny (college, jMead- ville, Pa., where I spent some of the haj)piest hours of my life as a lecturer and teacher. They were fragmentary then, they arc fragmentary now. So is all truth, so are all facts. What I say in these talks I say from experience, from a long, hard-earned, and painful experience. I know something of the ecstasy that accompanies success, and I have had my share of the torture that comes with failure in this perplexing and elusive jirt. When I made up my mind to devote my mind and body to public speaking, I was told by my tutors and governors that I would certainly fail ; that my articu- lation was a failure, and it was ; that my voice was feeble, and it was ; that my organs of speech were inad- equate, and they were ; and that if I would screw up my little mouth it could be put into my mother's thim- ble, and it could. Stinging words these certainly were, and cruel ones. I shall never forget them ; possibly, Vlll INTROni'CTORY. liowovor, tlioy Rtunp^ mo into a persistency v.'lii'ch I would never liavc known l)ut for tliene words. At all events, tluit is the pliilosopliy of the '' self-nnide" world of num- kind. I may not liave accomplished much, I do not claim to have accomplished much. It is something to have made a livin:Jd induce liim to cultivate his will, his ear for his elocution, and his eye for his audience. I would have hbu know what he is about, and liow to make the mo.i of Jdrn'^^ If when ho get;: upon his legs before an audience. I do not prop'/so to teach him how to entertain by a display of elocu- tionary recitations, which is child's play, but to give him some suggestions that may eruiblo him to reach, and move, and influence men by means of sermon, lecture, speech, or plea, which is man's work. What I have found indispensable to myself I here publish for the benefit of others — of those, at any rate, who are young enough to be ignorant, and teachable enoagh to admit it. i r BEFORE A]^ AUDIENCE. I. A GOOD SPEAKIKCi YOWK TO BE ACQUIRED BY AN EXERCISE OF THE WILL. A FiiW, a very few public speakers have "wliat the publie speaker needs first of all, and in many cases most of all — a good speaking voice, a suital)le and ade(piato voice for public speaking. A few, a very few compar- atively, have such a voice by Nature ; and even where Nature confers the blessing of a voice of adequate strength, she seldom adds the desirable flexibility or modulation. So, whether it be a stronger voice or a more manageable one that the speaker needs, liis only method of acquiring it is that of willing it into his pos- session. I say the only method, because this is the only method by which the speaker is enabled to appropriate, and really make hi'^ own, the new and necessary voice. All other methods fail in this crucial test of appropria- tion. Take, for example, the method of imitative elocution, [t proceeds upon the fallacious assumption that a good speaking voice may be acquired ^'^i^^tive Elo- by acquiring the voice of an actor or elo- cutionist, and that in order to teach the art of Public Speaking you have only to teach the art of cution will not answer. 12 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE. I dramatic recitation. The failure of this metliod is no more conspicuous than the reason for the failure. The dramatic reader docs not appropriate the voice which he has acquired by imitation from his " lessons in elocu- tion." lie does not assimilate it, does not make it his own. lie cannot converse in it. It is the voice of a " part,'' which the reciter or actor is playing. You will noti'v.0 that the voice with which the dramatic reader informs the audience what he intends to read is a very different voice from that with which he reads. It is only while the student in elocution is " speakings his piece" imder the tuition of his coacher that he speaks in the dignified bass or the melodious baritone. If he happens to discuss the method he is pursuing he will demonstrate its absurdity by dropping it just where it ought to be of service to him — in his colloquial voice. That remains as undignified and as uninclodious as ever, and yet that colloquial voice, as we propose to show hereafter, is the speaker's main dependence. Furthermore, the dignity of the recitation sounds as artificial as the want of it in conversation is luitural. The preacher may succeed in manufacturing a voice oi some merit whJle imitating the elocutionist who drills him into, or drills into him, the voice of the ideal Hamlet. But when the preacher ceases to appear in his *' part" and reappears in his pulpit, he reappears in his own voice, which mav sound more like the vulgar falsetto of the grave-diggers than the well-bred baritone of the Prince of Denmark. Nor does the public speaker need les- sons in bronchial anatomy in order to learn how to create a good speaking voice. The anatomical illustrations in the books on elocution are of The Physiol- ogy of the Voice of no Use to those who \70uld Learn how to Use it. M . f A GOOD SPEAKING VOICE. 13 od is no ■e. The .vhicli he in elocu- ike it his ^oice of a You will ic reader is a very It is only lis piece" iks in the e happens iirionstrate it to he of reruains as I yet that tter, is the le dignity int of it in a voice ol who drills the ideal pear in his )ears in his 3re like the (r(ycr8 than Prince of r need les- ler to learn foxcQ. The atioa are of no more consequence than their triangles alive with tad- poles, or their pictorial examples in tlie awful art of gesticulation. A chart of the windpipe is of no more value to the public speaker than a picture of a ba it down until it stays down without a conscious exercise of the will. You canno*- acquire an adequate and '^^^ Singing 1 . , . . , . . Voice will not enduring speakini:; voice by ac(iuirini' an ^ ' ^3 . , . answer. adequate and occasional singing voice. The speaker's voice is a perpetual voice for perpetual use — the singer's and the elocutionist's is an occasional 14 BEFOUE AN AUDIENCE. voice for oncasional cxliilntlon. Tlio elocntloTii'st'fi voice 18 the voice of the elocutionist, tlie sin«^er\s tliat of tlie singer, tlie speaker's that of the man. So that no more dependence can he phiced on lessons in singing than on lessons in imitative elocution, or dramatic recitation, for creating a competent speaking voice, since the speaker must have a voice of his own, and that he cannot have unless he has a will of his own. Hero again how different the two voices — the voice of the preacher when he " leads the singing'' and the voice of the same preacher when he reads the hymn, or de- claims his sermon, or reads his " notices" ! A good Binging voice is not a good speaking voice. They are entirely different voices. But, while we are careful to observe just where these two arts (singing and speaking) part company, let us ho equally careful to observe how far and in what respects they travel together. Where there's a will there's a way in both arts, and in all arts. As the singer 8 new depths of voice gradually come into Iv's possession, so that he finally uses them without much of an effort of the will, so the new reaches of voice acfpiired by the speaker as the reward of many dogged exertions of the will come at last as unconsciously as breathing. The singer sings in his acquired voice oidy when he sings, which is once in a while ; the speaker speaks in his ac(piired voice whenever he speaks, which is whenever he speaks in ])ublic or private, which is about all the time. But one lesson we may learn from these kindred but differently acquired arts — they are made to turn upon the ac(iuisition of a suitable voice. Singers and actors, or, rather, their trainers, make everything of the voice. They put their pupils through a laborious and protracted A GOOD SPEAKING VOICE. 15 disci pUnc in order to exorcise a bad voice and Biibstitnte a ij^ood one, or to build up an incompetent voice into ono of adequacy and etHciency. l>iit alas ! what singerft value we resii;;!!. AVhat can be attained in every other art only by wenrisonie and exactinij^ discipline may be attained in public speakin^j^, we are told, by " for^ettin*]^ yourself and thiidvinat actors know how. They go over their " part" with vehement retlection. The late Mrs. Siddons spent hours of silent meditation upon hers. It is not an occasional exercise I am talkijig about, like the " lessons in elocution" with which the (jiiacks lie in wait at the ])ockets of pieachcM'S, who ought to know froiu experieiH^e that the root of the matter is in the intellect, the reason, the understanding, the reflective faculties, the perceptive faculties, and all the rest of the faculties. "VVe Americans must remember that our climate is against us in this, as well as in some other departments ui ciiaracter development. It thins the voice as well as 16 nErOllR AN AUDIENCE. tlie cheeks, and attenuates our tonefl as well as our pliy- sique. Tlio French hooks on the voice call our nasality an infirmity, and classify it with lisping and stammering. They say it is congenital, and is sometimes produced hy an injury to the brain or a defect in the organs of speech. Their nasality is the real one. They really do sing through their noses. Our nasal passage is closed while we produce the misnamed nasal sounds. This can easily he proved by holding your nose while you speak. However, this so-called American nasality was common enough in England before there were any United States Americans. Macaiilay speaks of, and covertly explains while he speaks of " the nasal psalmody of the Puri- tans." It was an hereditarv head-note with something besides the climate in its origin, and is now in use among those who are unconscious of both its use and its history. It comes under the head of " reversion," and the sooner it is dispensed with the better for both the cause of sincerity and the art of pubh'c speaking. But whatever be its name, or nature, or origin, or cause, this offensive tone and every other offensive tone can only be effectively and permanently removed by will- ing its removal. It is sufficient for the elocutionist and actor and singer to get rid of it occasionally, and even then only by a use of the will ; but the public speaker must rid himself of it perpetually, since it is perpetually that his art calls for its removal. This new voice is a new language, and should be desired and ac(]uired as such. It necessitates pains and thought and consecration and continuity like that bestowed upon the acquisition of any other foreign language, and, like every other foreign language, you will never learn to con* Acquiring a New Voice is like Acquiring a New Language. A GOOD SPEAKING VOICE. 17 r phy- nsiility ced by pccch. fiing i while \ easily ppcak. ommon 1 States explains e Pnri- Tiething • in use use and ersion," 'or both inc^. i<»;in, or ve tone by will- )nist and md even speaker petually inf]:nage, uired as thought like that of any ce every to con* i verse in it or speak in public in it unless you talk in it incessantly. Ill spite of your utmost exertions it will slip away from you often before you p^et hold of it permanently. You will forget and forget and forget tin's lesson in self- discipline and self-drill, and knowing what you and your voice are about, and iind yourself saying, " Wow are you V or, " What a hot summer we are having !" or, *' Let us sing the forty-fifth hymn," or, " May it please tlie Court, Gentlemen of the Jury," in the old natural falsetto which came to you through negligence, instead of the new and equally natural l)aritone which conies to you by the use of the will and knowing what you and your voice are about. The value of a vigorous, flexible, mellow baritone for public speaking cannot be overestimated. It is a richly paying investment. It covers a multitude of minor sins. It conn)eiisates somewhat for deficiencies in rhetoric and thought. There is health in it, and dignity and manli- ness and character. This method of cultivating the voice leads to the culti- vation of an ear for it. Without such an ear for his voice, the speaker will know Cultivate an no more about the deiiciencies ot Ins ^^^ Voice voice than any other deaf person knows about the deticiencies of his. Command over the voice is impossible witliout familiarity with it. The deaf mute is mute from ignorance of his vocal organs. lie does not know that he has the organs of speech, much less the pov, er to exercise them. It is only recently that an attempt Jias been made to remove this ignorance and awaken this sense of power — or, in other words, to get at an 1 get hold of and induce the mute to lay hold of his will. Much of the prevailing indistinctness is owing to 18 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE. li ; a similar ignorance. Tho speaker has never made the acquaintance of iiis own voice. Lik'e tlio deaf person, he does not know wliere it is going, or where it is failing to go, what it is doing, or wiiat it is failing to do. lie is so " earnest" and " pious" and so " absorbed in liis subject" tliat liis subject is absorl)ed l)y liis windpipe. He cannot hear liiiuself as otiiers hear liim. Tlie first time, however, that a really earnest speaker, especially if he is a preacher, and one who is rationally absorbed in liis subject, liears his own ^'oice, lie will be open to con- viction on tho subject of its deficiencies and inetH- ciencies. The speaker can have command over his voice only by familiarity with it — with its capacity and incapacity, its successes and its failures. His first attempt to listen to it will convince hiir of his ignorance of it. One of tho primary elements cf the elocutionary instinct is a good ear for your own voice. And this ear for his own voice is indispensable to the speaker, and is susceptible of a high degree of cultivation. Contrariwise the neglect of this ear, especially in early life, is disastrous in the ex- treme. We are to remember that the tones of the voice are somewhat the result of temperament. Those of Sir Charles Manners were. The " order" that he compelled in the House of Commons was in the voice that called for it. Now the temperament may be controlled, changed even by an exercise of the will. The histoiy of religious sects prove that. It ought to be very much less of an undertaking to regulate and modulate the voice than to reconstruct the entire constitution, mental, moral, and physical, as has been done by the followers of George Fox and John Knox. le the ersoii, :ailing bed in ilpipe. le first ecially bed ill ;o con- iiieffi- idy by ity, its steii to ; of tho a good a voice )le of a rlect of the ex- )ice are of Sir npelled called trolled, history Y mucli ite the mental, dlowers i II. ARTICULATION TO P.E ACQUIRED BY AN EXERCISE OF THE WILL. Articulation deserves a chaj)ter of its own, as it cer- tainly deserves a treatment of its own at the hands, or, rather, month, of any man or woman who seeks a living or renown by means of the most perplexing and elusive of the arts — the art of public speaking. It is impossii)le to overstate the importance of a good, trustworthy, uniform articulation to the public speaker. He can have no more useful form of ability tiian audi- bility. Distinctness is vital, indistinctness is fatal. And the defect of indistinctness is as common as it is radical. It is more complained of than any other defect known to the audience-room except the audience-room itself, of which we shall speak emphatically here after. Hlustrations and examples of the pre vailing vice of indistinctness in public speaking are a])undant. A few will answer our 2)urpose. This one is taken from The Times (London) : To the Editor' of the Times : Six : In reference to Mr. G. II. Moore's letter in your journal of this day, I beg to state that, though Mr. Moore began his speech in a deliberate and audible manner, he afterward broke into a rapid style of utter- ance, and many of his words were spoken in so low a The Vice of Indistinctness. 20 HKPORE AN AfDIKNCR. tone tliat thoy could not bo perfectly lieard by any ono at a (lintai c(^ Mr. Moore must know that he did not make liiinself always understood, for an lion, nieinber pitting near him asked at one part of his speech what it was that he said, and thereupon Mr. Moore repeated the "words. Marcli 10. Youu Kepoktkk. Another lion, member hopes the editor " will allow him to make two corrections in the report of his 8j)eech — a much better report than my rapidity of utterance (a defect which I will endeavor to correct) would entitle me to obtam." Other M.P.'e are not so tractable under this criticism. I have known an old lord to be highly nettled, indeed, to think that anybody should presume to question his audibility. Whenever Count ijeust rose to speak in the Austrian Parliament, mendjers who wished to hear him were obliged to collect around him, and we are told tliat " the scene represented more a private conference than the public discussions of a Par- liament." I will undertake to say that of the thousands of preachers, lawyers, and lecturers who have this slovenly precipitancy, not a baker's-dozen would, in the first place, join this Member of Parliament in admitting it. How, then, can they, in the second place, " endeavor to correct it" ? IIow is the habit of indis- tinctness to be cured, unless you know what vour voice is about ? Indistinctness is a physical defect, and distinctness is a physical attainment, and the one is to be removed and the other acquired, not by " forgetting yourself and thinking only of your subject," but by remembering yourself and Indistinctness is a Physical Defect and Distinctness a Physical Attainment. ARTICULATION TO IIF, ACQUIRED. 21 t, and and other only f and tlilnkiiii; of your ol)je('t, hy an exorcise of the will, hy turning an car upofi your own voice, l»v knowinuj wliat you and your larynx are al)ont. Indistinctness is as natural, too, as it is eoninion and injurious. It is a part of that natural elocution which (!onies to us when we •jet ui)on our h'^A i)efore an audi(!nce. It is as natural for eonie of us (your hunihle servant, for example) to he inarticulate, indistinct, precipitate, as it is for some others of us to i)e free from tiiis defect — Gladstone, for example, and J )hn I»riu:]it, and Spur^eon, and Dr. J. id- don, aiul Wendell Phillips, and Charles Sumner, and Henry Clay, and the late Mrs. Siddons, and Edwin Forrest, and Charlotte Cushman. These all were endowed hy nature with a physical apparatus wonder- fully well adapted for articulation or enuncintion. (Chatham was noted for his distinct articulation, which was a idiysical attainment cultivated with ., »,. !• .-1 Noteworthy assiduous pains. 11 is whisper penetrated g. . everywhere, and his full voice was over- whelmino;. " The sound rose like the swell of the organ of a great cathedral, and shook the house with its peal." But whatever he was, he was always distinct, articulate. The late Aii'. Grote, tlie historian, was entirely in- dehted to his distinctness for the hearing he received. That one excellence made acceptable subject matter which would otherwise have failed to arrest attention. Tiiat one excellence he maintained by the use of his will, by resolution, by knowing what he was about, by making the most of himself, hou-ever little there was of himself. The less there is of yourself the more need for you to make the most of what there is of you. Plunkett overcame his stutter by turning his will upon it, not by forgetting himself and thinking only of his Bubject, but by recollecting himself and thinking seri- \v 22 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE. li: 11 II' oiisly of his impediment. He could not Bpeak rapidly without 8tnttL'rin«jj, and tliis (Munpulsory Helf-restraint made him duliliurate and distinct where many another Fpeaker, who had no sneh impediment, for want of know- in I _ ^ niji^h universal disease ot public speakers Earnestness. . . , ,. than inarticulate earnestness. My news- paper says in its Congressional report: "Mr. Herbert, of Alabama, opened the discussion to-day with a speech in opposition to the report. Like most of Mr. Herbert's speeches which appear in the Record^ the effort of the Alabama member was made in unhappy, explosive, and over emphatic oratorical style, which gave his delivery the effect of indistinctness" — the effect of earnestness and indistinctness. Those who are most in earnest, or most intense, or most absorbed in their subject, are oftentimes the most inarticulate, indistinct, precipitate, slovenly in enuncia- tion. In proportion to their eagerness to be heard is their inability to make themselves heard. In proportion to the importance they attach to what they say is the ditHculty of hearing what they say. This hidicrous pan- tomime is acted in thousands of pulpits every Sunday. The awfully earnest preacher will even burst into tears in the process of uttering the inarticulate sentiment which has affected him so deeply. If you would make your hearer cry, you must cry yourself, certainly ; but if you would let your hearer know what you are crying about, you must — tell him ! With a purely lachrymosal religion, the former is sutHcient ; but if you wish to inculcate a religion that will compel a man to not only weep over his sins in his pew, but abandon them at the counter, the latter is the better method. The speaker's AUTICULATION^ TO IJE ACQUIUED. 27 jfielcVs Cush- istinct- , thero, is well- f news- erbert, speech irbert's of the ve, and ielivery riestness ensc, or he most >nuncia- icard is portion y is the )U8 pan- Siuuhiy. to tears itimeiit (1 make ly ; but e cryiu<>: ryniosal wish to not only in at the peaker's emotions should be as intelli^^ible a- his tlsoiights, and will be if he is not so deeply " absorbed in his subject" as to secrete it by an overworked lachrymal gland. Another function of the will in public speakin*,^ is to compel the lips to form the words and tiie ^^^ j ^^^ throiit to make the tones. This is indis- Lips to Form pensable to a good articulation. No words the Words and formed by the throat can be articnlatc. ^^e Throat to The attempt to form both the tones and ^ff ^ ' ... * ones. tlic words by the throat is a habit of in- articulate earnestness. It is so " absorbed in its snb- ject," and so intent npon "being natural," that it takes no account of this fundamental law of nature. To obey it will require an exercise of the will to which the " earn- est " speaker lias hitherto been a stranger. This so far from being the chihrs play of lessons in dramatic elocu- tion is a man's work in self-(liscipline and self-culture. So here is 3'our method of curing the wretched mortal whom we are diagnosing. Disease — indis- tinctness, precipitancy, slurring, slovenli- Elocution is a r •!• I. 1 ^• 1' i.1 1 \ 1 i.1 Quack Remedy ness, tailmg to be distinctly heard whether ^. rr i. 1 ^ . "^ for a Fatal he read a notice or a sermon, everybody Disorder. ■whispcjriiig, '" W^hat did he say ?"--in a word, inarticulate earnestness. Remedy —lessons in elo- cutionary emphatics aTid theatrics, diagrams of the dia- phragm and the windj)ipe, and illustrations of 'Mlie rising and falling inllections," and the " rendering" of " princes, potentates, and warri(»rs.'' Learn how to Bjicak one sucli piece with deliberation and distinctness, and you will learn how to deliver distinctly and deliber- Rtely a Fourth-of-fluly oration, or a sermon on repent- ance, or an address to a jury ! There are preachers, scores of them, who give five dollars a lesson for such twaddle as this, and is there one r^. 28 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE. tliat will pjivo one cent, or even thank yon, for telling him that his most serious obstacle is indistinctness, pre- cipitancy, and the like, and that it is a physical obstacle, and only to be cured by consciousness of it, by turning the will upon it, by knowing what he is about, he and his epiglottis, he and his words and tonci?, thoughts and metaphors. AVill he heed if he is told that he can only gel this obstacle out of the way by willing it away, by turning his ear upon his voice, by watchfulness, by carefulness and drill and discipline that shall take hold strong enough, and hold on long enough to root out, and kick out, and keep out forever and ever this pernicious habit of inarticulate earnestness I No, he will not heed, because there is no romance about this remedv, it is too doggedly matter-of-fact. There is no gratification of a silly boyish vanity which delights, as all little boys and big boys do, in learning how to declaim, and emphasize, and strike attitudes, and make gestures, and all that sort of thing. Above all, it does not cost money, it costs only self-conquest, which 1 think Solomon would join me in saying is greater than the conquest of the reading of " Boots at the Ilolly-Ti-ec Imi," for telling ^iiess, pre- l obstacle, )y turning nt, he and oughts and dy giii - thift by turning carefulness old strong b, and kick icioiis habit not heed, lIv, it is too cation of a ;le boys and emphasize, all that sort lev, it costs would join the reading III. PHYSICAL EARNESTNESS. ■With an adequate use of his will, an adequate know- ing what ho is about, the speaker will make a right use of his physical orgai'.ization — will be jihysically, as well as morally or spiritually, in (Mirnest. If ho makes no use of Ills will, forgets it and " tliiiiks only of his subject," or of the laws of em})hasis taught by the elocution books, he will make no use, or he will make a misuse of his physical organization. If the will be dormant, the phys- ical organization will be no assistance to him, will be a hindrance to him the rather. An inert physical organi- zation is, indeed, conclusive evidence of a torpid will. Can there be a more CDUclusive })roof that the under- standing of the speaker comes miserably short of its duty than the fact that it takes no account of physical earnest- ness, or the working of the body to the advantage of th*) mind, or the creating of a v^oice for the service of the intellect ? We are always to bear in mind that an impression is produced by the speaker (juiie apart from and often in epite of the words he utters. It is a mes- meric influence, it is feeling, retlection, thought produced by the aiilnud galvanic batterv on two legs. An influence o-oes out of the speaker into the hearer. Some- thing went out of Bonaparte into ln*s soldiers ; so his soldiers said. Doubtless the great warrior was a great An Animal Galvanic Battery on Two Legs. 80 BKFOUE AN AUDIENCE. *.r ~l^ animal galvanic battery on two legs, or six legs, counting the horse's. 1 have no doubt Sliiel found it greatly to the advan- tage of his aniniid galvanic battery on two legs to leap to liis \c<^ii as he did, and lusli to the clerk's ta])le and pound it. Or, pcrha]'js, he did it to cover his confusion or overcome liis stage-fright, wliich is tlie curse of many a, speaker v.lio is criticised for presum[)ti()n and conceit. IVfr. (ihidstone lias something of tlie same habit. Jle springs to the box with greyhound agihty, reminding one ot a greyhound in the leasli, and claps tlie box with the palm of his liand. Disraeli once l)rought down the house by congratulating himself that the clerk's table formed an insurmountable barrier between him and the llio'ht Hon. i>:entlc:man. Sir Kobert Peel struck the box on the table, we are told, about twice a minute, and " as the box was remark- able for its acoustic properties, the sou. 1 was distinctly heard in every part of the House, and considerably aided the effect of his speech." Then he could "look as solemn as thouidi he were commissioned to stand up and proclaim that the world has come to an end." I^Jcver allow yourself to go physically to sleep if you exj)ect to keep yourself mentally awake. There is fallacy ami mischief in tracing all the short- comings of the preacher to his deficiency in moral or - - . P i^ s})iritutd earnestness, in always nagging ness which is ^^*^ candidate at his ordination with hav- common lug 110 more conscience than Red Cloud enough is attributes to his friend the enemy who cnoug . j^ ^^^^ 4lestitute of lands and mines that the Jjlack Hills must be ours, forcibly if we can, peaceably if we must. The " charge to the candidate," as well as the ordination sermon, seems to take for granted what the PHYSICAL EAIIXESTNESS. 31 counting lie ad van- to leap to table and confiis'n>n 3 of many id conceit, iabit. lie remindinii^ (3 box with t down the Icrk's table m and the ble, we are ^-as renuirk- is distinctly rably aided " look as uul up and deep if you I the short- II moral or lys nagging' n with hav- Eed Cloud enemy who ncs that the I, peaceably " as well as ted what the agricultural brethren say they do take for granted, that the young })arson leaves his })iety behind Iiim when he emerges from tJie recitation-room. Hence, say they, his lack of " earnestness.'" Tliey mean energy, snap, animal galvanism, and all tliat species of f tiHliini,^ lie knows no a pliysieian es if lie 1»'^^^ else can you been so loni; to let himself •eaclier ; that bis subject; tbis panacea defect or a witb " want y " throw his nions he will rue every un- f sincerity, or sacher has sue- to his fellows meant here is [s own refuta- needs is not heart in the le soul, but not fs Ills wliole bodv, into his work. Jle does not make tho most of himself. An En<;lisli news|)a[)er, C()m})lainin.i^ of the preachers of tlie ('hureli of Knuiand, nays : '* Take a Metht)dist preacher wlio lias so :iethin<,^ to say and says it with all his heart, set him down in village or city, and he will in a short time iill the eommoiust ami baldest barn. liCt a Chureli of Kiii^dand minister display the same enthusiasm, and he will have as much success." The Methodist prea(*her "says it with all his" body, and if the (Jhureh of Eiin;land preacher shouhl " disj>lay • the same enthusiasm," it would be a physical enthusiasm, which is j..::*^ the kind of " enthusiasm," al!<(.'i " earnest- ness," which the latter is delicient in, and which twenty- 8even thousand four hundred and tifty-two other preachers are deficient in. They do not say it with all their i)hysical lieart. The preachers instanced here as examples of " heart" are examples of what self-rousing, self-incitement, physical animation, knowing wliat you are about, however comes that knowledge, will do toward tirinij^ the " heart" and soul and mind and all that side of a man's nature. The difference between two such, or any two preachers, might turn upon " say- ing it" or not " saving it with the whole" voice, which is !\ physical qualiiication. It is said that such people as the pioneer preachers address can be moved only by preachers who " throw their whole souls into their work" — who throw their whole bodies into their work is what you mean ; else their " whole souls" must bo very much superior to the " whole souls" of their better educated brethren. It is not necessary to join in the apprehensions of the ordaining or the agricultural brethren, and accuse those better educated preachers of having "no soul" or "heart" in their work. They 34 BEl'"OUE AN Al'DIKNCE, liavc as mncli ppiritual or moral Ijcart in their work aR their iincliistsically etlufiited hrctlireii, but tliey have Ici^s physical lieait in it. Tiiey are all soul and no l)ody. In educatin^j^ their minds they have paralyzed their hearts. Tiiey have «j!;ained the whole world and lost their bodies. A ^ood preacher once asked me what I thou;i:lit he needed most to make his spoakini:^ more etTective. *' Put one thiniz; into your style," I said, " and I'll let you otr." "What is that r"' "Vivacity." JTe liad an excellent bass voice and unexceptional maimers, but lie was monotonously oratund. and a^ettin^ more and more so. Vivacity would improve his oratory and pro- long his pastorate. He could secure it. :n>c by for- getting himself and thinking only of his subject — that lie had done for twenty years — or by live-dollar lessons in imitative elocution — those he had tried to his cost — he could secure vivacity by willing it into his style. The way to be vivacious is to be vivacious. Educating all 'pin. education is all clone upon one side \^^^^^'^^,°"^ of the man— the inside, the intellectual of the Earthern i • r '^ r • • Vessel. ^''*^ — ^^^^^ ^^ ^'''^^ from not gettmg m some- thing in the wav of " earnest"* education on the physical side — the outside — which it is the fashion to look upon as the lower side. But it is the side toward the fish, and important somewhat, therefore, if the man is to be a fisher of men. It is the side of the emotional nature, which is five eighths of a speaker's, especially a preacher's, success. It is the side of common sense, of practical judgment, of mesmeric power, of vivacity, of unction, of adequate voice, of knowing what you are about. How could the June roses get through their education without their lower side ? So with great oaks and great preachers, by their roots we shall know them. Kature is more inexorable and more impatient with her P H Y a U ' A I< K A U N KST N KSS. 35 ■ work afl huvc less )ily. In ir lioiirttJ. ir l)()ilii;s. i(>iier with all his heart and virility grouiul out of him. lie can dress better, perhaps, ami he certaifily is better educated than he was when he set out ; but can he speak better, can bespeak as well, as efTectiv<.»ly, with as manly a voice, with as much mesmeric ])ower 'H Ko, he caniKjt ; and this is the fact which the ordaining clergy and the agricultural laity are blindly be ii(»aning. No, it is not earnestness, in the ordinary sense, that the man needs. lie is probably more in earnest in that sense than he ever was — more intellectually, morally, spiritually in earnest. It is physical earnestness that ho needs. You have gorged the brain, and tapped the vein. You have gone into sanguinary alliance with the climate, and left nothing but whiteness and emaciation whero there was once red blood and Morious flesh. Education as a process of emastndation ! So when the young preacher goes back to his friends, they throw up their hands in consternation and exclaim, " What in (Jod\s name have they been doing to him V For it is in (lod's name that you have done it, you know ! What has become of the fellow's magniticent physical earnestness, with which he used to sweep down upon his hearers, and bear them away ? It has been exchanged for education, instead of being the basis of it, the veins and arteric;? of it. If the battery which worked so powerfully before ceased to work after the education, have we nut reason to charge the calamity upon the education ? Some students, however, survive this system of educa- El ,) 'ii .38 hkfoim: an aidikxck. lion l>y oiKirviition and (30!n(; out of t.lio Mill witli Romo of tlu; ln'awii which thcv liiid when thov \vvA\t into it. 'J'hosc v.lio iiiakc! the worst hIiow in riMMtatioii Ioho tho lua.st hrawn in I he; conrsi; of it, and niaIn '(), his l)ioi;raj)her tells us, " he was ren»arkal)le for nothiiii^ hut impetuosity, hreadth of chest, afid su(;h stronjjjly devel- <)})ed i)Uiiilistic tendencies as to warrant this blunt siim- m;iry of his chara(;ter : the thick-headed fool was fit for nothiui; l)ut li«jjhtin«^. " l*)Ut he was tit for ])reaehin<^ as well as ti.,,, , , Dash cold water on the throat every morn- ing wlieii you wasii, for three hundred a'ld sixty-live, not I pHYKicAi, i:a unkstnksh. o u til Romn into it. loKC- tlio ho best ition lire i) ho did oil '(), lii« liiiii; l>nt ly (l(!Vcl- lint t^um- ,".iB iit foi iic',l»ins olf the euttiiii^ wind without ereatint^ moist- lire, and it can he hd't oil" witiioiit harm. Wool heats and moistens, and once acciistome(l to it tlu; oinissi(»n of it is tianireious. Do not aHow tin; collar to touch th(! tliroat. Thert; should he room for two lin;.^erH between the ci/lhir and the throat. Keej) your mouth shut when you are nf)t usiniz; it f(»r catin<^, drinkiiii!;, or speakin;^'. It is :i(;t to he used for hreathin*::. r.reathe throu^xli tin; nose. If you awake in till! m'ur coat won't button. 'J'he tailor measured you at your i^n-catest fdirinka.i,^;. This physical discipline will suir(ri!.st aud i)romote i)hysical self-resj)ect, and that in ' irn will promote moral self-respect. The attitude of dignity di«^^nilies the feelin-^^ 8trai<^diteni!i«^^ the K])ino 9^ 40 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE. ii ■I !!i etiffciis the moral vertel)ra. Tlie Belf-distrustful speaker is helped by a coiiiident demeanor. Try it. Tlie hest tliinjj^ to eat just before or just after speaking is a bit of half-done beefsteak and plain bread without butter, and if you care for anything to drink, one cup of good English breakfast tea. If you can driidc milk with impunity substitute it for the tea at your after-speaking lunch. Eschew tobacco, and take no longer tire-water for your stomach's sake when you really intend it for your brain's sake. The occasional stimulant becomes a constant crutch. The speaker's depression tiiat naturally follows his exaltation is only deepened and darkened by the use of narcotics or stimulants. Iloast beef is the best remedy for a inorbid mind. Nourishment that increases brawn^ and not intoxicants that diminish it, are what the speaker needs. Never drink water while you are speaking. It aggra- vates the thirst it is designed to ([uench. It is a nervous liabit, like the handkerchief habit of the preachers. Bleep immediately before speaking is beyond all com- parison the best preparation for it. If you can snatch a c.at-nai> of ten nu'nutes you will be greatly refreshed, but if you can get an hour or two of slumber on your bed in your night-gown, you will rise for your sermon, lecture, or plea with your strength renewed like that of a strong man to run a race or make a speech. A day's lay-olf on the bed is the rest-cure. If the brain-workers would do at home what they go to Philadel[)hia in order to be compelled to do, they would save money and time, and accomplish l)y a short-cut what they seldom attain by these roundabout, circuitous, and overdone methods. Go to bed once in awhile and stay there for awhile — all day, two days, a week even. Why go to a penitentiur/ to do what you can do in your own home, sweet iiomt } :.« it j« akcr .king :liout i\\) of with liking wiitei- it for nies a u rally led l>y is the t that it, arc aggia- jcrvous 11 eom- luitch a eel, but bed ill ectnre, strong oif on ould do to be le, and tain by lethods. lile— all tentiur/ honit J 1 I\^ Till'; SELF-KELrAXCE FOR PUBLIC SPEAKIXO. The pn])li(! snenker is dependt^nt upon liiinself for the nse of liis will, for knowiiiir wliat he is about, fo'* making tlie most of liimself, for tke physical and mental con- ditions essential to his success. There is an exultation about public speaking peculiar to itself which shows how self-reliant the speaker is. There is a heat and thrill about it to he had from no other exercise of mind or body. Its highest reaches arc accom})anied by a delirium which is probably the most deliglitful form of intoxica- tion of which the human mind is capable. IFc who has once felt it will hanker after it as an old toper after his bottle. If there are ])ublic speakers who have none of this exhilaration, they may infer that they were not desi:nr tlioiigl'cs unless tliey speak tlieni out. Tlie two classes mix, l>'it there are enough strongly marked men of each to make two separate and distinct classes of men who cx{)rcss tlicir tluuights for the benelit of their fellow-men — speakers and writers. Tlie most successful public speakers are supreme before an audienct;, but must tak(! a secondary, if not twenty-secondary [)l;i('e among writers strictly so called. Preachers who produce the greatest iimnedi;ite efT(M't (which is the primary aim of proa.ching), as Whitetield and JJossuet, are not competent to cope with those who make a science of thinking and of publishing their thoughts. Such facts a.. jsc prove the individuality of public sj)eaking, and the comnuinding individuality of the art of public speaking indicates how exclusive should be the devotion to it of those who wish to excel in it. And this suggests a reason why some who make considerable attaimnents fall short of the lughcst attaimnents in the art of rhetoric \vhich Plato called " The art of ruling the nunds of men." They arc divided in tlieir allegi- ance between writing and s])eaking, or between ruling the minds of men by speakiuii: and ri -'^ig them by writ- ing. The self-reliance for public speaking promotes this exclusive enthusiasm for it. Preachers who do some- thing besides preach, or pleaders who do something besides plead, or agitators who do something besides agitate the ])\d>lic mimi, are not smitten with the passion for ruling the minds of men by public speaking, without which exclusive passion it is imj)ossible for all the con- ditions for su'-cess in piddic speaking to be fidlllled. Chatliam said : " I nnist sit still ; for when once I am up, everything in my mind cunicB out." What brought THE SELF-RELIAXCR FOIl I'L'liLIC SPKAKIXO. 43 >ral)lo n the ■ulint!; I 1 L 1 1 * .— Uei!;i- idiiii^ writ- es this 1 somo- 3thiiig csides assion ithoiit cou- 1 M 1. J I am ^VS •ought M it out ? Gcttinc: up. Sittiii": Rtill kept liis miiul (piiet ; f]^ettin<:^ on liis legs set liis iiiiiul in motion. To say that Cliatliam's mind worked oratorieally is to ,, , ., ,1 1 ,, • -. i. The Oratorical pav that it worked under tlie incitement ~ • . , , . Temperament. of excitation peculiar to tlic act of ]Mihhe .-pea king, (rladstone's is anotlier mind that works ora- toii.-allv, whether he express liimselt' in a magazine article or in a speeeli from the Treasury Hench. Wher- ever or liowever he speaks, he always speaks in the fas- cinating rhytlim of oratorical diction. lie cannot talk at his hest unless lie rises to make a speech to the com- pany, he it small or large ; and when he does rise to make a speech, ho talks as few other men can. lie, like Chatham and Fox and Curran and O'Connell and White- field and Ph il''")8 and Clay, has the oratorical tempera- ment — a temperament that takes lire hy the simple act of puhlie speaking. It needs only to be once up in order to he ignited. Webster was endowed, like Macaulay, with an orator- ical diction, but failed in tlie oratorical temperament. lie lacked self-reliance. lie depended upon the oC(;a- sion, and even when that was supplied he was liable to fail. Parties do not like leaders whom they have to mirse. The stump is a rough cradle. The late Lord Clarendon M'as another maiked instance of failure in public sj)eak- ing, from a deliiiiencv in the self-reliance Lord Clarendon's "Constitutional Sluggishnes indis[)ensable for public s[)eaking, espe- cially for that of public men who would create and mould pu})li(; opinion. " Ilis merits," wearett>ld, " were half hidden, and his usefulness greatly marreeici.)!i TmII produced a feeling of Derby Saved .. , ■ i • ,• ,i i n . , the Day oi^^gust in his followers that was Weli-mgii mutiny, when Stanley, afterward Lord Derby, saved the day, and the bill, and his party by a ■ 'I i^'? THE SELF-RELIANCE FOll I'UULlC SrEAKING. 45 c had liin to letidid !l;\ren- inore jep on \ro- duced a thrilling effect by these descriptions he turned upon O'Connell, who led the opposition to the measure, and who seemed a short time before about to achieve a triumph in favor of sedition and anarchy. He recalled to the recollection of the House of Commons that at a recent public meeting O'Connell had spoken of tlie House of Commons as six hundred and fifty-eight scoundrels. In a tempest of scorn and indignation, he excited the anger of the men thus designated against the author of tlie calumny. The House, which two honfs l)efor(! seemed about to yield to the great agitator, was now almost ready to tear him to pieces. In the midst of the storm which his eloquence had raised he sat down, having achieved one of the greatest triumphs of elo- (jueiKie ever won in a popular assembly by the powers of oratorv. " The late Lord J)erby had an abundance of self-indiuted excitement. He had the oratorical temperament and a genius for debate. 1 heard the last speech he ever delivered, and was imju'cssed with the knightly bearing and the self-reliance of the irreat debater. I could seer plainly that he was quite used to making himself como to time when the time came for the speech. He carried r^ 46 HE FORE AN AUDlENCh. I liiinsclf iirtpresRivcly. lie held a roll of paper in liia Wght linncl, wliicli lie raised hliili and broii^j^lit down into the palm of his left hand with a whack. It was a capital device for startling the drowsy woolsack or the drones in gowns. It would not be easy to iind another man in modern times more exclusively, and in consequence more elTec- tiv'cly, a public speaker than Wendell Phillips. Indeed, he was so rigidly and restrictedly a ruler Wendell ^^ j]^^ minds of men by the art of rhetoric, Phillips's xi i. 1 • rr .• • a T 2. Self-Reliance ^''''^ "'^ elieotivencss is connned to one branch of that ono art — that of agitator. And so pertinaciously and exclusively did his mind adhere to that department of ])ublic speakiiig, that he failed in even the department so nearly akin to it as con- troversy. To see Mr. Phillips fail in controversial public speaking, as well as in the tact and judgment indispensable for acting in conjunction with many men of many minds, was to see how narrow may be the gauge upon which the art of ruling the minds of men by public speaking may be made to run. Mr. Phillips once said of himself in a private chat : " 1 am a stirrer-up of things generally." That is exactly what he was, and a soother-down of things generally, or a judicious adjuster of thinu:;s iretierallv, is exactly what he was not. lie was a born and trained agitator. So was Daniel O'Connell. Trained, I say. ]\lr. IMiillips told me that he learned how to make an audi- ence hear and heed hiii by their attenjpt to make him hear and heed them. The more they would not listen the more he determined that they should hear what he had to say. It was a rare training in distinctness, in articulate earnestness, in the use of the will, in knowing what you are about, and in self-reliance. Mr. Phdlips's Tllli: SELF-IIEUANCK FOH I'UULIC SI'KAKiN-,-. 47 Mr. liiudi- him llistcii lilt he 5S, ill ►wing lips's mind, not only l>y rciisnn of its pociiliur coiistriK't'ion, l>iit ii8 tlio result of liii^ experience witii the iiu>h, worked iis Chatlumrs w;is said to hiive worked, orat<)ri(;;illy. J I is mission was to create pul)lic opinion, not to ntilizc ir. " Abrupt utterances, thrown (>ut isolated, unex- plained"' — the rest must be done by others. Ho was no i»;eneral, but a mai^nilicent IThlan, our briii^ht [)arti('ular star of pure oratory, aiul as knii^htly pure a soul as ever broke a lance with a popular injustice. We i)rinji; liini in here as an example of what a passionate and exclusive devotion to public B]ieakinetter the croaking of the few cold frogs at yonr superlluous warmth, than the condem- nation that was visited upon the pastor of the church at Laodicea for being merely lukewarm. When the hearers are least interested, from either their familiarity with the toj)ic or the depression of their surroundings, tUe speaker is to be most interested — that is, he is to show most interest, lience animation, physical earnestness. Showing interest will increase his interest. Assuming such a virtue creates it. When you suspect tnat your sernuni or lecture is below your mark, and that it will therefore be received with delight by those who enjoy nothing in your > i 'C0Ui*se except its defects, that is the time for summoning all your self-reliance, your physical earnestness, your will- power That is the time for falling buck upon your * m \ I ^ N JSKFOKK AN AL-DIKN'CR. reserves in tlio wiiy of faciilticfl niul qualifies wliicli nlwiiys stand ivady to lly to your assistance wlien tlioso M'liicli constitute your van;j;uanl are driven in. 'I'liat is llii^ time to lift uj) your vcrtehrsr, and your head, and your ])luck, and your voice, and look your audience R(juari! in the eye, clear your tliroat— in a word, wlmi your (NU'tlien vessel is cauijjlit and eanin)t beiir Uj) into the wind, let her drive. Soniethini:: may come of it, whereas nothini:; can eonie of doin^* nothinji;. These moments of contrary wiiuls are very critical ones for the earthen vessel. They sometimes carry him upon the rocks through the sheer hel[)lessness and i^ive-uf) of tlie eaj)- tain — (^aptain Will. Ilcncc the necessity for a self- reliance which is abundant in resfuirces, and ({uiek in the use of them, and as competent for the perilous dash as the safe n)aiKeuvre. The sj)eaker must compier himself if lie M'ould con(juer his audience and turn its apathy into interest. It is ])reposterous to say that in every other occupation and protession in the world, from fox-hunting to ollice' hunting;', a man is to make the most of him- Self-Reliance ^^.j!'^ j^^ |^},.,j. j,j pi-enching a man is to see .,,0 • -i. 1 how little he can make of himself, his iudij:- with Spiritual , ' .1 t-> Dependence. n»ent, tact, physical earnestness, and self- reliance. All squeaniishness with reference to nioviuii: himself, in order that he nuiv move others, the preacher should put away at once and forever. There is no quarrel between the highest sense of spiritual dependence and the liveliest sense of self-i'eliance. Both arc inconsistent with a parson's giving an ill man reason for saying : *' You speak of tlie "joys of heaven in such a way as to make me disgusted with them." To say that we must not use a tone until we have its feeling, is equivalent to saying that we must not be courteous or TIIF. SELF-UKLIANrn FOR Pmrir SPRAKINO. 51 civil until wo fool liko it. Ft is just as much tlio proacher's duty to speak in tlio toiu; luid inatiiu^r of HViupatliv wliili! lie is ;i(lmiiiistL'rii)iJ' svnipatliv, rciianl- less of his (►\vm fceliuirs, as it is our (hity to hohavo courteously U\ our fellows wliethcr wo feel liko it oi* not, Unless the preacher absolutely dishelieves what ho says, lie is iustitied in saviui:: it, is reciuired to say it as thou«>h lie docs believe it. Tso man on earth could stand tiio test of only preaching- when his faith is at its hii:;hest. In fact, much of a preacher's scepticism is an evanescent mood which nothini^ ])uts to ilii:;ht sooner thtiii })reach- mhias('s. The «)i'atu|-I('al, hkcthc |MK'ti('al oi" iiiiisical orfji^ani/a- lioii, is apt to he ii-ritahh', toiichv, easily thrown, and th(» puhhc speaker needs e(pianiniily and belf-Posscr.- poise. In eont r»»\ crsv it, is indisiieiis iliU;. sioii niul ,,, 111- 1 Good-Nature. ""' '''■''•'<'''■ '^^'l'" '"'^''•^ ''•■' li'"'lH'r h.se.s the hatth'. Ihirk(!\s woniK'rfnl force! and hriliianey wer(> liin(K're(l hv Iiis irrilahiiitv. Lvndhiii'st was often more than a match lor I >rout hy it. AlthoUij,h lio Fonietimes vomitcil fr(»m neryousiiess Ixdnnil the sjn'akcr'rt chair, lu' lU'ver lost his halance heforo it. Disi'ai'Ii lost his temper at startinjj; out, hut saw his erroi", and vwv nfter kiit'w what, he and his tenqxT were ahout. Ilo never ai>'ain let go thi; nins, lie kept himself well in lutud. 'i'liis recalls tlie s(>cond Ili-nrv ( iraltan, wh<» '' could not utter a half dozen si'utences without i::ettin!ji,' into such a passion and indul^ini:; in such violence of jj;esluro tliiit it was (piiti' uusarfe for any memher t<) sit within reach of his riiiiit aian.''' Uc " forii'ot himself and thouirht oidv of hit^ suhiect,'" did not know what he and liis n'cstures were ahout. Lutlier said : " I never speak so wi-ll as wIilu I am in a passion ;'' hut accordiiii^ to his own confession his most injudicious and injurious utterances grew out of his epeaking when he was in a passion. Pul)lie speaking is depressing in ]>roportion as it is exliikuMting, and is therefore neeessarilv followed hy a rouetioii. You tunihle from great heights to correspond- TIIK SKt.F KKf.IANCK V()\l VVIMAC SF'RA KIXO. n;] iii/jfly «.n"(^;it (IcfptliM. ^'(Mi ciiimot Iiav(! t!i(! MoHsinii^ witli- 'oiild iiit(» si lire itiilii aiiil ; mid [lis oil t, tl ic. curse; mvolvcd wi it. riil>l IC. HIX'.'lklllL'" ^ no ('\('r.j)lio?i to tlic iiiiivi'i'siii rule we die to live ; in- lli;it H;i\t'tl) !lill;^^■If hIkiI! lost; liiiiisclC, ;iiid liclli.it, '(!onnell that if his fe(!iin;j^ were not enliKt(;d, ids manner was crold and iiis voice mofiotonous, aiu! those who nevcjr lieard liim hef»>re "would woruier low lie eyer O Conneli, , , , .1 1 \ -^ ^^ MiiabeatJ and could liavo attained so much popiuanty. Brouehain Tlu^y e.\{)e(;tcd tlio juiolic speaker to Ik; wlial tjiey iioyer exiiect their trottiriLf liorses and laviiitf hens to l)u -always at tlieir hest. Xeithf.'r liorse, hen, nor s])eaker c;in enduro fiuriu(»us hrn h of liair, npon his very \iower- ful auxiliary of the mind, lie had a bold forehead and a sha^ijy shock of coarse hair — a rock covered with thorns and briers. His nose was a huire cra^, and his eyes ijlared. He was awkward, but his awkwardiu'ss became him. It was in keepiiii*; with his stylti of rhetoric and elocution. For such a speaker to take ou tlu; eU'eni- inate i • Contradictions reliance tor i)ul)lic siKakiiu::. J>lair savs, . ^, „ , '■ . , , . • ' in the Books under the head of '' The Pathetic Part of Rhetoric, of a Discourse," which mii^ht )e called the movinii; ])art of a discourse : " The only efTectuid method (of movinj^ others) is to be moved yourselvrn. . . . The internal emotion of the speaker adds a pal ;os to his words, his looks, his gestures, and his whole manner, which exiu'ts a power almost irresistilde over those who hear. Ihit" — vou must not be moved vour- pelves by yourselves. You tnust not be in the sli<:htrst di'i^ree self-reliant for your intenud emotions—" But uii this point, as I lune haj occasion before to show, all attempts toward becoming pathetic, when we are not ff 50 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE. moved ourselves, expose us to certain ridicule." Onr author then refers with approval to Qnintiliairs descrip- tion of the method he jxu'isned for moving otljers — i.e., by first niovinweri\" If (^uintilian's imaginary " pictures" were not " attiMnj)ts toward becoming pathetic," or bcMiig moved " wiien ho was not moved himself," a method wiiich I)lair declares would incur ridicule, there must be some way of recon- ciling the })ositions of these two authors which 1 cannot discover. Iliair reflected a po])ular fallacy upon this subject which was uidvnown to the ancients — viz., that because the actor is self-reliant for his emotional re- sources, the public speaker, especially the preacher, should not be. l)Ut when he, or anv other Ejuxlish writer, descants ui)on the ex[)ression of the emotions or passions in language, ho finds himself trying to balance himself on the two stools, that of exclusive dependence upon the occasion, and that of self-reliance when the occasion fails, (^uintilian and Cicero had no such prej- udice as that which tangles the modern authorities upon public speaking. VAi ur sayi u We must take care never to counterfeit THE SRI.FKKLTANCE FOIl rinJLTC SPEAKING. 5? warnitli without feeling it." Hero is the fulliicy tliat all eelf-iiuhiced wanrith or fceliiiu^ is dislionest, and all M'armtli or foclii)jj^ produced by the oceasion is neeessarily liouest. " Tlic very aspect of a !ari!:e assembly attentive to the voice of one man is suflicient to inspire that man with such ekn^ation and warmth as ijives rise to stromr impressions." Now, why sliouM tlie warmtli inspired by an audience l)e more liunest tlian tliat inspired by liis own reflections and imajjjination ? l-Jnt " he must not allow impetuosity to cnrry him too far." If he may stop his warmth, or restrain k, why may he not create it? "lie n.'.'.st not kindle too soon." If the nnnnent for being kindled is under his control, why may not the kindlintij itself be subject to his will ? If he is allowed to say when he shall feel the emotion, why is he iH)t allowed to say whether he shall feel it or not i If I)enu)sthenes, as I>Iair says, is to be commended for kindliuii; his audience " by callinjj^ up the names of those who fell at I^Iaiathon," and Cicero his "• by apostro- ])hizini; the Alban hills and <»;roves," why are not De- mosthenes and Cicero and Dr, I'lair justiiied in resortini^ to the same or some other devices for kindlini^ and liiini; their own emotions ? Our teacher of the awful rules of rhetoric soon fori!;ets his own rules, for he tells the lawyer that he must do just what he says all public sp(;akers must avoid doinii; — assume the virtim of wiirmth if he has it not. " It has a bad effect uj)on his cause for him to a])pear inditferent or unmoved." If he is not self-reliant for his emotion, how can he avoid appearing unmoved ? I)lu'it, another of our setters of the public speakers to " Elo([U(Uice must be the voice of one ri: rhtf ays i ^1 earnestly endeavoring to deliver his own soul." Sup- w w^ 58 BEFOIIE AN AUUIEXCE. ! 1 lii pose wc h'dVii 110 soul to deliver, or a nii'serablc woe 8(jiieiik of a soul. We will squeak in delivering it. " Must he the outpouring of ideas rushing for vent." Su})pose wc has^e to speak without ideas, or those wc h ive do not rush ? " Must be the Psalmist's experience, the untut()ret to fail because his audience docs. to Your Surroundings. T^ct the audience be ever so small, and the circumstances ever 80< disheartening, he is to " come up smiling'' and go through his per- formance with the best credit to himself — or, rather, to his art. This is the art spirit, and the more we are pos- sessed with it the higher the ont him tlmi you can liardly lielp donl)tine in earnest, and you will soon learn how to keep your feet off the chair-rung, and your stare off the visitor ; or. Be yourself, and you will never pick your teeth at the table, or your nose in the church. Would you not the rather take for granted that the manners which come to a boy when left to him- self and his comrades of the public school are the wrong ones ? And would you not endeavor by a combination of his will and yours to so work upon his sense of decorum as to give him a new set of natural manners? As you would do with your naturally had-mannered boy, you should do with your naturally bad-mannered self if you are a preacher or a lawyer. There are a few speakers of whom it may be said they are justilied in preserving and using the delivery which comes t' them when they get upon their legs. Of every one of the remainder we may say their natural delivery 18 wrong, or not right, or it is more or less ineffective. They should somewhat change, or altogether alter, tlio I THE AIIT OF BEING NATUUAL. 63 delivery wliich comes to tlieni, or substitute aiujtlier whicii tliey coiupul to come to them. The ditlic'ilty witli most of tliem is that tliey adopt, acquiesce iu, and iience cultivate by practice the delivery which comes to them, wliic^h delivery is iueilcctive. Or it is uot so clYcctive as auotlier which they could ac(iuirc, if they (1) were conscious of their defect, (2) roused themselves to rellect upon it, and (3) set themselves to remedy it. Tiie elocution, too, that comes to the ^^^ Natural , , , , ^, ,. . Elocution May ppeaker wlien lie comes to the audience is ^^ Right or perfectly natural to him, though it may Wrong. be far from tiie most elfective elocution for him. It may be natural and wron«^. It is therefore his duty to ac(piire an elocution which will be natural and rii^ht. You say of a 8])eaker, he does not use that elocution in })rivate conversation, why does he use it in public epeaking. His conversational elocution is natural, his public elocution i^ unnatural. No, his ])ul)lic elocution is just {18 natural to him as his private elocution. It is the elocution with its emphases and cadences that come»s to him when he speaks in j)ublic or talks in ])rivate. Here is his dilHculty ; he knon-s how to speak to a fiifiid on the street, he does not know how to speak to one hundred friends in the hall or church. In the lii\-«t ])Iace, he takes for granted, what has always been taken for granted, that the elocution of public speaking is radically dillerent from the elocution of private talking. That is a blunder as embarrasai:ig as it is egregious — a bhindej", indeed, sutHcient of itself to disconcert and throw any one who stands before an audience for the first time. What with the embarrassment caused by the proseuce of an audience, or uudieuce fright, and tho C4 iJEFOUK AN AUDIENCE. P i embarrassment caused by this niisnppreliension, It is no wonder that tlie speaker falls into all manner of eadenecs, emphatics, and theatrics, bellowin^s, and whisper! tij^s, and ijiarticulate earnestnesses that cleave the n^eneral ear without even so much as makint^ itself intellii^ihlo to the general intellect. In private conversation the speaker may have a defec- tive elocution from lack of will, and knowin colloquial elooution the speaker may rise into the dramatic or oratorical, hut liis mainstay and stron^dujld is the con- versational. A irood elocutionary instinct is invnluahle to the speaker, and he shoiild learn how to disci- j)line and rcji^ulate it. His will should have it under control, and he should not allow it to he disconcerted or eml)arrassed hv the audience, or the arhitrarv rules of the professional em|)hasi/,er8. lie learns the " time and rhythm of speech just as the newshoy learns it — hy the practice of the el()(;utionary itistinct. The newhhoy who cries his paper ]>erfectly on tjie street would fail if .asked to do it on the })latform hefore an audience. The audience thro' s him just as it does the speaker. His cadences and all the cadences known to son«j^, chant, ser- mon, or speech are perfectly luitural. To be right they must he regulated hy art. The head-notes of the American speaker are just aa natural to him as the Briton^s chest-notes are to him, or the (terman's guttural is to him just as natural as the clitnate that causes them. All the whines and twangs and tones and intones and cadences to which public speakers are addicted are perfectly natural. Nature gives us the cadence of the English Church clergy, the several American pulpit cadences, the Southern inflec- tion and the New England, the pioneer Methodists' and the scholarly Presbyterians'. From the same source we obtain also the intoned services of the Catholics in their cathedrals, and the Druids in the " vast cathedral of nature," the chantings in the Jewish synagogue and heathen temple, as well as the intonations of the newsboy as he cries his paper on the street, and of the porter as lie fills the hotel with the next train's departure, and of n 'if i I 66 IIKFOUE AN AUDIENCE. tlio (lof]r wlio tliron's up liis nose iind bays at ini(lni<^']it in response to a distant Hulntation. Tiiere are places, sucli as the cathedrals, where tho Italian preachers produce their j)o\verful elTects l>y a prol()n<^ation of the vowels, and outdoors, where tho (rreek orators to this day arc obliu^ed to oi)ey the same law. AV^c Americans need not speak in the undiilatory cadences of the cathedral orators, l)ecause we do not Bpeak in cathedrals. The Italian ])reacher is so highly endowed with the elocutionary instinct (as all the Southern and Eastern races are) that he has more variety and diversity in his elocution than we have with all our advantai>;e of smaller ])lace and audience. I shall re- member the preachers I heard, in common with twenty thousand persons, in St. Peter's duriuij^ the (Ecumenical Council, so long as memory holds her seat, It seemed, indeed, as if the oratorical instinct could no farther go. The sentiment could be followed by following the gestic- ulation. The (Jreeksand Romans spoke with a strongly marked cadence. Their elocution of both the siage and tho rostrum was a kind of recitative, sometimes set to music and accompanied by instruments. The reading aloud which is still common on the higli- wavs of the East is done with an undulatory cadence, and with a swinging of the body and head as if to keep time. No wonder that, as the eunuch's elocution was very much like that which we hear 'n the pulpits of our day, Philip sl-ould liave asked the reader if he under- stood what he read. As for tlie religious aspect of this cpiestion, it deserves all the ridicule which it receives. There is only one thing more ludicrous about the sjuictimonious whine than the whiiic itself, and that is the unconscious use of it bj I THE ART or nr.IN'G NATUUAL. 67 rtv.illy (lovoiit f\n*l otliorwlso sensihle men. However, oven that Is perfeetly uatviral. It is as natural for mnn as it i.s for lii.s ^\o•^ to wliinu. N(» ariitwal niakes a sound that is ?iot natural to Jiini. The Wt;ish livwl has heen attrihuted hy some writers a' •/ to the Welsh tcniperaimrnt, and l»y a reeent one— Mi\ Owen Jones — to the r;anio oriijin from wliich our l*uritan f»»rid'athers were 8U|)j»osed to derive tlujir " nasal |)salnH>dy"— viz., " the divine spirit.'" Ihit teinjtcra- nienfs far invny from Wales ;;eoi(raj)hically, nirntally, and reliiriouslv are athlifted to a siniiiar cadence. It is nature, huma?i niiture, an\vel soutids, is a provision of nature ai^ainst a coiitiri'i-enev. Provision of li. • ^1 1 .• '• • . .• J Nature Against It IS the eloeutionarv mstmct exaetin;; the ^ r-«„t:.,,.^„^„ ])rolonecause Nature seeks her ease, ii.s water seeks its level. The monotones we hear so much, ami hear criliciseil so much, are universal hecause they are the easii?8t tones or cadences in which to make a speech in p)d)l!c, hut not for makiiiii' a remark in jvrivate. People say of their preacher : He does not whine it off in that maimer when lie converses, why shotdd he ^^i)eI» he preac^hes ? The answer is obvious. Nature, vvjio takes the delivery that conies to her (or him), whether in pidpit or drawini^- room, finds tlie staccato ciisicst ia the latter, and tlie r T 08 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE. ¥\ intone caBicf^t in the former. This intonation, or chant, lias an ally in our indolence — in an indolent, if not an inert will. It is the universal way of speaking hecause it is the easiest way of speaking, and it is the easiest way hecause it is the natural way. There is an African chant precisely like that of the (Quaker preacher. It is the chant that conies to preachers when they get upon their legs hefore their congregation, and simply want to " be natural "" and forget themselves and think only of their subject. If you would know how ninch easier you can speak in the (Quaker sing-song than even in your own, which may not be so coni])lete or arbitrary, try it. I broke niyself of an intone which grew out of the New England literary one, only to fall into another which I heard in Scotland. Sometimes a sj)eaker is discredited for imita- tion, when he is trying to extricate himself from its meshes. If you have imitation lari^c do not use it for the amusement of your friends. St)me Americans have learned (unconsciously) to drop tlujir IPs by imitating that defe(;t in the English. And let it never be for- gotten that where they drop one 11, we drop one hun- dred and one other little matters and things of the highest Miiportance in elocution, such as ed, ing, ow, etc. No American })ronounces his r or er. If you doubt this, listen when you try to say North or New York. lAit us take the beams out of Joruithan's mouth, that he may have more excuse for taking the motes out of John's. This is done by turning the will upon our mouths, a!id keei)ing it turned thitherward until the remedy is elTected. Keep the will away from the bron- chitis, but turn it with all the might upon the precipitate shrieks. Such is the depravity of the will that it is delighted to i !? THE ART OF HKINO NATURAL, 69 () bo turner*! mpon the Tneniber for its injury, but Biillonly refuses to bud^e wlioii it is desired to eil'eet a eure of the disordered part. It leaps witli alacrity to fjive a preacher the larytit^itis, or the hypoujruiidia, and will not stir when implored to prevent him from l)ein|)lieatory eh)nution of the speaker, or, for that matter, the reciter. Tiie emphasis of the Lord's Prayer depends upon \yhicli idea or feeliiiiif of it is empliatic in tlie one \vho lepeats it. The hest ])reacliers sometimes ij^et tlieir " lieads'' ont of tlie \yords of their text, empliasizinesides, pruning is perilous. Awkwardness and strength are often inseparable in man, as well as the ox. Some of the most efTectivo speakers are personally awkward. Tiieir " natural manner" would be grotescpie but for the oratory that comes with it, and is, indeed, inseparable from it. Prune them, and you destroy them. Their awkwardness would pass from their gestic- nhition to their thought or language, or both. Few of the Scotch jireachers are graceful, and few but what have force and galvanic power. Alexander Dulf held up the left half of his coat tail u'Uer his left arm, and even sometimes bit his iinger-ends in the midst of his most impressive oratorical flights. Arnot, Candlish, Afaclcod, (^lirns — none of them were up in the awful rules for the " ])alm gesture," the dancing attitudes, or the "rising inflection. " Would you spoil a dancing- master to make a preacher, or a preacher to make s dancing-master ? The learning of gesticulation, attitudes, and the like under the tuition of a professional elocutionist cannot but belittle the great art of public speaking in the est!- THE AUT OF in:i\(f NATURAL, 73 mation of the speaker. Tlie very tlionij^lit of it is en- feehlinij:, and makes liiin, or oiiijht to make him, feel ashamed of himself. It uu^ij;ht to make him feel as silly as he looks. Did you ever know a professional elocutionist or teacher of emphasis and ^(jsture, or, in a word, the tea(!her of the imitative system of elocution, to he a puhlie speaker ^ Some of them are excellent pnhlie readers, few have ever excelled as actors ; nevtirtheless, they are really of u^reat service to those who wish to play, recite, or read, hecause these arts are so larijjely concerned with a merely me(;hanical '' renderin<^" of certain })ieces of dramatic comj)osition which may he learned hy rote. A fair memory, a fair voit^e, a fair instinct for mimicry, and, if the person he a lady, a fair show in the llesh, not to speak of the artiliccs of cos- tume, and you have the ])uhlic reader with testimonials even overtopping those that hurden the circular of the rising "" Cicero of America." Wonder if Cicero called himself the Snicklefritz of Rome ? The art of heing natural in rhetoric is the result of genius with a few, with a (roldsmith, per- haps ; l)Ut it is the fruit of much cultiva- ^ Natural ' Rhetoric to be Acquired. tion in the most of us, wlujther writers or speakers. When Jacohi was congratulated upon the ease with which he wrote, he re[)lled : " You have little idea of the lahor I expend in attaining j)er- 6i)icuity." He sometimes copied live times. Uousseau wi'ote " Emile" nine times over. Schiller was as pains- taking, and even Goldsmith spent three years on the *' Deserted Village." Moore thought nothing of spend- ing one mouth on one song, and Ihirns mooned for hours hefore lie put pen to paper. Disraeli's wonderful im- promptu invective deceived the multitude, hut the iuiti- ■ I 74 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE. V ■ r Ai ated could oasi'.y detect Burke's form in DisraelPs sar- casniR, as well as his cadences in Macaulay's descriptions. Johnson said Addison was the master to study for Par- liamentary style. The orator " sliould give his days and m'glits to Addison." Edward Irving followed Barrow and Jeremy Taylor. Pitt was, perhaps, one of the most striking examples of study and painstaking in the actpiisition of vocal)uhiry and style. l*)isliop Burnet was scarcely less studious of expression. Cardinal New- man, one of tlie greatest masters of vocaijuhiry and rhythm and cadence in rhetoric, has given an account of tlie mental dis(*ipline to which he suhjected himself in order to create the natural style which has made him famous. " Because my style is easy and natural," said Kean, " they thiidv I don't study, and tallv about the sudden impulse of genius. There is no such thing. All is studied beforehand. Tlie speeches which, to my certain knowledge, sounded most impromptu were the most carefully studied beforehand. Furthermore, what is popularly known as the impulse of genius is the result of long training in vocabulary, in improvisation, and in handliui; audiences." The late Thomas Buckle, we are told, studied stvle for " force and clearness," and as he certainly How Buckle attained these two (lualities, it is useful to Acquired Force , , , .. \ *i • i «. • i • and Clearness ^"^^^ ^^1^^ ^^ "'^^ w^^ their rhetoric by in- spiration to know by what method he made the attainment. AVliile studying style practically for his own future use, he had been in the habit of taking a subject, wheth(!r argument or narrative, from some author — Burke, for instance — and to write himself, fol- lowing, of course, the same line of thongiit, and then comparing his passage with the original, analyzing the TIIR ART OF nniNO NATUUAL. 75 different treatment, so as to make it .vident to liiinsell where and Iiow he liad failed to express the meaiiin«^ witli tlie same vii^or, or terseness, or simplicity. Force and clearness were his principal aim. Force and clearness are very suitable qnalitications for tlie public speaker, and he m;iy copy ^[r. Uiickle's method of securinj; it with advantai^e. He will never attain ]^)nckle\s " vis^or, terseness, or simplicity" witliont cultivatinij; lluckle's rhetorical ear for vigor, terseness, and simplicity. The art of heinij^ natural in the rhetoric or delivery of public speakinu^ is accpiired, not by the rules of the hooks, but by an exercise of the will, the rhetorical judgmcTit, and the rhetorical taste ; by knowinijc what you are about, by making the most of yourself, by a study of rhetoric, and the practice of it. Landseer says when a color does not suit him, lio scrapes it off and tries another. So does the artist with his colors in rhetoric. Sometimes this method, this exercise of the will, is slow in bearing fruit. Success comes slowly, and despair may come instead of success, because the Ambition is greater than the voice, or the "^^'^ Method . ^ , . may be Slow in oratorical temperament, or tlie sense or Bearine Fruit rhetoric, or the ear for elocution, or, per- hai)S, if the wretched hero had only held out a little longer his ambition would have been gratified. Sir James CTraham exclaimed after repeated failures : '' I have tried it every way — extempore, committing to memory, speaking from notes— and I cannot do it I don't know whv it is, but 1 am afraid I shall never sue ceed." But he did succeed. \\^ sheer perseverance ii. the use of his will he overcame his lack of (pialirtcation for public speaking, and became a speaker of great 76 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE. 1 repute in tlie House of Commons. Lacordaire, French- man tlioufj^h he was, was so deficient in the P'renchuiairs adaptation to the rostrum that lie failed utterly in several attempts, and everybody said : ''lie is a man of talent, but he will never be a preacher." Two years after he was entrancinn; thousands in the Notre Dame Cathedral, and was com])ared with Massillon and Bossuet. It was a triumph, not of elocution lessons, or practice in jj^estic- ulation and emphasis, but of the will, and the judgment, and self-reliance. VI. THE DRAMATIC ELEMENT IN PUBLIC SPEAKING. It is .a mischievous assiiinption of the oh>fiitionist8 tliat the art of the actor and the art of the speaker are one and the same art, and are to he tau«i^lit in tlie same way, and jj^overned hy the same fixi 1 rules, l^reacliers ■will join in the odious conifarison designed to exalt the seriousness and earnestness, not to say reverence and piety, of the dramatic profession at the expense of their own. Anecdotes are artfully contrived to set oil the extraordinary fidelity of the actor and the reprehensihle unfaithfulness of the preacher, and are served up with much u;usto hy the ])reacher ! One of them runs thus : Preach(?r to actor : '' TIow is it that you who deal in fiction have more effect ipon , * acious 1 ,, Anecdote an audience tiian we who deal in truth i Made to Order Actor to preacher : " l-)ecause we speak fiction as if it were truth, and you speak truth as if it were fiction." Antithetical sparkle and transparent twareju;her wlio ^ovh hat in liand to an a(!tor to het; an anecdote desi^^ned to ele- vate tlie actor's art at tlie expeiiHe of liis own. I will ask you a 8tu|)ilang(>r of his life, and with what energetic; pathos of diction and countenance vou would enforce the ohservanc o of what vou reallv thoui^ht would he for his preservation. You would be yourself, and the interesting nature of the sub- ject impressing your heart would furnish you with the most natural tone of voice, the most proper language, the most engaging features, and the most suitable and graceful gestures. What you would be in the drawing- room be in the pulpit, and you will not fail to please, to alTeet, and to profit." Now, do you know exactly how you would feel and speak in a drawing-room concerning a friend who was in imminent danger of his l;ie ? Dickens's description of "VS'hat w.is felt and said and done at the inn, where and when little Xell was in imminent danger of her life, is no caricature. The fact is, that under the ci»*cu instances imagined you are about as likely to do the wrong thing as the right thing, or you might d(> the right thing in the wrung way, and in the midst of your " energetic ])athos" tumble over the j)iano-stool, and break your own neck, if not that of your friend as well. It is perfectly natural for some people to lose their heads just when their heads are most needed. The " interesting nature" of the fact that a friend had fallen headlong in a lit, mii^ht furnish vou with the most natural tone of voice in the way of a shriek, and the most naturally absurd 80 ni:FO'.tE AN ArniENcR. ■i i m hi'havior. Vdii iv.itjlit vory iiatnrallv, coiisidorini? jour ahsorhifii; inttMvst in yonr friciurs peril, hand your friiMid the inkstand iuHtead of the hartsliorn-vial to BUiell. When the hahe swaUowcd the niarhU;, the fatlier RWooncul away, l)ut tlic mother u])-ended tlie infant, Bqueezefl tlie marlde out of liini, and then rest(H*ed lier '' natural ])r()teetor'" hy the '' most Kuital)le and ^ra(reful pestures,'*' Buch as pulling his nose and l)oxini!; liis e:»rs. It is so dinicult to tell exactly what wc would do if a friend should tumhle down at the l)arty, tliat it (h)e8 not lielp us mueh to he in.-tructed to do the f-ame when wo <]iseourse fnun the pulpit. Many a persoii who thouirht lio would know exactly what to do if he should see another person drowniufi^ was, when the exi^jjeney came, as successfully usel'jss as any oi the rest of the sj)ectator8, who excelled in nothiii!»; hut the " cnerj^etic pathos of diction and countennnce." 1 speak from experience. I saw ahout live hundred pooi>le spin round on thc.r axis on'".' M'hile a man was in imminent dai'^er of his life from (lrownin<^, and I spun round with the same " natural tone of voice" and the same " energetic pathos of diction and countenaiu'e." I viuiture to 'r-:\y that if (larrick's inst actions had hee!i followed hy hi- prenchcr, (rarrick would have heen the iirst to leave the Ihmisc in disgust. lie wouM ask : " What is the matter with the parson { is he mad ^'' And I would reply : " No, those arc the engaging feat- ures and gracid'ul gestures and natural tones of voice which he useil in the drawing-room while fet(diing the hartshorn for a friend who had fainted from a lack of venlilation, and was conseipiently in innninent ame jiersoi's should sit so utterly unmovcMl at discourses from the jtulpit, upon subjects of the utmost importance to them, relative not only to their temporal, l)Ut also their eternal interests f The actor to the i»ish<>p : '' My lonl, it is because we are in earnest." What are we to think of the sidf- res])ect of a bishop who makes fo humiliating a confes- sion to an actor, and gives the actor so (^xctdK tit an opportunity to make that liumili^tion woiv. ( My lord, it is becawno >\ e actors are in earnest and you j)reachers are fo(tling 1 Was the bi.-^l.op warranted in judging all '' disconist'H from the ])\ilpit" by his own 'i Would Whitefield or f-acordaire be likely to put such a ([Uestioi\ to Jietterton i Was n«»t ^Jarrick far nior(! likely to \mi tlie question reversed to Whitefield { Hesietter Ts^athan's method without tears thiin JJetterton's with. The actor does not j)rofess to save men from sin, or women from men. " r»ecause we are In earnest.'' What are vou in ear- nest about i The rej)resentation of *' fei<:;ned stories" to " excite all sorts of passions," and move the nervous system to tears. This is theatrical earnestness, and is, as I liave already insisted, an example to the preacher in 80 far as it mean.4 physical earnestness ami self-reliance, in so far as it is comj)ellinut not theatrically or liistrionicaJly in earnest. President Finney, one of the best reasoners the j)nl[)it of this conntry has ever known, spoke uniforndy in a eonver- eational style, but he was in earnest, ()})}>ressively so Bometimes. Never was there a more self-reliant speaker, or one that had a more complete control of himself, or who knew better what he and his andience were alM)nt. His elocution was in ke<^pinn i Is it 8win_ij;ini^ of the arms, attitude, «j;esticu- llidition, and the like i What especitdly is the (ireek word he uses i After search I at last discovered that it . as U'jiKX'krisis, play-actini(, hypocrisy, ])ersuadin,!j: evc^rybody that you are speaking from the heart. In which opinion I thoro-w/hly a^^reed with Demosthenes, so far as Den.os- thenes wtsnit. But at once there rose within me this second nnu'li nK>i'e imp'/rtant (piestion : Why in the name c»f all the ^ods, when « jrretcheerpetrated, the more nearly he followed tlie stunij> oratory of the author ()f " Fiii-htlni:; Ni;ii;;ara.'" r>ut 1 never think of thee with- out admiration anstituted the Latin translation for it, and call it action. Demos- thenes said and meant actin<^ — actiuijf — actinir. Ho meant precisely vliat we woidd mean if we should say : The thrcf requisites for pul)lieople were Historical dependent exclusively uj)on the drama for Examples of , , , , , ,' 1 1 • ,. » the Drcunatic their knowledge ot tiio history ot the Element Christian religion. " Cloister and church were the lirst theatres, priests the first actors ; the tir^t dramatic nuitter was the Passion, and the ilivt drama the mysteries of the church." The natural manner of Int.ssuet and Ilourdaloue was impressive in the highest degree, while that of Massillon wan quiet and uniform, but Ins j)athos was dramatic. 86 HEFORE AX Al'DIKNOR, i\ !ii On tlio in.'ir<^in of a Boruion (lolivcnMl nt Hru^os in 1500, the preaclior reniiiuls liimsclf tliut liere Iio i^ to " Kliriek liko tli(> devil," and of Fatlu^r Hrmon^, a lon<^ wliiU; after, it was Buid : '' llo divstnictri tiio car, but he rendd thelieart." Savonarohi literally fuUilled the popular rerodue«' a j)aro.\y^ni of reli«^- ious fanaticism, which was Rucceeded hv a return of the old levitv at:d vice. The fact that l)ante's works were in the ])fle of immoral literature that was hurned before him proves how utterly untrustworthy are the elTects produced !»y earnestness in the ]>oj)ular sen«e of that word. The gamblers at Nurembei'^ burninic I heir dice in the streets under tjie spell (d' dramatic earnestm.'ss exercised by the Franciscan nnssionaries is another e.\aiej)le. Others miL;;ht be noted us the re^^ult of the preachinji; of liernardine and of Friar Kichard of Faris. It is worthy ulpit was what is popularly uiulerstohysical earnestness, and had no more ]n;rmrt- nent elfect upon the vices of society than the undemon- strative sermoiis of the j)recedin^ a^e. lvin<^b and their mistresses listene(l with enl|)it. Lord A dinger Hays of Iiiiu : " To his })arts as an orator lie adse who have trodden the stage in sock and buskin." 00 llKFOUli AX AfDIKNCE. But lio would liavo found the Ro(rk and bilskin very hinderin<^ gesture (»n the Htajjje a ^M-ave offence. A hlunderin^ gesture on tlie platform is sometimes inseparahle from the most effective speakin/jj. Ts'o, with ail his use of the histrionic element White- field was exclusively a public spL-aker, and is Wc^rthy of study with s[)ecial reference to that point. He was self- reliant for his mesmeric and dramatic |)ower just as the act(>r is, however. He made use of his will, he made the most of himself as an animal galvanic battery on two le«(s. It is a comnu)n opiinor. that the dramatic element is more popular with an Oriental or Southern race than it is with ours. I douht it. Running after Whitetield and his school, even after some very poor specimens of the school, disproves it. It is more a nuittel* of fashion than of race or clime. Civilization casts off in one ago what it takes on in another, whether it is inebriety in soci{;ty or the dramatic element in oratory. Afiother Father Honore m;iy put on a nuigistrate's cap and hold up the skull of a magistrate in the pulj>it any Sunday, and exclaim with as much appropriateness as he of old : " Hast thou never sold justice f Fashions, like tem- perature ami diseases, go in waves. Public taste has its ebbs and flows. Witness the ebb and tlow of the gown. The restoration of the gown by the descendants of the Puritans, and the partiality of the young Quakers for the vestments of the " ancient The Gown as an Accessory. order," are signs of life in the dramatic element. The gown, whether on the bench or ut the bar. THK DHAMATtr KLK.MKST IN VVWLtr RI'KAKIXO. 01 wlicther in tlio ))ulpit or in tijo univcrpity Icr'ture-rootn, is an anxiliary of ru niueli importance tiiat it is wurc to survive tlie ignorance and fanaticism tliat layn it aside. Costume, aft Well as clouds, is ci>ntro]ied hy law. 'i\> any that are influenced l)y the al)sard idea that the p»wn means any ftjrm of relia' , , ■ . , Element the only nor the most important element. vVears Best The collocpiial is more imj)ortant, more in use, more to be depended upon in the long run. The dramatic element, liowever, is indispensable to some, useful to all. It may come of genius, but it may be cultivated— and should he.. It can l)e cultivated by the cultivation of the elocutionary instinct, the rhetorical instinct, the dramatic instinct, by the training of the ear for rhetoric and the eye for rhetorical and dramatic effects. Imitation lielps, and observation i)lay8 its part, but if the art of the actors and the art of the speakers IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) M/. W ^< :/ Z. 1.0 I.I 1.25 2.5 2.0 1= U IIIIII.6 V] 7. c>^ 0% -,. 23 V; ivT MA"N STREET WEl'iTER.N.Y. )'S80 (716) 872-4503 4is ^ 92 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE. £^> are confounded, and yon undertake to acquire one by acquiring tlie other, you will acquire neither. The actor " renders" the Lord's Prayer, the preacher prays it. The former may use the emphasis of his teacher, the latter must use his own. Garrick and Whitefield would both fail if they changed places. There is one objection to this professional elocutionary style, whether in reading or speaking, which is little spoken of or thought of, and that is this : it is wearying. A little of it now and then is pleasing, but it does not require much of it to pall upon the taste, like candy and ice-cream. It may do as occasional confectionery, but does not answer for a perpetual diet. Public speaking is perpetual diet. The play-goers will tolerate only so much of the " legitimate drama," and the church-goers would stay at home even more than they do if the preachers should all and always be dramatic and em- phatic and theatric. Where they are blunderers at it they amuse, where they are excellent at it they weary. Even Whitefield and pAskine, with all their skill, would weary out the audience if it were always the same audi- ence. It is the colloquial element that wears best, whether on the platform, in the pulpit, at the bar, or on the floor of a deliberative body. To repeat, so as to prevent misconception or confu- sion : First, the self-excitation or physical earnestness of the actor is just as desirable and valuable to the speaker as it is to the actor ; second, the dramatic manner, which is inseparable from the drama, is a very useful auxiliary to public speaking ; but, third, when and by whom this dramatic manner is to be used is to be left to the judg- ment of the speaker ; and, fourth, that judgment may be trained to an indefinite extent. ■VII. THE RIlETOrJC Foil P'JBLIC SPEAKIXG. EiiETOKio was at first composed and arraiiired for public speaking. That, indeed, is wliat the word means, and even so recent an autliority as Webster gives as one of its definitions "the science of oratory." Phito, to quote him again, calls it " the art of rnliiig the minds of men. " The modern speaker was tlie ancient rhetorician. The essay is a recent form of composition. The rhetoric for public speaking comprises all the forms into which language can be th^-own— narrative, didactic, poetical, dramatic. The rhetoric of the higher forms of oratory has a rhythm and cadence of its own. It is an oratorical undulation that comes in well The Rhetoric w^ith the oratorical temperament. The °^ Public best speeches are only speeches, as the best ^^cl'dlfnc^e^^ essays are only essays. An essay may be of its own. declaimed, but public speaking could not long endure exclusively in the form of the essay or tlu narrative. Sheridan was offered a thousand pouiuls for a corrected copy of his great Begum speech, but had the wisdom to refuse, although Byron pronounced it the best oration ever delivered in England, and it received similar en- comiums from Wilberforce, Fox, Burke, and Pitt. How many practised speakers would have been as wise ! How many would know, and act upon the knowledge, th*»; 94 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE. the very extravagance of tlie approval was evidence that the speech was only a speech, and that its effects which drew the admiration came and went with the speech ! "When the " pnblic request" comes for the sermon to be printed, tell it to call again in six months and you will be ready for it, and you will never be troubled with it again. When the exhilaration produced by the sermon passes off the request for it at ten cents a copy subsides. Few sermons endure the types. "VYhitefield's are unen- durable. On the other hand, oratorical rhetoric of the highest order is imperishable, even in the case of such an orator as Burke, where the author of it failed in the delivery of it. The " dinner-bell " will always call to a glorious repast of what has been well called " Poetry and Phi- losophy in Oratoric Form." Macaulay gave us history, biography, and criticism in oratoric form, although he, too, failed in speaking the speech that came to him in oratoric form. Bolingbroke's orations, however, were both well composed and well delivered. They were prolonged flights of imaginative and impassioned diction, and their elocution was in keeping with it. Gladstone's diction, too, is oratorical, which, as Ma- caulay says, " set off by the graces of utterance and ges- ture, vibrate on the ear." He is the public speaker in person, as well as in rhetoric. Fox's fist was in his dic- tion as well as his gesture, and rightly so. Ho said *' it was necessary to hammer it into them." And it was, for him. With his fist and his repetitions he was far more effective than he could have been in the harness of Bolingbroke or Chesterfield. He failed in elaborate and painstaking preparation. Fronde's style and tem- perament are oratorical, and his rhetoric owes its fasci- nation to that fact, Lecky to the contrary notwithstand- TFE RHETOUIC FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. 95 ing, who condemns it because it " quivers with passion" and is '' as fierce as that of the most fierv debater in Par- liament." But tliere is no objection to it, secinu:: that it is the rhetoric of the most fiery debater out of Parlia- ment, whicli he has a perfect right to be. Let tlie prophet speak as he is inspired to speak, and give us the words as they are given to him. When Canning passed away a magazine writer ex- chiimed : " There died the hist of the rlietoricians !" Put since his death there have arisen a galaxy of rhetori- cians that have done more to make the English language effective with a popular assembly and the great mass of all people than any of their predecessors. Science never had such a hearing, never, in fact, had any hearing worth speaking of in " oratorio form- ' before it found utterance in the rhetoric of Darwin, Tyndale, and Huxley. The diction of public speaking is the vehicle by which religion, philosophy, politics, and science reach mankind. Go ye into all the world and teach it, or rouse it, is a command impossible of obedience without the one supreme art of all arts — '* the art of ruling the minds of men" by public speaking. It is the highest of the arts, and it will be the last to perish from the earth. John Bright betrays a fastidiousness of rhetorical taste by not only the rarity of his addressee, but by the in- ternal evidence of painstaking in their preparation. Daniel Webster shov/ed the same consciousness an^l oratorical pains. It is curious to compare the report of his speech in reply to Ilayne as it is declaimed in college and the original report, which has recently been made public. The euphonious peroration so familiar to us all can be seen here in the rough as it was delivered in the Senate. " When my eyes shall be turned for the last time on 96 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE. !l^ the meridian sun, I hope 1 may see him shining bright upon my united, free, and hap{)y country. I liope I shall not live to see his beams falling upon the dispersed fragments of the structure of this once-glorious Union. I hope I may not see the fliig of my country with its stars separated or obliterated ; torn by commotions ; smoking with the blood of civil war. 1 hope I may not see the standard raised of separate States' rights, star against star and stripe against stripe ; but that the flag of the Union may keep its stars and stripes corded and bound together in indissoluble ties. 1 hope I shall not see written as its motto, first liberty and then Union. I hope I shall see no such delusive and deluded motto on the flag of that country. I hope to see spread all over it, blazoned in letters of light and proudly floating over land and sea that other sentiment, dear to my heart, ' Union and liberty, now and forever, one and inseparable.' " A speech or sermon or plea is like a large picture painted to be seen at a distance ; it will not bear and is not expected to endure microscopic criticism. It is to be heard in the mass and from afar. What would be considered blemishes upon close inspection are indispen- sable qualities when heard, as they are designed to be heard, at the right distance. Hhetoric is not a science to be learned by committing to memory a lot of minute rules ; it is an art, and excel- lence in it is to be attained by the training Training of ^£ ^.j^^ rhetorical instinct — the rhetorical the Rhetorical . , , ,, i? i . • .i Instinct judgment, the sense ot rhetoric, the ear for rhythm and euphony and idiom. This is what needs stimulation and cultivation while the student is passing through his course of preparation for a public life which will depend for its success upon writing or public speaking. lie is not to be handed a THE RHETORIC FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. 07 book and required to hnrden his memory with several pages of its rules ; he should he handed a pen and re- quired to create several ]>aragraph8 with the hest rhetor- ical judgment he can bring into exercise, or he should bo required to get on his legs and put into a speech the best langHage his ear for rhetorical propriety suggests. Teacher and pupil work together on the pupils' rhetor- ical instinct. " Practice niaker> perfect," but perfection, or even progress, will come very slowly if the practice docs not take hold of this sense of rhetoric or faculty for rhetoric. From the very start the ear, or sense, or faculty should be kept in lively operation. Every essay, speech, or sermon should l)e held rigidly accountable to this court of final appeal, from whose decisions there is no appeal. The question should be not so much, Why is this right ? but, Is it right ? The pupil must see and feel that it is right, instead of acquiescing mechanically in the opinion of the teacher or the law of the book upon the subject. The art of rhetoric is something drawn out from within, not something laid on from with- out. A science asks the reason why a thing is right ; an art asks only : Is it right ? In mathematics 3'ou can tell wherein you are right and wherein you are wrong. In rhetoric (as in painting) you cannot always and need not ever know why you are wrong or right, or partly wrong and partly right. You could Tiot get on in geometry if you should depend exclusively upon your mathematical instinct ; on the contrary, the reason why pupils in the English language do not get on faster and farther is because they do not depend u[)on their rhetori- cal instinct, but content themselves with connnitting to memory a tangled jungle of " rules and exceptions," and then adding to them a mass of rhetorical " principles'* and sub-principles. - 'ill 98 BEFOllE AN AUDIENCE. I ii II i' 11 Ii When Ilaydn waa criticised for modulations as con- trary to tl»e principles of music, he replied : '' I have put that passage there because it does well." Said the critic : '' It ir contrary to the rules." Ilaydn rejoined : ** But it is the pleasantest." Haydn's musical instinct was better than his critic's musical rules. It was an educated instinct and judgment, however. " The men who cannot paint," said William Hunt, ** are ready with admirable reasons for everything they hav^e done ;" but when he was asked his reason for putting on a certain color, he replied : " I don't know ; I am just aiming at it." The artist in the colors of rhetoric does not paint according to rule, he aims. From the most rudimentary elements of c^rammar to the highest attainments in rhetoric the only rational and effective way to learn how to use language is to use it and use it, and continue to use it with the best rhetorical judgment you have in your possession. As the child does not need to know why his sentence is ungrammatical, but simply needs to know and re- member that it is ungrammatical, so the most accom- plished rhetorician in the world needs nothing more to guide him than his educated sense of rhetorical propriety. The rules of rhetoric for the college student and the rule of grammar for the academy pupil are equally super- fluous and embarrassing. As, for example : Rule of grammar for the academy pupil : "If the subject of a sentence consists of two nouns or pronouns united by the conjunction ' and,' the verb must be put in the plural. As : John and James are in the field." In the first place, how many boys and girls on the primary benches of the common school would say ; " John and James is in the field" ? la the second We Learn hov7 to Use Language by Using it. THE RIIETOUIC FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. 99 place, if one of them should say it, would it not be far more effective for the teaciher or parent to " put the verb in the plural" for him then and there and thence- forth, than to require him to commit the rule to memory, leaving his practice of it to take care of itself ? which is uniforndy and universally done. The teacher crams the pupil with rules, and joins <-he pupil in disobeying them. This is easily explained. It is an easy problem in mental philosophy. Your habitual absorption in minute and elaborate rules renders yon indifferent to their appli- cation. It is very doubtful whether teaching a thing is calculated to make us any the more disposed to practise it. Indeed, I should prefer to maintain the converse of the proposition. Perpetually dwelling on how or why a thing should be done may not only distract the attention from the doing of it, but may even disqualify us for doing it- Rule of rhetoric for the college student : " The chief form of the synecdoche consists in naming a thing by some part of it, as : Fifty sail — they sought his blood." In the first place, the phraseology of this rule or prin- ciple, like that of many another of its kind, is too abstruse to be intelligible without an example. This suggests, in the second place, the query whether the example would not be more effective without the rule than with it. It certainly would. In the third place, then, if the example does not commend itself without the principle, it will not because of the principle. In other words, all the pupil needs is the example. All he needs to know is that there is such a form of expres- sion, aud that he is free to appropriate or repudiate it as his rhetorical judgment shall dictate. Example acting upon the rhetorical instinct, the rhetorical instinct assimi- lating the example. The best book of examples for a I i. $ 100 BRFOIIK AN AUDIENCE. 1 1 :, i; Btiidont in rhetoric is a book written bv a good rbctori- cian. Tlierc ih no better training for tlio rhetorical car than the perpetual coinpaiiionship of lirst-rate writerfi-- not only correct or elegant writers, l)ut contagions ones. Even the best of writers may be divided into contagious and non-contagious. Is it likely that Mr. Fronde or " George Eliot" would defend their use of the phrase, " they The Infant's sought his blood," on the ground that Way the u ^j^^^ chief form of the synecdoche con- Best Way of . ^ . . .11 ^ r Learninjr ^'* ** ^^^ nammg a thnig by some pjut of Rhetoric. it " ? Is it likely that they ever commit- ted to memory any such rule, or if they did, is it likely they are indebted to it or any such for their proficiency in the use of the rhetorical judgment 'i Suppose your attention should be called to your saying " was" when you should say '* were" (a common error). Would you look up your grannnar and commit to memory this rule : " When in a conditional clause it is intended to express doubt or denial, use the subjunctive mood " ? Or, would you begin at once to substitute the right word for the wrong one ? It is only a degree more absurd to cram the infant at five years of age with the whys and wherefores of the corr«,\:;tion8 you urge upon his attention, than to bore the child at twelve years of age with the reason why the verb should be " put in the plural " or to burden the memory of the youth of nineteen years of age with awful principles about synecdoche or autonomasia. The infant gradually corrects his syntax by following his rhetorical instinct under example and tuition. The child and the man should be kept to the same method. The ear for rhythm and idiom should be cultivated by practice under example, guidance, stinmlation, and dis- THE UHETOKIC FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING. 101 ciplino, wlietlier tlic pupil be five, ten, or twenty years of age. The iiifnnt's use of lanij^unge and sense of rlietorical propriety will be inllueneed by liis examples and instruc- tions. He will go up to tlie iTwuraey and elegance, or Jie will stay down with tbe rudeness and vulgarity by wbieh lie is surrounded. Just as bis rlietorical instinct is bent, bis rlietorical culture will be in<;lined. His method of advancement will be ]>roeisely tbe same after be lias left tbe companions of bis infaticy as it was before. His attainments will depend upon, not tbe number of rules and exceptions be has stored in bis bead, but upon tbe amount and kind of cultivation bis rlietorical instinct lias received Just as tbe infant learns bis motlier tongue up to tbe time be is considered of proper age to be coacbed witb " rules and exceptions," just so sliould be continue to learn bis native language to tbe end of bis days, wbetber be confines liimself to the use of that language in con- versation, or employs it in newspaper, book, speech, or sermon. And if be sbould try to make a living by making sentences, my word for it, be will find himself always lenrning and never able to compass the knowledge of bis motber tongue, if bis mother tongue is that of Cbaucer and Goldsmitb, Carlyle and Dickens, Fox and Jolin Henry Newman. A few of us, a very few of us, bave this rlietorical instinct largely developed to begin witb. Witb sucb it is an endowment of nature as rare as it is wonderful and valuable. Tbe rest of us, tbe great majority of us, bave tbis sense or faculty small to begin witb, and are tbere- fore dependent upon its stimulation and education. Besides, tbese grammatical rules and rlietorical prin- ciples are cbanging •, and usage lias come to Jiave as 102 BKFORR AN AUDIENCE. I ninch authority as granmiar or lexicon. AVc arc told that tho ai)ovo-(|Uoteil riilo ahoiit tlie suhjunctive mood is (loomed, and 1 can furnish plenty of the best usa^c for the substitution of " was" for " were," " most" for *' more," and for such words and phrases as " won't " *' don't," " no one else's," and " never read anything else but their Ijible," etc. The i)erennial controversy over " the Queen's Enp;- lish" and " the Dean's Entj^lisli," and Mr. Washington Moon's English, and Mr. Grant White's English, and everybody's else English, indicates the chaotic state of things that has overtaken our unattainable mother tongue. When you reflect upon the quarrel over the question ■whether we shall patronize tho Latin or Saxon words of our language, and the quarrel over the question, Ilow shall we spell these words after we have selected them ; and the quarrel over the question, Ilow shall we pro- nounce them after we get them spelled ; and the quarrel over the question, How shall wo arrange them in sen- tences after we get them selected, spelled, and pro- nounced ; and the quarrel over the question whether our essayists are to pattern after Carlyle or Addison ; or our poets after Tennyson or Browning ; o our orators after Castelar or Wendell Phillips ; or our preachers after Robertson or Whitefield — I say, when you take all these quarrels into consideration, I am sure you will thank us sensible fellows among your educators for knocking the chains of Lindley Murray and Whately from your minds, and telling you to go forth free to indulge or to dis- cipline, to neglect or to cultivate your rhetorical instinct as you shall see fit, we never ceasing to admonish you, however, that whatsover you sow in the way of rhetori- cal judgment, that shall you reap in the way of rhetori* cal acquisition. TIIK UIIKTOIIIC FOU I'LHLIC SPEAKING. 103 1 The Audience is not to be the only Judge of the Speaker's Rhetoric. In tliia rhetorical traininuj yo\i are to liavo an eye upon the rl)etorieal (lelieieiuti<>8 of jour audieiii-e, hut you are not to allow your audience to dictate your rhetoric. Tiie late Dr. Guthrie Rays he "drew his pen tlirou^h every passage, even those he thought hest, which it rerpiired an ex- traordinary ciTort to commit to memory, reasoning thus : If it does not make such an imjiression on my mind as to he rememhered without much ditliculty, how is it to impress others ?" This reasoning is against, not so much the passage, as the memoriter method of utilizing it. Its acceptance is made to tiini upon (I) its adaptation to heing committed to niemoi'v, (2) the im- pression it made n])on the mind as well n:j memory of its author, and (3) his judging of it iitness from his memorv lo that of the audience. The same admirable public speaker tells us that he '' catechised a class of young persons on liis sermon" with this result : He " got a good account of introduc- tion and first head, meagre one of the second head ; the third was an utter blank ; while the peroration, when it was thought attention M-as blunted and ])atience ex- hausted, appeared to have impressed itself on their minds like a seal on wax." So he endeavored to (1) avoid the faults of the ill-remembered parts, and (2) to cultivate the style of those passages which had engaged the atten- tion and touched the feelings of his hearers. Is not the peroration designed to " sharj^en blunted attention and revive exhausted patience" ? But does that prove that the perorative " style" should be culti- vated exclusively, or that the heads not remembered by one class of hearers should be cut off, or that heads which none remember should be avoided ? Some lost '0 ' TT 104 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE. 1 ! I r f :: the introduction and three lieadfi, and remembered onlv the conchiding portion. Therefore let ns have nothing but tlie conchiding portion. But may not tlieir recol- lection of the concluding portion have been dependent upon the portion that preceded it ? Some parts are re- membered by certain persons, tiierefore let us have none but those parts for all ! That reduces the duty of the audience to an exercise like that of a class in the recita- tion-room — an exercise of memory. Some parts do not touch the feelings, tiierefore let us have no parts but those which do touch the feelings. Has the public speaker, or even the preacher, nothing to do but touch the feelings ? Archbishop Tillotson, we are told by our setters of the preachers to rights, was in the habit of "rehearsing his sermons to an illiterate old wonum of plain sense, and of bringing down his rhetoric to her level." Archbishop Tillotson was not quite right, even if his congregation wasnuide up exclusively of illiterate old women, for it is the business of an archbishop and the bishops and other clergy to level up the illiterate old women, and not allow themselves to be levelled down by illiterate old women, and become learned old women, as, indeed, they are if they are forever being brought down l)y their audience instead of bringing up their audience to their level. Ih'shop Latimer, too, boasted that he " repeated him- self to annoy the learned in his congregation, and that he sought more the prolit of those which be ignorant than to please the learned men." But are not learned men worth ])leasing and converting ? Does not fishing for men include angling for learned men ? Martin Luther falls into thu same fallacy. " When I preach," he says, "1 sink myself deeply down; I regard neither doctors nor masters, of whom there THE RHETORIC FOR PURLIC SPEAKING. 106 are in the chnrcli above forty ; but I liavc an eye to the multitude of younii; people, children, and ser- vants, of whom there are more than two thousand.'' If the servants and children make the most of the audience, they should have the special attention of the speaker ; hut why not regard the forty doctors and masters present ? Does the great commission enjoin dis- regard of doctors, especially when so many doctors of divinity need it as a remedy for themselves as well as for their heanns ? Cardinal Wiseman, on the other hand, was true to his name in giving to his hearers each his portion in due season, and with due seasoning. " Naturally llorid and ornate, he could come down from his sweeping fliglits to trudging matter-of-fact in the presence of an audience that will tolerate nothing else." But whether the speaker is compelled to come down by the audience, as Dr. Wiseman was, or siid:n birth. Etymology is of no more use to the public speaker than entomology. In fact, it is as embarrassing to be paddling among the roots of your words as it is to be peering into a diagram to learn the uses of your diaphragni. Etymology is just as useless to the speaker as philology. The clamor for Saxon words is no more rational than would be the demand that all words should boused with their lirst signitication, Ciiristian, for example, and snob and radical and libel and oflicious. It is of far more importance that you should speak correctly the words that now constitute the English lan- guage, whatever be their origin or etymology, than that you should show partiality for Saxon or Latin words. In fact, it is of no consequence where the words pretty, ill ! H :| si-,; hi i-i 110 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE. across, window, method, here, getting, coming, and for, originated, but it is very important that you sliouhl not Bay pooty, acrost, winder, methid, yere, gettin', coniin', and fur. Do not feel under obligation to read Homer because Bossuct and Curran did and Ghidstone does, or Milton because Pitt did and John Briglit does, or Dante bet^auso Robert Hall and Brougham did, or Burke because Ma- caulay did, or Demosthenes l)ecau80 Jiurke did, or Euripides because Fox did, or Barrow because Chatham did, or Chrysostom because Barrow did. Such an affec- tation is not only ridiculous, but hindering. You may be throwing away your time as some of these great speakers may have done, for it docs not follow that their speaking was as much affected by their reading as they supposed. Because a man is fond of reading Homer or Milton does not prove that they influence his rhetoric. In fact, an aifectation of a partiality for Milton, and of indifftirence for Goldsmith, is not unknown among men of some renown. However, be this as it may, and be your rhetorical likings what they may, keep company with good English, the best modern English, the best modern oratorical English. You are living in an age glorious for good English. Keep your eye upon its form, your oar upon its rhythm and cadence ; keep your sense of rhetoric sensitive to its cpiips and sentences atid bullets of the brain. Think in good English, talk with as copious and varied a vocabulary as you can command, keep the door of your lips as sternly against the vulgar and ill-considered word as }ou do or should do against the intoxicating liquor or the indigestible food. Somebody, or a hearer of sermons who evidently thinks he is somebody in the matter of criticising preach era, says in the columns of the ^pecMf^rr : THE llIIETOniC Foil TUBLIC SPEAKING. Ill ipuny best !i ngc jiiinst )ntly ?acb " A few Sundays ago I "was coming oat of a clinrch, wlierc I liad lieard a distinguislicd ec- cleBlastic of the day, and overtook an ac- Be Thankful for qnaintance who liad been similarly occu- ^ ,^^ " ^^^ \ 1 J- 11 r. ^ I ) "^^ Sentences pied. A wonderinlly nne sermon ! ^j^j^ ^ Good remarked my friend. ' AVell,' I ven- Ring, tured to reply, * individual sentences had a good riruj I but 1 confess when he arrived at the end, I had not the least idea what the whole sermon was about.' 'Oh, yes!' replied my friend, ^ I did notice that.'* Now, sir, in the name of all that's won- derful, what meaning did he attach to the word ' line,' and what had been the real cause of his enthusiasm V The distinguished ecclesiastic might retort that he had not the least idea what the whole criticism was about, and he doubted if his critic had. Was not his acquaint- ance as well warranted in calling the sermon a line one by reason of its individual sentences with their good ring, as he was in sneering at it for want of what I pre- sume ho has in mind, that everlasting " unity of dis- course," and the like, which the books on Sacred Syntax and Holy Ilermcneutics insist upon ? IJc would have thought and logic and unity for lifty-two Sundays of the year, and two of such sermons every Sunday, for he goes on to complain that the church-goer " does not like to be called upon to think" (in church), but prefers " a warm, equable trickle of religious prose-poetry, which he finds partly a stimulant and partly a sedative." This setter of the preachers to rights would have a sermon all Btimuhuit, every sentence with a good ring, and the whole 'i repast equal to the requirements of his intellect- ual digestion. But suppose his was the only such diges- tive apparatus in the audience of the distinguished ecclesiastic. Should the rest of the sheep be starved 112 IIEPOIIR AN AUDIRNCE. 1 i ■ ii f 1- t :.. If^ that this hiVli-toncd rain may be stuffed ? For iny part, I suspect that there were quite enough of ringing, fine Bentences in that sermon to justify its designation as a " M'onder fully fine sermon," and that it was not alto- gether the fault of the sermon that its critic " had not the least idea of what the whole sermon was about." When he does not see the point, is it necessarily the fault of the point ? Is it indispensable to the success of the sermon that the hearer should know what the whole of it is about ? May it not be enough for him to know and feel and realize what a part of it is about — a ringing, stinging, individual sentence of it, for example ? Many such an arrow has gone home while every other nn'ssed of their mark, and may have gone home to some other. As a matter of fact, the most effective preaching is most effective with these arrows, whether stimulant or seda- tive, or both combined, and many a time the bow is drawn at a venture, and many a preacher has acknowledged it. There are questions of tact in public speaking which can be settled only by the attainment of Questions to be ^^q^.^j. |,^ ^^^11^3'^ rhetorical tact. Settled by Rhe- t^ i •. • • x .i torical Tact. ^'^^' example, it is unwise to weary the imagination of the hearer, because you arc sure by that means to weary his muscles and sinews. ( It will weary his imagination to be told at the start what (^ you propose to accomplish before you stop. It wih C weary him to tell him that after you have done so and 80 you will do so and so, and then so and so, and fiiudly and in conclusion, so and so. Go on and do it. Say your say and be done with it. Never say : Before I pass to the preliminary remarks, by way of preface to the introduction to the first head of my sixteen heads, I wish to remark, in the first place, that — but, by the way, before I pass to that, I wish to say that, etc. THE RTTETORIC FOR PURUC SPEAKFNO. 113 "Wc arc told that tlie late Mosea Stuart preacliod a sermon in M'liich lie (1) " occupied a larut you will find d,^„- ; r\^^ •' _ _ •/ ^ Promising Une. that it is not fruitless. Tiiat silent, fruit- less concentration was concentration, nevertheless. You did not realize that it was, but it was, and your speech or sermon was the better for it. The sudden bui'st of something to say when the occasion comes for it is tho fruit of the inipromising and apprehensive effort. Tho very apprehension helped. The apprehensive tempera- ment is like nervousness, bad for one's happiness, but good for one's speaking. During the preparation you should shave yourself, or read some in a well-written book, or do an errand for your wife, or make a call and have a chat, or take a frolic with the children. It is positively funny to ob- serve how underneath all this the mind is trying to think of something to say, and will not be diverted from its purpose, and is actually assisted by the diversion. This importunity of his work should be the preacher's advantage. Two sermons every one liundred and sixty- eight hours constitute quite an upper and a nether mill- stone for grinding something to say out of him. And yet the advantage may easily become a disadvantage. Prodding, while it quickens some, deadens others. They give up after a round or two, and the rest of their work is the veriest humdrum. Subjecting yourself to the training and discipline of thinking of something fresh and appetizing to say will prevent this fatal panic. Give yourself exclusively to thinking of something to say, and you will Iiave no time to think of how much you have w 142 UKFOliK AN AUDIENCE. W 111 to B:iy. Tlio most fertilo ])reu(!hers liavo the seiiso of ruiuiing dry, in wliicli tlieir congregations sonietinies sliare. 1 fitting yonrHulf under ol)ligation to be on liand witli sometliing to s:>y is a great aid in learning how to thinic of something to say. Give your note for it. Tlien be- stir yonrself to raise the wind. AV^liile you are tliinking of something to say you will be surprised and delighted to observe how every speech tliat you hear, and every book that you pick up, and every conversation you have, and every newspaper you read will contribute something to your budget of material. Then you must not fail to nuike use of this material, whether exactly to your liking or not. Do your best with the best that comes to you. When better comes, substitute it, but until it comes work up and work off the material you have on hand. You will do better next time by doing your best this time. It is not necessary while you are thinking of something to say that you should " read up " on the subject of your address. You may not be able to find anything of that kind to read. Head the best" English language you can find. Head, write, and converse in the best vocabulary that comes to you, and compel a better vocabulary to come to you. There is always room for improvement in the words of our mouths. Heading, writing, and con- versing with this under-thinking going on creates facility and felicity in the use of language in public. The memory becomes charged with words, images, meta- phors, ideas, and phrases that press for utterance under tho stimulus of the occafiion or the excitement of ambi- tion. Try it. X. THE RIGHT SHAPE FOR AN ROOM. AUDIENCE- imi^ li can iihiry It ^^ lilt in con- 'ility Tlie letji- ider [nbi- Sucir paragraphs as those frequently appear in the newspapers, and they contain no more disheartening or inexciisaljle bit of news. " There are at least a dozen churclies, some in Brooklyn, some in New York, some in Boston, in S})rini(tiel(l and in Chicago, each costing over $200,000, that are utterly worthless as places of worship." " Externally, Tomj)kins Avenue Church is beautiful to look at. It is cruciform in style, florid (rothic in design, and ornamented to the very spire. The building and furnishing are said to have cost a quarter of a million. Nobody can fill the house, for nobody can speak in it or hear in it. The roof looks like the headquarters of a telegraph company. Bunches of telegra})h-wire8 run length \vise and crosswise of the church. It w\as thought that these would break the echo. The platform has l»een brought into the centre of the church, and a screen ])ut in the rear to aid the sound of the voice, but with little success. Architects now say that the interior r" the church must bo entirely changed, galleries put in, iioor raised, ceiling altered ; in other words, a new church internally must be constructed." The late President Finney said of the Broadway Taber- nacle : *' The plan of the interior of that house was my own. I had observed the defects of churches in regard rr-K^ ■* ' t UEFOUR AN" AUDIENCE. f: K J^"'! ii ;i li'-^ to sonnd, and was sure that T could jjjivc tlic plan of a chvircli ill wliicli I could easily sj)cak to a iiiucli liu'ii^er coniicrc'i^^ation than any house would hoM that I had scon." Ilis experFOTice witli tho architects was exactly like that dcscrihcd hy those who planned tho sensible interior of tho Brooklyn Tahernaclo : they hauichtily ro- fnsed to sacrifice their suhliine art to the exi-i' m\ m 11 ii I'll! I -ifil BOine of them are. For example, it seems evident that the sound jj^ocs off from the speaker's montli in vibra- tions similar to the waves created by the stone thrown into the water — circular if it can, semi-circular if it must. Hence the semi-circular, or horse-shoe form of auditory, to compel the vibrations to take that form ; and hence there should be nothinf. 147 ror ill- to Ich lie, er Ins i-ss The Speaker Should be Be- low Instead of Above the Audience. from tlio speakers mouth. They go np of tlieinselvefl, so to speak ; tliey go down hy compulsion. Tliey iXMjuire h'ttle more than mere utterance to send them above you ; tliey recjuire po:. Live exertion to send them below you. The notes of the biigh? are lieard more dis- tinctly on the tops of the houses than on the street. '' From peak to peak leaps the live tliunder." The valleys have l)ut a faint share in the awful reverV)erations. The pit, or the ground lloor, is the worst place in the house for hearing either tlio speaker, actor, or singer. The reason is obvious. Sound, especially articulate sound, goes below its utterer reluctantlv and resentfullv, butffoes above him cheerfully and with alacrity. The hearer should be above instead of below tlio speaker. The seats should rise as they recede from the rostrum or pulpit, if speaking and hearing without an effort is an o!>ject worth attaining. Tlie superabuiulance of exertion used by tlie speaker comes ot his being obliged to force his voice down the hypothenuse of a right-angle triangle. He stands at the top instead of, as a law of acoustics requires, at the bottom of the hy})othenuse. lie has the wear and tear of shouting from the summit of the hill to those at the base, instead of liaving the pleasure of tafking without exertion from its bjise to those on its summit, or its sides. This horse shoe rising scat form, which was invariably adhered to by the ancients, and has been perpetuated by the architc.s of theatres to this day, v/as doubtless sun^ixested by tlie outdoor ex- porlence of public asseml>)ies., They gathered on the sides of the hill, and the speaker stood at the bottom. Who- ever has spoken in a theatre or opera-house kiiows liow much easier and more agreeable it is to speak there tiuin 148 BEFOllE AN AUDIENCE. lit-; Vr. 149 tl 81- lid 10 CLH 1)0 Vil- lod 100 sc- lis to Mio Tlio platform pulpit of this country is iiiinienscly suporior to tlio lofty tubs of Great J)ritaiii, but one considorablo stop moro will liave to bo taken before tlio American pulpit is constructed with reference to the pew according to the laws of acoustics. The Architecture Should not be an Obstruction to Public Speaking. American preacher is still at the wrong end of the hypothenuse, and still has some excuse for resorting to the bellow and yell in the utterance of passages which should be spoken in a colhxpiial tone. But wliethor ho is excusable for submitting to the oblong, lovel-Hoored form of audience- room in which ho is to preach is another (piestion. lie certainly ought to know that the more exertion ho is oblitrod to use in making himself heard, the loss ho will have with which to make himself felt. lie should have the full use of his faculties and powers without drag or embarrassment from the ill-construction or malforma- tion of the place in which ho sj^eakc. There should be nothing in the form or shape of the auditt>ry calculated to prevent what the speaker has to say from being spoken and hoard with ])erfect ease. The 1 west conversational tones should be heard as distinctly in a church as in a theatre ; and they will be when (as in the case of the Brooklyn Tabernacle) the auditory of the church is con- structed on the same principles as that of tlio theatre. In the old countries the university and scientific lectin'o rooms are all constructed in this raised-seat form, and so are a few halls in this country ; but in the case of 'leveral modern churches and halls, there is the merest beginning. The reform has only learned to creep. It will bo a long while before' it will be able to walk erect and show itself e(pial to the task of confronting one of tlie most perverse of perversities. 5.50 BEFOIIK AN AUDIKNCE. ^^r hm SI \i m ii Tlie speaker should stand with liis back, as near as niny be, to a solid wall, between the calks of the horse-shoe. Indeed, one of the most important of Hard Walls. , ,.^. ^ i • t the conditions lor easy hearing and easy speaking is, that the walls of the auditory should be constructed of stone, the thicker the better. AVoodeu walls are resonant, especially when they are hollow, as is the case vvith latii-and-plaster walls. The surface of the wall should bo plain stone, which sheds the sound without absorbing or mangling it. Of course it may be said wooden walls "will do." Yes, any- thing " will do ;" wooden heads will do, a wall made of drums laid side to side will do — so will a tin pan roofed in, if it is big enough. We are not talking about what will do —or rather we are talking about, and, against, what will " do " the speaker, or preacher, b^ tearing liis throat, and wearing his nerves, and prema- turely bringing on the " Wliereas it has pleased Divine Providence," etc. Furthermore, this atnphitheatre (which moans " to see about") and rising-seat form of auditory, which enables the hearer to see and hear the preacher equally well in all parts of the church, leaves all the pews equally eligi- ble and desirable, and prevents that enormous difference in their " valuation," which is so common in churches where the rich meet together. In some of these oblong, level-floored churches one third the seats are simply un- endural)le, ami, so far from wondering why they are never, the wonder is that they are ever rented. The audience-room of the house of God is constructed in impudent defiance of liis laws of acoustics, while the playhouse is constructed in obedience to those laws. A conversational tone may be heard in any part of the The Play- house Right, God's House Wrong. i.*. THE niGIIT SHAPE FOR AN AUDIKNCK-ROOM. 151 m iico les III- or, » is A the tneatre — must be, indeed, or the drama fails ; and the faihire of ordinary colloquial cadences in a church is a failure of a fundamental element in all public speaking — the colloquial element. No comedian would endure, in the way of a wearing- tearing audience-room, for one evening, what preachers will bear with and die of every Sunday, year in and year out ; and the ordaining clergy, together with all the solemn divines who launch the theological graduates, aiu) the entire bureau of anonymous advisers of the parsons, yea, and the whole noble army of pulpit martyrs may continue to iterate and reiterate their panacea of " Be in earnest," and "Be natural," until Gabriel's trump shall wake the dead, and not one building conup.ittee or church will awake even then to a sense of their responsi- bility for these stund)ling-blocks to the Gospel. Let us hope that the dav will come when building committees, and churches that are put in trust with the Gospel, and preacl^ers whose very lives are at stake, will not allow themselves to be ensnared by the " Ciothic" nonsense of a " florid " architect, but will insist, Hist of all, and last of all, that it shall be at legist as easy to hear and see where the Gospel is preached, as where the comedian splits the ears of the groundlings, and the minstrels dance in clogs. To recapitulate : I. The horse-shoe form, with thespcak- , ^ ^, ,, Recapitulation, er between the calks. II. No angles or recesses or projections before, bo side, or behind the speaker. III. The seats so elevated and graduated as to put th< speaker in full view of every hearer, and every hearer ir iuU view of the speaker, without his being obliged to change his position. 152 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE. 5 \ Q'^ |:i * The harder the walls the better for articulate sound ; but as stone and brick are often out of the question, there is no need of worrying over their absence. But the absence of these three conditions, or any one of them, is a sin to be repented of and forsaken in the sight of God. The lower the ceiling the better, and the less waste space in it the better. If you have a vast and lofty ceil- ing without galleries, the audience will hear better seated on the under side of the roof than on the upper side of tiie floor. The echo in an audience-room is the jeer of science at the perversity of man. It says, Ila ! ha ! where is now their God of acoustics 1 THE £ND.