mWi it' Cornell University Library arV14510 Beeton's art of public speaking 3 1924 031 387 651 olin,anx The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031387651 BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. S/Si^rvyu^(^A£JkaJit /^ t? BEETON'S Art of Public Speaking; PRACTICAL TREATISE ON ORATORY. " I WANT A PEKFECT ORA.TOTl.''—Qumi L lO. WARD, LOCK, AND CO, WARWICK HOUSE, SALISBURY SQUARE, E.G. r /cornellN university \ LIBRARY y ^ PREFACE. The object of the following work is to show how to acquire the art of public speaking, an art the importance of which, especially in this country, no one will deny. That it may be mastered, even by those possessed of but ordinary gifts, is certain. They may not, it is true, become great orators, but they may at least learn how to express themselves before an audience with clearness and propriety. All necessary in- structions for this purpose have been given in the following pages, and we believe they may be studied with advantage, whether one aims only at taking part in the discussions of some mutual improvement society, or aspires to a share in the triumphs of the pulpit, the senate, or the bar. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Introduction i CHAPTER II. NATURAL QUALIFICATIONS. Lively Sensibility — Keen Intelligence — Common Sense— Earnestness — Lively Imagination — Coleric Temperament — Firm Will — Expansive- ness of Character — Natural Gift of Speaking— Moral Goodness 4 CHAPTER III. THE MENTAL STUDIES TO BE PURSUED BY THE ORATOR. Acquisition of Knowledge — The Student to be Industrious — Knowledge of the World — General Literature — Logic — Meditation — Mr. Glad- stone's Views — Written Composition — Command of Language — Exercises — Difficulties — Silent Speaking — Style — Cultivation of the Memoiy — Artifical Systems — Committing to Memory — Art of Delivery — Cicero on the Orator's Acquirements 10 CHAPTER IV. THE DIFFERENT FIELDS OF ELOQUENCE. Fields of Eloquence — Division of Oratory by the Ancients — The Pulpit — The Bar — The Senate — The Platform — Private Life 22 CHAPTER V. STYLE AND ARRANGEMENT. The Style and Arrangement of a Discourse — Unity of Design — Arrange- ment — Addison Quoted — Style of Language — Perspicuity — Energy — Choice of Words — " Proper " Terms — Tropes — Epithets — Foreign and Obsolete Expressions — Number of Words — Arrangement of Words — Elegance — Ornament — Jesting — Length - 29 VIU CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. THE DIVISIONS OF A DISCOURSE. PAGE The Exordium— The Enunciation of the Subject— The Division— Rules —The Narration— At the Bar— In the Pulpit— The Argument— The Invention of Arguments — The Disposition of Arguments — The Pathetic Rules — The Peroration — The Main Object of Speech 41 CHAPTER VII. DIFFERENT MODES OF DELIVERING A DISCOURSE. From Manuscript — From Memory — Extempore — A Fourth Methods- Audiences — The Effect of the Audience on the Speaker 56 CHAPTER VIII. THE ART OF DELIVERY. Delivery — English Elocution — Voice — Sympathetic Tone — The Vocal Mechanism — Lungs — Windpipe — Larynx — Variable Cavity — Preser- vation of the Voice — ^Vocal Exercises favourable to Health — Registers of Voices — The Best for Public Speaking — Stammering — Falsetto — ' ' Clerical Sore Throat " — Breathing — Exercises — Pronunciation — Common Errors — Accent — Enunciation — Inflection — Rising Inflection — Falling Inflection — Circumflex Inflection — Emphasis — Expression — • Pitch — Force — Pauses— Rules — Pace — Action — Addison on Action — General Principles — The Countenance — The Eye — The Neck — The Hands and Arms — The Feet — Division of Action — Hamlet's Advice to the Players — Dress — The End of a Discourse 64 CHAPTER IX. EXERCISES IN ORATORY. Debating Societies — Study of Rhetorical Writers— Observations on Good Speakers — Public Reading — Conclusion 95 CHAPTER X. Ancient and Modern Eloquence loi APPENDIX. A. Lord Brougham on the Studies of the Young Orator — B. Open-Air Speaking — C. Rules of Debating Societies — D. List of some of the chief writers on Oratory, Ancient and Modern 119 BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. There is certainly one thing worth living for, and that is power. All possessions and accomplishments must be judged of in relation to that great end. It is good to have strength and wealth and learning, but these are worthless if we do not employ them as means of influence — if we hoard our wealth, conceal our learning, or let our strength lie dormant. Indeed, if with great possessions of any sort we have no influence, we might almost as well be dead. No power is so well worth having as that over the minds of other men. To influence their destinies, to guide their thoughts, to lead their wills captive, is a noble ambition ; and to achieve it one might cheerfully spend many toilsoine days and sleepless nights. That power the orator possesses in the highest degree. Eloquence, says an ancient poet, is the queen of the world. By it, more than by mere material agencies, nations have in all times been led and governed, and the whole history of the world is but a commentary on the art of public speaking. Over every great movement the orator has been the pre- siding genius. It is he who has inflamed patriotic feeling, kindled genuine enthusiasm, determined the abolition ot abuses, influenced the adoption of sound policy, awakened religious conviction, kindled — too often — scorn and hatred, roused the demon of strife, and, what is a harder matter, laid it again. The man of words may appear to be of less consequence than the man of deeds, but he is sometimes really of far more. But for him the latter would often never have acted, never even have thought of acting. The much-quoted aphorism that " Speech is silvern and silence golden" does not apply here. In some circum- stances the saying is true enough, but in how many others is it equally certain that speech only is strength, and silence weakness ? Hand-in-hand with power goes fame, and fame is dear to every right- thinking mind. To have influence is something, but to think that through that influence we may live in the memory of future ages might BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. well make the heart glow, and inspire one to work with redoubled ex- ertion. Fame is the poetic halo which smTOunds power, and without which it would prove bare and unsatisfying. In a high degree fame is the reward of the orator. It may even be objected that he often gets more of it than is his due. The inclination of the public to ex- aggerate, the universal tendency to magnify what we have heard described in general terms as marvellous and eloquent, and the fact that we see orators often through the uncertain mists of time, tend to heighten their proportions, and robe them in a magnificence not their own. Such, then — power and fame — being the inducements to the study of oratory, we proceed to speak of the nature of eloquence, and to point out what the student may look for in the following pages. Of eloquence it is the more necessary, says a distinguished writer, to ascertain the proper notion, because there is not anything concerning which false notions have been more prevalent. Hence it has been so often, and is still at this day, in disrepute with many. When you speak to a plain man of eloquence, or in praise of it, he is apt to hear you with very little attention. He conceives eloquence to signify a certain trick of speecli ; the art of varnishing weak arguments plausibly ; or of speaking so as to please and tickle the ear. "Give me good sense," says he, "and keep your eloquence for boys." He is in the right if eloquence were what he conceives it to be. It would be, then, a very contemptible art, indeed, below the study of any wise or good man. But nothing can be more remote from truth. To be truly eloquent is to speak to the purpose. For the best definition which can be given of eloquence is the art of speaking in such a manner as to attain the end for which we speak. Whenever a man speaks or writes he is sup- posed, as a rational being, to have some end in view ; either to inform, or to amuse, or to persuade, or, in some way or other, to act upon his fellow-creatures. He who speaks or writes in such a manner as to adapt all his words most effectually to that end, is the most eloquent man. Whatever, therefore, the subject be there is room for eloquence ; in history, or in philosophy, as well as in orations. The definition here given of eloquence comprehends all the different kinds of it, whether calculated to instruct, to persuade, or to please. But as the most important subject of discourse is action or conduct, the power of eloquence chiefly appears when it is employed to influence conduct, and persuade to action. As it is principally with reference to this end that it becomes the object of art, eloquence may, under this view of it, be defined as the art of persuasion. An objection has been raised to eloquence as an art that it may be employed for persuading to ill as well as to good. There is no doubt that it may ; and so reasoning may also be, and too often is, employed for leading men into error. But who would think of forming an argu- ment from this against the cultivation of our reasoning powers ? Reason, eloquence, and every art which ever has been studied among mankind, may be abused and may prove dangerous in the hands of bad men ; but it were perfectly childish to contend that, upon this 2 INTRODUCTION. account, they ought to be abolished. Give truth and vutue the same arms which you give vice and falsehood, and the former are lilcely to prevail. Eloquence is no invention of the schools. Nature teaches every man to be eloquent when he is much in earnest. Place him in some critical situation, let him have some great interest at stake, and you will see him lay hold of the most effectual means of persuasion. The art of oratory proposes nothing more than to follow out that track which nature has first pointed out. And the more exactly that this track is pursued, the more that eloquence is properly studied, the more shall we be guarded against the abuse which bad men make of it, and enabled the better to distinguish between the true eloquence and the tricks of sophistry. " Good instruction is better than riches," was the motto that William Penn, the illustrious founder of Pennsylvania, placed on the seal of a library incorporation granted by him more than a hundred and fifty years ago. The object of this work is to provide good instruction so far as public speaking is concerned, and to show the student how with perseverance he may become a skilful orator. Another objection may be noticed here. Many people adopt the idea that the unlearned appear to speak with more force than the learned, and so, they argue, the study of eloquence is useless ; one need only trust to nature if one would speak with effect. But this opinion has its origin chiefly in the mistake of those who judge erroneously, and who think that what has no art has the most energy. They might as well believe it a greater proof of strength to break through a door than to open it, to rupture a knot than to untie it, to drag an animal than to lead it. In the course of our inquiry we shall adopt the most natural classifi- cation, and shall treat of the following subjects in the following order : 1. A review of the various natural qualifications necessary to the orator. 2. The mental studies to be pursued by the student. 3. The different fields of eloquence. 4. The style and arrangement of a discourse and its various divisions. 5. The different modes of delivering a discourse. 6. The nature of audiences. 7. The art of deliveiy; and 8. The exercises to be followed by the student. We shall then add a brief sketch of ancient and modern oratory, as given by Dr. Blair in his famous Lec- tures, and shall conclude with an appendix containing some useful mis- cellaneous information. No doubt the study of eloquence is hard, but the student must not despair. Think how great the power of the human mind is, and how capable of accomplishing whatever it makes its object. But even if the highest eminence is not gained, there is in these days much occasion for the employment of even moderate ability as a speaker. We may not be preachers, or barristers, or members of Parliament, but we may be common councilmen, shareholders in Limited Liability Companies, secretaries of Societies, members of Church Courts, or occupying many other situations in which the know- ledge of hovv to speak may prove useful. For all such this book is in- tended, as well as for those with whose profession the art of oratory is more intimately associated. 3 CHAPTER II. NATURAL QUALIFICATIONS. It has been remarked that at the root of every real talent there lies a natural ability — something which cannot be imparted by any course of study. This holds especially true of ability to speak in public. The orator must possess naturally several qualifications, or he can never hope to attain to eminence. Lively Sensibility. The first necessary qualification is set down by the Abbe Bautain, in his valuable work on " Extempore Speaking," as a " lively sensi- bility," by which is meant a capacity for being readily impressed by every circumstance and feeling. In connection with this it is to be remarked that all men are not equally moved by the same thing— one is particularly sensitive to one class of impressions, and another to another. This fact influences all the arts. In that which we are now considering we see it inclining men to different styles of public speak- ing, according to the different set of impressions to which they are most sensitive. " One speaker," says M. Bautain, " is more sensitive'- to set forth ideas, their connection, and their gradations. He discerns \ perfectly the congruity, the difference, the contrast of thoughts, and \ thus he will deliver them suddenly with much facility, delicacy, and , subtilty. He has perception, a taste for idea ; he conceives it dis- I tinctly, and will therefore enunciate it gracefully and clearly. Such / a one is made to teach and instruct. / "Another has a greater enjoyment of everything relating to the feelings and the affections, to soft or strong emotions. He will there- fore employ with greater pleasure and greater success all that can touch, move, and hurry away ; he will, above all, cause the fibres of the heart to vibrate. Such a one will be an orator rather than a pro- fessor, and will be better able to persuade by emotion than to convince by reason. "A third delights by images and pictures. He feels more vividly \ everything that he can grasp and reproduce in his imagination, he U llierefoie takes pleasure in these reproductions. Such a one will \ therefore be specially a descriptive speaker, and will rise almost to poetry in his prose. He will speak to the imagination of his hearers rather than to their heart or mind ; he will affect but little, and instruct still less ; but he will be able to amuse and interest. He will attract \\ by originality, by the variety of his pictures, and by the vivacity and ' ' brilliancy of his colouring. 4 NATURAL QUALIFICATIONS. " In these different instances we see that sensibihty is vividly excited eitlier by ideas, by feelings, or by images ; and it is evident that he who would extemporise a discourse in one of these three methods must begin by feeling vividly the subject of which he has to speak, and that his expression will always be proportionate to the impression of it which he will have received and retained." Kee7i Intelii^ence. The next natural qualification is keen intelligence. " In speaking, the feeling, or that which is felt, must be resolved into ideas, thoughts, images, and thence into words, phrases, language, as a cloud or con- densed vapour is transformed and distilled into rain. . . . The faculty which effects this transformation, by the operation of the mind account- ing inwardly and reflectively for all that is passing through it, is inteUi- gence." This power the orator should possess and cultivate to the utmost, and it is a natural talent capable of high cultivation. It comes into play not only in the thinking out of his discourse, but in the arrang- ing of its plan, the establishing of that plan, in the case of extempore speaking, in the memory, and the giving life to it in the discourse. And this is to be remarked, that the greater the intelligence employed in thinking out a subject, so much the greater chance is there of communicating it successfully to others. Common Sense. A very important thing for the orator to be possessed of comes now to be mentioned, and that is common sense. This has been very properly defined as the i nstinctive action of right reason , by which one discriminates with a rapidity of t'eeling and by a sort ot taste, what is and is not suitable in certain situations. To the speaker it will be every moment of service, prompting him as to what ideas he should bring forward in his discourse, what he should suppress ; what words he should use, what he should avoid ; what figures and illustrations are in good taste, what the reverse, and so on. Indeed, when an orator is upon his feet, it should rule all he says, and he will please his audience or offend them, just as he submits to its sway or not. £ar>ies/ness. Earnestness is another essential feature in the character of every true orator. The mere manifestation of it is often of greater assistance to his cause than the most weighty argument, for the emotions of hearers are in most cases stronger than their intellects. When the Bishop of London asked Betterton what could be the reason that whole audiences should be moved to tears, and have all sorts of pas- sions excited, at the representation of some story on the stage which they knew to be feigned, and in the event of which they were not at all concerned, yet that the same persons should sit unmoved at dis- courses from the pulpit upon subjects of the utmost importance to them, relative not only to their temporal, but also to their eternal interests, he received from the tragedian this memorable reply : " My 5 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. Lord, it is because we are in earnest. You deliver truth as if it were a fiction ; we deliver fiction like truth.'' Thus we see that, even upon the stage, actors, to succeed, must be in earnest ; that is to say, they must themselves be thoroughly moved by the sentiments which they wish to impart to their audience. Much more does this hold good on the platform. To move, the speaker must himself be moved. All the elocution in the world will not do in place of that. And how much additional power will be possessed if the earnestness be not feigned, but be a part of his very nature ? The true orator will stand, then, prominently forward as a man of an earnest mind. He will never speak without a purpose, and when he does open his mouth he will throw his whole heart and soul into his discourse, and do what he has to do with all his might. Lively Imagination. He must also have a lively imagination, and this is one of the most necessary of the orator's faculties. By means of it, suppose he should be speaking extempore, he fixes his plan in his mind, and preserves it there till the moment comes for giving life to it. " Imagination is also highly useful to him," says the Abbd Bautain, " in order to represent suddenly to himself what he wishes to express to others, when some new thought arises, and when an image, germinating as it were in the heat of oratorical action, like a flower opening under the sun's rays, is presented unexpectedly to the mind. Then, the instant he has a glimpse of it, after having rapidly judged whether it suits the subject and befits its place, he, while yet speaking, seizes it eagerly, places it warm beneath the active machinery of the imagination, extends, refines, developes, makes it ductile and glittering, and marks it at once, with some of the types or moulds which imagination possesses." For this it may easily be seen great rapidity and vividness of imagi- nation are required. The image to be produced in words must be pictured at once in the mind,, and in such bright colours and with such strongly-marked lines that the orator is able to describe it without hesitation. Choleric Temperament. For the attainment of great success in public speaking it is almost necessary that one should be naturally of a choleric temperament. Persons of a phlegmatic or sanguine temperament are certainly not so fit to become distinguished in this way. The former lack the requisite irritability ; the latter are deficient in perseverance. That which dis- tinguishes the choleric temperament above all the others is not only the capacity of conceiving great ideas, but the power of realising them bv that tenacity of purpose which disregards all apparent or real difficulty. Firm Will. To become a great orator a firm and decisive will is needed. If a man be timid and hesitating, he will not succeed. The very rising before an audience requires courage, the unfolding one's tlioughts to 6 NATURAL QUALIFICATIONS. them requires more courage, the asserting one's opinion in public in opposition to the views of others requires more still. In extempore speaking a man needs specially to be bold. He has so much to fear : words may fail him ; he may forget his plan ; his imagination may refuse to exert itself; he may stumble, stammer, and break down. He must at the same time, however, be modest. Vanity and self- applause, says Quintilian, are always unbecoming. To quote this writer's own words, " Above all things, every kind of self-laudation is unbecoming, and especially praise of his own eloquence ; as it not only gives offence to his audience, but generally creates in them even a dislike towards'him." Cicero tells us he never liked an orator who did not appear in some httle confusion at the beginning of his speech, and confesses that he himself never entered on an oration without trembling and concern. This is a very different thing from nervous timidity. That is to be striven against, for a public speaker ought to have confidence to a certain extent in his own powers, and to appear before his hearers with some sort of firmness, and as one thoroughly persuadedof the truth and justice of what he advocates — a circumstance which, it has been remarked, is of no small consequence for making an impression on those who hear. Expansivcness of Character. Another necessary quality mentioned by M. Bautain is what he calls " Expansiveness of Character." This he thus explains : " When we perceive, or think that we perceive, a truth, the mind re- joices in and feeds upon it, because it is its natural aliment ; in assimi- lating and appropriating it, the mind partakes of its expansive force, and experiences the desire of announcing to others what it knows itself, and of making them see what it sees. It is its happiness to become a torch of this light of truth, and to help in diffusing it. It sometimes even glories in the joy it feels ; the pride, also, of enlightening our fellows, and so of ruling them to a certain extent, and of seeming above them, is part of the feeling. A keen and intelligent mind, which seeks truth, seizes it quickly, and conceives it clearly, is more eager than another to communicate what it knows ; and if, along with this, such a mind loves glory— and who loves it not, at least in youth .' — it will be impelled the more towards public speaking, and more capable of exercising the power of eloquence. "But there is, besides, a certain disposition of character and heart which contributes much to the same result, as is seen in women and children, who speak willingly and with great ease, on account of their more impressionable sensibility, the delicacy of their organs, and their extreme mobility. Something of this is required in the extemporiser. A self-centred person, who reflects a great deal and meditates long before he can perceive a truth or seize an analogy, and who cannot or will not manifest what he feels or thinks until he has exactly shaped the expression of it, is not fitted for extemporaneous speaking. A melancholy, morose, misanthropic person, who shuns society, dreads the intercourse of men, and delights in solitary musing, will have a 7 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. difficulty in speaking in public ; he has not the taste for it, and his nature is against it. What is needed for this art, with a quick mind, is an open, confiding, and cheerful character, which loves men, and takes pleasure in joining itselt to others. Mistrust shuts the heart, the mind, and the mouth. "This expansiveness of character, which is favourable to extem- poraneous speaking, has certainly its disadvantages also. It some- times gives to the mind an unsettled levity, and too much recklessness, and something venturesome or superficial to the style. But these disadvantages may be lessened or neutralised by a serious preparation, by a well-considered and well-defined plan, which will sustain and direct the exuberance of language, and remove by previous reflection the chances of digressiveness and inconsequence." Natural Gift nf Speaking. The same writer mentions yet another natural qualification necessary to the orator: an instinctive or natural gift of speaking. "Art," he says, " may develop and perfect the talent of a speaker, but it can never produce it. By the exercises of grammar and rhetoric a person may be- taught how to speak correctly and elegantly ; but nothing can teach him to ascend higher, or give him that eloquence which comes from the heart and goes to the heart. Such eloquence is without doubt a natural talent. It results in the happy constitution, partly of the moral nature, and partly of the physical frame. Both must ue favour- ably developed and in perfect harmony before it can exist in per- fection. " It is with eloquence as with all art ; to succeed in it you must be made for it or called to it incessantly, and in a manner almost uncon- querable, by a mysterious tendency or inexplicable attraction which influences the whole being, which ultimately turns to its object as the magnetic needle to the north. At the root of all arts, so various in their expression, there is something in common to them all— namely, the life of the soul, the life of the mind — which feels the want of dif- fusing, manifesting, and multiplying itself. Each individual also has something peculiar and original, by which he is impelled, on account of his special organisation, or constitution of mind and body, to reproduce his mental life in such or such a way, by such or such means, or in such or such material form. Hence the boundless diversity of the arts and of their productions." ' Moral Goodness. It is also important to observe that a speaker to become great must be a good man. This was a favourite maxim of the ancient rhetori- cians. They, perhaps, in their illustration of it, dealt somewhat in exaggeration, but it may be received as a certain rule that a bad man can never be a consummate orator. His mind is certain to lack that ' F. Rautain, "Etudes sur I'art de parler en public," Paris, i863, p. 34. NATURAL QUALIFICATIONS. openness and power without which the noblest impressions cannot be received or reproduced with effect. The consciousness of guilt, in whatever form, fetters a man's spirit : the feeling of remorse, which accompanies it, weighs him down, and forbids his soaring into -pure regions of lofty thought. There is nothing like the freedom and elasticity of spirit given by the consciousness of virtue. They are not only very favourable to study, but give great ease in imparting the results of that study to others. On the former of these points Quintilian has touched very happily. He says : " If the managing of an estate, if anxious attention to domestic economy, a passion for hunt- ing, or whole days given up to places of public amusement, consume so much time that is due to study, how much greater waste must be occasioned by licentious desires, avarice, or envy ? Nothing is so hurried and agitated, so contradictory to itself, or so violently torn and shattered by conflicting passions, as a bad heart. Amidst the dis- tractions which it produces what room is left for the cultivation of letters, or the pursuit ot any honourable art ? No more, assuredly, than there is for the growth of corn in a field that is overrun with weeds." It is still more sure that a known bad man can never exer- cise influence as a public speaker. The very fact that we are aware of the baseness or corruption of a speaker's morals forbids our lis- tening with anything but distrust to his opinions ; whereas a know- ledge of his honesty and uprightness would predispose us in favour of anything he might say. To be really virtuous, and to be known to be so, are two necessary thmgs. There is something worthy of notice, as exhibiting the ideas of the ancients as to the length to which an advocate might go on behalf of his client, in the views of Quintilian on this point. In his professional capacity he shows, with great strength and felicity of argument, that a great orator must be a good man, and he recommends the strictest abstinence from all licentiousness or immorality in language. Yet be never forgot that he was a pleader, or that a pleader thinks himself justified in resorting to every possible means for the establishment of his case He thought, with Cicero, that a good orator and a good man may sometimes tell a lie, provided it be told with a good motive ; that the ignorant may be misled with a view to their benefit ; that the mind of a judge may be drawn away from the contemplation of truth ; that we may sometimes speak in favour of vice to promote a virtuous object ; that if a dishonourable course be advisable, it may be advocated in plausible forms ; and that vices may sometimes be honoured with the names of the proximate virtues. But his worst offence against morality is that he sanctions the subornation of wit- nesses to declare what they know to be false. He seems to have thought, indeed, that a pleader might do all manner of evil if he could but persuade himself that good would come of it. CHAPTER III. MENTAL STUDIES TO BE PURSUED BY THE ORATOR. What Studies aft Orator should pursue. Having finished our examination of what one must be, naturally, to become a great orator, let us turn to see what studies he should pursue. For nature is not everything, or even nearly everything. It is little more than the foundation on which a reputation may be built. In the succeeding paragraphs we shall endeavour to point out what is most worthy of the student's attention ; and, if he only be industrious, success in the matter of public speaking is sure to attend him. Acquisition of Knowledge. And first of all he should prepare himself by laying in a great stock of knowledge. This necessity he must recognise in its fullest extent. However many natural gifts he may possess, they are little worth without the accumulated wisdom of study. " Eloquence," says a well- known writer, " requires matter to feed it, emotion to excite it, and it brightens as it burns." Observe, there must be matter to feed it — that is the most important point. If he has a small fund of ideas it may prove wanting at a most critical time. Besides, what is there more wearisome than the thin style, in which there is a luxuriance of words and phrases, but which is almost barren of ideas ? ■ Cicero, in treat- ing of this subject, seems at first to think that an orator should know everything, for this reason, that he may be called upon to speak on anything, and, as was said before his day by Socrates, a man can never talk well on a point of which he is not entirely master. But afterwards, in consideration of the fact that life is short, TuUy insists only on those branches of knowledge most necessary to the speaker.' Quintilian has some observations on this head. It is a remark, he says, constantly made by some, that an orator must be skilled in all arts if he is to speak upon all subjects. One might reply to this in the words of Cicero, in whom we find this passage : " In my opinion no man can become a thoroughly accomplished orator unless he shall have attained a knowledge of every subject of importance, and of all the liberal arts ;" but for our argument it is sufficient that an orator be acquainted with the subject on which he has to speak. But it may be replied, he has not a knowledge of all causes, and yet he ought to speak upon all. On what causes, then, will he speak ? • A specimen of this style m.iy be found in the writings of Bolinffbroke. 10 MENTAL STUDIES On such as he has learned. The same will be the case also with regard to the arts and sciences : those on which he shall have to speak he will study for the occasion, and on those which he has studied he will speak. What, then, it may be said, will not a builder speak of building, or a musician of music, better than an orator ? Assuredly he will, if the orator does not know what is the subject of inquiry in the case before him with regard to matters connected with these sciences. An ignorant and illiterate person appearing before a court will plead his own cause better than an orator who does not know what the subject of dispute is ; but an orator will express what he has learned from the musician, or from his client, better than the person who has in- structed him. Generally his knowledge must extend to all those subjects which go to make up a liberal education. But there are some matters more important than others, and these we shall immediately direct attention to. Before going on let us give this advice, that whatever we do study we should study conscientiously. Our learning must be made truly part of our own minds. " The fund to be amassed by those who intend to speak in public," says the Abb^ Bautain, " is a treasury of ideas, thoughts, and principles of knowledge, strongly conceived, firmly linked together, carefully wrought out in such a way that, throughout all this diversity of study, the mind, so far as may be, shall admit nothing save what it thoroughly comprehends, or at least has made its own to a certain extent, by meditation." ' It is an immense advantage to have gone through a good educational course in youth, for what is acquired then becomes part of our mental nature in a way that no learning afterwards obtained ever does. But to those who have not had this advantage much may be said by way of encouragement. Should the student grumble at the toil marked out for him at the very beginning of his progress, he may be given up as ever likely to excel. Hopes of distinction should animate him, and no labour should seem heavy in comparison with the glory he may gain, if he only be painstaking and hardworking. The Student to be Industriotts. " Without steady hard work," says Dr. Blair, "it is impossible to excel in anything. We must not imagine that it is by a sort of mush- room growth that one can rise to be a distinguished pleader, or preacher, or speaker in any assembly. It is not by starts of applica- tion, or by a few years' preparation and study, afterwards discontinued, that eminence can be obtained. No ; it can be attained only by means of regular industry, grown up into a habit, and ready to be exerted on every occasion that calls for industry. This is the fixed law of our nature ; and he must have a very high opinion of his own " ' ' I'Art de parler en public, " p. 41. II BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. genius indeed that can believe himself an exception to it. A very wise law of our nature it is, for industry is, in truth, the great ' condi- mentum,' the seasoning of every pleasure, without which life is doomed to languish. Nothing is so great an enemy both to honour- able attainments, and to the real, to the brisk and spirited enjoyments tif lire, as that relaxed state of mind which arises from indolence and iissipation." To these observations we shall add five aphorisms ivhich may be kept in mind by the learner, to cheer him on his way, and encourage him in the midst of difficulties. 1. Above all things, study ; whether for the sake of learning or for any other reason, study. For, whatever the motive that impelled you at first, you will soon love study for its own sake. 2. Nature does not forbid the formation of a perfect orator, and why should we despair of what is possible ? 3. Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable ; however, they who aim at it and persevere will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable. 4. Be always displeased with what thou art if thou desirest to attain to what thou art not ; for where thou hast pleased thyself, there thou abidest. If thou sayest, " I have enough," thou perishest. Always add, always walk, always proceed. Neither stand still, nor go back, nor deviate. 5. The mind is but a barren soil ; a soil which is soon exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one, unless it be continually fertilised and enriched with foreign matter. To the complaint of the pupil that time is too short for all this learning, Quintilian observes: "It is we ourselves that make time short. How much time do we seriously devote to study .■' The empty ceremony of paying visits steals away some of our hours, others are wasted in idle conversation, others in public spectacles and entertain- ments. If all the hours we give to frivolity were allotted to study our life would be long enough, and our time amply sufficient for learning, even if we take into account only our days ; while our nights, of which a great part is more than enough for all necessary sleep, would add to our improvement. Of course the student will devote special attention to subjects con- nected with the line of life in which he is to be afterwards engaged in. He who is to plead at the bar will make himself master of all the forms of law, and all the arts which are likely to influence a jury or convince a judge. He who is destined for the pulpit will concen- trate his powers on the whole body of divinity, on practical religion, morals, and human nature. He who looks forward to a place in the Senate must make himself master of the order of business in such an assembly, the history and statistics of his own country, the laws which govern it, and the relations which it maintains to foreign powers. And so for other lines of activity. There are, however, several branches of knowledge which should be mastered in common by every intending speaker. Mental studies. Knowledge of the World. And the first of these is an acquaintance with the world ; he must "read with critical eye the important volume of human life, and know the heart of man trom the depths of stratagem to the surface of affec- tation."' He must be familiar with the particular genius and manners of those whom he may have occasion to instruct and persuade. "He ought," to quote from the Archbishop of Cambray, "to know the nature of man, his chief end, and his true interest ; the parts of which he is composed, his mind and his body, and the true way to make him happy. He ought likewise to understand his passions, the disorders to which they are subject, and the art of governing them ; how they may be usefully raised, and employed on what is truly good ; and, in fine, the proper rules to make him live in peace and become entirely sociable.'" Upon this subject the rule of Schiller may be taken — " Wouldst thou know thyself? observe the actions of others ; Wouldst thou other men know? look thou within thine own heart. "3 Cicero insists that by an orator, whatever occurs in human life (since it is with that he has to do), ought to be examined, read, discussed, and handled. General Literature. He must also make himself familiar with general literature. The study of the authors in our language most noted for the purity, and elegance, and eloquence of their language must be the constant business of the student who wishes to excel. The finest passages of these great writers, and above all the most musical poets, should be committed to heart, and often recited during our leisure moments. This is a most agre-vable practice, and at the same time a most useful. Most useful, for it furnishes the mind with noble images and fine thoughts, and trains the ear to a sense of the harmony of langu.ige ; and most agreeable, for it brings us into close relationship with the highest intellects the world has ever known. Cicero particularly enjoins the study of the poets. Why ? Because eloquence is closely allied to poetry, there being a close relationship between the figures of both. Theophrastus says that the reading of the poets is of the greatest use to the orator. Many adopt his opinions, not without reason ; for from them is derived animation in relating facts, sublimity in expression, the greatest power in exciting the feelings, and gracefulness in personifying characters ; and, what is of the utmost service, the faculties of the orator, worn out, as it were, by frequent and laborious exercises, are best recruited by the charms of the works of such authors. For this • Dr. Johnson. 3 " Dialogues on Eloquence." Funaon. Translated by W. Stevenson. London, 1808, p. S5. 3 ' ' Schiller." Translated by Bowrlng. 13 BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. reason Cicero thinks that relaxation should be sought in that sort of reading. But we must not forget that poets are not to be imitated by the orator in every respect ; not, for instance, in freedom of language, or unrestrained use of figures ; that the style of the poets is best adapted for display, and, besides that, it aims merely at giving pleasure, and pursues its object by inventing not only what is false, but even some- times what is incredible. The great rule for the orator's reading has been given by Quintilian. To go through authors one by one, he says, would be an endless task. To be brief, Demosthenes and Cicero should first be read, and after- wards every writer according as he most resembles Demosthenes and Cicero. There is one direction which must be given, namely, that if we would read successfully we must make a point of understanding what we read. It is to be regretted that amongst the various writings in our language there aie so few examples of good speaking. The French have in this the advantage of us, and the student who has a familiar knowledge of the language may derive much profit from the study of the remains of some of their great orators. Amongst these are Saurin, Bourdaloue, Fletcher, and Massillon, who, and particularly the last, are famed for the eloquence of the pulpit. But the most sublime of all their great speakers is Bossuet, the famous bishop of Meaux, in whose Oraisons Fiiiiebres there is much noble oratory. " Some of Fontenell's ' Harangues to the French Academy,' " says Dr. Blair, "are elegant and agreeable ; and at the Bar the printed plead- ing of Cochin and Aguesseau are highly extolled by competent French critics." Logic. Logic, or the art of thinking, also must form part of the speaker's equipment. Naturally many men are good logicians, but it is of con- sequence that they should cultivate this natural gift to the utmost, and especially in the department of life which we are at present consider- ing. The orator must understand the theory and be dexterous in the practice of the art. He must know how to define, and argue, and unravel and expose the most specious sophisms. For advancement in logic there is nothing like a course of training under an experienced thinker. " I would," says a foreign writer from whom we have often quoted already, " have persons who are intended for public speaking follow a course of logic, rather practical than theoretic, in which the mind should be vigorously trained to the divi- sion and combination of ideas upon interesting and instructive topics. These exercises should be written or oral. Sometimes it should be a dissertation on a point of literature, morals, or history, and a habit should be acquired of composing with order and method, by pointing out, in proportion as the student proceeded, the several parts of the discourse, the steps of the development, and means of proof— in a 14 MENTAL STUDIES. word, whatever serves to treat a subject suitably. Sometimes it should be a discussion between several debaters, with the whole apparatus and strict rules of a dialectic argument, under the master's direction. The disputants should not be allowed to proceed or conclude without reducing their thoughts to the forms of syllogistic reasoning— a pro- cess which entails some lengthiness, and even heaviness, upon the discourse, but it gives greater clearness, order, and certainty. At other times the debate might be extemporaneous, and then, in the unforeseen character of the discussion, and in all the sparks of intelli- gence which it strikes forth, will be seen the minds which are distin- guished, the minds that know how to take possession of an idea at once, enter into it, divide it, and expound it. There should, for every position or thesis, be the counter-position or antithesis, and some one to maintain it ; for in every subject there are reasons for and against. Thus would the student leai-n to look at things in various lights, and not to allow himself to be absorbed by one point of view, or by pre- conceived opinion. But these gymnastics of thinking ought to be led by an intelligent master, who sutlers not himself to be swayed by forms or enslaved by routine. Real thinking must be effected under all these forms of disputation and argument, but the letter must not kill the spirit, as frequently was the case in the schools of antiquity. For then it would no longer be anything but an affair of memory, and the life of intelligence would die away. I am convinced — and I have made the experiment for a length of years in the Faculty of Strasbourg, where I had established these exercises, which proved exceedingly useful — I am convinced that young men wlio thus occupied themselves during a year or two in turning over and handling a variety of questions, in stirring up a multiplicity of ideas, and who should, with a view to this, write and speak a great deal, always with order, with method, and under good guidance, would become able thinkers, and, if endowed with high intelligence, would become men mighty in word or in deed, or in both together, according to their capacity, character, and nature." ' Meditation. The Speaker must also meditate much. This is the secret of power. As a general rule there is not much real honest thinking done in this . world, and a man who betakes himself to it receives an immense advantage over his fellows. Mr. Gladstones views. On this head it may interest the reader to peruse the following lines written by the present Prime Minister, the Right Honourable William Ewart Gladstone. He had been applied to for his opinion as to what was the best system of mental training to make a good speaker. His answer was : " Speaking from my own experience, I think that the public men of England are beyond all others engrossed by the multi- ' Bautain, " L'art de parler en public," pp. 48-50, BEETOUf'S ART 01 PUBLIC SPEAKING. tudcs of cares and subjects of thought belonginsto a highly diversified empire, and therefore are probably less than others qualified either to impart to others the best methods of preparing public discourses, or to consider and adopt them for themselves. Supposing, however, I were to make the attempt, I should certainly found myself on a double basis, compounded as follows : First, of a wide and general educa- tion, which, I think, gives a suppleness and readiness, as well as a firmness of tissue, to the mind, not easily obtained without this form of discipline ; and, secondly, of the habit of constant and searching reflection on the subject of any proposed discourse. Such reflection will naturally clothe itself in words, and of the phrases it supplies many will spontaneously rise to the lips." ' Written Composition. He must likewise accustom himself to written composition. It is one of the best of exercises, accustoming him to precision and close- ness of style, and helping to correct slovenliness. Slipshod sentences which he would readily utter with his mouth he will often hesitate to put down on paper with his pen. Every sort of written composition is to be indulged in — narrative, argument, even poetry, if the student have a turn that way. And the exercise is not to be taken up by fits and starts, but to be practised regularly and systematically. There is a good rule sometimes given for the preparation of written compositions to be submitted to the public, and it will be found alike serviceable in the case of those intended for no eye but the student's own. It is, when you are about to write on any theme, never begin by seeking to consult all who have written on the same. Begin by pon- dering it over in your own thoughts ; collect your ideas ; form a plan of some sort for yourself ; set it down in writing, and then see how others have dealt with the matter. Practice in writing is insisted on by Ouintilian with much force. It is attended, he says, with most labour, but it is attended also with the greatest advantage. Cicero, with reason, called the pen the best modeller and teacher of eloquence. " We must write, therefore," adds the ancient writer, " as carefully and as much as we can, for as the ground by being dug to a great depth becomes more fitted for fructifying and nourishing seeds, so improvement of the mind, acquired from more than mere superficial cultivation, pours forth the fruits of study in richer abundance and re- tains them with greater fidelity. For without this precaution, th^ \cry faculty of speaking extempore will but furnish us with empty loquacity, and words born on the lips. In writing are the roots, in writing are the foundations of eloquence ; in writing resources are stored up, as it were, in a second repository, whence they may be drawn forth for sudden emergencies, or as circumstances require." But whilst it is true that, in order to speak well, one must first know how to write, it does not follow that in order to write well one must ' Quoted in C. J. Plumptre's " King's College Lectures on Elocution," p. 143. JO MENTAL STUDIES. first know how to speak. In point of fact, many able writers have been miserable speakers. The reason for this is ingeniously given by M. Bautain in his " !l£tudes sur Fart de parler en public." ' Their imagi- nation is not sufficiently supple, ready, or clear ; it works too slowly, and is left behind by the hghtening of the thought, which at first dazzles it, a i-es.ult due either to a natural deficiency, or to want of practice ; or else — and this is the most general case with men of talent — it arises from allowing the mind to be too much excited and agitated in the presence of the public and in the hurry of the moment ; whence a certain incapacity for speaking, not unlike inability to walk produced by giddiness. Command of Language. Command of language is- the first requisite for public speaking. " The future orator must, by long study and repeated compositions of a finished kind, handle and turn all expressions of language, various constructions of sentences, and endless combinations of words, until they have become supple and well-trained instruments of the mind, giving him no longer any trouble while actually speaking, and accom- modating themselves unresistingly to the slightest guidance of his thought. Exercises. The methods taken by the greatest orators to acquire this mastery of speech have been very laborious ; but the advantage to Ise gained was immense, and had they shunned the drudgery they would not have had the success. It is told of William Pitt (afterwards Earl of Chat- ham) that, in order to acquire a thorough command of language and increase his vocabulary, he went twice through the folio edition of Bailey's Dictionary — the best before that of Johnson. The practice enjoined on his son by this celebrated author is also worthy of notice : for it the reader must be referred to the life of William Pitt. A useful method is mentioned by Mr. Halcombe, in his " Speaker at Home," for increasing one's command of words. " Take up a book," he says, " and choosing out words or expressions from it, . . . vary and modify them : e.g., I wish — intend — purpose— think of— meditate — my desire, intention, or wish is — my inclination leads me. Or again : hatred — dislike — loathing — disgust — aversion — distaste — disinclina- tion to — objection to — prejudice against — antipathy to, etc. It may seem a childish exercise, but is none the less useful for that." To add to one's power of putting words into sentences, a good plan is to select a book, read a passage from it two or three times, then close the book and give in our own words the sense of the author. For this exercise narrative at first is best ; after he has made some pro- gress the learner may turn to argument. When he has got on far enough he may take a long passage — say a chapter — write out a few notes to assist his memory, and endeavour to speak from them. Another exercise, from which we believemuch benefit liiay be got, is ' Paris, 1863, p. 26. 3 17 BEETOlsrS ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. to take a volume of poetry— Gary's "Translation of Dante," or Mil- ton's " Paradise Lost," or some one similar to these— and turn the verse into prose, speaking aloud, and delivering the matter as if it were a set speech. As soon as some facility is acquired in this, the ideas of the poet should be amplified, and additional matter introduced by the speaker. This exercise is to be found laid down in Quintilian. " Learn," he says, " to take to pieces the verses of the poets, and then to express them in different words ; and afterwards to represent them somewhat boldly, in a paraphrase, in which it is allowable to abbre- ^ late or embellish certain parts, provided that the sense of the poet be preserved. He who shall successfully perform this exercise, which is difficult, even for accomplished professors, will be able to learn any- thing." That one has no audience in these exercises is a matter of indiffer- ence. Indeed, in such practice the student is perhaps better without listeners. But he must keep in mind that he is labouring with a view to appearing before an audience, and, in consequence, strive always to do as well as if his empty room were crowded. "Our stock of words," says Quintilian, "must be prepared with iiidgmcnt, we must have in view the force of oratory, not the volubility of the charlatan. And this object we shall best attain by reading and listening to the best language ; for by such exercises we shall not only learn words expressive of things, but shall learn for what place each word is best adapted." A becoming and magnificent dress, it has been said, adds dignity to man ; but effeminate and luxurious apparel, while it fails to adorn the person, discovers the depravity of the mind. In like manner the transparent and \'ariegated style of some speakers deprives their matter, when clothed in such a garb of words, of all force and spirit. For this reason we should be careful about words, but much more so about matter. For those who relish statistics it may be mentioned that few orators either require or have at command more than 7,000 words. A well-educated person in England who has been at a public school and at the university, who reads his Bible, his Shakespeare, and all the books of Mudie's Library, seldom uses more than 3,000 or 4,000 words in actual conversation. Accurate thinkers and close reasoners, who avoid vague and general expressions, and wsit till they find the word that exactly fits their meaning, employ a larger stock ; and eloquent speakers may rise to a command of 10,000. The Hebrew Testament says all it has to say with 5,642 words ; Milton's works are built up with 8,000, and Shakespeare, who probably displayed a greater variety of expression than any writer in any language, produced all his plays with about 1 5,000 words. The English language, savs Professor Grimm, possesses, from its peculiar formation, a power of expression such as never, perhaps, was attained by any other tongue. It may with good reason call itself a universal language, and seems chosen, like the people, to rule in future times in a still greater degree in all the corners of the earth. In rich- 18 MENTAL STUDIES. ness, sound reason, and flexibility, no modern tongue can be compared to it — not even the German, which must shake off many a weakness before it can enter the lists with- the English. Difficulties. In his first attempts, both in private and before an audience, the student will often find himself inclined to break down, and perhaps will actually make several disastrous failures. But he must not be disheartened. The recollection of such men as Sheridan, Robert Hall, and the late Earl of Beaconsfield must console him. Of the first it is told that when he made his maiden speech in Parliament it so completely failed that his friends dissuaded him from trying a second time. To this Sheridan would not consent ; " For, by Heaven, it is in me," said he, " and it shall come out." And what a brilliant speaker he became is well known. Robert Hall, the celebrated preacher, is another example of early inability and subsequent success. When, as a student, it came to his turn to preach in Broadmead Chapel at Bristol, he had not spoken long when he came suddenly to a halt, covered his face, and exclaimed, " I have lost my ideas ! " And his second attempt ended, it is said, in a failure even more painful to witness. As for Lord Beaconsfield, every one has heard how his first speech in the House of Commons was received with shouts of laughter, and how the young orator sat down uttering a prophecy, which was afterwards fulfilled : " The time will come when you shall hear mc." These examples should give great encouragement to those who really are determined to distinguish themselves. Nervousness is the first stumbling-block in the way of the speaker, and of it only this is to be said, that it is to be got over gradually, by practice. Beginning at first by addressing some small debating society, the speaker will accustom himself to appear before an audience ; he will endeavour then to address larger and larger meet- ings, till at length he will be able to address the largest without feeling any painful timidity, or anything else than anxiety to impress upon his hearers the truths which occupy his mind. Another of the common misfortunes of the young speaker will be to land in the middle of a sentence and find himself unable to get gram- matically to the end. What must he do in such a case ? He may do one of two things : he may go back to the beginning again, or he may go boldly ahead in defiance of grammar, and finish the sentence as best he can. Of these two courses the latter is the preferable. The public are more tolerant of bad grammar than of hesitation and uncertainty. Silent Sj>eaking. The practice of what is known as silent speaking, it may be added on this head, is very useful. In it the student mentally frames and delivers speeches to himself upon set subjects, without giving utterance to a single word. 19 BEETOrrS ART OF PVBLIC SPEAKING. Style. Correctness and elegance of style is to be attained principally by the close study of the best models, as we have already seen. Cultivation of the Memory. Few things are more important to the orator to cultivate than the memory. For, though the most effective style of speaking is that known as extempore, in which the words are not prepared beforehand but found on the spur of the moment, yet even in this the plan must be kept in the memory. That it is capable of cultivation up to a high pitch of perfection may be shown by m.iny examples both ancient and modern. "Themistocles," says Quintilian, "may be named as an instance, who, as is generally believed, learned to speak the Persian language accurately in less than a year; or Mithridatcs, to whom it is said that two and twenty languages, the number of the nations over whom he ruled, were known ; ... or Cyrus, who is supposed to have known the names of every one of his soldiers." ' As a rule, however, the memories of men are bad, and perhaps mainly for this reason, that few are in the habit of cultivating the powers of attention and association. Were these more improved, we should hear less of short memories. A rtificial Systems. Several artificial systems of memory have teen in use from the days of Simonides — the first to teach such a system — downwards. Upon this point we do not mean here to enlarge. There is little necessity for doing so, as many separate works exist on the subject. Committing to Memory. The best way of committing a discourse to memory is to divide it into small parts, and to learn each part thoroughly before going on to that which succeeds it. Of course it will be seen that a logical arrangement of the matter is of great assistance to the recollection. The best time for learning by heart is at night before retiring to rest (provided no heavy supper has been taken). On rising the following morning the memory should be called to account. Of the advantages of a ready memory we may read in tlie following story : Lyncestes, accused of conspiracy against Alexander, the day that he was brought out before the army, according to custom, to be heard what he could say for himself, had prepared a studied speech, of which, haggling and stammering, he pronounced some words ; but still being more perplexed, whilst struggling with his memory, and whilst he was recollecting himself what he had to say, the soldiers nearest to him charged their pikes against him and killed him, look- ing upon him as guilty. His astonishment and silence ser\ ed thcni for a confession. For, having had so much leisure to prepare himself ' Quintilian, bk. xi. chap. ii. § 50. MENTAL STUDIES. in prison, they concludeil it was not his memory that failed him, but that his conscience tied up his tongue, and stopped his mouth. Art of Delivery. The last thing to be gained by the student is a knowledge of the art of delivery. That has been treated of, at considerable length, in succeeding pages. Cicero on the Orator's Acquirements. And now let us end this section, on the acquirements of the orator, with a quotation from Cicero {De Oratore, bk. i. chap, xxviii.) : " An orator ought to have the acuteness of the logicians, the wisdom of the philosophers, the language almost of the poets, the memory of the lawyers, the elocution and gesture of the finest actors. Nothing, therefore, is more rarely found among mankind than a consummate orator ; for qualifications which professors of other arts are com- mended for acquiring in a moderate degree, each in his respective pursuit, will not be praised in the orator unless they are all combined in him in the highest possible excellence." 21 CHAPTER IV. THE DIFFERENT FIELDS OF ELOQUENCE. Fields of Eloquence. We come now to speak of the different fields in which the art of speaking may be employed. These may be set down as five : the Pulpit, the Bar, the Senate, the Platform, and private life. The first is the region of religious appeal ; the second of legal argument ; the third of parliamentary debate ; the fourth may be said to be occupied with matters miscellaneous, and the last is the region of complimentary speeches. Division of Oratory by the Ancients. The ancients divided all orations into three kinds, the Demonstra- tive, the Deliberative, and the Judicial. The business of the first was to praise or to blame ; that of the second to advise or to dissuade ; that of the last to accuse or to defend. The Demonstrative included panegyrics, invectives, gratulatory and funeral orations. The De- liberative was employed in matters of public concern agitated in the senate, or before the assemblies of the people. The Judicial was used when speaking in courts of law before judges who had power to absolve or to condemn. To a certain extent this is a useful and com- prehensive arrangement, but the division we have given above appears more practical and easy of comprehension. Now, it is to be clearly understood that every species of public speaking has a manner or character peculiarly suited to it, of which it is of consequence we should comprehend the nature. The eloquence of a minister is fundamentally different from that of a lawyer, that of a lawyer from that of a statesman, and so on. The Pulpit. We begin with the oratory of the pulpit, and that we enter here on a large and important inquiry may be judged from the fact that nearly 4,000,000 sermons are preached in the United Kingdom every year.' Let us not attempt to estimate the merit of these numerous produc- tions, but turn to consider a difficulty under which every deliverer of sermons labours more or less. "With regard to preaching," says Mr. Halcombe, " men are apt to compare it with ordinary speaking. The lawyer or the statesman has continually fresh facts to deal with — facts which in themselves at once suggest fresh arguments to the mind, and keep them there when suggested ; provided, therefore, they have ' Ramsay, "Pulpit Table Talk," p. 5. FIELDS OF ELOQUENCE. acquired thepower of expressing ideas previously conceived in their mi lids in appropriate language, they need but very little preparation for speak- ing. Let them, however, have to speak several times on the same subject before the same audience, and if, on each successive occasion, they expect to command an equally attentive hearing to what they may have received on the first, they must have elaborately prepared new arguments, fresh illustrations, etc. " The preacher, however, has to speak, not several times only, but always upon the same subject, and the more closely he keeps to the one great object of all his teaching, the more he finds that he has no new facts to deal with ; that all his arguments have already been urged in some shape upon his hearers, and that he will need a more than ordinary amount of thought and study to work out practical deductions from these truths, and thus to give to his arguments that amount of originality and pointed application which is indispensable to gaining a hearing and awakening conviction. " If, however, a preacher expects to be able to deliver a sermon, especially to an educated congregation, with as little preparation as he would address a meeting on some subject, the details of which he knew himself to be much better acquainted with than his hearers, he must not be surprised if his presumption gives just offence to many, and evokes, upon the system he adopts, a censure which would be more correctly applied to his own abuse of that system." As the business of the preacher is much more to persuade than to convince, he will address himself more to the emotions than to the reason of his hearers. The chief characteristics of his eloquence will be gravity and warmth. The serious nature of the subjects belonging to the pulpit require gravity ; their importance to mankind requires warmth. It is far from being either easy or common to unite these features of eloquence. The grave, when it is predominant, is apt to run into a dull uniform solemnity. The waimth, when it wants gravity, borders on the theatrical. The union of the two must be studied by all preachers as of the utmost consequence, both in the composition of their sermons and in their manner of delivery. Gravity and warmth united form that character of preaching which the French call Onciionj the affecting, penetrating, interesting manner, flowing from a strong sensibility of heart in the preacher to the importance of those truths which he delivers, and an earnest desire that they may make full impression on the hearts of his hearers.' Speaking of the eloquence of the pulpit, Blair, in his Lectures, gives some rules and observations respecting a sermon as a peculiar species of composition. We shall merely mention the general bearing of them, and refer the reader for particulars to that learned divine. The first rule is to attend to the unity of a sermon, by which is meant that there must be some one main point to which the whole strain of the sermon should refer. It should not be a bundle of Blair, " Lectures on Rhetoric," lecture xxix. 23 BEETOJSPS ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. different subjects strung together, but one subject must predominate throughout. Secondly, comes an observation that sermons are always the more striking, and commonly the more useful, the more precise and particular the subject of them is. Thirdly— and it is a most important rule — never study to say all that can be said upon a subject. No error can be greater than this. If the preacher seek to omit nothing which his subject suggests, it will unavoidably happen that he will encumber it and weaken its force. In the fourth place, it is said, study above all things to render your instructions interesting to your hearers. A dry sermon can never be a good one. And in the fifth, and last place, a caution is added against taking the model of preaching from particular fashions that chance to have the vogue. " These," says Blair, "are torrents that swell to-day and have spentthem- selves to-morrow. Sometimes it is the taste of poetical preaching, some- times of philosophical, that has the fashion on its side ; at one time it must be all pathetic, at another time argumentative, according as some celebrated preacher has set the example. Each of these modes, in the extreme, is very faulty ; and he who conforms himself to any of them will both cramp genius and corrupt it." Luther, in his " Table-talk," mentions what he considers the quali- fications requisite for a good preacher. His remarks are worth quoting. " A good preacher," he says, " should have these properties and virtues : first, to teach systematically ; secondly, he should have a ready wit ; thirdly, he should be eloquent ; fourthly, he should have a good voice ; fifthly, a good memory ; sixthly, he should know when to make an end ; seventhly, he should make sure of his doctrine ; eighthly, he should venture and engage body and blood, wealth and honour in the world ; ninthly, he should suffer himself to be mocked and jeered of every one. " I would not have preachers torment their hearers and detain them with long and tedious preaching, for the delight of hearing vanishes therewith, and the preachers but hurt themselves. " We ought to direct ourselves in preaching according to the con- dition of the hearers ; but most preachers commonly fail therein ; they preach that which little edifies the poor simple people. To preach plain and simply is a great art ; Christ H imself talks of tilling ground, of rnustard seed, etc. ; He used altogether homely and simple similitudes. " I would not have preachers in their sermons use Hebrew, Greek, or foreign languages ; for in the church we ought to speak as we do ?t home, the plain mother tongue, which every one is acquainted with." A good delivery is of the greatest possible value to the preacher, and yet how few pulpit-speakers can the largest experience point to as possessed of even tolerable ability in this way. "Above all things," it has been said, " a preacher should shun monotony, especially those dreariest forms of it, the pulpit drawl, the pulpit whine, the pulpit groan, and the pulpit snivel." As to action in sacred oratory, there is room for it, but the "sacred mahogany tub," in which preachers are usually cooped up, does not favour the free motions of the body. 24 FIELDS OF ELOQUENCE. The Bar. On the subject of the oratory of the Bar it is worth while to com- mence by quoting the following advice to students from a work on " Writing, Reading, and Speaking," by Mr. E. W. Cox." " If you have cultivated oratory at Oxford or Cambridge, or at any of the spouting clubs in London, almost surely you will have acquired a style of speaking altogether unfitted for the Bar, and which you must dis- card with all possible speed, without hesitation, and without reserve. The debating club style ° is the worst you can bring into a court of justice, and exposes its exhibitor to certain humiliation and failure. It is the most fruitful cause of breaking down at the bar, and when you see it still adhering to a man after six months of trial, you may look upon him as hopeless. Being thus fatal, your first and most earnest endeavours should be directed to learn if any trace of this style cleaves to you, and if it be found, you should strive laboriously to cast - it off." The style required for the Bar is the very opposite of that customary in the debating club. It should be characterised by exceeding plain- ness and simplicity, the thoughts of the speaker being clothed in the common language of every-day life ; in short, he must do little more than talk. In many, in most indeed, of the cases which come before our courts of justice, eloquence would be nothing short of ridiculous. The speaker at the bar must ever keep in mind that his end is to persuade jurymen and to convince judges, and adopt such language and reasoning as may best bring about these results. With reference to the jurymen it is a common error to talk so as to be quite unin- telligible to them, and it is a good rule, sometimes given, that the advocate should address himself to the lowest intellect among the twelve, that is to say, he should suit his language and illustrations to him whom he conceives to be the least cultivated juryman. The characteristics of an address to ajury should be lightness, liveliness, and good temper. There should also be an appearance of unbounded confidence in your cause. In the case of arguing before a special jury, a higher tone of language and more subtle argument may of course be employed than before a common one. And with all juries, whether special or common, says Sergeant Cox, remember this pre- cept : " Do not weary them by saying too much ; but, even if you have more to say, on the instant you perceive the first unmistakable symptoms of weariness in your audience, bring your speech to a close and sit down ; for, from that moment, you are not merely wasting the best argument and the most artistic eloquence — you are undoing whatever advantage you may have gained before, and every sentence is a step backwards from victory." In addressing the Bench a different style is to be used, suited to high intellectual culture and to minds practised in reasoning. The ' Page 265. ' The principal features of which are grandiloquence, floweriness, phrasemaking, poetising, word-picking, and mouthing — all or some of them. 25 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. thoughts and language of the speaker should be condensed, and his argument should be close and logically arranged. At the same time it must not be thought that manner is unimportjcnt. Here, as every- where, it is of value, and, though a judge may listen to an indifferent speaker, he would be more likely to be influenced by the argument were it set before him in a graceful style by an accomplished orator. The effect of good speaking is always great. Dr. Blair, in taking notice of the fact that the eloquence of the Bar is of a much more limited, more sober, and chastened character than that of popular assemblies, adds a warning to young lawyers, that they should not adopt as their models the judicial orations of the ancients, not even those of Cicero and Demosthenes ; because, he remarks, the nature of the bar, anciently, both in Greece and Rome, allowed a much nearer approach to popular eloquence than what it now does. This was chiefly owing to two causes. First. Because in the ancient judicial orations, strict law was much less an object of attention than it is become among us. In the days of Demosthenes and Cicero the municipal statutes were few, simple, and general, and the decision of causes was trusted in a great measure to the equity and common sense of the judges. Eloquence, much more than jurisprudence, was the study of those who were to plead causes. Cicero, somewhere, says, that three months' study was sufficient to make any man a complete civilian ; nay, it was thought that one might be a good pleader at the bar who had never studied law at all. For there were among the Romans a set of men called l^ragmatici, whose office it was to give the orator all the law know- ledge which the cause he was to plead required, and which he put into that popular form, and dressed up with those colours of eloquence, that were best fitted for influencing the judges before whom he spoke. We may observe next, that the civil and criminal judges both in Greece and Rome were commonly much more numerous than they are with us, and formed a sort of popular assembly. The renowned tribunal of the Areopagus at Athens consisted of fifty judges at the least.' Some make it to consist of a great many more. When Socrates was condemned, by what court it is uncertain, we are in- formed that no fewer than two hundred and eighty voted against him. In Rome, the Praetor, who was the proper judge, both in civil and criminal causes, named for every cause of moment, the Jtidiceo Selecti, as they were called, who were always numerous, and had the office and power of both judge and jury. Hence, all those arts of popular eloquence which we find the Roman orators so frequently employing, and probably with much success. Hence tears and commiseration are so often made use of as the instruments of gaining a cause. Hence certain practices, which would be reckoned theatrical among us, were common practices at the Roman Bar ; such as introducing not only the accused person, dressed in deep mourning, but presenting • Vide Potter, "Antiq.,"i. 202, 26 FIELDS OF ELOQUENCE. to the judges his family and his young children, endeavouring to move them by their cries and prayers. It is to be noticed also in connection with this head that a proper degree of warmth in pleading a cause is always of use. Though, in speaking to a multitude, greater vehemence be natural ; yet, in addressing ourselves even to a jury or to a solitary judge, the warmth which arises from seriousness and earnestness is one of the most powerful means of persuasion. An advocate personates his client ; he has taken upon him the whole charge of his interests ; he stands in his place. It is improper, therefore, and has a bad effect upon the cause if he appear indifferent and unmoved ; and few clients will be fond of trusting their interests in the hands of a cold speaker. The Senate. Next, the Oratory of the Senate comes to be mentioned. For this what is required is fluency and common sense, far more than showy oratorical powers. The occasions on which a display of oratory is needed in either cf the Houses of Parliament are few and far between ; but there are numberless opportunities for the exercise of common sense in a matter-of-fact way. The object of all speaking in Parliament is, or ought to be, persuasion, and that style should be adopted which is most calculated to bring about that end. The Platform. The oratory of the platform comprehends all speaking addressed to the public at large, and is such as is practised by Members of Parliament when addressing their constituents, by political agitators, when engaged in advocating their own peculiar views, and by many other persons who find occasion to appeal to the sentiments and influence the minds of the crowd. In connection with this subject the reader is referred to a succeeding page where the nature of audiences in general is treated of. He will there find a brief explanation of the view in which an audience should be regarded by the speaker, ■ the motives which influence a public assembly, etc. Here, we shall do nothing more than enumerate the features by which a speech delivered from the platform should be marked in order to have success. The first are simplicity and force. The most familiar words and illustrations should be chosen. No matter what the thoughts of the speaker may be, let them find expression in sucli language as all can understand. " Think as wise men ; talk as the common people," is a piece of advice given by Roger Ascham, and v/ell worthy of being remembered.' A bold pictorial style is one of the best means of attracting attention and securing favour. But it is to be observed that flowery language is out of place and much more likely to be ridiculed than appreciated by the mob. Appeals to the ' At the same time, the speaker must avoid falling to the mistake of descending to the level of the mob and talking after its own fashion. One may be plain and comprehensive without being vulgar. 27 BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. feelings are more powerful in mob oratory than arguments, and this fact must never be lost sight of by whoever would speak with real effect. Lastly, to be a good platform speaker one should have a con- siderable fund of humour, especially in this country, for an English crowd has a large sense of the humorous. For a specimen of mob oratory let the reader turn to Shakespeare's "Julius CjEsar," and read the speeches of Brutus and Antony to the Roman citizens. These two speeches have been justly admired as among the finest examples the world possesses of this sort of oration. The latter especially is, in its way, perfect. Private Life. The last field in which a gift for speaking is to be exercised is that of private life. Dinner-table oratory comes here, of course, to be considered. But there is little to be said about it. What it specially requires is ability to compliment in elegant phrases, and to make much talk out of little matter. Flattery is its foundation, and the great difficulty which it presents to the speaker is, that he must flatter without being awkward or appearing insincere. The tone of social speeches, it is to be added, must not be oratorical. It should be gay and lively. CHAPTER V. STYLE AND ARRANGEMENT. The Style and Arrangement of a Discourse. The orator is now supposed to know what he wishes to say, so we come to consider here what a speech should be in regard to its style and arrangement. First, we shall look at it as a whole, and then we shall examine its different parts. U7iHy of Design. The best writers agree that the chief point in a discourse is unity of design. Some great idea should be the centre of all discourses, and round it everything should revolve." Or, to change the figure, there should be some definite point to be arrived at, and every thought expressed and every word uttered should lead the hearers on a little nearer to it. There must be nothing superfluous, for there can be no true unity in any composition unless there can be nothing taken away without spoiling it. The golden canon of the art of public speaking according to Cicero is, that whatever does not promote the main object of the oration is to be rejected. This is just the same idea in different language. A little observation will soon show us that this does not describe the style of many speakers. The greater part so arrange their discourses that it is often impossible to make out what they are driving at. They may in their own minds certainly propose some particular object, but in setting it forth, they so encumber it with altogether unnecessary matter that it is quite lost sight of by those who listen. Arrangement. Not only must what is said have a reason, with reference to the principal object of the orator, for its being mentioned, but it must be mentioned in the right place. And this leads to the remark, that the importance of a clear arrangement of one's subject is very great. If a speech be deficient in arrangement, it must necessarily be con- fused, and like a ship without a helm, it can have no coherence ; it must exhibit many repetitions and many omissions, and like a travel- ler wandering by night in unknown regions, must as having no stated course or object, be guided by chance rather than design. In illustra- tion of this head let us quote the following remarks from The Spectator; " "The discourse is the proposition unfolded, and the proposition is an abstract of the discourse." — Fenelon's "Dialogues on Eloquence," p. 239. Translated by W. Stevenson, 1808. 29 BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. though not written specially in connection with public speaking, they are yet very applicable to it, and well worthy of the student's attention. Addison Quoted. " Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact ; and, there- fore, choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them. Method is of advantage to a work, both in respect to the writer and the reader. In regard to the first, it is a great help to his invention. When a man has planned his discourse, he finds a great many thoughts rising out of every head, that do not offer themselves upon a general survey of a subject. His thoughts are, at the same time, more intelligible, and better discover their drift and meaning, when they are placed in their proper lights, and follow one another in regular series, than when they are throwii together without order and connection. There is always an obscurity in confusion, and the same sentence that would have enlightened the reader in one part of a discourse perplexes him in another. For the same reason, likewise, every thought in a methodical discourse shows itself in its greatest beauty, as the several figures in a piece of painting receive new graces from their disposition in the picture. The advan- tages of a reader from a methodical discourse are correspondent with those of the writer. He comprehends everything easily, takes it in with pleasure, and retains it long. Method is not less requisite in speaking than in writing, provided a man would talk to make himself understood. I, who hear a thousand coffee-house debates every day, am very sensible of this want of method in the thoughts of my honest countrymen. There is not one dispute in ten which is managed in those schools of politics, where, after the first three sentences, the question is not entirely lost. Our disputants put me in mind of the cuttle-fish, that, when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens all the water about him, till he becomes invisible. The man who does not know how to methodise his thoughts has always, to borrow a phrase from the dispensary, a barren superfluity of words ; the fruit is lost amidst the exuberance of leaves." Style of Language. As to the style of language which the speaker should adopt, it should be in keeping with his own character, and suited to the character of those whom he addresses, and to the end which he has in view. These points are unfortunately often overlooked, they should be kept well in mind. Above all things, it should not be too artful or laboured in con- struction. A little appearance of negligence, indeed, is often of service, in order to avoid the appearance of great preparation. This fact was fully recognized by the most eloquent orators among the ancients. It is to be observed that the language best suited to a speech is not that of books. Indeed, there is a wide difference between that required 30 STYLE AND ARRANGEMENT. ill speaking and writing. The former has much greater freedom and breadth. In Books we look for correctness, precision, all redundancies pruned, all repetitions avoided, language completely polished. Speaking admits a more easy, copious style, and less fettered by rule ; repetitions may often be necessary, parenthesis may sometimes be graceful ; the same thought must often be placed in different views, as the hearers can catch it only from the mouth of the speaker and have not the advantage, as in reading a book, of turning back again, and of dwelling on what they do not fully comprehend.' It is a statement attributed to Fox tliat if a speech reads well, it is not a good speech. The distinction betweetj the styles requisite for writing and speaking has been ably drawn by Professor Masson, and the reader will perhaps feel grateful if we summarise here his remarks on the subject. Con- versation, he says, is one thing, public speaking another, and writing a third. Each involves and requires a distinct setting of the faculties for its exercise, and in passing from one to either of the others, certain powers must be called into play or sent to rest that weru before in play.- When a man talks with his friend, he is led on but by a few trains of association, and find a straggling style natural for his purposes ; when he speaks in public, the wheels of thought glow, the associative processes by which he advances becomes more complex, and hence the roll, the cadence, the precipitous burst ; and lastly, when he writes, still other conditions of thought come into action, and there arises the elaborate sentence, winding like a rivulet through the meadow of his subject, or the page jewelled with a thousand allusions. A man, too, in a state of excitement talks in vivid language, and even sets his words to a rough natural music, his voice swelling or trembling with its burden, though falling short of song. But in the literary repetition of a scene, nature suggests a new set of proprieties, answering to the entire difference between the mind in the primary and the mind in the secondary attitude ; and a literal report would be found to defeat the very end in view, and to be as much out of place as a literal copy in painting. Even in prose narration there must be a more select and coherent language than served in the primary act of passion, as well as a more melodious music. But this question of style demands that a great deal more should be said about it than this. On the subject of the various features by which it should be marked, many judicious observations will be found in the third part of Archbishop Whately's " Elements of Rhetoric." I "confine myself here to a few remarks, following for the most part the order, and often quoting the words of the learned divine. Perspicuity. Three characteristics, says Whately, should be possessed by the style of every discourse, Perspicuity, Energy, and Elegance. We shall look at these in order ; and first as to perspicuity.. This is " the first ' Blair, "Lectures on Rhetoric," lecture xxxiv. 31 BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. requisite of style, not only in rhetorical but in all compositions ; ' since, as Aristotle observes, language which is not intelligible, or not clearly and readily intelligible, fails, in the same proportion, of the purpose for which language is employed." This, then, is one of those features which must vary as our audience varies. What will be clear and comprehensible to one assemblage, will not be so to another. To those whose intellectual cultivation is but small, a very concise style will be ill-adapted ; but, whilst we avoid this error in addressing such, we must equally beware not to fall into a wearisome prolixity. It is a good rule in such cases to deal much in repetitions ; repeating the thought over and over, but varying the expression. In connection with this a common fault amongst speakers is to be noted. They address to ordinary assemblies words far above their comprehension. This is not the true sort of eloquence, and is not in the least likely to attain that end to which all true eloquence should be directed. It should be remembered that by the people at large nothing is so well understood as plain Saxon, or rather, we should say, a style of which Saxon forms the largest ingredient. Archbishop Whatcly remarks that the words of the English language convey their meaning with different degrees of velocity, corresponding to their remoteness from the Saxon. In Latin derivatives it becomes less bright, and in Greek it glimmers obscurely before the scholar, and is quite opaque to the unlearned. The same writer further ob- serves that in adapting the style to the comprehension of the illiterate it is to be borne in inind that " the vulgar require a perspicuous, but by no means a dry and uitaciorned style ; on the contrary, they have a taste rather for the oveiflorid, tawdiy, and bombastic ; nor are the ornaments of style by any means inconsistent with perspicuity ; in- deed. Metaphor, which is among the principal of them, is in many cases the clearest mode of expression that can be adopted : it being usually miich easier for uncultivated minds to comprehend a simili- tudes or analogy than an abstract term." Perspicuity depends to a certain extent on the structure of sen- tences, and care must be taken not to make these too long ; or, if they are made long, to have them readily understood whenever heard. According to Dr. Blair, obscurity of style necessarily springs from indistinctness of conception ; but it is also true that many a speaker with clear ideas delivers himself of them unintelligibly through his not having mastered the art of expression. Energy. The next point to be alluded to is Energy, which should mark the style of every public discourse. This nearly corresponds with what Dr. Campbell calls "Vivacity;" comprehends everything that may conduce to stimulate attention — to impress strongly on the mind the ■ The chief excellence of oratory is perspicuity. — Quintilian. ' Whately's "Rlietoric," iii. J 2. 3?' STYLE AND ARRANGEMENT. arguments adduced — to excite the imagination and to arouse the feelings.' It depends on three things : ist, the Choice of Words ; 2nd, their Number ; and 3rd, their Arrangement. Choice of Words. In considering the choice of words, Archbishop Whately, following the example of Aristotle, divides them into two classes. The first he designates "Proper," "Appropriate," or "Ordinary" terms; the second he makes to include all others— all that are in any way removed from common use— whether uncommon terms, or ordinary terms transferred to a different meaning from that which strictly belongs to them, or employed in a different manner from that of common dis-_ course. All the tropes and figures of grammatical and rhetorical writers fall, of course, under this head. " Proper" 'Terms. As to " proper" terms, the principal rule for guiding our choice of them, with a view to Energy, is to prefer ever those words which are the least abstract and general. " The more general the terms are," says Dr. Campbell, " the picture is the fainter ; the more special they are, the brighter. The same sentiment may be expressed with equal justness, and even equal perspicuity, in the former way as in the latter ; but as the colouring will in that case be more languid, it can- not give equal pleasure to the fancy, and, by consequence, will not contribute so much either to fix the attention or to impress the memory."'' But has an orator any choice on this point ? Yes, in almost every case ; for it depends on "our choice " whether or not we will employ terms more general than the subject requires ; which may almost always be done consistently with truth and propriety, though not with energy. If it be true that a man has committed murder, it may be correctly asserted that he has committed a crime j if the Jews were exterminated, and "Jerusalem demolished" by Vespasian's army, it may be said, with truth, that they were "subdued" by " an enemy," and their " capital" taken. 3 We may properly use general terms when we wish to a^■oid pro- ducing a vivid impression on our hearers ; when the subjects of which we speak are, it may be, shocking or painful, and we desire to excite as little disgust or pain as possible. Tropes. And now as to the second class of words, those not " appropriate." We shall attend first to Tropes ;■* and the most employed and most im- ' Whately, " Rheloric,'' part iii. ch. ii. \ i, " Campbell, " Hliilosophy of Rhetoric." 3 Whately, "Rhetoric," part iii. ch. ii. § t. * From i-pEirw : any word turned from its primary signification. 4 33 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. portant of all those kinds of expression which depart from the plain and appropriate style, is the metaphor in the usual and limited sense- that is to say, a word put in the place of another on account of the resemblance or analogy between their meanings. " The simile or comparison may be considered as differing in form only from a meta- phor ; the resemblance being in that case stated, which in the meta- phor is implied. Each may be founded either on resemblance, strictly so called, i.e., direct resemblance between the objects themselves in question (as when we speak of " iable\d.nA," or compare great waves to ijioiintains), or on analogy, which is the resemblance of ratios— a similarity of the relations they bear to certain other objects ; as when .ve speak of the "light of reason" or of "revelation," or compare a wounded and captive warrior to a stranded ship. The more frequent and striking metaphors and comparisons are the analogical. The question may be raised as to whether in speaking or writing one ought to use the form of metaphor or that of comparison. It may be said that as a general rule the former should always be employed when it can be readily understood by those to whom it is uttered. There are some metaphors, however, which as metaphors seem obscure, but changed into comparisons are at once comprehended and enjoyed. It has been remarked by Aristotle that metaphors may be cm- ployed either to elevate or to degrade the subject, according to the design of the author, being drawn from similar or corresponding objects of a higher or lower character. Thus a loud and vehement speaker may be described as bellowing or thundering. And, in both cases, if the metaphor is a suitable one, it is conducive to energy. It is also remarked by the same writer that this holds good with respect to epithets also, which may be drawn either from the highest or the lowest attributes of the thinj spoken of. Metonymy likewise (in which a part is put for a whole ; a cause for an effect, etc.) admits of a similar variety in its applications. "A happier example," says Dr. Whately, " cannot be found than the one which Aristotle cites from Simonides, who, when on"ered a small price for an ode to cele- brate a victory in a mule-race, expressed his contempt for half-asses, as they were commonly called ; but, when a larger sum was offered, addressed them in an ode as ' Daughters of steeds swift as the storm ! ' " Any Trope adds force to the expression when it tends to direct the attention to that circumstance in the subject treated of to which it is desirable to give special prominence.' These metaphors add most to the energy of style which illustrate an intellectual object by a sensible one. For example, we speak of " unbridled rage ; " " deep-rooted fury ; " " the weight of care," etc. A similar use may be also made of Metonymy, as when we speak of the " throne" or the "crown" for " royalty." But the highest degree of energy is produced by such ' Campbell, ' ' Philosophy of Rhetoric." 34 STYLE AND ARRANGEMENT. metaphors as attribute life and action to things inanimate ; and that even when by this means sensible objects are ilkistrated by intellec- tual. For the disadvantage is overbalanced by the vivid impression produced by the idea of personality or activity ; as when we speak of the rage of a torrent, s. furious storm, a river disdainitig to endure its bridge, etc/ It is a great advantage in favour of energy if there is novelty in a metaphor ; because those which are in common use are listened to ordinarily without particular attention. In creating metaphors, however, we must be atti:;ntive not to have them far-fetched and extravagant. Archbishop "VVhately, in concluding his observations on this point, remarks that it is hardly necessary to mention the obvious and hackneyed cautions against mixture of metaphors ; and against any that are complex ^nd are so pursued as to approach to allegory. " In reference to the former of these faults, Dr. Johnson justly censures Addison for speaking of ' briiili?ig m his muse, who longs to launch into a nobler strain ;' 'which,' says the critic, 'is an act that was never restrained by a bridle.' Some, however, are too fastidious on this point. Words which, by long use in a transferred sense, have lost nearly all their metaphorical force, may fairly be combined in a manner which, taking them literally, would be incongruous. It would savour of hypercriticism to object to such an expression as ' fertile source.' " In reference to the other fault — that of the too complex metaphor —it should be observed that the moie apt and stirring is the analogy suggested, the more will it have of an artificial appearance ; and will draw off the reader's attention from the subject to admire the in- genuity displayed in the style. Young writers of genius ought especi- ally to be admonished to ask themselves frequently, not whether this or that is a striking expression, but whether it makes the' meaning more striking than another phrase would — whether it impresses more forcibly the sentiment to be conveyed." Epithets. If the speaker would secura for his style the character of energy, there are few points on which he should be more particular than in the choice and use of Epithets. In Rhetoric this word is employed to denote not every adjective, but only such as signify something already im- plied in the noun. Some writers and speakers are prodigal of the use of epithets, thinking thereby to increase the force of what they say. But the very reverse effect is produced. As a general rule, one should employ very few of them. They should not be discarded altogether, however, for their proper introduction heightens considerably the energy of style. Another important riilc, it has been remarked, is that the boldest ' Whately, " Rhetoric," part iii. ch. ii. § 3. 35 beeton's art of public spfaring. and most poetic turns of expression should be kept for the highly im- passioned parts of a discourse. Should they be introduced every where, the effect of light and shade will be wanting to the whole. Foreign and Obsolete Expressions. As to the introduction of foreign and obsolete words and of ex- pressions appropriated from their more ordinary meaning, the advice of Aristotle given in his " Poetics " may be quoted : " If they are used sparingly and with discrimination," he says, ''they give sublimity and majesty to a discourse, otherwise they make the whole barbarous." He instances Homer as often introducing expressions peculiar to the idioms of the neighbouring states ; and observes that thus some of his most forcible allusions would only be understood by his contemporaries. The pleasure which such terms give to the ear he shows to be ana- logous to the gratification which the sight of a stranger gives to the eye, and the authority with which a stranger's opinion often impresses the mind. As to what are or are not obsolete words the usage of the educated of the country must of course be the authority. Upon the use of technical language of any sort in cases where un- scientific terms may be employed, it is not necessary to say much. It is specially a feature and a failing in the theological teaching of the pulpit. Common sense should teach a speaker to avoid it and to keep technical terms for the study, not for display on the platform. Number of Words. We come now to notice another feature of style, viz., the Number of words employed. "It is certain," says Dr. Campbell, "that of whatever kind the sentiment be — witty, humorous, grave, animated, or sublimt — the more briefly it is expressed, the energy is the greater." He afterwards remarks, what is more particularly to our purpose here, that though a languid rendering of words is in all cases to be avoided, the energetic brevity which is the most contrary to it is not adapted alike to every subject and occasion. " The kinds of writing which are most susceptible of this ornament are the Descriptive, the Pathetic, the Declamatory, especially the last. It is besides much more suitable in writing than in speaking. A reader has the com- mand of his time ; he may read fast or slow, as he finds convenient ; he can peruse a sentence a second time when necessary, or lay down the book and think. But if, in haranguing the people, you comprise a great deal in few words, the hearer must have uncommon quickness of apprehension to catch the meaning before you have put it out of his power by engaging his attention with something else." This difficulty, however, may be got over, not so much by diluting the sentence with additional words, as by repeating the thought several times, clothed in a fresh garb, as has been said already. Pompous verbosity is a very common defect with both young writers and speakers, and they fall into this style, Dr. Whately re- marks, " not from negligence, but from an idea that they are adding both perspicuity and force to what is said." And they are the more 36 STYLE AND ARRANGEMENT. likely to commit this mistake, because sucli a style will often appear not only to the author, but to the vulgar {i.e., the vulgar in intellect) among his hearers, to be very majestic and impressive. It is not un- common to hear a speaker or writer of this class mentioned as having a "very fine command of language" when perhaps it might be said with more correctness that his language has a command of him ; i.e., that he follows a train of words rather than of thought, and strings together all the striking expressions that occur to him on the subject, instead of first forming a clear notion of the sense he wishes to convey, and then seeking for the most appropriate vehicle in which to convey it. He has but the same command of language that the rider has of a horse which runs away with him. It is, of course, impossible to lay down precise rules as to the degree of conciseness which is, on each occasion that may arise, allowable and desirable ; but to an author [or speaker] who is in his expression of any sentiment wavering between the demands of perspicuity and of energy (of which the former, of course, requires the first care, lest he should fail of both), and doubting whether the phrase which has the most forcible brevity will be readily taken in, it may be recommended to use both expressions ; first to expand the senses sufficiently to be clearly understood, and then to contract it into the most compendious and striking form. This expedient might seem at first sight the most decidedly adverse to the brevity recommended ; but it will be found in practice that the addition of a compressed and pithy expression of the sentiment which has been already stated at greater length will produce the effect of brevity. For it is to be remembered that it is not on account of the actual number of words that diffiiseness is to be con- demned (unless one were limited to a certain space or time), but to avoid the flatness and tediousness resulting from it ; so that if this ap- pearance can be obviated by the insertion of such an abridged repe- tition as is recommended, which adds poignancy and spirit to the whole, conciseness will be practically promoted by the addition. The hearers will be struck by the forcibleness of the sentence which they will have been prepared to comprehend ,; they will understand the longer expression, and remember the shorter. But the force will in general be totally destroyed, or much enfeebled, if the order be re- versed—if the brief expression be put first and afterwards expanded and explained. Though it is well to cultivate a concise style, yet care must be taken not to have it crowded. There must be no appearance of laborious compression, for that is highly offensive. Arrangement of Words. Last of all, energy of style is greatly assisted by a proper arrange- ment pi y^o^A^. And the general maxim that must guide us in respect to this is, as Dr. Campbell observes, the homely saying, " Nearest the heart, nearest the mouth ;" that is to say, the idea which is most forcibly impressed on the speaker's mind will naturally claim the first Utterance, as nearly as the rules of the language will permit. Into BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. this question of arrangement the limited space at command forbids our doing more than repeat that remark. Those who wish to pursue it farther may be referred to Archbishop ' Whately's " Elements of Khetoric," where it is treated with fulness and care. Elegance. The last quality of. style to be noticed is Elegance. Most of the observations made on the subject of energy apply equally to this. The same choice, number and arrangement of words will in general be favourable both to energy and beauty of style. But it must be noted that they aie not the same, and that at times the speaker will have to decide upon an expression in which the two appear at variance. In such cases he ought, as a general rule, to prel'er the energetic to the elegant. " Any expression, indeed, that is vulgar, in bad taste, and unsuitable to the dignity of the subject, or of the occasion, is to be avoided ; since, though it might have with some hearers an energetic effect, this would be more than counterbalanced by the disgust pro- duced in others ; and where a small accession of energy is to be gained at the expense of Ti. great sacrifice of elegance, the latter will demand a preference. But still the general rule is not to be lost sight of by him who is in earnest, aiming at the true ultimate end of the orator, to which all others are to be made subservient ; viz., not the amusement of his hearers nor their admiration of himself, but their conviction or persuasion." Ornament. It is a fault with many to introduce too much ornament into their discourses ; but some go quite as far astray in having theirs quite barren of it. A plain narrative does not move people, and if we would secure their attention nothing is of greater service than proper embellishment. The test of all true ornament is whether it so heightens the force of what is said that the audience are more likely to be per- suaded by the argument and influenced by the purpose of the speaker than if it were omitted. That which serves merely as an ornament it will easily be seen is superfluous ; and affected ornaments, which do nothing but call attention from the subject to the speaker, should be rigidly excluded from our public discourses. They are introduced for the most part by those who think considerably less of the matter they have in hand than of themselves. "Let the embellishment of our style," says Ouintilian, "be manly, noble, and chaste ; let it not affect effeminate delicacy, or a com- plexion counterfeited by paint, but let it glow with genuine health and vigour." The tendency of all youthful minds is to run into excess of ornament, but this should be carefully checked. The value of right ornament in the right place is unquestioned. The orator must to a certain extent be a poet. We are such imaginative creatures, that nothing so works on the human mind as a trope. Condense some daily experience into a glowing symbol, and an audience is electrified. They feel as if they already possessed some new right and power over 38 STYLE AND ARRANGEMENT. a fart which they cannot detach, and so completely master in thought. It is a wonderful aid to the memory, which carries away the image, and never loses it. We may observe here, that the speaker should never have what is called a "favourite expression," that is, a phrase with a marked pecu- liarity of turn about it repeated every now and again. Such a phrase should never occur even twice in the same discourse. "Mean terms," Quintilian remarks, "are such as are beneath the dignity of a subject or of the person to whom we address ourselves. But, in avoiding meanness, some speakers are in the habit of runnins; into a very great error, as they shrink from all terms that are in common use, even though the necessity of their subject calls for them ; as he, for example, who in pleading a cause, spoke of an Iberian shrub, of which he hiniself would alone have known the meaning, li.Tcl not Cassius Severus, in derision of his folly, observed that he meant to say Spanish Broom." "jfcsting. Jesting may often be introduced with good effect into a speech. It affords relief from the dulness, of a dry s,ubject, and tends to put the audience in better humour, both with themselves and with the speaker. . Besides it often attracts their wandering attention, and secures their notice to the end, when mere argument would fail to do so. But we must remember that this ornament of a speech is to be used with moderation. _ Nothing is more painful to sensible people than to see a man play the buffoon. The least offensive jokes, it is to be remarked, are always the best, as they art the most politic. At times, however, ridicule may be heaped upon an adversary for the purpose of overthrbwing him ; for laughter excited at his expense is often worth more than a dozen reasons againsthis arguments. -The speaker must.be very careful at the same time not to lay himself open to ridicule, The jests need not, in order to succeed, be of the first quality, for it has been often observed that a joke which would not excite a smile iu private, will excite loud laughter in public. It is hardly necessary to add, that all indecency of language and all jests bordering on profanity are to be shunned. No one who values his own peace of mind, and the esteem of those whose good opinion is of any value, will be likely to transgress in this way. In connection with this whole subject of ornament, Hume, in his essays, says thai uncommon expressions, strong flashes of wit, pointed similes, and epigrammatic turns, especially when they recur too frequently, often disfigure, rather than embellish, a discourse. It commonly happens, in such cases, that twenty insipid conceits are found for one thought which is really beautiful. "Composition," says Quintilian, "summing up all that has been said on the subject, ought to be elegant, pleasing, and varied. The particulars that require attention in it are three — order, connection, and rhythm. The art of it lies in adding, retrenching, and altering. 39 BE ETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. The quality of it must be suited to the nature of the subjects on which we speak. The care required in it is great, but that devoted to thought and delivery should be greater. But all our care must be diligently concealed, in order that our words may seem to flow from us spontaneously, and not be forced or studied." The great judge of composition is the ear, which is sensible of what fills it, misses something in whatever is defective, is offended with what is harsh, soothed with what is gentle, startled by what is distorted, approves what is compact, marks what is lame, and dislikes whatever is redundant and superfluous. Hence, while the learned understand the art of composition, the unlearned enjoy pleasure from it. Length. How long should a speech be? It should neither be too long nor too short. Manage so that it will be too short if it be shorter, too long if it be longer.' It may be added, by way of curiosity, but certainly not as a model for imitation, that the longest legal speech on record was made by the Attorney-General in the famous Tichborne case. It lasted twenty- five days. The Attorney-General only narrowly escaped Sisera's fate of being beaten by a woman, for Miss Sheddon spoke for twenty-four days in the celebrated declaration of legitimacy case. Sergeant Wilde (afterwards Lord Truro) spoke twelve days (three House of Lords weeks) in Small v. Attwood. We have now come to the end of one important portion of our subject, the consideration of the style of a discourse or address. But it should be remembered that style is of much inferior consequence to the thought, of which style, indeed, is but the garment. " About your expression," Quintilian says, " be attentive ; but about your matter be solicitous." Rev. J. J. Halcombe, " The Speaker at Home," p. SS- CHAPTER VI. THE DIVISIONS OF A DISCOURSE. On the subject of the different divisions of a discourse, Dr. Blair has written with great judgment and good taste, and in what is said in the following pages on this head we mainly follow the remarks of the Scotch Professor. According to him, the parts that compose a regular formal oration are these six : first, the Exordium or Inli-oduction ; secondly, the State and the Division of the Subject ; thirdly. Narration or Explication ; fourthly, the Reasoning or Arguments ; fifthly, the Pathetic part ; and, lastly, the Conclusion. This is the most natural order in which they can occur, as will be apparent to every one who turns the subject over in his mind. But, in particular cases, the order may be varied, and some even of these parts omitted. Indeed, in connection with all such rules as these, it is to be observed that they are not invariably to be followed. Peculiar circumstances may render it necessary that we should break through them altogether. " You direct a general," says Quintilian, "that whenever he draws up his troops for battle, he must range his front in line, extend his wings to the right and left, and station his cavalry to defend his flanks. Such a method will perhaps be the best ; but it will be subject to alteration from the nature of the ground, if a hill come in the way, if a river interpose, if obstruction be caused by declivities, woods, or any other obstacles. The character of the enemy, too, may make a. change necessary." Just so with public speaking. Arrangement is naturally to be treated of after invention, and may be considered as the next in importance of the various parts of oratory ; for, " though all the limbs of the statue," says Quintilian, " be cast, it is not a statue until they are united ; and if, in our own bodies, or those of any other animals, we were to displace or alter the position of any part, they would, though they had the same number of parts, be but monsters." TAe Exordium. "Well' begun is half done," so the speaker ought to be very particular about his opening remarks, or exordium, as it is called. The end in this division of a speech is threefold. First, to conciliate the goodwill of hearers — and this is a most important purpose. It may best be accomplished by the speaker exhibiting a modest and unassuming manner, and by his dexterously interweaving with his commencement a little of compliment and flattery to those present. Secondly, to raise the attention of the hearers, which may be done by hinting at the importance or dignity or novelty of the subject, or at 41 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. some peculiarity of our views, or of our proposed treatment of it. Tlie third end is to render the hearers docile, or open to persuasion, for which end we must begin with studying to remove any particular prepossessions they may have contracted against the cause or side of the argument which we espouse. Difterent styles may be adopted in the exordium, and that should, in every case, be employed which seems to come most natural to the subject and to the sort of audience addressed. Some speakers have, in addressing large crowds, produced great effect by beginning abruptly, attracting attention by a sudden flash, and plunging without preparation into the subject. Thus O'Connell commenced one of his speeches, " I am a missionary, come to preach down the House of Lords." And Roebuck on one occasion began, "Not talk politics? It is my business to talk politics." But as a rule, and it is an old rule, the exordium should be simply modest and unassuming. Modesty in the speaker is flattering to the audience, and, as we have said above, it is very desirable in the beginning to employ it for securing their good will. A bold commencement sounds too much like an assertion of superior worth and wisdom, and that is relished by nobody. It is politic in the introduction not to promise too much. That is to say, the speaker should not set out in too lofty a strain. Should he do so there is a great danger that he may not be able to keep it up, and he may end in a descent from the sublime to the commonplace. Occasionally, however, this rule must be disregarded, and circum- stances may warrant a speaker commencing in a bold and high tone. The introduction also should be easy and natural, and this not only in manner, but in matter. It should not be far-fetched, but quite of a piece with the subject to which it is prefixed. In order to render mtroductions natural and easy, it is a good rule that they should not be planned till after one has meditated in his own mind the substance of his discourse. Then, and not till then, he should begin to think of some proper and natural introduction. By taking a contrary course, and labouring in the first place on an introduction, every one who is accustomed to composition will often find, that either he is led to lay hold of some commonplace topic, or that, instead of the introduction being accommodated to the discourse, he is obliged to accommodate the whole discourse to the introduction which be had previously written. Cicero, though his practice was not always Conformable to his own rule, said : " When I have planned and digested all the materials of my discourse,- it is my custom' to think, in .the last place, of the introduction with which I am to begin. For if, at any time, I have endeavoured to invent an introduction first, nothing has ever occurred to me for that purpose but what was trifling, nugatory, and vulgar." After the mind has been once warmed and put in train by close meditation on the subject, materials , for the preface will then suggest themselves much more readily. Correctness of style is another feature which should mark the r^iordium. There is, indee(^ a greater necessity for its being correct ilian for the careful wording of any other part of the discourse. The 42 DIVISIONS OF A DISCOURSE. reason for this is tliat, in the commencement, the audience are very critical. Tlicir minds have not yet become engaged on the subject ; it is the style and manner of the speaker mainly which occupy their thoughts. The exordium should rouse attention and awaken curiosity, as would no doubt be the case with that prefixed to Swift's sermon on the text, "And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep," etc. (Acts xx. 9). The exordium ran : " I have chosen these words with design, if possible, to disturb some part of this audience of half-an-hour's sleep, for the convenience and exercise whereof, this place, at this season of the day, is very much celebrated." The introduction should not anticipate any material part of the subject. When topics or arguments, which are afterwards to be enlarged upon, are hinted at, and in part brought forth in tlie intro- duction, they lose the grace of novelty on their second appearance. The impression to be made by any capital thought is always made with the greatest advantage when it is made entire, and in its proper place. Lastly, introductions should be proportioned both in length and in kind, to the discourses to which they are prefixed : in length, as nothing can be more absurd than to erect a very great portico before a small building ; and in kind, as it is no less absurd to overcharge with superb ornaments the porticoof a plain dwelling-house, or to make the entrance to a monument as gay as that to an arbour. Common sense directs that every part of a discourse should be suited to the strain and spirit of the whole. It is to be added that in pleadings at the Bar, or speeches in public assemblies, care must be taken not to employ any introduction which can be laid hold of and turned to account by the opposite party. In the case of replies, Quinlilian makes a remark which is worthy of notice: "An introduction," he says, "which is founded upon the pleading of the opposite party is extremely graceful ; for this reason that it appears not to have been meditated at home, but to have taken rise from the business, and to have been composed on the spot. Hence it gives to the speaker the reputation of a quick in- vention, and adds weight likewise to his discourse, as artless and unlaboured ; insomuch, that though all the rest of his oration shall be studied and written, yet the whole discourse has the appearance of being extempore, as it is evident that the introduction to it was unpremeditated." The Enunciation of the Subject. The next part of a discourse that comes to be considered is the Proposition or Entmciation of the subject ; but of this there is nothing to be said except that it should be clear and distinct, expressed briefly, without affectation, and leaving not the slightest doubt in the hearers' minds as to the nature of the topic to be enlarged upon. 43 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. The Division. Then comes the Division, or that part of a discourse in which the speaker lays down his plan and states under what heads he will treat his subject. Of course in every discourse this will not be necessary, as when only one topic is to be treated of, or when the orator deems it most politic to develope his method as he goes along. In sermons this part of a discourse most often finds a place, and it has been questioned whether this method of laying down heads, as it is called, be the best method of preaching. A very able judge, the Archbishop of Cambray, in his " Dialogues on Eloquence," declares strongly against it. He observes that it is a modern invention ; that it was never practised by the Fathers of the Church ; and, what is certainly true, that it took its rise from the schoolmen when metaphysics began to be introduced into preaching. He is of opinion that it renders a ser- mon stiff; that it breaks the unity of the discourse ; and that, by the natural connection of one part with another, the attention of the hearers would be carried along the whole with more advantage. To this Dr. Blair replies : " Notwithstanding his authority and his arguments I cannot help being of opinion that the present method of dividing a sermon into heads ought not to be laid aside. Established practice has now given it so much weight that, were there nothing more in its favour, it would be dangerous for any preacher to deviate so far from the common track. But the practice has also, in my judgment, much reason on its side. If formal partitions give a sermon less of the oratorical appearance, they render it, however, more clear, more easily apprehended, and, of course, more instructive to the bulk of hearers, which is always the main object to be kept in view. The heads of a sermon are a great assistance to the memory and recollec- tion of a hearer. They serve also to fix his attention. They enable him more easily to keep pace with the progress of the discourse ; they give him pauses and resting-places, where he can reflect on what has been said and look forward to what is to follow. They are attended with this advantage, too, that they give the audience the opportunity of knowing beforehand when they are to be released from the fatigue of attention, and thereby make them follow the speaker more patiently." " The conclusion of each head," says Quintilian, taking note of this very advantage of divisions in other discourses, " is a relief to the hearers, just as upon a journey the milestones which are set upon the road serve to diminish the traveller's fatigue. For we are always pleased with seeing our labours begin to lessen, and, by calculating how much remains, are stirred up to finish our task more cheerfully. With regard to breaking the unity of a discourse, I cannot be of opinion that there arises from that quarter any argument against the method I am defending. If the unity be broken, it is to the nature of the heads or topics of which the speaker treats that this is to be imputed, not to his laying them down in form. On the contrary, if his heads be well chosen, his marking them out and distinguishing them, in place of impairing the unity of the whole, renders it more 44 r>i Visions of a discourse. conspicuous and complete by showing how all the parts of a discourse hang upon one another, and tend to one point." A happy division, whether in a sermon or in a pleading at the bar, or in any other sort of discourse, is of great importance. The following are the chief rules relating to it : — Rules, First, the several parts into which the subject is divided must be really distinct from one another ; that is, no one must include the other. It were a very absurd division, for instance, if one should pro- pose to treat first of the advantages of virtue, and next of those of justice or temperance ; because the first head evidently comprehends the second, as a genus does the species ; which method of proceeding involves the subject in indistinctness and disorder. Secondly, in division we must be careful to follow the order of nature ; beginning with the simplest points, such as are easiest appre- hended and necessary to be first discussed, and proceeding thence to those which are bt.ilt upon the former and suppose them to be known. We must divide the subject into those parts into which most easily and naturally it is resolved ; that it may seem to split itself, and not to be violently torn asunder : " Dividere," as is commonly said, " non frangere." Thirdly, the several members of a division ought to exhaust the subject ; otherwise we do not make a complete division ; we exhibit the subject by pieces and corners only, without giving any such plan as displays the whole. Fourthly, the terms in which our partitions are expressed should be as concise as possible. Avoid all circumlocution here. Admit not a single word but what is necessary. Precision is to be studied above all things in laying down a method. It is this which chiefly makes a division appear neat and. elegant : when the several heads are pro- pounded in the clearest, most expressive, and, at the same time, the fewest words possible. This never fails to strike the hearers agree- ably, and is at the same time of great consequence toward making the divisions be more easily remembered. Fifthly, avoid an unnecessary multiplication of heads. To split a subject into a great many minute parts, by divisions and subdivisions without end, has always a bad effect in speaking. It may be proper in a logical treatise, but it makes an oration appear hard and dry, and unnecessarily fatigues the memory. In a sermon there may be from three to five or six heads, including subdivisions ; seldom should there be more. The Narration. The next constituent part of a discourse to be considered is the Narration or Explication. These are put together because " they fall nearly under the same rules, and because they commonly answer the same purpose ; serving to illustrate the cause, or the subject of which the orator treats, before he proceeds to argue either on one side or 45 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. other, or to make any attempt for interesting the passions of the hearers." At the Bar. Narration is often of great importance, and demands special con- sideration in pleadings at the bar. In these, too, it is attended by a special difficulty, for the advocate has not only to say nothing but what is true, but to avoid saying anything that will hurt the cause of his client. The facts wliich he relates are to be the groundwork of all his future reasoning. To recount them so as to keep strictly within llie bounds of truth, and yet to present them under colours most favourable to his cause ; to place in the most striking light every cir- cumstance which is to his advantage, and to soften and weaken such as make against him, demand no small exertion of skill and dexterity. (2uintilian very properly directs : " In this part of discourse the speaker must be very careful to shun every appearance of art and cunning ; for there Is no time when the judge is more on his guard than when the pleader is relating facts. Let nothing, then, seem feigned ; nothing anxiously concealed. Let all that is said appear to arise from the cause itself, and not be the work of the orator." What is chiefly required in narration is clearness, distinctness, probability and conciseness, and the importance of each of these in what is really the groundwork of the whole discourse cannot well be overestimated. In the Pulpit. " In sermons, where there is seldom any occasion for narration, explication of the subject to be discoursed on comes in the place of narration at the bar, and is to be taken up much in the same tone ; that is, it must be concise, clear, and distinct, and in a style correct and elegant rather than highly adorned. To explain the doctrine of the text with propriety, to give a full and perspicuous account of the nature of that virtue or duty which forms the subject of the discourse, is properly the didactic part of preaching, on the right execution of which much depends for all that comes afterwards in the way of persuasion. The great art of succeeding in it is to meditate profoundly on the subject, so as to be able to place it in a clear and strong point of view. Consider what light other passages of Scripture throw upon it ; con- sider whether it be a subject nearly related to some other from which it is proper to distinguish it ; consider whether it can be illustrated to advantage by comparing it with, or opposing it to, some other thing : by inquiring into causes or tracing effects, by pointing out examples or appealing to the feelings of the hearers, that thus a definite, precise, circumstantial view may be afforded of the doctrine to be inculcated. Let the preacher be persuaded that by such distinct and apt illustra- tions of the known truths of religion it may both display great merit in the way of composition, and what he ought to consider as far more valuable, render his discourses weighty, instructive, and useful." ^ » Blair, " Lectures." 46 DIVISIONS OF A DISCOURSE. The Argument. We come now to consider the argumentative or reasoning part of a discourse, and in the succeeding paragraphs we give all the most important remarks of Blair on this head. No matter where, or on what subject one speaks, the argument is without doubt of the greatest consequence, for the object of eloquence is, as we have seen, persuasion, and that cannot be accomplished without reasoning. The student will, therefore, give particular heed to all that is to be said with respect to arguments. Three things are to be noted. They are to be well invented ; they are to be properly disposed and arranged ; and they are to be ex- pressed in such a style as to give them full force. The Invention of Arguments. First, to speak of the invention of arguments, that is a most material point. But in connection with it it does not appear that art can give any leal assistance. Art cannot go so far as to supply a speaker with arguments on every cause and every subject, though it may be of considerable use in assisting him to arrange and express those which his knowledge of the subject has discovered. For it is one thing to discover the reasons that are most proper to convince men, and another to manage these reasons with the most advantage. The latter is all that rhetoric can pretend to. The ancient rhetoricians did indeed attempt to go much further than this. They attempted to form rhetoric into a much more com- plete system, and professed not only to assist public speakers in setting off their arguments to most advantage, but to supply the defect of their invention, and to teach them where to find arguments on every subject and cause. Hence their doctrine of topics, or " Loci Com- munes," and " Sedes Argunientorum," which makes so great a figure in the writings of Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian. These topics or loci were no other than general ideas applicable to a great many different subjects, which the orator was directed to consult in order to find out materials for his speech. The Grecian sophists were the first inventors of this artificial system of oratory ; and they showed a prodigious subtlety and fertility in the contrivance of these loci. Succeeding rhetoricians, dazzled by the plan, wrought them up into so regidar a system that one would think tliey meant to teach how a person might mechanically become an orator without any genius at all. They gave him receipts for making speeches on all manner of subjects. At the same time it is evident that, though this study of common places might produce very showy academical declamations, it could never produce useful discourses on real business. The loci, indeed, supplied a most exuberant fecundity of matter. One who had no other aim but to talk copiously and plausibly, by consulting them on every subject, and laying hold of all that they suggested, might discourse without end, and that, too, though be had none but the most superficial knowledge of his subject. But 47 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. such discourse could be no other than trivial. What is truly solid and persuasive must be drawn " ex visceribus causai " from a thorough knowledge of the subject, and profound meditation on it. The Disposition of Arguments. Let us proceed to what is of more real use, to point out the assist- ance that can be given not with respect to the invention, but with respect to the disposition and conduct of arguments. Two different methods may be used by orators in the conduct of their reasoning ; the terms of art for which are the analytic and the synthetic method. The analytic is, when the orator conceals his in- tuition concerning the point he is to prove, till he has gradually brought his hearers to the designed conclusion. They are led on, step by step, from one known truth to another, till the conclusion be stolen upon them, as the natural consequence of a chain of propositions. As, for instance, when one, intending to prove the being of a God, sets out with observing that everything which we see in the world has had a beginning ; that whatever has had a beginning, must have had a prior cause; that in human productions, art shown in the effect neces- sarily infers design in the cause, and proceeds, leading you on from one cause to another, till you arrive at one supreme First Cause, from whom is derived all the order ard design visible in His works. This is much the same with the Socratic method, by which that philosopher silenced the sophists of his age. It is a very artful method of rea- soning, may be carried on with much beauty, and is proper to be used when the hearers are much prejudiced against any truth, and by imperceptible steps must be led to conviction. But there are few subjects that will admit of this method, and not many occasions on which it is proper to be employed. The mode of reasoning most generally used, and most suited to the train of popular speaking, is what is called the synthetic ; when the point to be proved is fairly laid down, and one argument after another is made to bear upon it till the hearers be fully convinced. Now, in all arguing, one of the first things to be attended to is, among the various arguments which occur upon a cause, to make a proper selection of such as appear to one's self the most solid, and to employ these as the chief means of persuasion. Every speaker should place himself in the situation of a hearer, and think how he would be affected by those reasons which he purposes to employ for persuading others. For he must not expect to impose on mankind by mere arts of speech. They are not so easily imposed on as public speakers are sometimes apt to think. Shrewdness and sagacity are found among all ranks, and the speaker may be praised for his fine discourse, while yet his hearers are not persuaded of the truth of any one thing he has uttered. Supposing the arguments properly chosen, it is evident that their effect will in some measure depend on the right arrangement of them, so that they shall not jostle and embarrass one another, but give mutual 48 DIVISIONS OF A DISCOURSE. aid, and bear with the fairest and fullest direction on the point in view. Concerning this the following rules may be taken : — • In the first place, avoid blending arguments confusedly together that are of a separate nature. All arguments whatever are directed to prove one or other of these three things : that something is true ; that it is morally right or fit ; or that it is profitable and good. These make the three great subjects of discussion among mankind : Truth, Duty, and Interest. But the arguments directed toward any one of them are generically distinct ; and he who blends them all under one topic which he calls his argument, as, in sermons especially, is too often done, will render his reason indistinct and inelegant. Suppose, for instance, that I am recommending to an audience benevolence, or the love of our neighbour ; and that I take my first argument from the inward satisfaction which a benevolent temper affords ; my second, from the obligation which the example of Christ lays upon us to this duty ; and my third, from the tendency to procure us the good-Avill of all around us : my arguments are good, but I have arranged them wrong ; for my first and third arguments are taken from considerations of interest, internal peace, and external advantages ; and between these I have introduced one which rests wholly upon duty. I should have kept those classes of arguments which are addressed to different principles in human nature separate and distinct. In the second place, with regard to the different degrees nf strength in arguments, the general rule is to advance in the way of climax, ut augeaiur semper, el increscat oratio. This especially is to be the course when the speaker has a clear cause, and is confident that he can prove it fully. Ho may then adventure to begin with feebler arguments, rising gradually and not putting forth his whole strength till the last, when he can trust to making a successful impression on the minds of hearers prepared by what has gone before. But this rule is not to be always followed, for if he distrusts his cause, and has but one material argument on which to lay the stress, putting less confidence in the rest in this case, it is often proper for him to place this material argument in the front ; to pre-occupy the hearers early, and make the strongest effort at first ; that having removed prejudices, and disposed them to be favourable, the rest of his reasoning may be listened to with more candour. When it happens that amidst a variety of arguments there are one or two which we are sensible are more inconclusive than the rest, and yet proper to be used, Cicero advises to place these in the middle, as a station less conspicuous than either the beginning or the end of the train of reasoning. In the third place, when our arguments are strong and satisfactory, the more they are distinguished and treated apart from each other the better. Each can then bear to be brought out by itself, placed in its full light, amplified and rested upon. But when our arguments are doubtful, and only of the presumptive kind, it is safer to throw them together in a crowd and to run them into one another ; " lit qua sunt natura iinbecilla" as Quintilian speaks, "mttltuo auxiliositstineanttirj" that, though infirm of themselves, they may serve mutually to prop 5 49 BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. each other. He gives a good example in the case of one who was accused of murdering a relation to whom he was heir. Direct proof was wanting ; but " you expected a succession, and a great succession ; you were in distressed circumstances ; you were pushed to the utmost by your creditors ; you had offended your relation who had made you his heir ; you knew he was just then intending to alter his will ; no time was lo be lost. Each of these particulars by itself," says this author, "is inconclusive ; but when they are assembled in one group they have effect." In the fourth place, arguments must not be extended too far, or multiplied too much. This serves rather to render a cause suspected than to give it weight. An unnecessary multiplicity of arguments both burdens the memory and detracts from the weight of that conviction v.'hich a few well-chosen arguments carry. It is to be observed, too, that in the amplification of arguments a diffuse and spreading method beyond the bounds of reasonable illustration is always enfeebling. It takes off greatly from that vis ct acumen which should be the dis- tinguishing character of the argumentative part of a discourse. When .a speaker dwells long on a favourite argument, and seeks to turn it into every possible light, it almost always happens that, fatigued with the effort, he loses the .spirit with which he set out, and concludes with feebleness what he began with force. There is a proper temperance ill reasoning as there is in other parts of a discourse. At the same lime it must be allowed that the frequent repetition of arguments in new words is often of great service for a reason already explained, and has often been employed with success by some of our greatest speakers. With reference to the arguments of an opponent, the speaker should be always on his guard not to do them injustice by disguising or placing them in a false light. The deceit is soon discovered ; it will not fail of being exposed, and tends to impress the hearers with distrust of the speaker as one who either wants discernment to perceive, or wants fairness to admit the strength of the reasoning on the other side. The Pathetic. The next essential part of a discourse and the fifth in order is the Pa- thetic and in this, if anywhere, eloquence reigns and exerts its power. It is needless in beginning this head to take up time in combating the scruples of those who have moved a question, whether it be consistent with fairness and candour in a pubhc speaker to address the passions of his audience? This is a question about words alone, and which common sense easily determines. In inquiries after mere truth, in matters of simple information and instruction, there is no question that the passions have no concern, and that all attempts to move them are absurd. Wherever conviction is the object it is the understanding ;.lone that is to be applied to. It is by argument and reasoning that one man attempts to satisfy another of what is true, or right, or just ; but if persuasion be the object the case is changed. In all that relates to practice, there is no man who seriously means to persuade another 50 DIVISIONS OF A DISCOURSE. but addresses himself to his passions more or less ; for this plain reason, that passions are the great springs of human action. The most virtuous man, in treating of the most virtuous subject, seeks to touch the heart of him to whom he speaks, and makes no scruple to raise his indignation at injustice, or his pity for the distressed, though pity and indignation ,be passions. In treating of this part of eloquence, the ancients made the same sort of attempt as they employed with respect to the argumentative part, in order to bring rhetoric into a more perfect system. 'I hey in- quired metaphysically into the nature of every passion ; thcygavc a definition and a description of it ; they treated of its causes, itscfTe^s, and its concomitants ; and thence deduced rules for working upon it. Aristotle, in particular, has, in his treatise upon " Rhetoric," discussed the nature of the passions with much profoundness and subtilty ; and what he has written on that head may be read with no small profit as a valuable piece of moral philosophy ; but whether it will have any effect in rendering an orator more pathetic, is doubtful. No philo- sophical knowledge of the passions, it is to be feared, can confer this talent. We must be indebted for it to Nature, and a certain strong and happy sensibility of mind, and one maybe a most thorough adept in all the speculative knowledge that can be acquired concerning the passions, and remain, at the same time, a cold and dry speaker. The use of rules and instructions on this or on ?.ny other part of oiatory is not to supply tlie want of genius, but to direct it where it is found into its proper channels ; to assist it in e.xerting itself with most advantage, and to prevent the errors and extravagances into which it is sometimes apt to run. On the head of the pathetic the following directions appear useful : — Ruhs. The first is to consider carefully whether the subject admit the pathetic and render it proper ; and, if it does, what part of the dis- course is the most proper for attempting it. To determine these points belongs to good sense ; for it is evident that there are many subjects which admit not the pathetic at all, and that even in those that are susceptible of it an attempt to excite the passions in the wrong place may expose an orator to ridicule. All that can be said, in general, is that if we expect any emotion which we raise to have a lasting effect, we must be careful to bring over to our side, in the first place, the understanding and judgment. The hearers must be convinced that there arc good and sufficient grounds for their entering with warmth into the cause. They must be able to justify to themselves the passion which they feel, and remain satisfied that they are not carried away by mere delusion. Unless their minds be brought into this stale, although they may have been heated by the orator's discourse, yet as soon as he ceases to speak they will resume their ordinary tone of thought, and the emotion which he has raised will die entirely away. Hence most writers assign the pathetic to the peroration or conclusiiin as its natural place ; and, no doubt, all other things being equal, tins 51 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. is the impression that one would choose to make last, leaving the minds of the hearers warmed with the subject after argument and reasoning had produced their full effect ; but wherever it is intro- duced it is to be advised — In the second place, never to set apart a head of a discourse in form for raising any passion ; never give warning that you are about to be pathetic, and call upon your hearers, as is sometimes done, to follow you in the attempt. This almost never fails to prove a refrigerant to passion. It puts the hearers immediately upon their guard, and dis- poses them for criticising much more than for being moved. The -indirect method of making an impression is likely to be more suc- cessful when you seize the critical moment that is favourable to emotion, in whatever part of the discourse it occurs ; and then, after due preparation, throw in such circumstances and such glowing pic- tures as may kindle their passions before they are aware. This can often be done more happily in a few sentences inspired by natural warmth than in a long and studied address. In the third place, it is necessary to observe that there is a great difference between showing the hearers that they ought to be moved and actually moving them. This distinction is not sufficiently attended to, especially by preachers, who, if they have a head in their sermon to show how much we are bound to be grateful to God, or to be com- passionate to the distressed, are apt to imagine tliis to be a pathetic part. Now, all the arguments you produce to show me why it is my duty, why it is reasonable and fit, that I should be moved in a certain ■^v^yj go no further than to dispose or prepare me for entering into such an emotion : but they do not actually excite it. To every emotion or passion Nature has adapted a set of corresponding objects ; and without setting these before the mind, it is not in the power of any orator to raise that emotion. I am warmed with gratitude, I am touched with compassion, not when a speaker shows me that these are noble dispositions, and that it is my duty to feel them, or when he exclaims against me for my indifference and coldness. All this time he is speakingonly to my reason or conscience. He must describe the kindness and tenderness of my friend ; he must set before me the distress suffered by the person for whom he would interest me ; then, and not till then, my heart begins to be touched, my gratitude or my compassion begins to flow. The foundation, therefore, of all succes- sive execution in the way of pathetic oratory is, to paint the object of that passion which we wish to raise in the most natural and striking manner ; to describe it with such circumstances as are likely to awaken it in the minds of others. Every passion is most strongly excited by sensation ; as anger by the feeling of an injury, or the presence of the injurer. Next to the influence of sense is that of memory ; and next to memory is the influence of the imagination. Of this power, therefore, the orator must avail himself so as to strike the imagina- tion of the hearers with circumstances which, in lustre and steadiness, resemble those of sensation and remembrance. In order to accomplish this— ^ 52 DIVISIONS OP A DISCOURSE. In the fourth place, the only effectual method is to be moved our- selves. There are a thousand interesting circumstances suggested by real passion which no art can imitate, and no refinement can supply. There is obviously a contagion among the passions — " Ut redentibus arrident, sic flentibus adflent Humani vultus." The internal emotion of the speaker adds a pathos to his words, his looks, his gestures, and his whole manner, which exerts a power almost irresistible over those who hear him. This is a most important point, but I shall not enlarge upon it here, as we spoke of it a short time ago when treating of the character of the orator. We showed then that all attempts toward becoming pathetic, when we are not moved ourselves, expose us to certain ridicule. In connection with this a caution is to be added that even thougli the feeling of the orator be great, it must not be excited to excess. It thus renders impossible the perfect ex- pression in words of the emotion. " Before the audience," says Bau- tain, " the orator must not weep, or even be moved to such a point that his voice will fail him, or be stifled by sobs ; he must weep with his voice and not with his eyes ; he should have tears in his voice, but so as to be master of them.' And, following up this remark, the French writer lays down this useful rule, that for the art of oratory sensibility must be restrained sufficiently, at least, for words to run their proper course. As to attempting to move an audience to tears, Quin- tilian held that it should be attempted by no orator except one of the highest genius. The same ancient writer, who discourses upon this subject with much good sense, takes care to inform us of the method which he used, when he was a public speaker, for entering into those passions which he wanted to excite in others ; setting befbre his own imagination what he calls " Phantasise" or " Visiones," strong pictures of the distress or indignities which they had suffered whose cause he was to plead, and for whom he was to interest his hearers ; dwelling upon these, and putting himself in their situation, till he was affected by a passion similar to that which the persons themselves had felt. To this method he attributes all the success he ever had in public speaking ; and there can be no doubt that whatever tends to increase an orator's sensibility will greatly add to his pathetic power. In the fifth place, it is necessary to attend to the proper language of the passions. We should observe in what manner any one expresses himself who is under the power of a real and strong passion, and we shall always find his language unaffected and simple. It may be animated, indeed, with bold and strong figures, but it will have no ornament or finery. He is nofat leisure to follow out the play of imagination. His mind being wholly seized by one object, which has heated it, he has no other aim than to represent that in all its circum- stances as strongly as he feels it. This must be the style of the orator when he would be pathetic, and this will be his style if he ' " L'Art de Parler en public," p. 14. 53 BEETON-S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. speaks from real feeling — bold, ardent, simple. No sort of description will then succeed but what is written "fervente calame." If he stay till he can work up his style and polish and adorn it, he will infallibly cool his own ardour, and then he will touch the heart no more. His composition will become frigid ; it will be the language of one who describes, but who does not feel. We must take notice that there is a great difference between painting to the imagination and painting to the heart. The one may be done coolly and at leisure ; the other must always be rapid and ardent. In the former, art and labour may be suffered to appear ; in the latter, no effect can follow unless it seem to be the work of nature only. In the sixth place, avoid interweaving anything of a foreign nature with the pathetic part of a discourse. Beware of all digressions which may interrupt or turn aside the natural course of the passion, when once it begins to rise and swell. Sacrifice all beauties, however bright and show)', which would divert the mind from the principal object, and which would amuse the imagination rather than touch the heart. Hence comparisons are always dangerous, and generally quite im- proper, in the midst of passion. Beware even of reasoning unseason- ably, or, at least, of carrying on a long and subtle train of reasoning, on occasions when the principal aim is to excite warm emotions. In the last place, never attempt prolonging the pathetic too much. Warm feelings are too violent to be lasting. Study the proper time of making a retreat ; of making a transition from the passionate to the calm tone ; in such a manner, however, as to descend without falling, by keeping up the same strain of sentiment that was carried on before, though now expressing it with more moderation. Above all things, beware of straining passion too far ; of attempting to raise it to un- natural heights. Preserve always a due regard to what the hearers will hear ; and remember that he who stops not at the proper point, who attempts to carry them farther in passion than they will follow him, destroys his whole design. By endeavouring to warm them too much, he takes the most effectual means of freezing them completely. The Peroration. No other part of discourse remains now to be treated of except the Peroration or Conclusion, a division of such considerable importance that it is in many cases of so-called extempore speaking carefully pre- pared and written out beforehand, and committed to memory. There is an art in drawing to an end and sitting down, just as there is an art in leave-taking, and to be master of it requires much study and natural good taste. Concerning it it is needless to say much, because it must vary so considerably, according to the strain of the preceding dis- course. Sometimes the whole pathetic part comes in most properly at the peroration. Sometimes, when the discourse has been entirely argu- mentative, it is fit to conclude with summing up the arguments, placing them in one view, and leaving the impression of them full and strong on the mind of the audience. For the great rule of a conclusion, and 54 DIVISIONS OF A DISCOURSE. what nature obviously suggests is, to place that last on which we choose that the strength of our cause should rest. In sermons, inferences from what has been said make a common conclusion. With regard to these, care should be taken, not only that they rise naturally, but (what is less commonly attended to) that they should so much agree with the strain of sentiment throughout the discourse as not to break the unity of the sermon. Tor inferences, how justly soever they may be deduced from the doctrine of the text, yet have a bad effect if, at the conclusion of a discourse, they introduce some subject altogether new, and turn off our attention from the main object to which the preacher had directed our thoughts. They appear, in this case, like excrescences jutting out from the body, which form an unnatural addition to it, and tend to enfeeble the impression which the composition as a whole is calculated to make. In all (Jiscourses it is a matter of importance to hit the precise time of concluding, so as to bring our discourse just to a point ; neither ending abruptly and unexpectedly, nor disappointing the expectation of the hearers when they look for the close, and continuing to hover round and round the conclusion till they are heartily tired of us. We should endeavour to go off with a good grace ; not to end with a languishing and drawling sentence, but to close with dignity and spirit, that we may leave the minds of the hearers warm, and dismiss them with a favourable impression of the subject and of the speaker. And " all's well that ends well." The Main Object of Speech. It remains to be added that the orator, not only in the planning of his discourse, but in the delivery of it, must never lose sight of this fact, that the main object of his speaking should be the persuading of his fellows. Personal honour and renown should be nothing to him compared with the victory of his cause. He should make his hearers feel that what he says is true, and make them resolve to act in accord- ance with his views. This his best applause. It is told of Massillon, the eloquent Bishop of Clermont, that on one occasion he preached at Versailles before Louis XIV. After he had ended, the king addressed iiim : " Father, I have heard many great orators in this chapel ; I have been highly pleased with' them ; but for you, whenever I hear you, I go away displeased with myself, for I see more of my own character." The compliment is too justly turned, perhaps, to be sincere ; but it illustrates my meaning well enough. CHAPTER VII. DIFFERENT MODES OF DELIVERING A DISCOURSE. There are four different ways in which a speaker may deliver a dis- course to the public : — 1. He may read it from manuscript. 2. He may write it out, commit it to memory, and recite it without reference to the written page. 3. He may fix the plan of it in his mind and trust to the spur of the moment for finding words with which to clothe his ideas. 4. He may unite the third and fourth plan, carefully preparing beforehand and committing to memory the most important passages of his discourse, and trusting to good fortune for finding suitable words for the rest. From Manuscript. Each of these methods has its advantages and disadvantages. The easiest of them all is certainly the first. As a rule it is best adapted for didactic and scientific expositions, in which the object is rather to instruct than to move the audience. But every rule has its exceptions, and that great effect can sometimes be produced by this mode of delivery may be seen from the example of Dr. Chalmers, who used not only to read his sermons, and that too with great rapidity and the broadest accent, but often to trace every line with his finger as he went along. It is to be remarked that, if addresses are to be read, they should not be written on paper which requires frequent turning ; and it is a good plan, greatly assisting the delivery, to underline the most prominent words so that they will immediately catch the eye. This, of course, requires previous thought and attention ; indeed, to deliver a discourse of any sort from paper with real effect needs almost as much care as to recite the whole from memory. On tlie subject of read speeches, both on the platform and in the pulpit, a student in a Nonconformist college wrote, in 1873, asking the opinion of the famous orator Mr. John Bright. Mr. Bright in his reply began by referring to his own practice. " I have never," he said, "been in the habit of writing out my speeches, certainly not for more than thirty years past. The labour of writing is bad enough, and the labour of committing to memory would be intolerable ; and speeches read to a meeting are not likely to be received with much favour. It is enough to think over what is to be said, and to form an outline in a few brief notes. But first of all, a real knowledge of the subject to be 56 DIFFERENT MODES OF DELIVER Y. spoken of is required ; with that practice should make speaking easy. As to what is best for the pulpit, I may not venture to say much. It would seem that rules applicable to other speaking will be equally applicable to the pulpit. But in a pulpit a man is expected to speak for a given time on a great theme, and with less of exact material than is obtainable on other occasions and on ordinary subjects. And, further, a majority of preachers are not good speakers, and perhaps could not be made such. They have no natural gift for good speaking — they are not logical in mind, not full of ideas nor free of speech^ and they have none of that natural readiness which is essential to a powerful and interesting speaker. It is possible — nay, perhaps, very probable — that if reading sermons was abolished, while some sermons would be better than they now are the majority of them would be simple chaos, and utterly undurable to the most patient congregation. Given a man with knowledge of his subject, and a gift for public speaking, then I think reading a mischief ; but given a man who knows little and who has no gift of speaking, then reading seems to be inevitable, because speaking, as I deem it, is impossible. But it must be a terrible thing to have to read or speak a sermon every week on the same topic to the same people — terrible to the speaker and hardly less so to the hearers. Only men of great mind, great know- ledge and great power can do this with success. I wonder that any man can do it ! I often doubt if any man has ever done it. I forbear, therefore, from giving a strong opinion on the point you submit to me. Where a man can speak, let him speak — it is, no doubt, most effective ; but where a man cannot speak he must read." From Memory. Speeches learned by heart have seldom brought much reputation to debaters in modern times, but they often have gained credit to orators out of the field of debate, such as clergymen. Take, for example, the three great orators of the French pulpit, Bossuet, Massillon and Bourdaloue, who were all in the habit of committing their discourses to memory. The reason for this is, without doubt, that in debate the ground of argument is constantly shifting, new lights are thrown on the question in hand, and unexpected circumstances arise, so that a speech prepared in the seclusion of the study has, when spoken in the course of the strife, an unnatural and ill-timed air, fatal to its success. In the pulpit, however, the orator has no shifting ground, no new lights, and no unexpected circumstances. There he has every- thing his own way, and, granting that he has been visited by some degree of inspiration in the preparation of his sermon, he is likely to show traces of inspiration in the delivery of it. Speaking from memory was the mode practised by the ancient orators — at least, to a certain extent, for we do not know that such as Demosthenes and Cicero got their discourses by heart, word for word, before delivering them. It is to be remarked that without considerable skill in the art, a speaker usually cuts a poor figure when speaking from memory. '1 he 57 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. process is too visible — his words sound formal and precise, and do not come home to his hearers. They listen with coldness, and treat him with neglect. A difficulty, too, connected with it may be mentioned. The speakei-'s memory may suddenly fail him. This, it is to be remarked, is to be got over either by copious notes, or by resorting to extemporising — if he has that power — until the lost thread of the argument occur to his mind. Extempore. Without doubt the next method of delivering a discourse, the fixing the plan in one's mind and trusting to the spur of the moment for words in which to clothe one's ideas, is the best. For power it far excels the plan just mentioned, and he who is not master of it is not worthy, it has been said, of the name of orator. Special circumstances may at times induce one to employ other methods of preparation, but he must be able, when called upon, to speak extempore. The reason why this method of delivery is much more powerful than the other two before mentioned, is thus given by Archbishop Whately in his " Rhetoric " : " The audience are more sure that the thoughts that they hear expressed are the genuine emanation of the speaker's mind at the moment ; their attention and interest are excited by their sympathy with one whom they perceive to be carried forward solely by his own unaided and unremitted efforts, without having any book to refer to. They view him as a swimmer supported by his own exertions, and in every such case, if the feat be well accomplished, tlie surmounting of the difficulty affords great gratification, especially to those who are conscious they could not do the same." But quite independeet of this, it might be advocated for such reasons as that it allows more freedom and force to the action of the speaker. This style of speaking requires great fluency and command of words. How are these to be acquired ? That has already been shown in the section in which the education of an orator was considered. A Fourth Method. The fourth and last method of delivery is that which unites the peculiarities of the two last-named. Upon it the only remark which it seems necessary to make is, that the transitions from the passages recited from memory to those which are the result of purely extem- poraneous effort must be concealed with the greatest care. Were the audience to observe the artifice it would spoil everything. The causes of the prodigious success of oratory spoken over oratory read, says a writer in the Quarterly Review, are easy to be distinguished. When the contending forces are drawn out face to face in hostile array, there is the excitement of a battle, and every blow which tells against the enemy is received with the same sort of exultation that soldiers feel when a well-aimed shot rips up the ranks of the adversary or blows up the magazine. The effect under these circumstances of a damaging reply arises as much from the state of 58 DIFFERENT MODES OF DELIVERY. mind of the auditors as from the vigour of the retort. It is because the powder lights upon a heated surface that an explosion is produced, though unless the powder was itself inflammable the result could not ensue, and therefore the dust which is thrown by minor sparks falls feeble and harmless. The mere presence of numbers aids the impression, even where the assembly is not split into parties and no especial interest has been roused in advance on the question dis- cussed. The speech which would be listened to calmly by half a dozen people will stir a multitude, and an observation will raise a laugh in public which would not pass for a joke in private. But, perhaps, the most influential element of all is the delight which is derived from the real or apparently spontaneous production of appropriate thoughts in well-chosen language — in the exhibition of the feat of pouring out off-hand elaborate composition and a connected series of apt ideas. The art is so remote from the common practice of mankind that, however often repeated, it always excites the pleasure which arises from the manifestation of unusual power. Every great orator writes passages which he commits to memory, but it is a part of his science to blend the extemporaneous and the prepared portions into an indistinguishable whole, and were he by his clumsiness to betray the joins he would destroy the charm. The readers of a debate are no longer under the spell of this ie:!ming facility. The language does not flow living to them from the lips of the speaker, and they judge it exactly as they would estimate the same quantity of printed matter by whatever means produced. In many cases, in addition the figure, the voice, the manner of the man con- tribute largely to give force and animation to his words. The famous saying of Demosthenes that action, which includes delivery, was the first, second, and third great requisite of an orator is repeated and confirmed by Cicero, who calls it the principal accomplishment in speaking. He' affirms that the highest e.xcellence is nothing without it, and that with it mediocrity can often surpass the most gifted. In modem times pre-eminent powers have enabled a few to dispense with it. The assertion that it sets off feeble matter is as true as ever. In every age there are speakers who owe nearly the whole of their success to their delivery. The famous essayist, Montaigne, devotes one of his essays to this subject, and the reader may find both pleasure and profit in some of his quaint remarks. "All graces," he says — " All graces by all-liberal heaven Were never yet to all men given," which certainly is a consolatory thought, tending much to promote contentment. "As we see in the gift of eloquence, wherein some have such a facility and promptness, and that which we call a present wit, so easy, that they are ever ready on all occasions and never to be surprised, and others more heavy and slow, never able to utter any- thing but what they have long premeditated, and taken great care 59 BEETOh'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. and pains to fit and prepare. Now as we teach young ladies those sports and exercises which are most proper to set out the grace and beauty of those parts wherein their chiefest ornament and perfection lie, so in these two advantages of eloquence, to which the lawyers and preachers of our age seem principally to pretend. " If I were worthy to advise, the slow speaker, methinks, should be more proper for the pulpit, and the other for the bar ; and that because the employment of the first does naturally allow him all the leisure he can desire to prepare himself, and besides, his career is performed in an even and unintermitted line, without stop or interruption ; whereas the pleader's business and interest compel him to enter the lists upon all occasions, and the unexpected objections and replies of his adverse party, justle him out of his course and put him upon the instant to pump for new and extempore answers and defences. Yet, at the interview betwixt Pope Clement and King Francis at Mar- seilles it happened quite contrary, that Monsieur Poyet, a man bred up all his life at the bar, and in the highest repute for eloquence, having the charge of making the harangue to the Pope committed to him, and having so long* meditated on it beforehand as, it is said, to have brought it ready-made along with him from Paris ; the very day it was to have been pronounced, the Pope, fearing something might be said that might give offence to the other prince's ambassadors who were attending on him, sent to acquaint the king with the argument which he conceived most suiting to the time and place ; but by chance quite another thing to that Monsieur Poyet had taken so much pains about, so that the fine speech he had prepared was of no use, and he was upon the instant to contrive another ; which finding him- self unable to do. Cardinal Bellay was constrained to perform that office. "The pleader's part is, doubtless, much harder than that of the preacher ; and yet, in my opinion, we see more passable lawyers than preachers. It should seem that the nature of wit is to have its operation prompt and sudden, and that of judgment to have it more deliberate and more slow ; but he who remains totally silent for want of leisure to prepare himself to speak well, and he also whom leisure does no ways benefit to better speaking, are equally unhappy. 'Tis said of Severus (Cassius) that he spoke best extempore, that he stood more obliged to fortune than his own diligence ; that it was an advan- tage to him to be interrupted in speaking, 'that his enemies were afraid to nettle him lest his anger should redouble his eloquence.'" Audiences. The nature of audiences in general and of his own audience in particular should occupy a prominent place in every speaker's calcu- lations. And in connection with this it may be observed that he who addresses that huge body known as the public should view and treat it with respect. It has been often the fashion to make light of the motives and conclusions of large masses of men. " The public is just a great DIFFERENT MODES OF DELIVERY. baby !" says one celebrated orator.' " The people Is an ass which you ought to lead, not follow," remarks another critic. Now, there may be something of truth in these observations, but it is certain there is a nobility about a vast gathering of human beings, which in those who are right-minded will inspire nothing but reverence and awe. And if they are easily moved out of the right path and readily convinced that the worse is the better reason, they may often be made with equal ease to feel the force of truth. Should a man despise his hearers, and show it by his manner, he defeats his own end : he may speak for ever, but he will never win them over to his cause. It is good policy, therefore, to say the least of it, to address an audience in a modest, respectful, engaging manner, so that each member of it may feel as if he were individually spoken to and taken into confidence. " Of all the musical instruments on which men play," says Emer- son, "a popular assembly is that which has the largest compass and variety, and out of which, by study and genius, the most wc nder ul effects can be drawn. An audience is not a simple addition ot the individuals which compose it. Their sympathy gives them a certain social organism, which fills each member in his own degree, and most of all the orator, as a jar in a battery is charged with the whole electricity of the battery. No one can survey the face of an excited assembly without being apprised of new opportunity for painting in fire human thought, and being agitated to agitate. How many orators sit mute there below! A large assembly is almost wholly impulsive. It is governed entirely by iis feelings. Reason h'as scarcely a perceptible control over it. Argument such as the trained intellect recognises and obeys is of no avail." This being the case, how are we to influence it ? By addressing its emotions. And on the chsracter of the emotions of a popular assembly the writer just quoted makes some observations which deserve attention. " To the honour," he remarks, " of human nature be it said, that the emotions of a multi- tude — of men in masses — are almost always right, as their judgment is almost always wrong. Even if they fall into wrong acts, these are usually the result of right feelings. Some generous or noble senti- ment will be found to underlie emotions that bear the aspect of male- volence, and to be the parent of passions that are demoniacal in their issues. " It has been noticed in the penny theatres, frequented by the population that feeds our gaols, that a noble, a generous, or an honest sentiment, never fails to evoke a burst of applause. Vice receives no honour even from the vicious, who cheer the virtue they will not practise. A play that did not end with the punishment of vice and the reward of virtue would be hooted off the boards patronised by the criminal class !" In cases where the audience are ill-disposed towards a speaker and averse to hearing him, he must give way with the best grace possible. They are stronger than he. But it often happens that the ill-humour * Chalmers. 6i BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. of the crowd is but temporary, and to be got over by good iranagc- ment on the part of the orator. On no account must he lose his temper. " Meet hootihgs with a smile, and parry abuse with a jest ; if there is disturbance be calm and composed ; fold your arms, and await patiently the return of order, without the slightest expression of vexation or alarm. Soon you will find the majority of the meeting enlisted in your support, and compelling the disorderly minority to silence or expulsion. I have never known this to fail, even amid the tempest that usually rages round -the hustings at an election." " If there be a show of violence make no show of fear. A mob is very cowardly ; it is wholly wanting in moral courage, and it can boast of but little physical courage, because it has no cohesion nor mutual reliance. Happily, the multiplication of emotion, which makes its passions so formidable, does not extend to its acts. It wants the capacity for effective action ; it has no unity, no organisation, no confidence ; it is disintegrated, and each individual atom of which it is composed is compelled to look only to himself, not being assured whether his neighbours will not desert him in his need. A firm front, a bold eye, a brave bearing on your part, will not only strike a kind of awe into the offenders, but certainly command the respect of the many, who feel a strong sympathy with those qualities, wherever shown, and enlist a support that will effectually protect you from the threatened violence. Thfey will even shame the furious from their intent. I have seen the mob drop the stones they had lifted to throw, and greet with an enthusiastic cheer the man whom they had failed to terrify." " Eloquence," says Emerson, making some just remarks on the common sense of audiences, "must be grounded on the plainest narrative. Afterwards it may warm itself until it exhales symbols of every kind and colour, and speaks only through the most poetic forms; but, first and last, it must still be at bottom a biblical statement of fact. The orator is thereby an orator, that he keeps his feet ever on a fact. Thus only is he invincible. No gifts, no graces, no power of wit or learning or illustration will make any amends for want of this. All audiences are just to this point. Fame of voice or of rhetoric will carry people a few times to hear a speaker, but they soon begin to ask, ' What is he driving at ?' and if a man does not stand for anything, he will be deserted. A good upholder of anything which they believe, a fact speaker of any kind, they will long follow ; but a pause in the speaker's own character is very properly a loss of attraction. The preacher enumerates his classes of men, and I do not find my place therein ; I suspect, then, that no man does. Every- thing is my cousin, and whilst he speaks things, I feel that he is touching some of my relations and I am uneasy ; but whilst he deals in words, we are released from attention." The Effect of the Audience on the Speaker. With reference to the effect of the audience upon the speaker we cx- 62 DIFFERENT MODES OF DELIVERY. tract the following from Dr. Hurst's " Philosophy of Voice and Speech," pp. 382-3 : As a moral means to overcome the dread of an audience, orators have been advised to imagine that they only sec before them a vast number of heads of cabbages. Luther, who must have experienced a similar emotion, says : " When a man first' comes into the pulpit, he is much perplexed to see so many heads before him. When I stand there, I look upon none, but imagine they are all blocKi that are before me." " It is, however, an error to look at an audience as a mere collection of individuals, for no sooner have they experienced the first effects of the discourse than they amalgamate and become, for a time, one huge body, possessing apparently but one consciousness, and exhibiting the same physical and mental phenomena. ; "The chief cause, undoubtedly, is that magnetic sympathy which links together all human beings, and makes them, for the moment, common partakers in the same emotions, and thus makes the whole audience, as it were, one intellectual organism. Hfence the speaker, though he may consider himself in knowledge an^ rank superior to any individual present, soon feels that, when amalgamated, he faces a giant, compared to which he is a pigmy. Thus the sovereign, though greater than any individual subject, is subordinate to the people in the aggregate. "But while a crowd may well inspire a speaker with some kind of awe, it is certain that the greatest oratorical efforts can only be produced when the audience is sufficiently large. The very same sentiment, enunciated by the self-same speaker in the same manner, which may be a bnituinfultnen in a small assembly, may produce thunders of ap- plause in a large one. The reason is that in a crowd every impression is, owing to the instinct of imitation, multiplied and rapidly propagated. Thus a hearer, when he listens alone 'to most exquisite song or dis- course, may feel and not betray any violent emotion ; but in a crowd he is caught and carried away by the rest. The exhibition of these emotions of the multitude re-acts on the speaker, and actually supplies him with additional force. A sympathy is thereby established between the audience and the observant orator — he deciphers their feelings by their looks, and adapting his language to their feelings, his diction be- comes more confident and bolder : and new and effective thoughts present themselves for utterance. " Very small audiences, in large rooms, must, therefore, not expect oratorical displays from an extempore speaker, who feels a secret dis- dain of exhibiting his power before so few listeners, and whose presence affords him no new force." 63 CHAPTER VIII, THE ART OF DELIVERY, Delivery. We have now considered what an orator should be, what he should learn, and how he should prepare those discourses which he means to deliver before a public audience. But one thing remains to be done. Suppose he were gifted with genius by nature, v/ell versed in every sort of useful learning, p.nd able to compose in the best manner, he might yet lack one accomplishment without which, in most cases, he would speak with no effect and be heard with impatience. That accomplishment is Elocution, or the art of delivery. We call the atten- tion of every intending speaker to it ; there is no branch of his studies to which he should give more anxious heed, and at which he should work with more laborious diligence. It is the most necessary of necessary things in oratory, and has been acknowledged to be so by every writer of sense both ancient and modern. To quote Quinti- lian : "Avery indifferent speech, well delivered, will have a greater effect than the best, if destitute of that advantage." And it is told of Ddlnosthenes that on being asked what was the chief excellence in the whole art of oratory, he gave the palm to delivery. And what deserves the second place? some one inquired. Delivery. And the third? Delivery. It has been suggested that he went too far in this respect ; and that his exaggerated estimate of its importance arose from his having to speak before the multitude whose senses must be struck, whose passions must be excited, and on whom power and brilliancy of voice have immense effect. But the more one observes, the more one inclines to acknowledge the accuracy of his judgment. To mention only one example out of many. Burke, acknowledged to be the greatest of speakers in point of eloquence of thought that this country has ever produced, entirely failed in his effect on the House of Commons by his bad delivery, and acquired the name of the " dinner bell" from his influence in emptying the House. Lord Chesterfield, in one of his letters to his son, tnus wrote of Mansfield, then Mr. Murray, the Solicitor-general : " Your fate depends upon your success as a speaker, and take my word for it, that success turns more upon manner than matter. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Murray are, beyond comparison, the best speakers. Why? Only because they are the best orators. They alone can inflame or quiet the House ; they alone are attended to in that numerous and noisy assembly that 64 THE ART OF DELIVERY. you might hear a pin fall while either of them is speaking. Is it that their matter is better, or their arguments stronger than other people's ? Does not the House expect extraordinary information from them ? Not in the least ; but the House expects pleasure from them, and therefore attends ; finds it, and therefore approves." It has been asserted that Elocution need not be taught, for that all we have to do in order to become good and effective speakers is to follow the dictates of nature. But the misfortune is that nature does not dictate to some people at all so far as good speaking is concerned. They speak, but they do not speak well. Bad habits, it may be, in their case have got the better of nature. To such, then — far from being useless — the study of the art is likely to be in the highest degree beneficial, making known to them what their bad habits are, and lead- ing them back to the ways of nature, if it be the case that naturally all men speak well. At the same time it must be allowed that too much may be made of a system of Elocution, and that he who is always thinking what the rule is, never will become much of an orator. However, it is possible so to profit by the study of this art, that the proficient will speak cor- rectly without thought. And this is the point at which we should do our best to arrive : to have the rules of good speaking so firmly fixed in our minds that it is a habit to follow them. This is the true mastery of any art whatever. English Elocution. Others state that we as a nation are not cut out for excellence in oratory, and that all attempts to raise great speakers in a soil not adapted for the purpose is but misspent toil. Upon this head it is worth while to quote the following from Austin's " Chironomia" : " With respect to the delivery of an orator, in all its refinement and necessary circumstances, the fact appears to be that it belongs to no particular people, to the exclusion of others ; and that it is not the gift of nature more than other high acquirements ; but that it is the reward of arduous labour, under the guidance of consummate art. We admit the French to have more facility in learning this art than ourselves : the French allow the same superiority to the Italians, the Italians to the Greeks ; but, in truth, the gift is not gratuitous to any people. Gracchus laboured incessantly, Cicero laboured incessantlj', Hortentius laboured, Demosthenes, .lEschines, Isocrates laboured — which of all the celebrated orators has not laboured ? or which of them can be said to owe his fame merely to the gift of nature, as the indigenous produce of the soil from which he sprung? If a standard of comparison could be found, hardly would the British actors, whose excellence is chiefly confined to this one branch of eloquence — delivery —\osq in comparison with either moderns or ancients of other nations, and what the talents, the industry, and the professional acquirements of our actors have accomplished, can we doubt would be accomplished with equal success by our orators, if they brought into action equal industry and equal professional learning ? It is not because the British 6 65 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. orators are incapable of the most consummate perfection in the art of delivery that this perfection is rarely to be seen among them ; it is because perfection in this, as in all other arts, is a work of labour and time." Voice. The speaker's chief instrument is his voice, and to the cultivation of it in consequence he should give great care and attention. By nature some voices are admirably adapted for the purposes of oratory ; they are strong and clear, and possess that sympathetic tone which finds its way into the hearts of all who listen, and carries them off almost against their will to believe and act upon the opinions given utterance to. Such voices are rare gifts of Providence, for which we should be duly thankful. Others, however, are naturally pitched in an unsuitable key, monotonous in sound, and coarse in quality. On these much labour must be bestowed to fit them for public service. But do not think that it is impossible to improve them ; labour in this way will do everything, and make what is at first ill-tuned and disagreeable more powerful than the highest uncultivated natural endowment. Sympathetic Tone. Before going farther let us remark that there is a subtle connection between the voice and the mind. The sympathetic tone alluded to above arises very much from our souls, and those who naturally possess it are men of emotion, deep feeling, and openness of heart. Speakers with these qualifications for the moment command those whom they ad- dress : their minds influence their voices in a way which is felt, but cannot be described or accounted for, and the voices find an echo in all hearts. What is said may be illogical, but earnestness and sin- cerity are more powerful than logic all the world over. The Abbe Bautain, in his work on extempore speaking, enlarges on the subject of the sympathetic voice with great taste and discrimination. His remarks are worth quoting : " A sympathetic voice," he says, " singularly helps the effect of the discourse, and is, besides, the best, the most insinuating of exordiums. I know an orator who has among other qualities this in his favour, and who, every time he mounts the pulpit, produces invariably a profound sensation by his apostolic countenance, and by the very first sounds of his voice. "Whence comes, above all others, this quality which can hardly be acquired by art ? First, certainly from the natural constitution of the vocal organ, as in singing ; but, next to this, the soul may contribute much towards it by the feelings and thoughts which actuate it, and by the eflTorts which it makes to express what is felt, and to convey it to others. There is something sympathetic in the lively and sincere manifestation of any affection, and when the hearer sees that the speaker is really moved, the emotion gains him by a sort of contagion, and he begins to feel with him and like him, as two chords vibrating in unison. Or, again, if a truth be unfolded to him with clearness, in 06 THE ART OF DELIVERY. good order, and fervently, and if the speaker shows that he under- stands or feels what he says, the hearer, all at once enlightened and sharing in the same light, acquiesces willingly, and receives the words addressed to him with pleasure. In such cases the power of con- viction animates, enlivens, and transfigures the voice, rendering it agreeable and effective by virtue of the expression just as a lofty soul or a great mind exalts and embellishes an ordinary and even an ugly countenance. "The best way in which an orator can impart to his voice the sym- pathetic power, even when he may happen not to have it naturally, is to express vividly whatever he says, and consequently to feel it well himself in order to make others feel it. Above all, the way is to have great benevolence, great charity in the heart, and to love to put them in practice, for nothing gives more of sympathy to the voice than real goodness. " Here the precepts of art are useless. We cannot teach emotion, nor quick feelings, nor the habit of throwing ardour and transport into word and action ; it is the heart which accomplishes this, and it is the heart also which makes the orator." ' Every subject has its humorous side, and we may add here a proof that this is no exception to the general rule. It will serve to show, too, that the powers of persiiasion are by no means to be despised. Every one knows the story of Spranger Barry, who to his silver-toned voice added a very artful manner. A carpenter to whom he owed some money for work at the Dublin Theatre, called at Barry's house, and clamorously demanded payment. Mr. Barry overheard, him and called down, " Don't be in a passion, but do me the favour to walk up- stairs and we'll speak about the business." "Not I," answered the man, making an unconscious confession of the power of eloquence,- " you owe me one hundred pounds already, and if you get me upstairs, you won't let me leave you till you owe me two." The Vocal Mechanism. It is of importance that we should understand the mechanism of the human voice, and that it may be clearly comprehended we quote the following from Professor Willis : ^ "The vocal mechanism may be considered as consisting of hdigs, or bellows, capable of transmitting, by means of the connecting •witiripipe, a current of air through an apparatus contained in the upper part of the wind- pipe,, which is termed the larynx. This apparatus is capable of producing various musical (and other) sounds, which are heard after passing throui;h a vari- able cavity, consisting of the pharynx (the cavity behind the tongue, mouth, and nose)." Vorlab:" cavity. Larvlis. 1 I ;, or £e!I.r ' " L'art cle parlcr en public," p. 76. = Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, No, 12. 67 BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. Lungs. To the capacity and healthy state of the lungs is mainly due the intensity or force of a voice, not its voluDie, which depends rather on the capacity and form of the pharynx ; nor its power of spreading over great space and penetrating obstructions, which depends on method of delivery or "production" ; but that effect on the ear which results from the extent of the vibrations caused by its action. The strength of the lungs may, it is certain, be very considerably increased by careful and judicious exercise, and their action may be made more effective and easy by method ; in familiar language, by taking breath properly and at proper intervals of time. ' Wiiidpipe. The windpipe possesses no feature worth noticing for any practical purpose. Larynx. "The larynx maybe briefly described as a cartilaginous box, the encompassing parts or walls of which (susceptible of very various, though not of very extensive motion) regulate the tension of cert.iin ligaments called the ' vocal chords,' which, under the influence of the breath, are the immediate causes of ' the voice.' It is possible th.it these vocal cords may be subject to some action analogous to the ' stopping ' of a musical string ; but it is more probable that the varieties of pitch in the voice are produced by their contraction and relaxation only. In this case the voice in exercise may be compared to a musical instrument continually under the hand of the tuner. " From the difficulty, and, till lately, the impossibility of watching it in the living subject, the action of the larynx in the production of sound is but imperfectly understood. Nor does that which is certainly known about it encourage us to hope that extended knowledge would enable the will to act more directly upon it than it does at present." ^ Variable Cavity. Lastly, as to the variable cavity, of which the constituent parts are the tongue, the uvula, the teeth, and the lips. "If," says Professor Willis, " the arrangement of the vocal mechanism be artificially imi- tated by combining together pipes and cavities with bellows, in a similar order, and substituting for the larynx any elastic lamina capable of producing musical sounds when vibrated by the stream of air, it is found that by changing the form of the cavity above it the various qualities of the human voice in speech may be so nearly imparted to the sound which the imitative larynx is producing, as plainly to show that there is no necessity for seeking any power of altering the quality of the notes in the larynx itself. 'This, then, maybe considered as merely an instrument for producing certain musical notes, which are • Hullah, "The Cultivation of the Speaking Voice," p. lo. » Ibid. p. 21. 68 THE ART OF DELIVER Y. afterwards to be converted into vowels, liquids, &c., and by the proper changes of form in the superior cavity. " We may remark, too, an essential difference between the vocal mechanism and our ordinary wind instruments, which are generally made up of some vibrating mouth-piece to generate the note, and an attached cavity or pipe to govern and augment its tone, each instru- ment having its peculiar quality ; whereas the attached cavity in the vocal machine is capable, not only of governing and improving the musical quality of the note, but also of imparting to it all manner of various qualities, the numerous vowels and liquids of speech, and also the perfect mimicry of the peculiar sounds of nearly all animals and musical instruments." Intensity, then, depends on the lungs, compass and flexibility on the larynx, and timbre on the variable cavity. It is to be remarked that the bodily organs connected with the voice are not only capable of as high cultivation as other portions of our frame, but even of a higher degree. Preservation of the Voice. There are several general rules, the observation of which tends to the preservation of the voice and the increase of its power. 1. The first is connected with the time for practising, which should be between ten and twelve in the morning and from five to eight in the evening. " To commence too early in the morning," says Mr. Hunt in his " Philosophy of Voice and Speech," p. 356, " is injudicious, the secretion of mucus being more abundant about that time, the voice is thereby affected." It is neither advisable to speak on an overloaded or an empty stomach. Four hours after a moderate meal may be considered as the proper time. 2. The next rule is that the lessons should not last too long at a time : half an hour is quite long enough for children, and an hour and a quarter for adults. 3. All lessons should be recited in an erect positiofi. The chest should be expanded and projected, but not in a constrained manner ; the shoulders depressed and thrown back, the mouth well open, with- out distorting the features, and the lips should be made to perform their proper part in articulation. 4. It is one of the best means of strengthening the voice, to vocifer- ate loudly in the open air, whether standing, or walking on level ground, or uphill against the wind. The example of Demosthenes will occur to the reader, who cured the weakness of his voice by loud reci- tations on the seashore. Of course, however, this, like everything else, may be overdone, so it is to be hoped that the student will exercise prudence and common sense. 5. Colds should be carefully guarded against, and this is to be done not so much by going muffled up in great coats and cravats as by bathing daily in cold water and taking daily exercise in all weathers. When the voice is hoarse it should not be exerted. 6. Certain things ar? krjown to be injurious to the voice, and are " • ■ 69 BRETONS ART OF PUBLIC SV BAKING. therefore to be avoided. Amongst these are figs, apples, pears, and nuts. Alcoholic liquors and smoking are said to do more damage to tenor than to bass voices. 7. The teeth should be carefully looked after, as their loss seriously affects articulation. 8. The chest and neck should not be confined. 9. A good exercise for improving the quality of the voice and in- creasing the power of the lungs is the practice of the vowel sounds upon any tone of the musical scale. The vowel "a" as sounded in father should particularly be used. It is the only vowel on which the timbre of the human voice is to be heard in its highest perfection. Each note in this exercise should be held on as long as possible with- out inconvenience ; breath should then be taken quickly and a new note begun. It is to be observed on this head that it is advisable to get by heart whatever recitations are intended for the exercise of the voice. Vocal Exercises Favourable to Health. Such exercises as those alluded to are the best possible for health, and greatly strengthen the constitution against consumption and many other diseases of the respiratory organs. On this subject we may quote Sir Henry Hollar d, who says : " Might not more be done in practice for the prevention of pul- monary diseases, as well as for the general improvement of health, by expressly exercising the organs of respiration — that is, by practising according to method those actions of the body through which the chest is in part filled or emptied of air ? Though suggestions to this effect occur in some of our best works on consumption, as well as in the writings of certain continental physicians, they have hitherto had less than their due influence, and the principle as such is comparatively little recognised or brought into general application. In truth, com- mon usage takes, for the most part, a directly opposite course ; and under the notion or pretext of quiet seeks to repress all direct exercise of this important function in those who are presumed to have any tendency to pulmonary disorders. ... As regards the modes of exer- cising the function of respiration, they should be various, to suit ihe varying power and exigencies of the patient. Reading aloud {clara lectio) is one of veiy ancient recommendation, the good effects of which are not limited to this object alone. It might, indeed, be well were the practice of distinct recitation, such as implies a certain i?^;-/ of the organs beyond that of mere ordinary speech, more generally used in early life and continued as a habit, or regular exercise, but especially by tliose whose chests are weak, and who cannot sustain stronger ex- ertions. Even singing may, for the same reason, be allowed in many of such cases, but within much narrower limits, and under much more cautious notice of the effects than would be requisite in reading. If such caution be duly used as to posture, articu- lation, and the avoidance of all Excess, these regular exercises of the voice may be rendered as salutary to the organs of respi- 70 THE ART OF DELIVERY ration as they are agreeable in their influence on the ordinary voice. The common course of education is much at fault in this respect. If some small part of the time given to crowding facts on the mind not yet prepared to receive or retain them, were employed in fashioning and improving the organs of speech under good tuition, and with suitable subjects for recitation, both mind and body would often gain materially by the substitution." Registers of Voices. Voices, as every one knows, vary in height. All men's voices may be arranged in three groups : one containing those which are highest, another those which are lowest, and the third such as lie between these _n _/>_£2 two. The first is known as tenor ; its range is from '^- ■ to a;— = the second is known as Bass, and has for its range from ^' ^= to < ^——- the last, or the middle voice, is called Baritone, and extends from ^ to 1e 77/1? Best for Public Speaking. Of these three the best for public speaking is the last. It is capable of various degrees of inflection, can be long sustained, and can be heard farther than either of the others. The fault which attaches to a tenor voice is that when the speaker is greatly excited it has a tendency to become a scream, and exhausts him, whilst it proves disagreeable to the hearers. The bass, on the other hand, is very difficult to pitch in a proper key, soon becomes heavy, monotonous, and at last degene- rates into a growl. Stammering. It is worth while to allude here briefly to defects of speech, and the first is that ordinarily known as stammering. We all, it has been said, stammer more or less. Fright may seize us, we may be excited by anger, or affected by sleep or cold, in which cases our speech will often be marked by uncertainty of utterance. But it is not of this oc- casional stuttering ' that we speak, it is of the inveterate habit which ' Stammering and stuttering are ordinarily used as synonyms, and as such we uso tlie words here. According to Dr. Hunt, however, they are diilFerent — stammer- ing being the difficulty, in some cases the inability, to properly enunciate many of the elementary speech sounds, accompanied or not by a slow, hesitating, more or less indistinct, delivery, hut fiot attended with frequent repetiiions of the initial sound and consequent convulsive efforts to surmount the difficulty ; whilst stuttering, on the other hand, is a vicious utterance manifested ty frequent repetitions of initial or other elementary sounds, always more or less attended with muscular convul- sions. 71 BEEION'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. afflicts so many. Various systems have, at different times, been tried for the cure of this painful disorder, and it is to be observed that the earlier in life the cure is undertaken the more chance there is of suc- cess. Parents should therefore be very particular to notice this defect in the speech of their children, and to take immediate steps by con- sultation with some one of experience in such matters, for its eradica- tion. An excellent work on the subject is that by Dr. James Hunt (Longman and Co. j86i). Falsetto. Another defect of speech to be mentioned is the unintentional break- ing of the voice into falsetto. That is to say, the voice suddenly rises to about an octave above its usual pitch, its tones being soft and reedy. "This imperfection," says Dr. Stone,' "is the correlative of stammer- ing, and probably depends on some lack of co-ordination in the laryngeal muscles, just as stammering does upon the same defect in the muscles of the tongue and mouth. Usually it commences at the time when the boy's voice " breaks " — a time when rapid increase in size and development of the larynx cause the pitch to descend an octave within the course of a year or two. Its causes seem ultimately to rest in a slow and imperfect performance of this change, and also vei-y frequently in a want of that sensitiveness to the pitch of sounds which goes by the name of " musical ear." For it is to be noticed that persons suffering from this imperfection are often no more aware of the rapid transition of the voice from one register to the other than are the lower orders in London of the difference between the v and w, or between aspirated and unaspirated words. " It is, however, like speech itself, only an acquired habit. It may be conquered by constant warning and perseverance until the correct method has become automatic." As a general rule, defects of speech are to be cured by care and attention. Demosthenes, the great orator of antiquity, is a remarkable and often-quoted illustration of this. Everybody knows that by nature he had a difficulty of utterance, amounting almost to a stammer, which he succeeded in overcoming by frequent declamation on the seashore with pebbles in his mouth. The pebbles obliged him to redouble his exertions to subdue the rebellious organ, whilst the noise of the billows, forcing him to speak more loudly and more distinctly in order to hear his own words, accustomed him to the still more deafening uproar of the people's mighty voice in the market-place. '■ Clerical Sore Throat." Before going on and leaving the speci.il consideration of the voice, a word may be said on what is called "clerical sore throat." This arises from one of two causes : first, sudden and forced activity after a period of repose ; and secondly, the bad production of the voice. As a rule, then, the speaker should have regular daily practice in his art ' In ' The Speaker at Home," p. 170, by the Rev. J. J. Halcombe, 73 THE ART OF DELIVERY. — which he may accomplish even though an audience be wanting — and should attend to the manner of his delivery. Breathing. The subject of breathing comes next to be considered. It is not a difficult one to master provided one will only give a little attention to it at first. If that be done right habits will soon be formed, and breath will be taken by the speaker in the proper way and at proper places without his thinking at all about the matter. The first thirjg to be observed is, that it is of great consequence to husband the breath, and to keep always a good supply on hand. That is to say, the lungs must always be kept to a certain degree inflated. At the same time care must be taken never to overfill them. Should they by any chance become exhausted the result will be both painful to the speaker and to the audience. No assembly can listen without pain to an orator labouring away out of breath and in evident distress. The number of inspirations per minute of an adult man is from thirteen to fifteen when he is breathing calmly. Suppose he should be engaged in speaking rapidly on some topic on which he is greatly interested it is likely to be much reduced. But it should be the object of the orator to acquire such a control over his respiratory organs that, whilst engaged in his public discourses, the number of his inspirations will be as nearly as possible the same as in his cool moments. Breath should be taken quietly. Should breath be taken, it may be asked, through the mouth or through the nostrils ? Through the nostrils, certainly. Doctors agree that that is the most healthy way, and elocutionists maintain that it is the only plan by which public speaking can be continued with ease for any length of time. Breath is not to be taken indiscriminately at any point in a sentence. It should only be inhaled when there is a. na/iira/ pause in the sentence uttered. Exercises. As to the proper exercises for the breath it is enough, perhaps, to recommend deep inspirations on rising ; the body being in an erect position, and the head thrown well back. The exercise may also be repeated at other times with advantage, and it is to be observed that it is to be gone through in the open air, or, if not there, in a well- ventilated room, the windows being open for the time. Another exercise for improving the power of the lungs, as well as the quality of the voice, has been already mentioned. See p. 70. A third exercise is to count numbers slowly and distinctly from one upwards, taking breath as seldom as possible. Pronunciation. We come now to speak of pronunciation, and it would appear almost a superfluous reniaik to say that the public speaker ought to be very careful to give the cqrrect pronunciation tg hi§ wgrds, were it not 72 BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. that we hear this rule violated every other day both in the pulpit and on the platform. By the correct pronunciation we mean that sanctioned by good society. But, it may be said, it is not in every one's power to frequent good society in order to acquire it. That is true enough ; but it is equally so that it is in every one's power to hear and profit by those who represent that cultivated class whose example sets the fashion in speech to the rest of the world. If many public speakers were only aware how much an error in pronunciation often weighs against them with an audience they would be more anxious on this head. It seems such a trifle, and an audience appears so foolish to be influenced by what after all does not in the least concern the matter of the discourse. But perfection is made up of trifles, and as for the foolishness of the audience, there is no need to argue about it ; the fact is so. Elocutionists have drawn, up elaborate tables of the various sounds of the vowels and consonants in our language, the study of which, if rightly pursued, cannot fail to benefit the learner. At the same time, it is quite possible to spend too long over a labour which is at the best dull and uninteresting. Coininoti Errors. Amongst the more glaring and frequent errors into which speakers fall, the first to be set down is the dropping of the " h " at the beginning of words, as in the sentence, " 'ow 'ard it is to find a good 'orse ! " Not only is the h often omitted at the beginning of words, but after w, in when, and in the middle of words as in fore/«ead, ab^or, be/;old, in/zabit, etc. And to make up as it were for the omission of the h, some adorn many of their words with h's where none should be. The next fault to be noticed is in connection with the letter "r." It is sometimes sounded as if it were " w," and this pronunciation is an affectation of the period. Rome is pronounced Wome, rubbish, wobbish. At other limes the soft or final r is omitted, asfaiher for farther. Again, r is sometimes inserted without a reason between vowels as, the idear of it for " the idea of it," Victoriar our Queen for " Victoria, our Queen." A very good Cockney example of this peculiarity, united with the omission of the letter " h," is to be found in Maidar'ill for Maida Hill. Another common error in pronunciation is sounding " ing " as if it were written " ink." A still more frequent blunder is to omit the " g " in " ing " altogether ; and make such words as coming, going, speaking — comui, gain', speakin! The ts in sts is often omitted erroneously ; for example, 'vasists is made inj/Vy perj/j/j, perm', etc. It is also to be observed that the double letter is often rendered as single in such words as immaculate, which is given as iwaculate. A companion mistake to this is the omission of the " n " in the last syllabic of such words as proneness. Another frequent error is the confusion of vowel sounds, by which 74 THE ART Of DELIVERY. means such becomes sich; secret, secritj get, git j and, wtdj tor, far, etc. And often vowels are omitted as in b'liefior belief j p'lite iot polite, etc. A common Cockney error is the substitution of w for v and v for w. Some say ast for ask; a common test word is enthusiaj-;;/, which some, otherwise tolerably correct speakers, persist in pronouncing enthusi-z'jwy just as many men, otherwise fair spellers, write separate for sepirrate. Vase is another rock on which speakers split ; they say, vawse, although the a should be sounded as the a in bar. There are some odd pronunciations of proper names to be heard in society. Ordinary men speak of the late Conservative leader as Disra'li, making his name three syllables ; but very eminent orators call him Dis-ra-e-!i, giving him four full syllables. Derby is fre- quently Darby ; Cowper is Cooper ; Charteris is shortened into Charters ; Majoribanks into Marchbanks ; Belvoir Castle is Be-ver, etc., etc. You will perceive also a struggle for mastery between rev'-e-nue and re-ven'-ue, both being adopted in the House by various authorities. Many curious observations on this subject have been made by Mr. Colin Brown, the able lecturer on Music in the Andersonian University of Glasgow. " Familiar examples of faulty pronunciation," he says, " may be given in any number. Every district of our country has its own peculiarities, and no one caff cast stones at his neighbour without soon finding out that he lives in a glass house. One reverend divine of the old school commences worship in the forenoon by giving out the Hundredth Psawm. A very fine young divine of the lavender kid glove school in the afternoon announces the Feiist Senim. So in the same way one authority sounds man, mawn, another men.'' Mr. Brown then adds the following examples, the localities of which some of our leaders, perhaps, may recognise. Awsk ask esk Utus it is eet ees H;imm him heeni Burrads birds biirds Churrach church church SkyuU skill skeel Wurraship worsliip whuship Doo due dywu Shups ships sheeps Grass grace gress Forrum or WuU will weel form form fawm Note not nut Ruvver river reever Sun sin seen Stull still steel "A common perversion of pronunciation is to change long a into broad e, as in the Greek |8i/rof, so called froin the bleating of a sheep. Same is given as seme or saame ; nation as netion, or naation ; and sometimes one's gravity is sorely tried by hearing a reader in church call the ' old dragon ' either the old draagen, or the old dragoon. "An Edinburgh man is at once detected by calling a k\\oi!,fellee, Calcutta, Calcultee, and his own beloved town Edinbtirree. But in this matter, which is of endless application, neither Englishman, Irish- 75 BEETON'S ART OF FUBLIC SFE.lKING. man, nor Scotchman can first throw a stone, for all have their flagrant faults, and every separate county and district its vulgarisms and pro- ♦ vincialisms. " A Londoner for no says ne-oo ; day, he makes da-ee ; baby, bae-bee ; cow, ke-a-6-oo. This last is very interesting, as it embraces the sounds of all the vowels, and in speaking is, so far as we know, unique. " A great cause of faulty speaking arises from incorrect and defective articulation, that is, from the improper use of consonants. Errors of this kind are as common as those of pronunciation, or the fajalty use of vowels. Every district has its own peculiarities, but, unfortunately, from the nature of the sounds, it is impossible to describe them. Errors in the use of vowel sounds can generally be expressed in writing, but not so in consonants, which are merely transitional sounds. Faulty articulation arises sometimes from using the soft sound of the consonant for the hard, or the hard for the soft ; some- times from using a consonant where there should be none, or leaving out one which ought to be sounded ; also from thickness or im- perfection in utterance, as the North of England burr — the inability to sound the letter r in that district cannot be understood till it is heard — no one can write run, rum, rusty, as a Northumberland cr Cumberland man speaks these words." Piinch is the great ilhistrator of such peculiarities of speech as we have been describing. The remark of the barber, " The cholera is in the hair, sir," was well fitted to rouse the wrath of the crusty old gen- tleman who had come to get his hair cut, and led to the immediate explanation, " It was not the 'air of the 'ed I meant, sir, but the hair of the hatmosphere." We may draw, too, an illustration from Pickwick. Sam Weller is giving his evidence at the celebrated trial. " ' What's your name, sir 1 ' inquired the judge. " ' Sam Weller, my lord,' replied that gentleman. " ' Do you spell it with a V or a W ? ' inquired the judge. " ' That depends upon the taste and fancy of the speller, my lord,' replied Sam ; ' I never had occasion to spell it more than once or twice in my life, but I spells it with a V.' "Here a voice in the gallery exclaimed aloud, 'Quite right, too, Samivel ; quite right. Put it down a We, my lord, put it down a We .' " The true point of the dialogue seems to be that old Tony Weller's explanation leaves the matter darker than ever. Accent, Another feature of words which must be attended to is their accent, for there is, as everybody knows, a stress laid upon some one syllable of every word distinguishing it from the rest. The rule for finding the proper accent for ordinary conversation is to attend to the usages of good society, or refer to a reliable dictionary. And th? rule for {he THE ART OF DELIVERY. accent to be used on the platform is, let it be the same as we make use of in ordinary conversation. It is to be observed that poets — and poets only — have a license in regard to accent, and may, when in need, transpose it. For example : " With grave Aspdct he rose." — Miltom, Paradise Lost. "Then methousht the air grew denser, Perfumed from an unseen censer." — E. A. PoR. Enunciation. When the learner is satisfied that he can give the correct pronun- ciation to the words in his vocabulary, he will next turn his attention to the proper enunciation or articulation of them. For this" purpose he will practise the delivery of short sentences in a clear and distinct manner. He will give special care to have every word clearly defined as it leaves his mouth, and distinctly separated from the words which precede and follow. For this purpose must he not make a pause between each word? Not at all. It is quite possible to attain to considerable rapidity of speech, and, at the same, time, have no running of the words into each other. Note must be taken of this fact, that distinctness of articulation depends entirely upon the way in which the consonants are pronounced. These, then, must not be slurred over, but be sharply delivered. But the speaker must not fall into exaggeration — if he does, his style will be harsh and disagreeable. The consonants, \s^ have said, are of importance so far as clearness is concerned : the vowels are principally important for volume or intensity. "The element of audibility is the pure, well-sustained vowel ; the element of distinctness is the firm, clearly articulated consonant ; and, of course, in good reading or speaking both elements should be combined." Upon distinct articulation, quite as much .as on power of voice depends the success with which the speaker makes himself heard at ri distance. Indeed a weak voice with clear articulation will make itself heard and understood farther off than a strong one whose articu- lation is imperfect. ■ For ^ loud, confused noise does not, as has been ofien observed, even though greater in degree, travel as far as purj and musical sound. And, in connection with this fact, that articulation does more for audibility than mere force of voice, we may quo:c Steele, who in his " Prosodia Rationalis" ([779) says;. "There is a perfection in the pronunciation of the best speakers (which was re- markable in the late Mrs. Cibber, and is the same in Mr. Garrick) : they are distinctly heard even in the softest sounds of their voices ; when others are scarcely intelligible, though offensively loud." There are many combinations of words the articulation of which, to the unpractised, presents much difficulty, and when, in the course ot his reading or speaking, the student meets with such, they should be taken note of and perseveringly rehearsed till they are delivered with 77 BEETOJSrS ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. clearness and ease. The following are a few examples illustrating this point : — A piper picked a peck of pepper off a pewter plate. Up a high hill he heaved a huge round stone. In the spring time, the only pretty ring time. Ruin seize thee, ruthless king. On their hinges grate harsh thunder. Truly rural. He ran round the contrary road into Hereford road. Approach thou, like the rugged Russian bear. An itinerary literary lecturer. Old dame Monk cannot teach children needful lessons. That which she showed me. Fife and steed, and trump and drum. One, and two, and three, and four. His sister is a thistle-sifter, and she sifts thistles with a thistle- sifter. Which is the witch ? Tell me whether it was fine weather when he came. Submitting ourselves wholly to His holy will and pleasure. England's king lay waking and thinking while his subjects were sleeping. Year after year the o'erripe ear is lost. His zeal was blazoned from zone to zone. The painted pomp of pleasure's proud parade. Pachierotti, a famous maeslio,'\ised to say to his pupils, Metlete ben la voce, respiraie bene, proiittiiciale chiarainente, ed il ■uostro carta sara per/eiio. (" Deliver well your voice, respire properly, articulate dis- tinctly, and your singing will be perfect.") This remark has its applica- tion to speaking as well as to singing. Inflection. It must have been observed by all that the voice of a speaker does not always maintain the same pitch. Now it is high, now it is low, and never, for any length of time, is it a dead level in sound. If it were, it would become monotonous and wearisome. This rising and falling of the voice is called inflection. It is a branch of the elocu- tionary art which much pains have been taken to investigate, and on which pages without end have been written. We have only space for a few general observations, but there are plenty of works in existence for those who wish to pursue the subject. First of all it is to be noticed that the inflections of the voice in ordinary conversation seldom exceed an octave. In public speaking they are reduced to a much smaller compass. Inflections are of three sorts, the rising (in most treatises on elocution represented by the mark /),the falling (represented by \ ), and the circumflex, the last being a combination of the first two. The 78 THE ART OF DELIVERY. circumflex inflection js distinguishable into the rising circumflex (in- dicated by z*^), and the falling circumflex (indicated byS^^), ac- cording as it begins with the rising or falling inflection. Rising Inflection. The rising inflection is the upward turn of the voice which we generally use at a pause in a sentence, to show that the sense is not completed. It is employed also in asking a question beginning with a verb as, " Did you see John yesterddy ?" A sentense negative in structure is marked with the rising inflection as, " The quality of mercy is not strdined." " I come not, friends, to steal away your hedrts." Sentences that are of the nature of appeal, supplication, or prayer, take the rising inflection. Example : " Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities." When a sentence expresses amazement or surprise it takes a general rising inflection throughout its delivery. Example : "What Mfchael CAssio that came a w6oing with you, And many a time when I have spoke of you Disprafsingly, hath ta'en your pdrt — To have s6 much to d6 to bring him in ! " Falling Inflection. The falling inflection as a general rule is employed at the end of a sentence to show a conclusion of the sense. And, of course, this equally applies to the different clauses in a sentence, when each clause happens, as it sometimes does, to be complete in itself. The following particular rules may be set down. When sentences though negative in construction are yet expressive of strong conviction or affirmation they take the falling inflection. As- Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thfee. All questions beginning with an interrogative pronoun or adverb should take the falling inflection. What said he .'' Whose house is this ? All sentences declaring hatred, denunciation, reprehension, and similar passions of the mind, are to be marked by the emphatic falling inflection. " Look to your hearths, my lords — For there henceforth shall sit as household gods. Shapes hot from Tartarus — all shames and crimes- Wan Trekchery, with his thirsty dagger driwn — ■ Suspicion poisoning his brother's cup — Naked Rebellion with the torch and kxe, Making his wild sport of your blazing thr6ncs ; Till Anarchy comes down on you like night, And m&ssacre seal Rome's eternal grhve." 79 BEETONS ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. All sentences expressing authority or conamand take the fall in j inflection, as — Agree with thine adversary quickly. Spfeak, I charge you. Circumjlex Inflection, To speak now of circumflex inflections ; these are used when a word is introduced which suggests an antithesis without openly expressing it, as — " The labour of years is often insufficient for a complete reformation, and Divine help is needed to keep us in the path of virtue." When words or clauses are antithetic in meaning, and emphatic in character, the falling circumflex inflection should be used on the positive or absolute member, and the rising, on the negative or relative. Example — " It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion ; it is easy in solitude to live after our own ; but the great man is he who, in the midst of the crowd, keeps the independence of solitude." Emphatic circumflex inflections are also employed in irony, and in strong and vehement interrogation, and also when wonder, contempt, scornful indignation, and ridicule are expressed. Examples — " You must take me for a fool, to think I could do that." " You meant no harm ; oh, no ! your thoughts are innocent ; you have nothing to hide ; your breast is pure, stainless, all tiuth." "Good friends ! sweet friends ! let mc not stir you up To such a sudden flood of mutiny — They that have done this deed are honourable. What private griefs they have, alas ! I know not, That made them do it ; they are wise and honourable, And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you." Inflection may be called music in speech, and an acquaintance with the art of music will greatly assist us in comprehending it. Diit it must not be overlooked that there is a difference between music in speech and in singing. The difference may be thus expressed : In speaking every syllabic sound from its outset to its termination, glides in an unbroken movement from high to low, traveising measurable points of the scale, but slurring in the intermediate divisions, and never dwelling for a perceptible space of time on a level line. Whereas, in singing, the progression from tone to tone is accomplished by a series of leaps, and once a note is commenced, one of its great beauties consists in its remaining on a level line till its termination. It has been observed that, in cultivated readers and speakers, the range of the circumflex inflection is ordinarily a musical fifth, ascending So THE ART OF DELIVERY. or descending, and that the range increases in proportion to the strength of the feeling given utterance to. Inflections are not necessary to the sense. To make this clear we may call to mind that the English, Scotch, and Irish use them differently, and yet, unless the pronunciation of the speaker be faulty, no ambiguity ever arises with regard to the meaning. The speaker should carefully avoid the alternate repetition of the rising and falling inflection. This is a common habit, and about the worst one could contract. It is what is known as " the sing-song style" — and no one possessed of it ever excelled in anything but setting people to sleep. On this subject of inflection the same rule holds good that was given before, that the public speaker must carry with him the tones of private conversation. He must not make for himself a platform style. Emphasis. Emphasis is the next thing to be attended to. By emphasis we mean the peculiar stress which is laid upon particular words in a sentence in order to attract the attention of listeners. It comes naturally to every one, and, if many speakers misuse it, it is because they forget nature when in the pulpit or on the platform. There are two rules to be attended to in connection with this part of our subject. One is, that emphasis is only to be given to the right words ; and the other is, that the right words must receive nothing but the proper amount of emphasis.^ With reference to the first, the right words will depend upon the speaker's meaning ; or, if he happen to be reciting the words of another, upon his understanding of his author's meaning. It will be found that a great variety of impressions may be conveyed by the same sentence if we only shift the stress from one word to another. For example : " Is old Dibble dead ? " (I thought it was the parson, not the sexton.) " Is ol I Dibble dead?" (I thought it was the young one.) " /j old Dibble dead.'" (I think you're joking.) " Is old Dibble deal'!" (I fancied h;; was as well a5 ever.) Or take the sentence : Do you ride to town to-day ? These six words, by variations in the emphatic wjrd, are capable of seven distinct meanings : 1. Do you ride to town to-diy ? (and not to-mo:'row ?) 2. Do you ride to tdwn to-day ? (and not into the country ?) 3. Do you ride to town to-day .' (and -not from town .'') 4. Do you ride to town to-day ? (and not walk or go by train ?) 5. Do ydu ride to town to-day.' (and not some other person ?) 6. Dd you ride to town to-day ? (I am grc.itly surprised to hear it ?) 7. Dd you ridi^ to tdwn.to-diy.' (implying doubt or surprise as to each fact and circumstance in the question.) Some people are in the habit of emphasising all the words in their sentences, which look big. This 19 One of the most absurd of mis- 7 iii BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. takes, and robs a discourse of all impressiveness, whilst the speaker, it may be, fancies he is making it wonderfully telling. Another error is to give prominence to small words, and to pro- nounce them as they are spelt, instead of giving them their conven- tional form. " My " is a special offender in this way. This fault of placing great stress on words of secondary importance is strongly ridiculed by Churchill, in his criticism of Mossop the actor : " With studied improprieties of speech, Pie soars beyond the hacltney critic's reach. To epithets allots emphatic state, Whilst principles, ungraced, like lackeys wait : In ways first trodden by himself excels, And stands alone in undeclinables ; Conjunction, preposition, adverb, join To stamp new vigour on the nervous line : In monosyllables his thunders roll lie, slie, i£, and, ice, ye, ihcy^ fright the soul." Expression. Expression is the modulating or regulating the organ of the voice to tones of gentleness or force, according to the nature and degree of feeling or passion expressed in words. It is the natural language of emotion, and is, in elocution to a certain extent, a vocal imitation of passion. Cut this must be done without " aggravating the voice " (as Bottom has it). It is a grace which requires the nicest management, and cannot be achieved but with the best cultivation of ^ar and voice, in order to catch and re-echo the tones of the heart to the ears and hearts of others. It depends mainly upon pitch of voice, and the expression of each different feehng has its appropiiate pitch. Expression, therefore, is a refinement on intonation ; they go hand in hand ; we cannot think of the one without the other. Intonation gives the voice volume and power; expression uses and adapts it to the feelings. Expression too is the feature of speech which more than any other bears the m.irk of individuality. It is closely allied to that sympathetic tone which has already been spoken of As often as the passion, or feeling, or thought behind the voice changes, so often does the quality of the voice change. Even the most dcUcate .alteration may be noticed by a quick ear. " This may be observed," says M. Garcia, " even in simple conversation ; for if the intention be to represent anything extensive, hollow, or slender, the A'dice produces, by a moulding movement, sounds of a corresponding, descriptive character." The tone in which a word or sentence is uttered may completely alter its meaning. It expresses a meaning deeper than the words themselves. A good example of this occurs in the following passage in Scott's " Kcnilu orth." Elizabeth, anxious for the reconciliation of Sussex and Leicester, addresses them thus : " ' Let me see you join hand, my lords,' said Elizabeth, ' and forget your idle animosities.' S3 THE ART OF DELIVERY. " The rivals looked at each other with reluctant eyes, each unwilling to make the first advance to execute the queen's will. " ' Sussex,' said Elizabeth, ' I entreat — Leicester, I command you.' " Yet so were her words accented (modulated .-') that the entreaty sounded like command and the command like entreaty." To be successful in public speaking with regard to expression, we must follow nature. Indeed, in this, as in so many other branches of the oratorical art, success depends on closely observing what nature does when unconstrained and uninfluenced by habit. Pilch. As to the pitch which a speaker should principally employ in his public discourses, that should be about the middle one of his voice ; that is, very nearly what is used in ordinary conversation. Of course it should be varied according to the sentiment. Tenderness will be expressed in one tone ; piiy in another ; sorrow in a third ; rage in a fourth, and so on. But the rule is that the middle pitch should be maintained. Great care should be taken to practise the voice in every key which it is capable of. The middle pitch should first be used, then the higher and lower ones. The lower will give most trouble, and there are few speakers who can employ the lower tones of the voice with distinctness — few like Mrs. Siddons, whose lowest whisper was distinctly heard in the remotest parts of huge theatres. When we change the key of a discourse we should be at a division of the subject or recommencing after a pause. An alteration at any other point has a bad effect. All public speakers agree that it is much easier to raise the pitch of a discourse than to lower it. Pitch, it is to be noted, is quite distinct from force; by which, how- ever, its effect may be aided and increased. It is a common mistake to confound the two, and we find speakers rising higher and higher the more they increase in force. But no mistake could be greater, and the speaker should shake himself free from its influence. It will be found good practice to cultivate force in connection with every key of one's voice. And it is also to be observed that we keep the same tune, or scale of inflections, though we alter the pitch. There is another fact to be observed, that audibility in some degree depends upon pitch. If we endeavour to make ourselves heard at a great distance, we not only call loudly, but we employ a high tone of voice. And for this reason a woman's shrill pipe will make itself heard at distances and under circumstances in which a man's voice would be entirely lost. Pitch must, to a certain degree, be regulated by the nature of the room in which the speaker is. Every auditorium has its peculiarities, and is better adapted to some sounds than to others. If the room is unknown and untried, the speaker may have some difficulty in hitting the exact pitch to suit it. His best plkn is to begin in a low key, and gradually ascend till he reaches what his earwjU tell him is the proper one. 83 BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SFEAKIAG. Force. Force, or intensity, as we have seen, depends on the lungs, that is to say, it is produced by the pressure of the breath. It is quite a different thing, as we ha\e just remarked, from pitch. We may speak very loudly on a low tone of voice, and very softly on a high one. Force must be varied according to the sentiments expressed. These may require us at one time to speak softly, at another time with energy, or even with vehemence. Nature in this must be our teacher. Force again must be changed to suit the size, of the building in which the speaker delivers his discourse. In relation to the buildinj:, it goes hand in hand with pilch. It is a good rule laid down by Mr. Sheridan that, with a view to making oneself heard by all, one ought to fi.\ the eye on the person farthest distant in the assemblage, and address him. In this way one naturally hits the right force and pitch. But a speaker must always bear in mind his own physical ability, and take care not to overtask that. Should he, in order to make everybody hear, have to shout with all his energy at his highest pitch, he is pretty sure to break his voice. Such a misfortune is to be carefully guarded against, and if the speaker cannot with safely make himself heard by all, he must just content himself with a smaller number. He will gradually come by practice to know the ability of his voice for filling large spaces. It is to be added that a speaker knows when he has filled a room with his voice by the return of the sound to his ear. Under the influence of excitement a man often speaks louder than is either necessary or agreeable, and it ought to be one's constant endeavour never, even in moments of passion, to overstep the proper bounds in this way. In connection with force let us look at the following table, in which the Degrees are expressed by the musical signs p. pp. ; mf ; f., and ff. Degrees of Foize. Applicable Circujiistances. Piano Pianissimo P PP soft. very soft. Secrecy, caution, doubt ; pity, love, grief, awe ; tenderness, plaintive sentiment ; humility, shame ; re- pose ; fatigue, prostration. M(;zzo forte mf rather loud (literally, mid- dling loud) Common conversation ; plain naini- tive and description ; ..nimpas- sioned speech. l-'orte Furtissimo f ff loud very loud Certainty : anger, rage, hate, fero- city ; mirth, joy, triumph ; and ex- cited states of the mind generally. Pauses. Oratorical pauses are very different things from those of the gram- marian's. We mean that good speaking will often require a pause to be made at places when the grammarian would not have one at all, and vice versa. The student may easily test this by taking up a printed 84 THE ART OP DlLLlVEkV. book and reading a passage. He may discover in himself a tendency to attend only to the commas, semicolons, etc., which he finds there laid down ; but, if he read as he speaks in conversation, he will notice himself often suspending the voice wheie there is no grammatical pause marked. In good speaking and reading, pauses will occur at every few words. and the delivery will be successful in proportion as the voice is sus- pended at the proper places. As to the necessity of having the pauses at none but the right places, it is surely unnecessary to say a word. Errors in this way make sad havoc with the sense. Take such a mistake as the following : " My name is Norvnl on the Grampian hills, My lather feeds his flock," etc. According to this reading it might be inferred that in the Low Country the youth went by some other name. Of course a great deal, if we are reading the production of another, depends upon our appreciation of the author's inoaning. for instance in the quotation — " West of the town a mile among the rocks Two hours ere noon to-morrow I expect thee, Thy single arm to mine." It is of consequence whether we make the pause after " town " or "mile" — the meaning \\\ each case being different. Rules. , The following are the principal rules for r^et^irical pauses : " Pause and replenish the lungs with bream — • " After the nominative, when it consists of several words, or of one important word. A pause after a pronoun in the nominative case is only admissible when it is emphatic. " Before and after all parenthetic, explanatory, and intermediate clauses. ''After words in apposition or in opposition. "Before relative proiiouns. " Before and after cla-ises introduced by prepositions. " Between the several members of a series. " Before all conjunctions, and after all conjunctions, which intro- duce important words-, clauses, or sentences. " Between all nouns and pronouns that are nominatives to a verb, or that are governed by a verb ; between ail adjectives (except the last) which qualify a noun ; and all adverbs (except the last) which qualify either verbs, adjectives, or adverbs. " Before the infinitive mood, when not immediately preceded by a modifying word. " Wherever an ellipsis takes place. 85 BEETOJSPS ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. " Between the object and the modifying word in their inverted order. "Generally before and after emphatic words." ' There is a passage in Sterne often quoted as illustrative of this subject. It runs : "And how did Garrick speak the soliloquy lust night?" "Oh, against all rule, my lord ; most ungrammatically ! betwixt the sub- stantive and the adjective, which should agree together in number, case, and gender, he made a breach thus — stopping as if the point wanted settling ; and betwixt the nominative case, which, your lord- ship knows, should govern the verb, he suspended his voice in the epilogue a dozen times, three seconds and three-fifths, by a stop- watch, my lord, each time." " Admirable grammarian ! But in sus- pending his voice was the sense suspended likewise ? Did no expres- sion of attitude or countenance fill up the charm ? Was the eye silent ? Did you narrowly watch \" "I looked only at the stop-watch, my lord." "Admirable observer ! " Sometimes unexpected and considerable pauses may be introduced so as powerfully to affect the hearers. On this let us hear the Arch- bishop of Cambray : " There are some occasions when an orator might best express his thoughts by silence. For if, being full of some great sentiment, he continued immovable for a moment, this surpris- ing pause would keep the minds ol the audience in suspense and express an emotion too big for words to utter." Pace. We come now to discuss the pace at which an orator should speak. It must not be too slow, or the audience will be set to sleep ; it must not be too fast, or they will be confused, and unable to follow. Be- sides, too great rapidity causes loss of coolness and self-possession in the speaker, and produces incorrectness of intonation and pronuncia- tion. The happy medium is what in this case is to be sought for. But a caution is to be added, that uniformity of pace is not in the least desirable. The rapidity with which a speaker utters his thougluj should vary with the subject in hand : now it should slacken, as he lingers over something from talking of which he is loath to part ; now it should be accelerated as he hurries on to demolish an opponent or enforce some truth with which his spirit is on fire. The nature of the building in which a speaker is, must also to some extent have to be considered before any exact rule can be laid down for the rapidity of his utterance. If there is an echo he will have to speak more deliberately and distinctly than usual. It may be added that a fluent speaker enunciates about one hundred and twenty words in a minute, or about seven thousand within an hour. Some orators have been known to utter ten thousand words in an hour. ' Thelwall. 86 THE ART OF DELIVERY. The following are the rates at which speech will move in certain states of mind. Degrees of Rate. Applicable Circiivistances. Largo Adagio very slow slow Solemnity, dignity ; deliberation, doubt ; grief ; tranquility. Andante at a moderate pace Unimpassioned speech. Allegro Presto quick very quick Cheerfulness, mirth, gaiety ; raillery ; anger, hate, ferocity ; and excited states generally. Aclion. Let us now turn from the study of vocal utterance, which we have examined as fully as our limits will allow, to that of action, the last, but by no means the least, important matter in connection with public speaking. Can any one deny that graceful and appropriate action on the part of the orator, adds greatly to the force of what he says ; and that, on the other hand, grotesque and inelegant gestures take away in a great degree from his impressiveness ? Some have openly denied it, and others, if not giving an open denial, at least have spoken slightingly of an orator's taking pains to have his actions noble and pleasing. But the voice of all whose opinion is worth having, tends the other way, and insists that a public speaker ought assiduously to cultivate this department of his art. Naturally we as a nation are not much given to action in ordinary discourse, and on this head Addison in the Spectator has some remarks well worthy of being quoted and remembered. Addison on Action. " Our orators," he says, " are observed to make use of less gesture (iraction than those of other countries. Our preachers stand stock- stUr in the pulpit, and will not so much as move a finger to set off the best sermons in the world. We meet with the same speaking statues at the bar, and in all public places of debate. Our words flow from us in a smooth, continued stream, without those strainings of the voice, motions of the body, and majesty of the hand, which are so celebrated in the orators of Greece and Rome. We can talk- of life and death in cold blood, and keep our temper in a discourse which turns upon everything that is dear to us. Though our zeal breaks out in the finest tropes and figures, it is not able to stir a limb about us. I have heard it observed more than once by those who have seen Italy, that an untravelled Englishman cannot relish all the beauties of Italian pictures, because the postures which are expressed in them are often such as are pecuhar to that country. One who has not seen an Italian in the pulpit will not know what to make of that noble gesture in Raphael's picture of St. Paul preaching at Athens, where the apostle 87 BEETOiV'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. is represented as lifting up both his arms, pouring out the thunder of his rhetoric amidst an audience of pagan philosopliers. _ It is certain that proper gestures and vehement exertions of the voice cannot be too much studied by a pubhc orator. They are a kind of comment upon what he utters, and enforce everything he says, with weak hearers, far better than the strongest argument he can make use of. They keep the audience awake, and fix their attention to what is dehvered to them ; at the same time that they show the speaker is in earnest, and affected himself with what he so passionately recommends to others. Violent gesture and vociferation naturally shake the hearts of the ignorant, and fill them with a kind of religious horror. Nothing is more frequent than to see women weep and tremble at the siglit of a moving preacher, though he is placed quite out of hearing ; as in England wo very frequently see people lulled to sleep with solid and elaborate discourses of piety, who would be warmed and transported cut of themselves by the bellowings and distortions of enthusiasm. If nonsense, when accompanied with such an emotion of voice and body, has such an influence on men's minds, what might we not expect from many of those admirable discourses which ai e printed in our tongue, were they delivered wiih a becoming fervour and with the most agree- able graces of voice and gesture ! " We are told that the great Latin orator very much impaired his health by this laterum cpiiUtiiio, this vehemence of action, with which he used to deliver himself. " The Greek orator was likewise so very famous for this particular in rhetoric, that one of his antagonists, whom he had banished from Athens, reading over the oration which had procured his banishment, and seeing his friends admire it, could not forbear asking them, if they were so much affected by the bare reading of it, how much more they would have been alarmed had they heard him actually throwing out such a storm of eloquence. " How cold and dead a figure, in comparison of these two great men, does an orator often make at the British bar, holding up his head with the most insipid serenity, and stroking the sides of a long wig that reaches down to his middle ! The truth of it is, there is often nothing more ridiculous than the gestures of an English speaker ; you see some of them running their hands into their pockets as far as ever they can thrust them, and others looking with great attention on a piece of paper that has nothing written on it. You may see many a smart rhetorician turning his hat in his hands, moulding it into several different cocks, examining sometimes the lining of it, and sometimes the bottom, during the whole course of his harangue. A deaf man would think he was cheapening a beaver, when, perhaps, he is. talking of the fate of the British nation. I remember, when I was a young man, and used to frequent Westminster Hall, there was a counsellor who never pleaded without a piece of pack-thread in his hand, which he used to twist about a thumb or a finger all the while he was speak- ing ; the wags of those days used to call it the thread of his discourse, for he was not able to utter a word without it. One of his clients, who 88 THE ART OF DELIVERY. was more merry than wise, stole it from him one day in the midst of his pleading, but he had better have left it alone for he lost his cause by his jest." We do not think anything need be added to this extract, the elegance of which must excuse its length. It sets down very plainly the desir- abihty of cultivating this which has often been called the speech or eloquence of the body— a kind of speech which displays sometimes more movingly than words the deep emotions of the soul. As a companion story to that told by Addison of the man with the thread to his discourse, we may set down another, showing that in speaking one should try to keep clear of bad habits in thought as well as in action. There is a story told of Sir Fi-ederick Flood, who had a droll eccentricity, of which he could never effectually cure him- self. Whenever a person whispered or suggested anything to him whilst he was speaking in public, without a moment's reflection, he always repeated the suggestion literatim. Once, he was making a long speech in the Irish ParHament, lauding the transcendent merits of the Wexford magistracy on a motion for extending the criminal jurisdiction in that county to keep down the disaffected. As he was closing a most turgid oration by declaring that " the said magistracy ought to receive some signal mark of the Lord Lieutenant's favour," John Egan, another member who was sitting behind him, jocularly whispered, " and be whipped at the cart's tail." " And be whipped at the cart's tail !" repeated Sir Fredeiick unconsciously, amidst peals of uncontrollable laughter. General Principles. A few general principles in connection with action are to be observed, and the first is that the motions used in common intercourse are to be made the basis of public action. We do not mean, however, that we should use no more action than in conversation, for the sight of a large assembly, and the importance of his subject, should animate the orator to a much greater exhibition of vivacity on the platform than would be becoming in private life. At the same time, it must be re- membered that the platform and the stage are quite different situations, and that what would be liberty on the latter would be license on the former. As to the time of the action, it must a little precede the verb.al utterance. Should it accompany it, it will come too late, and it will be much out of place should it come after. Action, says some one, should wait upon our speech, but in the sense in which heralds wait upon kings, going before, and advising every one of their coming. An abrupt or jerky action is to be avoided. It ought to be easy and natural, and come as it were spontaneously. If it has been pre- viously studied, the art must be carefully concealed, a process which is extremely difficult. Few things are more objectionable than the display of prepared gestures : they not only create an aversion to the speaker, but encourage distrust of his argument. Another general observation is that action should not be incessant. BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. There are many parts of a discourse in delivering which the speaker ought to remain quite still. Unless he feels the necessity for it, he should not indulge in movement of any kind. Some think that it is desirable always to look lively ; to them the advice of F^nelon may be quoted : we should make our arms move because we are animated, and not try to appear animated by moving our arms. A point very necessary to be observed is that an action should not be suggestive of the ludicrous. A famous example of this is to be found in Burke's production of a dagger in the House of Commons in the peroration of his speech on the Bill for the Regulation of Aliens. Another is Lord Brougham's kneeling on the woolsack and imploring the Lords to pass the Reform Bill. This, however, is to be kept in mind, that an action, which in our cool moments appears very absurd, may in the heat of debate have been introduced with thrilling effect. The CoMiteiiancc. We come now to particulars ; to speak of the different parts of the orator's person, which may be made to heighten the effect of his eloquence ; and first, the importance of the countenance can hardly be exaggerated. It should tell that the speaker feels, and what he feels. The emotions of his mind should be miiTored on every feature, and it may be taken as a general rule that should he betray no feeling in the movements of his face, there is none in his heart. But it is to be noticed that the countenance should not change too frequently, otherwise he will lay himself open to the charge of affecta- tion, and be laughed at for the absurdity and unnaturalness of his grimaces. As to intentional distortion of features with a view to make some narrative or argument more telling (as the speaker fancies) such a practice is unworthy of every sensible person. It may be amusing in a mountebank, but should be adopted by no one else. To lay down rules how one should look for every sentiment is quite impossible. The whole countenance, if the speaker have any feeling, may safely be left to take care of itself. It needs no tutor, and if he only avoid such bad habits as knitting the brows without cause, biting the lips, and so on, and keep from trying to assume a mask of in- difference, from a mistaken notion that one ought to be above betray- ing emotion, he will do well enough. The Eye. The most important part of the countenance is the eye. It. fascinates or repels, it flashes with rage or melts with tenderness, and is changed by every passion. The orator should therefore con- stantly keep before him the fact that in his glance resides real power, and do his best to use it. Bourdaloue, the great French orator, spoke with his eyes closed, which was much to be regretted. No one can doubt but that his speaking, wonderful as it was, lost much in effect by his so doing. 90 THE ART OF DELIVERY. The Neck. The neck ought to be straight, not stiff or thrown bade, and as to the shoulders, to shrug or contract them is very seldom becoming ; for the neck is shortened by it ; and it begets a mean, servile, and knavish sort of gesture; particularly when men put themselves into postures of adulation, admiration, or fear. The Hands and Arms. But the hands and arms present the greatest difficulty : it is' in connection with them that many really gifted with eloquence fall into the grossest absurdities. By the ancient rhetoricians the hands were held of the highest importance, and their instructions regarding their use are particular and elaborate. Quintilian, writing on the subject, says, " It is a difficult matter to say what number and variety of motions the hands have, without which all action would be imperfect and maimed, since those motions are almost as various as the words we speak. For the other parts of the body may be said to help a man when he speaks, but the hands, if I may so express myself, speak themselves. Do we not by the hand desire a thing ? Do we not, by the hands, promise, call, dismiss, threaten, act the suppliant, express our abhorrence or fear ? By the hands, do we not interrogate, deny, show our grief, joy, doubt, confession, penitence, etc. ? Do not these same hands provoke, forbid, entreat, approve, admire, and express shame ? Do they not, in pointing out localities and persons, supply the very place often of nouns, pronouns, and adverbs ? insomuch that amid all the number and diversity of tongues upon the earth, this infinite use of the hands seems to remain the universal language common to all." Even the fingers held an important place in the action of the ancients, and for particulars of their motions, as well as for the gestures of the hands we must refer the reader to the writer just cited. Quintilian insists that in action we should not usecorresponding hands and feet. The modern practice appears a little different ffom this, but Quintilian's rule undoubtedly ought to be followed, except when the speaker is moved by vehement feeling, love, desire, hatred, terror, or surprise ; in which case corresponding hands and feet should be advanced. The Feet. Freedom and grace depend much on the management of the lower limbs and feet. In standing it is to be noted that the position is graceful when the weight of the body is principally supported by one leg, whilst the other is so placed as to be able to relieve it promptly and without effort. The advice which has been already given legarding action in general is specially applicable to the movement of the feet : it should not be too frequent. When the position is changed, that foot should be first moved on which the weight of the body is not supported. 91 BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. Divisions of Action. The late B. H. Smart, a well-known writer aYid teacher of elocution, used to group all gesture under four heads : i. Emphatic; 2. Refcr- tntial ; 3. Impassioned ; and 4. Imitative gesture. The first head requires no explanation. Its name clearly defines what it is. " Referential gesture is of frequent occurrence. By it, the speaker calls attention to what is actually present, or to what is imagined for the moment to be present, or to the direction, real, or for the moment conceived, in which anything has happened or may happen. W lien Lord Chatham speaks of the figure in the tapestry frowning on a degenerate representative of his race, he refers to the place by corresponding action. When Canute is described ordering his chair to be placed on the shore, the narrator, by action, fixes attention to some particular spot, as if the sea were really present. When a picture of any kind is to be exhibited to the mental \iew, the speaker will convey a lively impression in proportion as he himself conceives it clearly, and, by action, refers consistently to its dififerent parts, as if the scene were before the eyes of his auditors. " Of impassioned gesture it may be observed . . . that, though all gesture of this kind ought to be the effect of natural impulse, yet the assumption of the outward signs of expression is one of the means of rousing in the speaker the real feeling. This consideration, and this alone, can justify any perceptive directions where nature seems to offer herself as sole instructor. " Imitative gesture often takes place with good effect in speaking, particularly in narration or description of a comic kind. To use it in serious description would generally be to burlesque the subject ; though even here, if sparingly and gracefully introduced, it is not always misplaced. For instance, in Collins' 'Ode to the Passions,' the narrator may use imitative action when he tells us that — and that ' Fear his hand its skill to try Amid the chords bewildered laid. And back recoiled : ' ' Anger rushed In one rude clash he struck the lyre. And swept with hurried hands the strings.' and so, throughout the ode, whenever imitative action is possible without extravagance. " Of gesture thus discriminated it will not be difficult to determine the species which this or that department of speaking calls most into pl.-iy. The pulpit, for instance, hardly admits of other than emphatic gesture, seldom of referential, not very often of impassioned, never of imilatizie. The senate and the bar may more frequently admit of referential and impassioned gesture, very seldom ot imitative. It is only the stage that makes full use of gesture drawn from all the four souices that have been Indicated. Yet the practice of the pupil, Q3 THE ART OF DELIVER Y. whatever may be his destined profession, ought not to be confined only to one or two of these species of gesture. For, in order to bring forth the powers of intellect and sensibility, a wide range of subjects must be chosen ; and in all these, his business will be to ' suit the action to the word, and the word to the action.'" Hamlet's Advice to the Players. Th's last line reminds us that we have not yet laid before the reader Hamlet's advice to the players, and truly a treatise on elocution with- out that celebrated and instructive passage would be an incomplete affair. So here it is : " Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, tripplingly on the tongue ; but, if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I hac' as liv.f the town-crier spoke my lines. And do not saw the air too much with your liand — thus ; but use all gently ; fur in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may giie it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul, to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the ground- lings ; who (for the most part) are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise ; 1 would have such a fellow whipt, for o'er doing Termagant ; it out-herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it ! "Be not too tame neither; but let your discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action ; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature : for any- thing, so over-done, is from the purpose of playing. . . . Now this, over-done or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve ; the censure of which one, must (in your allowance) o'erway a whole theatre of others." It seems a matter of just regret that we have no method of per- petuating the merit of those who have excelled in the captivating art of oratory. The genius of the writer is displayed in his works ; that of the painter in his pictures ; that of the composer of music in the note-book which records the "concords of sweet sounds," of which he has been the elicitor or combiner. But if even the words of the orator are preserved, his manner, his voice, his tones, his looks, his gestures, are lost to future ages ; and the circumstances which con- stitute the essence of his art, his action, never go down to posterity. Hence it is that the comparative excellence of Demosthenes and Cicero and that of the other great names in the field of public speaking cannot be estimated. What assists more than anything else in the cultivation of graceful action is the frequenting of good society — that is to say, such society as is conspicuous for its good taste and the elegance of its manners.. Dress. It remains to be added, as a particular closely connected with what we have been considering, that the speaker should be solicitous about his personal appearanca. He should dress well, and the golden rule 93 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. for dressing well, as every one knows, is to wear nothing which will attract notice to itself. The End of a Discourse. This is to be said in conclusion, that the details here given as to deliver)', as well as the particulars which preceded thesa as to the preparation of a discourse, must all be'held subservient to the grand purpose of the spealcer, the enforcing of truth. If he would achieve success, his subject must be everything to him. He should be so intent upon it, that whilst in the act of delivery, the graces of style, the right modes of articulation, the proper habits of action will never once cross his mind. His earnestness will communicate itself to his audience. They will believe in him and embrace his views. That is the orator's true victory : that is the end for which'he speaks. It will then be with him as with Demosthenes, when he stirred up the Athenians against the conquering King of Macedon. He ceased speaking : no one cried in admiration "What an orator !" but every one shouted "Up! let us march against Philip." Undoubtedly oratory is perfect when the audience are so impressed with the matter that for the time they never give a thought to the beauty of the manner. Cicero, however, in one of his letters to Brutus, makes the following remark : That eloquence which excites no admiration I account as nothing. Aristotle also thinks that to excite admiration should be one of the greatest objects of the orator. CHAPTER IX. EXERCISES IN ORATORY. Debating Societies. As to the means, in addition to those already mentioned, by which a young student may fit himself for coming before the public, the frequent- ing of Debating Societies is undoubtedly one of the best. These societies are not only valuable in the way of giving fluency of utterance and inspiring confidence in his own powers, but they accustom him to contradiction and teach habits of thought. For this we have the testimony of many orators who have attained to great distinction. For example, Lord Jeffrey remarks : " The Speculative Society and the Academical Debating Club did me more good than all the rest of my education." ' Constant practice in some shape or other, at any rate, is requisite if one would succeed. It is told that Fox attributed his success as a debater to the resolution he had formed, when very young, of speak- ing well or ill at least once every night. "During five sessions," he used to saj', " I spoke every night but one ; and I regret that I did not speak on that night too." A work on the " Art of Rhetorique " was written by Sir Thomas Wilson, about 1550. Wilson was one of those early writers who did much to perfect and purify the English language. Let us, as a speci- men, take this passage, which for its good sense deserves to be borne in mind. "What maketh the lawyer to have such utterance? Prac- tice. What maketh the preacher to speak so soundly ? Practice. Yea I What maketh women to go so fast atvai with their wordes ? Markie, practice, I warrant you. Therefore, in all faculties diligent practice and earnest exercise are the only things that make men prove excellent." As to the subjects which should be discussed at ordinary Debating Societies, it should ever be borne in mind that the first object to be gained is not information, but practice in speaking. They will not then be such as require elaborate preparation, they will be those that most people are already acquainted with. In the case of Debating Clubs formed by students at colleges, a different class of subjects, such as bear upon their studies, for instance, may with propriety be brought forward. Everywhere, frivolous and extravagant topics should be excluded. Dr. Blair, alluding to this subject, lays down ' Cockburn's " Memorials of Lord Jeffrey." 95 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. three rules, which deserve to be added here. In the first place, he advises all who are members of such societies not to speak on subjects where they are ignorant or unripe ; but only when they have proper materials for a discourse, and have digested and thought of the sub- ject beforehand. In the next place, when they do speak, they should study always to keep good sense and persuasion in view rather than ostentation of eloquence ; and for this end, lastly, they are recom- mended always to choose that side of a question to which, in their own judgment, they are most inclined as the right and true side. By these means they will take the best method of forming themselves gradually to a manly, correct, and persuasive style. The ordinary rules of Debating Societies are given in the Appendix. Study of Rhetorical Writers. Considerable advantage is also to be reaped by the student from the study of the chief writers, ancient and modern, who have treated of the subject of oratory. liut he must ever bear in mind that it is not so much a knowledge of theory as daily practice that is requisite. One may perfectly comprehend the whole philosophy of rhetoric, and yet be but an indifferent speaker. A few of the most noted works may be particularised. We begin with the ancient's, with whom every one desirous of excelling in oratory, and whose profession calls upon him to spefik in public, ought to be acquainted. " In all the ancient writers," says Dr. Blair, "there is, indeed, this defect that they are too systematical ; they aim at doing too much ; at i educing rhetoric to a complete and perfect art, which may even supply invention wit'i materials on every sub ect ; insomuch that one would imagine they expected to form an orator by rule, in as mechanical a manner as one would form a carpenter. Whereas, all that can in truth be done is to give openings for assisting and enlightening taste, and for pointing' out to genius the course it ought to hold. "Aristotle laid the foundation of all that was afterwards written on the subject. That amazing and comprehensive genius has investigated the principles of rhetoric with great penetration. Aristotle appears to have been the first who took rhetoric out of the hands of the sophists, and introduced reasoning and good sense into th3 art. Som:; of the I rofoundest things which have b^en written on the passions and manners of men are to be found in his Treatise on Rhetoric; though in this, as in all his writings, his great brevity often renders him obscure. " Succeeding Greek rhetoricians, most of whom are now lost, improved on the foundation which Aristotle had laid. Two of them still remain— Demetrius Phalereus and Dionysius of Halicarnassus ; both write on the construction of sentences, and deserve to be perused, especially Dionysius, who is a very accurate and judicious critic. " We need scarcely recommend the rhetorical writings of Cicero. "\Ahatcver, on the subject of eloquence, comes from so great an orator must be worthy of attention, His most considerable work on this EXERCISES IN ORATORY. subject is that entitled ' De Oratore,' in three books. None of Cicero's writings are more highly finished than this treatise. The dialogue is polite, the characters are well supported, and the conduct of the whole is beautiful and agreeable. It is, indeed, full of digressions, and his rules and observations may be thought too vague and general. Useful things, however, may be learned from it ; and it is no small benefit to be made acquainted with Cicero's own idea of eloquence. The 'Orator ad M. Bi-utum' is also a considerable treatise; and, in general, throughout all Cicero's rhetorical works there run those high and sublime ideas of eloquence, which are fitted both for forming a just taste and for creating that enthusiasm for the art which is of the greatest consequence for excelling in it. " But of all the ancient writers on the subject of oratory, the most instructive and the most useful is Quintilian. I know few books which abound more with good sense, and discover a greater degree of just and accurate taste than Quintilian's ' Institutions.' Almost all the principles of good criticism are to be found in them. He has digested into excellent order all the ancient ideas concerning rhetoric ; and is, at the same time, himself an eloquent writer. Though some parts of his work contain too much of the technical and artificial system then in vogue, and for that reason may be thought dry and tedious, yet I would not advise the omitting to read any part of his Institutions. To pleaders at the bar, even these technical parts may be of some use. Seldom has any person, of more sound and distinct judgment than Quintilian, applied himself to the study of the art of oratory." " The great merit of Quintilian's treatise on oratory," says the editor ofMr. Bohn's excellent translation (2 vols., 1871), " above all works of the kind that have preceded it, was its superior copiousness of matter and felicity of embellishment. It does not offer a mere dry list of rules, but illustrates them with an abundance of examples from writers of all kinds, interspersed with observations that must interest not only the orator, but readers of every class. It embraces a far wider field than the ' De Oratore' of Cicero, and treats of all that concerns eloquence with far greater minuteness. The orator conducts his pupil froin the cradle to the utmost heights of the oratorical art. He speaks of the books that he must read in his boyhood and in his maturer years. He gives him precepts on study, on morals, on pre- paring and staling causes, on arranging and enforcing arguments, on the attainment of style, on elocution and gesture, and on every- thing that can be supposed conducive to the formation of an able public speaker." Amongst the moderns, there have been comparatively few eminent writers on Public Speaking. The reason for this no doubt is, that in these latter days popular eloquence has not been so much a special object of study : it has not had the same powerful influence as in the past, and in consequence has been less attended to. The chief Eng- lish writers have a place in the Appendix. The French have done more in this way than the English. The Bishop of Cambray's 8 97 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. " Dialogues on Eloquence " holds a high place as a suggestive and interesting treatise. We have several times quoted from it in the pre- ceding pages. RoUin, Batteux, Crevier, Gibert, and several other French critics have also written upon oratory, but nothing they have said calls for special remark. Observations on good Speakers. Another method of improving in eloquence is to listen to those who know how to speak well. Just as the young birds by watching tlie old ones learn how to fly, so the youthful speaker by observing the accomplished orator learns how to conduct himself. Orators prin- cipally form orators, and it is a great blessing if we have the oppor- tunity of hearing one distinguished in this art Such a speaker is better than books, for he gives a living example. But, though we study the best models, we should not slavishly copy them. Even were they perfect such a course would deserve condemnation, for none is more hurtful to the development of original talent. But no wholly perfect genius has ever yet appeared ; all have some objectionable habits and peculiarities. The judgment of the student must thus be exercised to distinguish and to avoid these, and to select as his guides only such features as are admirable. Our minds should be directed to the imitation of the excellencies of all we hear, for it is unquestionably true that a great portion of art consists in imitation. Certainl)', invention was first in order of time, and holds the first place in point of merit, yet it is of advantage to copy what has been invented with success. But imitation is not sufficient of itself, if for no other reason than that it is the mark of an indolent nature to rest satisfied with what has been invented by others. It is dishonourable even to rest satisfied with simply equalling what we imitate. For what would have been the case if in bygone times no one had accomplished more than he whom he copied ? We must strive to be superior to our models. Public Reading. Public reading is also a good introduction to public speaking, and, in these days of " Penny Readings," practice in this line is by no means difficult to be had. A few notes may be added on this subject. First, the reader should study his own ability, and attempt no species of composition in public to which he cannot do justice. If he excel (and on this point let him ask the opinion of a judicious friend) in comedy, let him read comedy ; if in tra,:;edy, let it be tragedy. Nc\t, he must study the taste of the audience. Everything will not be relished by them. "Subjects best fitted for public reading," says Mr. E. W. Cox, ''are such only as appeal to the feelings or to the senti- ments, that suggest a picture or kindle an emotion. Compositions that admit of variation in tone and manner are always to be preferred, and, if interspersed with dialogue, so much the more will they secure the attention of the audience." Thirdly, he should prepare for public 98 £X£^CIS£S m ORATORY. reading, of whatever kind, by frequent rehearsal. " One of the most famous of our public readers," says the author just quoted, " makes it an invariable practice to rehearse, during the day, his readings for the night, even those most familiar to him and most often practised, and, in this rehearsal, he studies how to utter every syllable, and to express every thought with the greatest effect. " Let your mode of reading," says Quintilian, " be above all manly, uniting gravity with a certain degree of sweetness ; and let not your reading of poetry be like that of prose : for it is verse, and the poets say that they sing. Yet, let not your rendering of poetry degenerate into sing-song, or be rendered effeminate with unnatural softness; on which sort of reading it is said that Caius Caisar observed happily to some one that was practising it, ' If you are singing, you sing badly ; if you pretend to read, you nevertheless sing.' " Conclusion. To fill the very highest place as an orator, one must be born to it, but there are many lower positions which may be occupied with honour by any one who cares to apply himself to the study of public speaking. Dr. Dlair, in his " Lectures on Rhetoric," after encouraging his readers with a somewhat similar remark, adds : "The number of orators who stand in the highest class is, perhaps, smaller than the number of poets who are foremost in poetic fame : but the study of oratory has this advantage over poetry, that in poetry one must be an eminently good performer or he is not supportable : Mediocribiis esse Poetis Non homines, non Di, non concesccre columncc.* In eloquence this does not hold. There, one may possess a moderate station with dignity." To this consolatory observation we shall add an eloquent passage from Mr. Emerson, the American philosopher : — "The Welsh Triads," he remarks, "say, ' Many are the friends of the golden tongue ! ' Who can wonder at the attractiveness of Parliament or the bar for our ambitious young men, when the highest bribes of society are at the feet of the successful orator ? He has his audience at his devotion. All other fames must hush before his. He is the true potentate ; for they are not kings who sit upon thrones, but they who know how to govern. " The definitions of eloquence describe its attraction for young men. Antiphon, the Rhamnusian, one of Plutarch's ten orators, ndvenised in Athens ' that he would cure distempers of the mind with words.' No man has a prosperity so high or firm but two or three words can dishearten it. There is no calamity which right words will not begin to redress. Isocrates described his art as ' the power of magnifying * " For God and man and lettered post denies That poets ever are of middUng size." — Francis. 99 BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. what was small, and diminishing what was great'— an acute but par- tial definition. Among the Spartans the art assumed a Spartan shape, namely, of the sharpest weapon. Socrates says ; 'If any one wishes to converse with the meanest of the Lacedemonians, he will at first find him despicable in conversation ; but, when a proper opportunity offers, this same person, like a skilful jaculator, will hurl a sentence worthy of attention, short and contorted, so that he who converses with him will appear to be in no respect superior to a boy.' Plato's definition of oratory is ' the art of ruling the minds of men.' The Koran says, 'A mountain may change its place, but a man will not change his disposition ; ' yet the end of eloquence is — is it not ?— to alter in a pair of hours, perhaps in a half-hour's discourse, the convic- tions and habits of years. " Young men, too, are eager to enjoy this sense of added power and enlarged sympathetic existence. The orator sees himself the organ of a multitude, and concentrating their valours and powers — * But now the blood of twenty thousand men Blushed in my face ! ' That which he wishes, that which eloquence ought to reach, is not a particular skill in telling a story, or neatly summing up evidence, or arguing logically, or dexterously addressing the prejudice of the com- pany—no, but a taking sovereign possession of the audience. Him we call an artist who shall play on an assembly of men as a master on the keys of the piano — who, seeing the people furious, shall soften and compose them : shall draw them, when he will, to laughter and tears. Bring him to his audience, and be they who they may — coarse or refined, pleased or displeased, sulky or sav.age, with their opinions in the keeping of a confessor, or with their opinions in their bank- safes — he will have them pleased and humoured as he chooses, and they shall carry and execute that which he bids them." "Eloquence," says an ancient writer, "requires the utmost reading; no man can attain it without the aid of art ; study must be applied to the acquirement of it ; exercise and imitation must make it their object ; our whole life must be spent in the pursuit of it ; it is in this that one orator chiefly excels another ; it is from this that some styles of speaking are so much better than others." Every man, the student must remember, has two educations— that which is given to him, and that which he gives to himself Of the two kinds the latter is by far the most valuable. Indeed, all that is most worthy in a man he must work out and conquer for himself. It is this that constitutes our real and best nourishment. What we are merely taught i,eldom nourishes the mind like that which we teach ourselves. And here we end our discussion of the art of oratory. Not that it is e.'chausted. We might go on for an indefinite time, for the work of eloquence is extensive, and of infinite variety ; it presents something new almost daily, nor will all that is possible ever have been said of it. J CO CHAPTER X. ANCIENT AND MODERN ELOQUENCE. In tracing the rise of oratory we need not attempt to go far back into the early ages of the world, or search for it among the monuments of Eastern or Egyptian antiquity. In those ages, there was, indeed, an eloquence of a certain kind; but it approached nearer to poetry, than to what we properly call oratory. There is reason to believe that the language of the first age was passionate and metaphorical ; owing partly to the scanty stock of words of which speech then consisted ; and partly to the tincture which language naturally takes from the savage and uncultivated state of man, agitated by unrestrained passions, and struck by events which to them are strange and surprising. In this state, rapture and enthusiasm, the parents of poetry, had an ample field. But while the intercourse of men was yet unfrequent, and force and strength were the chief means in deciding controversies, the arts of oratory and persuasion, of reasoning and debate, could be but little known. The first empires that arose, the Assyrian and Egyptian, were of the despotic kind. The whole power was in the hands of one, or at most of a few. The multitude were accustomed to a blind reverence ; they were led, not persuaded ; and none of those refinements of society, which make public speaking an object of importance, were as yet in- troduced. It is not till the rise of the Grecian republics that we find any re- markable appearances of eloquence as the art of persuasion, and these gave it such a field as it never had before, and perhaps has never enjoyed since that time. And, therefore, as the Grecian eloquence has ever been the object of admiration to those who have studied the powers of speech, it is necessary to fix our attention for a little on this period. Greece was divided into a multitude of petty states. These were governed at first by kings who were called tyrants ; on whose expul- sion from all these states there sprung up a great number of demo- cratical governments, founded nearly on the same plan, animated by the same high spirit of freedom, mutually jealous and rivals of one another. We may compute the flourishing period of those Grecian states to have lasted from the battle of Marathon till the time of Alexander the Great, who subdued the liberties of Greece ; a period which comprehends about a hundred and fifty years, and within which are to be found most of their celebrated poets and philosophers, but chiefly their orators ; for though poetry and philosophy were not extinct among them after that period, yet eloquence hardly made any figure. BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. Of these Grecian republics the most noted by far for eloquence, and indeed for arts of every kind, was Athens. The Athenians were an in- genious, quick, and sprightly people, practised in business, and sharp- ened by frequent and sudden revolutions, which happened in their government. The genius of their government was altogether dcmo- cratical, their legislature consisted of the whole body of the people. They had, indeed, a senate of five hundred ; but in the general con- vention of the citizens was placed the last resort ; and affairs were conducted there entirely by reasoning, speaking, and a skilful appli- cation to the passions and interests of a popular assembly. There laws were made, peace and war decreed, and thence the magistrates were chosen ; for the highest honours of the State were alike open to all, nor was the meanest tradesman excluded from a seat in their supreme courts. In such a state, eloquence, it is obvious, would be much studied, as the surest means of rising to influence and power. And what sort of eloquence? Not that which was brilliant merely and showy, but that which was found upon trial to be most efiectiial for convincing, interesting, and persuading the hearers. For there, public speaking was not a mere competition for empty applause, but a serious contention for that public leading, which was the great object both of the men of ambition and the men of virtue. In so enlightened and acute a nation, where the highest attention was paid to everything elegant in the arts, we may naturally expect to find the public taste refined and judicious. Accordingly, it was im- prored to such a degree, that the Attic taste and Attic manner have passed into a proverb. It is true, that ambitious demagogues and corrupt orators did sometimes dazzle and mislead the people by a showy but false eloquence ; for the Athenians with all their acuteness were factious and giddy, and great admirers of every novelty. But when some important interest drew their attention, when any great danger roused them, and put their judgment to a serious trial, they commonly distinguished very justly between genuine and spurious eloquence, and hence Demosthenes triumphed over all his opponents ; because he spoke always to the purpose, affected no insignificant parade of words, used weighty arguments, and showed them clearly where their interest lay. In critical conjunctures of the State, when the public was alarmed with some pressing danger, when the people were assembled and proclamation was made by the crier for any one to rise and deliver his opinion upon the present situation of affairs, empty declamation and sophistical reasoning would not only have been hissed, but resented and punished by an assembly so intelligent and accustomed to business. Their greatest orators trembled on such occasions, when they rose to address the people, as they knew they were to be held answerable for the issue of the counsel which they gave. The most liberal endowments of the greatest princes never could found such a school for true oratory as was formed by the nature of the Athenian Republic. Eloquence there sprung native and vigorous from amidst the contentions of faction and freedom, of public business and of active life ; and not from that retirement and speculation, which ANCIENT AND MODERN ELOQUENCE. ■vve are apt sometimes to fancy more favourable to eloquence than they are foimd to be. Pysistratus, who was contemporary with Solon, and subverted his plan of government, is mentioned by Plutarch as the first who distin- guished himself among the Athenians by application to the arts of speech. His ability in these arts he employed for raising himself to the sovereign power ; which, however, when he had attained it, he exercised with moderation. Of the orators who flourished between his time and the Peloponne- sian war, no particular mention is made in history. Pericles, who died about the beginning of that war, was properly the first who carried eloquence to a great height, to such a height indeed, that it does not appear he was ever afterwards surpassed. He was more than an orator, he was also a statesman and a general ; expert in business and of consummate address. Forty yeai's he governed Athens with abso- lute sway ; and historians ascribe his influence, not more to his political talents than to his eloquence ; which was of that forcible and vehement kind that bore everything before it, and triumphed over the passions and affections of the people. Hence he had the surname Olympus given him : and it was said that, like Jupiter, he thundered when he spoke. Though his ambition be liable to censure, yet he was distin- guished for several virtues ; and it was the confidence which the people reposed in his integrity, that gave such a powerful effect to his elo- quence. Pie appears to have been generous, magnanimous, and public- spirited ; he raised no fortune to himself ; he expended indeed great sums of the pulTlic money, but chiefly on public works ; and at his death is said to have valued himself principally on having never ob- liged any citizen to wear mourning on his account, during his long administration. It is a remarkable particular recorded of Pericles by Suidas, that he was the first Athenian who composed and put into writing a discourse designed for the public. Posterior to Pericles, in the course of the Peloponnesian war, arose Cleon,Alcibiades, Critias, and Theramenes, eminent citizens of Athens, who were all distinguished for their eloquence. They were not orators by profession ; they were not formed by schools, but by a much more powerful education, that of business and debate ; where man sharpened man, and civil affairs carried on by public speaking brought every power of the mind into action. The manner or st> le of oratory which then prevailed we learn from the orations in the history of Thucydides, who also flourished in the same age. It was manly, vehement, and concise, even to some degree of obscurity. " They were," says Cicero, " magnificent in their expressions ; they abounded in thought ; they compressed their matter into few words, and by their brevity were sometimes obscure." A manner very different from what in modern times we would conceive to be the style of popular oratory, and which tends to give a high idea of the acuteness of those audiences to which they spoke. The power of eloquence having, after the days of Pericles, become an object of greater consequence than ever, this gaye birth to a 103 BEETOJSi'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. set of men, till then unknown, called Rhetoricians, and sometimes Sophists, who arose in multitudes during the Peloponnesian war ; such as Protagoras, Procidas, Thrasymus, and one who was more eminent than all the rest, Gorgias of Leontium. These Sophists joined to their art of rhetoric a subtle logic, and ^^■ere generally a sort of metaphysical sceptics. Gorgias, however, was a professed master of eloquence only. His reputation was prodigious. He was highly venerated in Leontium, in Sicily, his native city, and money was coined with his name upon it. In the latter part of his life he established himself at Athens, and lived till he had attained the age of a hundred and five years. Hermogenes has preserved a fragment of his, from which we see his style and manner. It is extremely quaint and artificial ; full of antithesis and pointed expression, and shows how far the Grecian subtlety had already carried the study of language. These Rhetoricians did not content themselves with delivering general instructions con- cerning eloquence to tlieir pupils, and endeavoiuing to form their taste, but they professed the art of giving them receipts for making all sorts of orations, and of teaching them how to speak for and against every cause whatever. Upon this plan they were the first who treated of comnron places and the artificial invention of arguments and topics for every subject. In the hands of such men we may easily believe that oratory would degenerate from the masculine strain it had hitherto held and become a trifling and sophistical art ; and we may justly deem them the first corrupters of true eloquence. To them the great Socrates opposed himself By a profound but simple reasoning peculiar to himself, he exploded their sophistry, arid endeavoured to recall men's attention from that abuse of reasoning and discourse, which began to be in vogue, to natural language and sound and useful thought. In the same age, though somewhat later than the philosopher above mentioned, flourished Isocrates, whose writings are still extant. He was a professed rhetorician, and by teaching eloquence he acquired both a great fortune and higher fame than any of his rivals in that profession. No contemptible orator was he. His orations are full of morality and good sentiments ; they are flowing and smooth, but too destitute of vigour. He never engaged in public alTairs, nor pleaded causes, and accordingly his orations are calculated only for the shade. The style of Gorgias of Leontium was formed into short sentences, composed generally of two members balanced against each other. The style of Isocrates, on the contrary, is swelling and full, and he is said to be the first who introduced the method of composing in regular periods, which had a studied music and harmonious cadence — a manner which he has carried to a \icious excess. WhsX. shall we think of an orator who employed ten years in composing one discourse, still extant, entitled the "Panegyric".' How much frivolous care must have been bestowed on all the minute elegance of words and sentences ! Dionysius of Halicarnassus has given us, upon the ora- tions of Isocrates, as also upon those of some other Greek orators, a full and regular treatise, one of the most judicious pieces of ancient 104 ANCIENT AND MODERN ELOQUENCE. criticism extant, and very worthy of being consulted. He commends the splendour of Isocrates' style, and the morality of his sentiments, but severely censures his affectation and the uniform regular cadence of all his sentences. He holds him to be a florid declaimer, not a natural persuasive speaker. Cicero, however, admired him, and in one of his treatises he informs us that his friend Brutus and he differed in this particular, and that Brutus found fault with his partiality to Isocrates. The manner of Isocrates, generally, catches young people when they begin to attend to composition ; and it is very natural that it should do so. It gives them an idea of that regularity, cadence, and magnificence of style which fills the ear ; but when they come to write or speak for the world, they will find this ostentatious manner unfit, either for carrying on business, or commanding attention. It is said that the high reputation of Isocrates prompted Aristotle, who was nearly his contemporary, or lived but a little after him, to write his " Institutions of Rhetoric," which arc indeed formed upon a plan of elo- quence very different from that of Isocrates and the Rhetoricians of that time. He seems to have had it in view to direct the attention of orators much more towards convincing and affecting their hearers than towards the musical cadence of periods. Isseus and Lysias, some of whose orations are preserved, belong also to this period. I.ysias was somewhat earlier than Isocrates. He has none of Isocrates' pomp. He is everywhere pure and Attic in the highest degree : simple and unaffected, but wants force, and is some- times frigid in his compositions. Isasus is chiefly remarkable for being the master of the great Demosthenes, in whom, it must be acknow- ledged, eloquence shone forth with higher splendour than perhaps in any that ever bore the name of an orator, and whose manner and character, therefore, must deserve our particular attention. We shall not spend any time upon the circumstances of Demos- thenes' life ; they are well known. The strong ambition which he discovered to excel in the art of speaking ; the unsuccessfulness of his first attempts ; his unwearied perseverance in surmounting all the disadvantages that arose from his person and address ; his shutting himself up in a cave, that he might study with less distraction ; his declaiming by the sea-shore, that he might accustom himself to the noise of a tumultuous assembly, and with pebbles in his mouth that he might correct a defect in his speech ; his practising at home with a naked sword hanging over his shoulder, that he might check an ungraceful motion to which he was subject ; all those circumstances, which we learn from Plutarch, are very encouraging to such as study eloquence, as they show how far art and application may avail for acquiring an excellence which Nature seemed unwilling to grant. Despising the affected and florid manner which the rhetoricians of that age followed, Demosthenes returned to the forcible and manly eloquence of Pericles ; and strength and vehemence form the principal characteristics of his style. Never had orator a finer field than Demosthenes in his Olynthiacs and Philippics, which are his capital orations ; and, no doubt, to the nobleness of the subject, and to that 105 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. integrity and public spirit which eminently breathe in them, they are indebted for much of their merit. The subject is to rouse the indigna- tion of his countrymen against Philip of Macedon, the public enemy of the liberties of Greece, and to guard them against the insidious measures by which that crafty prince endeavoured to lay them asleep to danger. In the prosecution of this end we see him taking every proper method to animate a people, renowned for justice, humanity, and valour, but in many instances become corrupt and degenerate. ]-Ie boldly taxes them with tiieir venality, their indolence, and indiffer- ence to the public cause ; while, at the same time, with all the arts of an orator, he recalls the glory of their ancestors to their thoughts, shows theiri that they are still a flourishing and a powerful people, the natural protectors of the liberty of Greece, and who wanted only the inclination to exert themselves in order to make Philip tremble. With his contemporary orators, who were in Philip's interest, and who persuaded the people to peace, he keeps no iiieasures, but plainly reproaches them as the betrayers of their country. He not only prompts to vigorous conduct, but he lays down the plan of that conduct ; he enters into particulars, and points out with great exact- ness the measures of execution. This is the strain of these orations. They are strongly animated, and full of the impetuosity and fire of public spirit. They proceed in a continued train of inductions, conse- quences, and demonstrations, founded on sound reason. The figures which he uses are never sought after, but always rise from the subject. He employs them sparingly indeed, for splendour and ornament are not the distinctions of this orators composition. It is an energy of thought peculiar to himself, which forms his character and sets him above all others. He appears to attend much more to things than to words. We forget the orator, and think of the business. He warms the mind, and impels to action. He has no parade and ostentation ; no methods of insinuation ; no laboured introductions ; but is like a man full of his subject, who, after preparing his audience by a sentence or two for hearing plain truths, enters directly on business. Demosthenes appears to great advantage when contrasted with ^schines, in the celebrated oration " Pro Corona." /Eschines w.\s his rival in business, and personal enemy, and one of the most distin- guished orators of that age. But when we read the two orations, yEschines is feeble in comparison with Demosthenes, and makes mucii less impression on the mind. His reasonings concerning the law that was in question are indeed very subtle ; but his invective against Demosthenes is general and ill supported. Whereas Demosthenes is a torrent that nothing can resist. He bears down his antagonist with violence ; he draws his character in the strongest colours ; and the peculiar merit of that oration is, that all the descriptions in it are highly picturesque. There runs through it a strain of magnanimity and high honour ; the orator speaks with that strength and conscious dignity which great actions and public spirit alone inspire. Both orators use great liberties with one another, and, in general, that unrestrained license which ancient manners permitted, and which was carried by ANCIENT AND MODERN ELOQUENCE. public speakers to the length of abusive names and downright scurrility, as appears both here and in Cicero's philippics, hurts and offends a modern ear. What those ancient orators gained by such a manner in point of freedom and boldness is more than com- pensated by want of dignity, which seems to give an advantage in this respect to the greater decency of modem speaking. The style of Demosthenes is strong and concise, though sometimes, it must not be dissembled, harsh and abrupt. His words are very expressive ; his arrangement is firm and manly, and though far from being unmusical, yet it seems difficult to find in him that studied, but concealed number and rhythmus which some of the ancient critics arc fond of attributing to him. Negligent of these lesser graces, one would rather conceive him to have aimed at that sublimity which lies in sentiment. His action and pronunciation are recorded to have been uncommonly vehement and ardent ; which, from the manner of his composition, we are naturally led to believe. The character which one forms of him from reading his works is of the austere, rather than of the gentle kind. He is, on every occasion, grave, serious, passionate ; takes everything on a high tone ; never lets himself down, nor attempts anything like pleasantry. If any fault can be found with his admirable eloquence, it is that he sometimes borders on the high and dry. He may be thought to want smoothness and grace, which Dionysius of Hahcarnassus attributes to his imitating too closely the manner of Thucydides, who was his great model for style, and whose history he is said to have ^\ritten eight times over with his own hand. But these defects are far more than compensated by that admirable and masterly force of masculine eloquence, which, as it overpowered all who heard it, cannot to this day be read without emotion. After the days of Demosthenes, Greece lost her liberty, eloquence of course languished and relapsed again into the feeble manner intro- duced by the rhetoricians and sophists. Demetrius Phalerius, who lived in the next age to Demosthenes, attained indeed some character, but he is represented to us as a flowery rather than a persuasive speaker, who aimed at grace rather than substance. " He amused the Athenians," says Cicero, " rather than warmed them." And after his time we hear no more of any Grecian orators of any note. Having treated of the rise of eloquence, and of its state among the Greeks, we now proceed to consider its progress among the Romans, where we shall find one model at least of eloquence, in its most splendid and illustrious form. The Romans were long a martial nation, altogether rude and unskilled in arts of any kind. Arts were of late introduction among them ; they were not known till after the conquest of Greece; and the Romans always acknowledged the Grecians as their master* in every part of learning. Says Horace — ' ' When conquered Greece brought in her captive arts. She triumphed o'er her savage conquerors' hearts ; Taught our rough verse its numbers to refine, And our rude style with elegance to shine." 107 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. As the Romans derived their eloquence, poetry, and learning from the Greeks, so they must be confessed to be far inferior to them in genius for all these accomplishments. They were a more grave and magnifi- cent, but a less acute and sprightly, people. They had neither the vivacity nor the sensibility of the Greeks ; their passions were not so easily moved ; in comparison of them they were a phlegmatic nation. Their language resembled their character ; it was regular, firm, and stately, but wanted that simple and expressive naivete, and in particular that flexibility to suit every mode and species of com- position, for which the Greek tongue is distinguished above that of every other country. And hence, when we compare together the various rival productions of Greece and Rome, we shall always find this distinction obtain, that in the Greek productions there is more native genius, in the Roman more i-egularity and art. What the Greeks invented the Romans polished ; the one was original, rough sometimes and incorrect ; the other a finished copy. As the Roman government during the republic was of the popular kind, there is no doubt but that in the hands of the leading men, public speaking became early an engine of government, and was employed for gaining distinction and power. But in the rude and unpolished state of the times their speaking was hardly of that sort that could be called eloquence. Though Cicero, in his treatise, " De Claris Oratoribus," endeavours to give some reputation to' the elder Cato, and those who were his contemporaries, yet he acknowledges it to have been a rude and harsh strain. It was not till a short time preceding Cicero's age that the Roman orators rose into any note. Crassus and Antonius, two of the speakers in the dialogue De Oratore, appear to have been the most eminent, whose different manners Cicero describes with great beauty in that dialogue, and in his other rhetorical works. But as none of their productions are extant, nor any of Hortensius's, who was Cicero's contemporary and rival at the bar, it is needless to transcribe from Cicero's writings the account which he gives of those great men, and of the character of their eloquence. The object in this period most worthy to draw our attention is Cicero himself, whose name alone suggests everything that is splendid in oratory. With the history of his life, and with his character as a man and as a politician, we have not at present any direct concern. We consider him only as an eloquent speaker, and, in this view, it is our business to remark both his virtues and his defects, if he has any. His virtues are, beyond controversy, eminently great. In all his orations there is high art. He begins generally with a legular exordium ; and with much preparation and insinuation pre- possesses the hearers, and studies to gain their affections. His method is clear, and his arguments are arranged vwth great propriety. His method is indeed more clear than that of Demosthenes ; and this is one advantage which he has over him. We find everything in its proper place ; he never attempts to move till he has endeavoured to convince, and in moving, especially the softer passions, he is very io8 ANCIENT AND MODERN ELOQUENCE. successful. No man knew the poiver and force of words better than Cicero. He rolls them along with the greatest beauty and pomp, and in the structure of his sentences is curious and exact to the highest degree. He is always full and flowing, never abrupt. He is a great amplifier of eveiy subject ; magnificent, and in his sentiments highly moral. His manner is on the whole diffuse, yet it is often happily varied, and suited to the subject. In his four orations, for instance against Catiline, the tone and style of each of them, particu- larly the first and last, is very different, and accommodated with a great deal of judgment to the occasion and the situation in which they were spoken. When a great public object roused his mind and demanded indignation and force, he departs considerably from that loose and declamatory manner to which he leans at other times, and becomes exceedingly cogent and vehement. This is the case in his orations against Anthony, and in those two against Verres and Catiline. Together with those high qualities which Cicero possesses, he is not exempt from certain defects, of which it is necessary to take notice. For the Ciceronian eloquence is a pattern so dazzling by its beauties, that if not examined with accuracy and judgment, it is apt to betray the unwary into a faulty imitation, and it can hardly be doubted that it has sometimes produced this effect. In most of his orations, especially those composed in the earlier part of his life, there is too much art even carried to the length of ostentation. There is too visible a parade of eloquence. He seems often to aim at obtaining admiration, rather than at producing conviction, by what he says. Hence, on some occasions, he is showy rather than solid ; and diffuse where he ought to have been pressing. His sentences are at all times round and sonorous ; they cannot be accused of monotony, for they possess variety of cadence ; but, from too great a study of magnificence, he is sometimes deficient in strength. On all occasions, where there is the least room for it, he is full of himself. His great actions, and the real services' which he had performed to his country, apologise for this in part ; ancient manners, too, imposed fewer restraints from the side of decorum ; but, even after these allowances made, Cicero's ostentation of himself cannot be wholly palliated ; and his orations, indeed all his works, leave on our minds the impression of a good man, but, withal, of a vain man. The defects which we have now taken notice of in Cicero's eloquence were not unobserved by his contemporaries. This we learn from Quintilian, and from the author of the dialogue, " De Causis Corruptas Eloquentias." Brutus, we are informed, called him broken and enervated. "His contemporaries," says Quintilian, " ventured to reproach him as swelling, redundant and Asiatic ; too frequent in repetitions ; in his attempts towards wit sometimes cold ; and in the strain of his composition, feeble, desultory, and more effeminate than became a man." These censures were undoubtedly carried too far, and savourerl of mahgnity and personal enmity. They saw his defects, but they aggravated them ; and the source of these agitations can be traced to the difference which prevailed in Rome in Cicero's day 109 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. between two great parties with respect to eloquence — the "Attics" and the " Asiani." The former, who called themselves the Attics, were the patrons of what they conceived to be the chaste, simple, and natural style of eloquence, from which they accused Cicero as having departed, and as leaning to the florid Asiatic manner. In several of his rhetorical works, particularly in his "Orator ad Brutum," Cicero, in his turn, endeavours to expose this sect as substituting a frigid and jejune manner in place of the true Attic eloquence ; and contends that his own composition was formed upon the real Attic style. In the tenth chapter of the last book of Quintilian's Institutions, a full account is given of the disputes between these two parties, and of the Rhodian or middle manner between the Attics and the Asiatics. Quintilian him- self declares on Cicero's side ; and whether it be called the Attic or the Asiatic, prefers the full, the copious, and the amplifying style. He concludes with this very just obsei-vation — "Eloquence admits of many dil'ferent forms, and nothing can be more foolish than to inquire by which of them an orator is to regulate his composition, since every form which is in itself just has its own place and use. The orator, according as circumstances require, will employ them all, suit- ing them not only to the cause or subject of which he treats, but to the different parts of that subject." On the subject of comparing Cicero and Demosthenes, much has been said by critical writers. The different manners of these two princes of eloquence, and the distinguishing characters of each, are so strongly marked in their writings that the comparison is, in many respects, obvious and easy. The character of Demosthenes is vigour and austerity ; that of Cicero is gentleness and insinuation. In the one you find more manliness, in the other more ornament. The one is more harsh, but more spirited and cogent ; the other more agreeable, but withal looser and weaker. To account for this difference, without any prejudice to Cicero, it has been said that we must look to the nature of their different auditories ; that the x-efined Athenians followed with ease the concise and convincing eloquence of Demosthenes ; but that a manner more popular, more flowery and declamatory, was requisite in speaking to the Romans, a people less acute and less acquainted witli the arts of speech. But this is not satisfactory. For we must observe that the Greek orator spoke much oftener before a mixed multitude than the Roman. Almost all the public business of Athens was transacted in ]Jopular assemblies. The common people were his hearers and his judges. Whereas Cicero generally addressed himself to his " Patres Conscripti," or in criminal courts to the Prastor, and the select judges ; and it cannot be imagined that the persons of highest ranlc and best education in Rome required a more diffuse manner of pleading than the common citizens of Athens, in order to make them understand the cause, or relish the speaker. Perhaps we shall come nearer the truth by observing, that to unite all the qualities, without the least exception, that form a perfect orator, and to excel equally in each of those quahties, is not to be expected from the limited powers of human genius. The no ANCIENT AND MODERN ELOQUENCE. highest degree of strength is, we suspect, never found united with the highest degree of smoothness and ornament ; equal attentions to both are incompatible ; and the genius that carries ornament to its utmost length is not of such a kind as can excel as much in vigour. For there plainly lies the characteristic difference between these two cele- brated orators. It is a disadvantage to Demosthenes, that besides his conciseness, which sometimes produces obscurity, the language in which he writes is less familiar to most of us than the Latin, and that we are less ac- quainted with the Greek antiquities than we are with the Roman. We read Cicero with more ease and, of course, with more pleasure. Inde- pendent of this circumstance, too, he is, no doubt, in himself, a more agreeable writer than the other. But notwithstanding this advantage, we arc of opinion that were the state in danger, or some great national interest at stake, which drew the serious attention of the public, an oration in the spirit and strain of Demosthenes would have more weight and produce greater effects than one in the Ciceronian manner. Were Demosthenes' philippics spoken in a British assembly, in a similar conjuncture of affairs, they would convince and persuade at this day. The rapid style, the vehement i-easoning, the disdain, anger, boldness, freedom, which perpetually animate them, would, render their success infallible over any modern assembly. It may be questioned whether the same can be said of Cicero's orations ; whose eloquence, however beautiful, and however well suited to the Roman taste, yet borders oftener on declamation, and is more remote from the manner in which we now expect to hear real business and causes of importance treated. In comparing Demosthenes and Cicero, most of the French critics are disposed to give the preference to the latter. P. Rapin, the Jesuit, in the parallels which he has drawn between some of the most eminent Greek and Roman writers, uniformly decides in favour of the Roman. For the preference he gives to Cicero, he assigns, and lays stress on one reason of a pretty extraordinary nature, viz., that Demosthenes could not possibly have so complete an insight as Cicero into the manners and passions of men. Why? Because he had not the advantage of perusing Aristotle's "Treatise of Rhetoric," wherein, says our critic, he has fully laid open that mystery ; and to support this weighty argument, he "enters into a controversy with A. Gcllius, in order to prove that Aristotle's Rhetoric was not published till after Dem.osthenes had spoken, at least his most considerable orations. Nothing can be more childish. Such orators as Cicero and Demos- thenes derived their knowledge of the human passions and their power of moving them from higher sources than any treatise of Rhetoric. One French critic has indeed departed from the common track ; and, after bestowing on Cicero those just praises to which the consent of so many ages shows him to be entitled, concludes, however, with giving the palm to Demosthenes. This is Fi^nelon, the famous Archbishop of Cambray, and author of " Telemachus," himself surely no enemy to all the graces and flowers of composition. It is in his "Reflections III BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. on Rhetoric and Poetry " that he gives this judgment ; a small tract commonly published along with his " Dialogues on Eloquence." These dialogues and reflections are particularly worthy of perusal, as containing, we think, the justest ideas on the subject that are to be met with in any modern critical writer. The reign of eloquence among the Romans was very short. After the age of Cicero it languished or rather expired ; and we have no reason to wonder at this being the case. For not only was liberty entirely extinguished, but arbitrary power felt in its heaviest and most oppressive weight. Providence having in its wrath, delivered over the Roman empire to a succession of some of the most execrable tyrants that ever disgraced and scourged the human race. U nder their govern- ment it was naturally to be expected that taste would be corrupted and genius discouraged. Some of the ornamental arts,less intimately con- nected with liberty, continued for a while to prevail-; but for that mascu- line eloquence which had exercised itself in the senate, and in the public affairs, there was no longer any place. The change which was pro- duced on eloquence by the nature of the government, and the state of the public manners, is beautifully described in the " Dialogue de Causis Corruptas Eloquentia;, which is attributed by some to Tacitus, by others to Quintilian. Luxury, effeminacy, and flattery overwhelmed all. The Forum, where so many great affairs had been transacted, was now become a desert. Private causes were still pleaded ; but the public was no longer interested, nor any general attention drawn to what passed there. " The Courts of Judicature," says the writer, " are at present so unfrequented that the orator seems to stand alone and talk to bare walls. But eloquence rejoices in the bursts of loud applause, and exalts in a full audience, such as used to press round the ancient orators, when the Forum stood crowded with nobles ; when a numerous retinue of clients, when foreign ambassadors, when tribes and whole cities assisted at the debate ; and when, in many trials, the Roman people understood themselves to be concerned in the event." In the schools of the declaimers, the corruption of eloquence was completed. Imaginary and fantastic subjects, such as had no reference to real life or business, were made the themes of declamation, and all manner of false and affected ornaments were brought into vogue. " With your permission," says Petronius Arbiter to the declaimers of his time, " I must be allowed to say that you have been the first destroyers of all true eloquence. For by those mock subjects on which you employ your empty and unmeaning compositions you have ener- vated and overthrown all that is manly and substantial in oratory. I cannot but conclude that the youth whom you educate must be totally perverted in your schools by hearing and seeing nothing which has any affinity to real life or human affairs ; but stories of pirates standing on the shore, provided with chains for loading their captives, and of tyrants issuing their edicts, by which children are commanded to cut olf the heads of their parents ; but responses given by oracles in the lime of pestilence, that several virgins must be sacrificed ; but glittering „,..,, .„j>rng of plirase and a style highly spiced, if we may say so, with 112 ANCIENT AND MODERN ELOQUENCE. affected conceits. They who are educated in the midst of such studies can no more acquire a good tasle than they can smell sweet who dwell perpetually in a kitchen." In the hands of the Greek rhetoricians, the manly and sensible eloquence of their first noted speakers degene- rated, as has been already shown, into subtlety and sophistry ; in the hands of Roman declaimers, it passed into the quaint and affected ; into point and antithesis. This corrupt manner begins to appear in the writings of Seneca, and shows itself also in the famous panegyric of Pliny the younger, on Trajan, which may be considered as the last effort of Roman oratory. Though the author was a man of genius, yet it is deficient in nature and ease. We see, throughout the whole, a perpetual attempt to depart from the ordinary way of thinking and to support a forced elevation. In the decline of the Roman empire, the introduction of Christianity gave rise to a new species of eloquence, in the apologies, sermons, and pastoral writings of the P'athers of the Church. Among the Latin Fathers, Lactantius and Minutius Felix are the most remarkable for purity of style ; and in a later age the famous St. Augustine possesses a considerable share of sprightliness and strength. But none of the Fathers afford any just models of eloquence. Their language, as soon as we descend to the third or fourth century, becomes harsh ; and they are in general infected with the taste of that age, a love of strained thoughts and of the play of words. Among the Greek Fathers the most distinguished by far, for his oratorical merit, is St. Chrysostom. His language is pure ; his style highly figured. He is copious, smooth, arrd sometimes pathetic. But he retains, at the same time, much of that character which has been always attributed to the Asiatic eloquence, diffuse and redundant, to a great degree, and often overwrought and tumid. He may be read, however, with advantage, for the eloquence of the pulpit, as being freer from false ornament than the Latin Fathers. As there is nothing more that appears deserving of particular atten- tion in the middle ages, we pass now to the state of eloquence in modern times. Here it must be confessed that in no European nation has public speaking been considered as so great an object, or been cultivated with so much care as in Greece or Rome. Its reputation has never been so high, its effects have never been so considerable, nor has that high and sublime kind of it which prevailed in those ancient states been so much as aimed at ; notwithstanding, too, that a new profession has been established, which gives peculiar advan- tages to oratory — that of the Church. The genius of the world seems in this respect to have undergone some alteration. The two coun- tries where we might expect to find most of the spirit of eloquence are France and Great Britain ; France, on account of the distinguished turn of the' nation towards all the liberal arts, and of the encourage- ment which, for a long time past, these arts have received from the public ; Great Britain, on account both of the public capacity and genius, and of the free government which it enjoys. Yet so it is that in neither of those countries has the talent of public speaking risen near to the degree of its ancient splendour. While in other productions of 9 113 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. genius, both in prose and in poetry, they have contended for the prize with Greece and Rome ; nay, in some compositions, may be thought to have surpassed them, the names of Demosthenes and Cicero stand at this day unrivalled in fame, and it would be held presumptuous and absurd to pretend to place any modern whatever in the same or even in a nearly equal rank. It seems particularly surprising that Great Britain should not have made a more conspicuous figure in eloquence than it has hitherto attained, when we consider the enlightened and at the same time the free and bold genius of the country which seems not a little to favour oratory. Notwithstanding this advantage, it must be con- fessed that in most parts of eloquence we are undoubtedly inferior, not only to the Greeks and Romans by many degrees, but also in some respects to the French. We have philosophers, eminent and conspicuous, perhaps, beyond any nation, in every branch of science. We have both taste and erudition in a high degree. We have his- torians, we have poets of the greatest name ; but of orators or public speakers, how little have we to boast ! And where are the monuments of their genius to be found ? In every period we have had some who made a figure by managing the debates in Parliament ; but that figure was commonly owing to their wisdom or their experience in business more than to their talents for oratory ; and unless in some few instances, wherein the power of oratory has appeared, indeed, with much lustre, the art of parliamentary speaking rather obtained to several a tem- porary applause, than conferred upon any a lasting renown. At the bar, though questionless, we have many able pleaders, yet few or none of their pleadings have been thought worthy to be transmitted to posterity, or have commanded attention any longer than the cause which was the subject of them interested the public ; while in France, the pleadings of Patru in the former age, and those of Cochin and D'Aguesseau in later times, are read with pleasure, and are often quoted as examples of eloquence by the French critics. In the same manner in the pulpit the British divines have distinguished themselves by the most accurate and rational compositions which, perhaps, any nation can boast of. Many printed sermons we have, full of good sense, and of sound divinity and morality ; but the eloquence to be found in them, the power of persuasion, of interesting and engaging the heart, which is, or ought to be, the great object of the pulpit, is far from bearing a suitable proportion to the excellence of the matter. There are few arts farther from perfection than that of preaching is among us. An English sermon, instead of being a persuasive, ani- mated oration, seldom rises beyond the strain of correct and dry reasoning. Whereas, in the sermons of Bossuet, Massillon, Bourdalone, and Flechier, among the French, we see a much higher species of eloquence aimed at, and in a great measure attained, than the British preachers have in view. In general the characteristic difference between the state of eloquence in France and Great Britain is that the French have adopted higher ideas both of pleasing and persuading by means of oratory, though 114 ANCIENT AND MODERN ELOQUENCE. sometimes in the execution they fail. In Great Britain we have taken up eloquence on a lower key ; but in our execution, as was naturally to be expected, have been more correct. In France the style of their orators is ornamented with bolder figures, and their discourse carried on with more amplification, more warmth and elevation. The com- position is often very beautiful, but sometimes also too diffuse, and deficient in that strength and cogency which renders eloquence power- ful ; a defect owing, perhaps, in part to the genius of the people, which leads them to attend fully as much to ornament as to substance, and in part to the nature for a long time of their government, which, by excluding public speaking from having much influence in public affairs, deprived eloquence of its best opportunity for acquiring nerves and strength. Hence the pulpit was the principal field left for their eloquence. We have observed that the Greeks and Romans aspired to a more sublime species of eloquence than is aimed at by the moderns. Theirs was of the vehement and passionate kind, by which they en- deavoured to inflame the minds of their hearers, and hurry their imaginations away ; and suitable to this vehemence of thought was their vehemence of gesture and action. Modern eloquence is much more cool and temperate, and in Great Britain especially has confined itself almost wholly to the argumentative and rational. It is much of that species which the ancient critics call the "Tenuis" or " Subtilis," which aims at convincing and instructing rather than affecting che passions, and assumes a tone not much higher than common argument and discourse. Several reasons may be given why modern eloquence has been so limited and humble in its efforts. In the first place we are of opinion that this change must in part be ascribed to that correct turn of thinking which has been so much studied in modern times. It can hardly be doubted that in many efforts of mere genius the ancient Greeks and Romans excelled us ; but, on the other hand, that in accu- racy and closeness of reasoning on many subjects we have some advantage over them, ought to be admitted also. In proportion as the world has advanced, philosophyhas made greater progress. A certain strictness of good sense has, in this island particularly, been cultivated and introduced into every subject.- Hence we are more on our guard against the flowers of elocution ; we are on the watch ; we are jealous of being deceived by oratory. Our public speakers are obliged to be more reserved than the ancients in their attempts to elevate the imagination and warm the passions ; and by the influence of pre- vaiHng taste their own genius is sobered and chastened, perhaps in too great a degree. It is likely, too, we confess, that what we fondly ascribe to our correctness and good sense is owing in a great measure to our phlegm and natural coldness, ' For the vivacity and sensibility of the Greeks and Romans, more especially of the former, seem to have been much greater than ours, and to have given them a higher relish of all the beauties of oratory. Besides these national considerations we must in the next place BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. attend to peculiar circumstances in the three great scenes of pubhc speaking which have proved disadvantageous to the growth of elo- quence among us. Though the Parliament of Great Britain be the noblest field the world has ever afforded to a public speaker, yet eloquence has never been so powerful an instrument there as it was in the popular assemblies of Greece and Rome. Under some former reigns the high hand of arbitrary power bore a violent sway, and in latter times ministerial influence has generally prevailed. The power of speaking, though always considerable, yet has been often found too feeble to counterbalance either of these, and of course has not been studied with so much zeal and fervour as where its effect on business was irresistible and certain. At the bar one disadvantage in comparison of the ancients is great. Among them the judges were generally numerous, the laws were few and simple, the decision of causes was left in a great measure to equity and the sense of mankind. Here was an ample field for what they termed judicial eloquence. But among the moderns the case is quite altered. The system is become much more complicated. The knowledge of it is thereby rendered so laborious an attainment as to be the chief object ot a lawyer's education, and in a manner the study of his life. The art of speaking is but a secondary accomplishment, to which he can afford to devote much less of his time and labour. The bounds of eloquence, besides, are now much circumscribed at the bar, and except in a few cases reduced to arguing from strict law, statute, or precedent, by which means knowledge, much more than oratory, is become the principal requisite. With regard to the pulpit it has certainly been a great disadvantage that the practice of reading sermons, instead of repeating them from memory, has prevailed in England. This maj', indeed, have intro- duced accuracy, but it has done great prejudice to eloquence, for a discourse read is far inferior to an oration spoken. It leads to a dif- ferent sort of composition as well as of delivery, and can never have an equal effect upon any audience. Another circumstance, too, has been unfortunate. The sectaries and fanatics before the Restoration adopted a warm, zealous, and popular manner of preaching, and those who adhered to them in after times continued to distinguish themselves by somewhat of the same manner. The odium of these sects drove the Established Church from that warmth which they were judged to have carried too far into the opposite extreme of a studied coldness and com- posure of manner. Hence, from the art of persuasion, which preach- ing ought always to be, it has passed in England into mere reasoning and instruction, which not only has brought down the eloquence of the pulpit to a lower tone than it might justly assume, but has pro- duced this further effect, that by accustoming the public ear to such cool and dispassionate discourses, it has tended to fashion other kinds of public speaking upon the same model. De Quincey, in one of his essays, has remarked upon the difference between ancient and modern eloquence, and, in connection with parliamentary speaking, has endeavoured to account for it. " There ii6 ANCIENT AND MODERN ELOQUENCE. is one cause at work," he says, "which will for ever prevent the resur- rection of rhetoric, namely, the necessities of public business, its vast extent, complexity, fulness of details, and consequent vulgarity as compared with that of the ancients. The very same cause by the way furnishes an answer to the question moved by Hume, in one of his essays, with regard to the declension of eloquence in our delibera- tive assemblies. Eloquence, or at least that which is senatorial and forensic, has languished under the same changes of society which have proved fatal to rhetoric. The political economy of the ancient republics and their commerce were simple and unelaborate ; the system of their public services, both martial and civil, was arranged on the most naked and manageable principles, for we must not con- found the perplexity of our modern explanations of these things with a perplexity in the things themselves. The foundation of these difterences was in the differences of domestic life. Personal wants being few, both from climate and from habit, and, in the great majority of the citizens, limited almost to the pure necessities of nature, hence arose for the mass of the population the possibility of surrendering themselves, much more than with us, either to the one paramount business of the state, war, or to a state of Indian idleness. Rome in particular, during the ages of her growing luxury, may be regarded as a nation supported by other nations, by largesses, in effect ; that is to say, by the plunder of conquest. Living therefore upon foreign alms, or upon corn purchased by the product of tribute or of spoils, a nation could readily dispense with that expansive development of its internal resources, upon which modern Europe has been forced by the more equal distribution of power amongst the civilised world. " The changes which have followed in the functions of our populat assemblies correspond to the great revolution here described. Sup- pose yourself an ancient Athenian at some customary display of Athenian oratory, what will be the topics ? Peace or war, vengeance for public wrongs, or mercy to prostrate submission, national honour and national gratitude, glory and shame, and every aspect of open appeal to the primal sensibilities of man. On the other hand, enter an English parliament, having the most of a popular character in its constitution and practice that is anywhere to be found in the Chris- tendom of this day, and the subject of debate will probably be a road- bill, a bill for enabling one gas company to assume certain privileg?-^ against another gas company, a bill for disfranchising a corrupt borough, or perhaps some technical point of form in the Exchequer Bill's bill. So much is the face of public business vulgarized by- details. The same spirit of differences extends to forensic eloquence. Grecian and Roman pleadings were occupied with questions of elementary justice, large and diffusive, apprehensible even to the un- instructed, and connecting themselves at every step with povverfiil and tempestuous feelings. In British trials, on the contrary, the field is foreclosed against any interest of so elevating a nature, because the right and wrongs of the case are almost invariably absorbed to a learned eye by the technicalities of the law, or by the intricacy of the facts. J17 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. " But this is not always the case — doubtless not ; subjects for elo- quence will sometimes arise in our senate and our courts of justice. And in one respect our British displays are more advantageously circum- stanced than the ancient, being more conspicuously brought forward into effect by their contrast to the ordinary course of business. ' Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare, Since seldom coming, in the long year set, Like stones of worth they thinly placed are. Or captain jewels in the carcanet.' But still the objection of Hume remains unimpeached as to the fact that eloquence is a rarer growth of modern than of ancient civil polity, even in those countries which have the advantage of free institutions." ii8 APPENDIX. Lord Brougham on the Studies of the Young Orator. In 1823 Lord Brougham addressed the following letter to Mr. Zachary Macaulay, the father of the late Lord Macaulay. " My Dear Friend, — My principal object in writing to you to-day is to offer you some suggestions in consequence of some conversation I have just had with Lord Grey, who has spoken of your son (at Cambridge) in terms of the greatest praise. He takes his account from his son ; but from all I know and have learned in other quarters, I doubt not that his judgment is well formed. Now you, of course, destine him for the bar ; and assuming that this and the public objects incidental to it are in his views, I would fain impress upon you (and through you upon him) a truth or two which experience has made me aware of, and which I would have given a great deal to have been acquainted with earlier in life from the experience of others. " First, that the foundation of all excellence is to be laid in early application to general knowledge is clear — that he is already aware of ; and equally so it is (of which he may not be so well aware) that professional eminence can only be attained by entering betimes into the lowest drudgery, the most repulsive labours of the profession ; even a year in an attorney's office, as the law is now practised, I should not hold too severe a task, or too high a price to pay for the benefit it must surely lead to ; but at all events the life of a special pleader, I am quite convinced, is the thing before being called to the bar. A young man whose mind has once been well imbued with general learning, and has acquired classical propensities, will never sink into a mere drudge. He will always save himself harmless from the dull atmosphere he must live and work in, and the sooner he will emerge from it, and arrive at eminence. But what I svish to inculcate especially, with a view to the great talent for public speaking which your son happily possesses, is that he should cultivate that talent in the only way in which it can reach the height of the art ; and I wish to turn his attention to two points. I speak upon this subject with the authority both of experience and observation ; I have made it very much my study in theory ; have written a great deal upon it which 119 BRETON'S ART OF PUBLiq^SPEAKING. may never see tlie light, and something which has been published ; have meditated much, and conversed much on it with famous men ; have had some little practical experience in it, but have prepared for much more than I ever tried by a variety of laborious methods — reading, writing, much translation, composing in foreigrKlanguages, etc. — and I have lived in times when there were great orators among us, therefore I reckon my opinion worth listening to, and the rather, because I have the utmost confidence in it myself, and I should have saved a world of trouble and much time had I started with a convic- tion of its truth. " I. The first point is this : the beginning of the art is to acquire a habit of easy speakings and in whatever way this can be had (which individual inclination or accident will generally direct, and may satly be allowed to do so), it must be had. Now, I differ from all other doctors of rhetoric in this. I say, let him first of all learn to speak easily and fluently, as well and as sensibly as he can, no doubt, but at any rate let him learn to speak. This is to eloquence, or good public speaking, what the being able to talk in a child is to correct gramma- tical speech. It is the requisite foundation, and on it you must build. Moreover, it can only be acquired young ; therefore, let it by all means, and at any sacrifice, be gotten hold of forthwith. But in acquiring it, every sort of slovenly error will also be acquired. It must be got by a habit of easy writing (which, as Wyndham said, proved hard reading) by a custom of talking much in company ; by debating in speaking societies, with little attention to rule, and more love of saying something at any rate than of saying anything well. I can even suppose that more attention is paid to the matter in such discussions than to the manner of saying it, yet still to say it easily, ad libitum, to be able to say what you choose, and what you have to say. This is the first requisite ; to acquire which everything else must for the present be sacrificed. " 2. The next step is the grand one ; to convert this style of easy speaking into chaste eloquence. And here there is but one rule. I do earnestly entreat your son to set daily and nightly before him the Greek models. First of all he may look to the best modern speeches (as he probably, has already) ; Burke's best compositions, as the " Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents ; " "Speech on the American Conciliation," and " On the Nabob of Arcot's Debt ; " Fox's " Speech on the Westminster Scrutiny" (the first part of which he should pore over till he has it by heart) ; " On the Russian Armament," and " On the War, 1S03 ;" with one or two of Wyndham's best, and very few, or rather none, of Sheridan's ; but he must by no means stop here ; for, if he would be a great orator, he must go at once to the fountain head, and bs familiar with every one of the great orations of Demos- thenes. I take it for granted that he knows those of Cicero by heart ; lliey are all very beautiful, but not very useful, except perhaps the Milo p7-o Ligario, and one or two more ; but the Greek must positively be the model ; and merely reading it, as boys do, to know the language, won't do at all ; he must enter into the spirit of each speech, 120 APPENDIX. thoroughly know the position of both parties, follow each turn of the argument, and make the absolutely perfect and most chaste and severe composition familiar to his mind. His taste will improve every time he reads and repeats to himself (for he should have the fine passages by heart), and he will learn how much may be done by a skilful use of a few words, and a rigorous rejection of all superfluities. In this view I hold a familiar knowledge of Dante to be next to Demosthenes. It is vain to say that imitations of these models won't do for our times. First, I do not counsel any imitation, but only an imbibing of the same spirit. Secondly, I know from experience that nothing is half so successful in these times (bad though they be) as what has been formed on the Greek models. I use a very poor instance in giving my own experience; but I do assure you that both in course of law and Parliament, and even to mobs, I have never made so much play (to use a very modern phrase) as when I was almost translating from the Greek. I composed the peroration of my speech for the Queen, in the Lords, after reading and repeating Demosthenes for three or four weeks, and I composed it twenty times over at least, and it cer- tainly succeeded in a very extraordinary degree, and far above any merits of its own. This leads me to remark that, though speaking without writing beforehand is very well till the habit of easy speaking is acquired, yet after that he can never write too much ; this is quite clear. It is laborious, no doubt ; and it is more difficult beyond com- parison than speaking off-hand ; but it is necessary to perfect oratory, and at any rate it is necessary to acquire the habit of correct diction. But I go further, and say, even to the end of a man's life he must prepare, word for word, most of his finer passages. Now, would he be a great orator or no ? In other words, would he have almost absolute power of doing good to mankind in a free country, or no ? So he wills this, he must follow these rules. " Believe me. Yours, "{Signed) H. BROUGHAM." B. OPEN-AIR SPEAKING. On the subject of open-air speaking we quote the following sensible remarks from Mr. Plumptre's work on "Elocution" (p. 149) : " For open-air speaking there is no need for any undue muscular effort or straining. All this is worse than useless— it is absolutely injurious to the speaker, and destructive of the result he desires to produce. The great requisites for success in open-air speaking are, first, a general acquaintance with, and some practice in, the principles of the art of elocution, so far as they bear more especially on public speaking, and then, the head, chest, and whole body generally being placed in the most favourable position, to remember and fully carry out the following golden rules, viz. : That the lungs, before beginning to speak, should be thoroughly filled by a good deep inspiration, taken BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. so that the air enters the lungs only by the air passages which con- duct from the nostrils ; that the speaker begins at once then, and suffers no air to escape uselessly by the open mouth, and so be wasted ; that he avails of every proper pause in his address to thoroughly replenish the lungs by a full inspiration, and so supply them with a fresh amount of air to replace what has been expended in speaking ; that the mouth be somewhat more open than would be requisite in a moderately-sized hall ; that the vowels be more fully sustained or dwelt on, especially in all syllables that are long in point of quantity ; that all the articulating organs that divide the vowel sounds, and so form speech, be used with special energy and due precision of action ; and that the proper action and reaction of the larynx be adequately and regularly maintained, in order to ensure that all-import£tlit fioise, on which so much of the success of all public speaking and reading depends. If these suggestions are fully carried out, I think I may safely promise the speaker, even if of moderate physique, that he will succeed in making himself well heard in an open-air meeting, where a man of much more powerful frame and constitution, but wholly unversed in the principles of the art, will only succeed in making a noise, not a speech, distinct, and at the same time perfectly audible, to a considerable distance." Open-air preaching is sometimes heard from a great distance. It must, of course, depend much on the character of the speaker's voice, but also, to a certain extent, on conditions of the surface and on the hydrometric state of the atmosphere. Mrs. Oliphant, in her "Life of the Rev. Edward Irving," states that he had been, on some occasions, clearly heard at the distance of half a mile. It has been alleged, however, that Black John Russell, of Kilmarnock, celebrated by Burns in no gracious terms, was heard, though not perhaps intelligibly, at the distance of a full mile. It would appear that even this is not the utmost stretch of the phenomenon. A correspondent of Jamesoiis Journal, in 1828, states that, being at the West end of Dunfermline, he overheard part of a sermon then delivering at a tent at Cairney Hill by Dr. Black ; he did not miss a word, "though the distance iiuist be something about two miles ; the preacher has, perhaps, seldom been surpassed for distinct speaking and a clear voice ; and the wind, which was steady and moderate, came in the direction of the sound." C RULES OF DEBATING SOCIETIES. Order of Business. I. At ordinary meetings the order of business to be as follows : The meeting will first proceed to elect its chairman ; the secretary will then read the minutes of the last meeting ; when these have been confirmed, the chairman will call upon the speaker who has agreed to 122 APPENDIX. open the debate to address the room; after he and the seconder of the resolution have spoken, any members will be at liberty to speak ; when the hour for drawing the proceedings to a close has come, the opener will be called upon for his reply ; the chairman will then put the question to the meeting, and their decision upon it will be given by a show of hands ; the subject for discussion at the next meeting will last of all be announced from the chair. Members to Speak only Once. 2. No member to be permitted to speak twice except the opener in reply, or any one in explanation. The Chairman. 3. The chairman not to be permitted to speak unless he quit the chair ; nor vote unless the numbers be equal, in which case he will give the casting vote. Adjournment. 4. The question may be adjourned, in which case the mover of the adjournment, or, failing him, his seconder, will reopen the question. Time Allowed to Speakers. In some debating societies it is customary — and the custom is a very proper one— to limit each speaker to a set time, say ten minutes.; the opener, however, being allowed fifteen. D. list of some of the chief writers on oratory, ancient and modern." Aristotle. Treatise on Rhetoric, Literally Translated from the Greek, with an Analysis by Thomas Hobbes, and a Series of Questions. By Theodore Buckley, B.A. London, 1850. {Vol. 0/ Bohn's Classical Library}) Austin (Gilbert). Chironomia ; or, a Treatise on Rhetorical Delivery. London, 1806. Bautain (Louis Eugene Marie). Etude sur I'art de parler en public. Deuxifeme Edition. Revue et augmentde. Paris, 1863. Ditto Ditto The Art of Extempore Speaking. Translated from the French. London, 1858. {Mitch additional matter is given in the Paris edition noted above.) ■ In cases where the writers are foreign the titles of English translations ar« given. 123 BEETON'S ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. Blair (Hugh). Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. A new edition, with an Introductory Essay by the Rev. T. Dale. London, 1845. Cam eray, Archbishop of, see Salignac de la Mothe F^nelon (F. de). Campbell (George). The Philosophy of Rhetoric. A new edition, with the author's last additions. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1816. Cicero. 1. De Oratore. 2. Brutus ; or. Remarks on Eminent Orators. ( These two works, together with Letters to Quintus and Brutus, form a vol. (T/Bohn's Classical Whr&xy under the title r., Sj^c, Rules for the Management of Servants. Rules for the Rearing and Management of Oblldren. The Doctor. 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Coloured and other Illustrations. 19. Barriers Burned Away. ByE. P.ROE: Coloured Illustrations, 20. Little Women and Good Wives. By Miss Alcott, With Coloured Illustrations. 21. From Jest to Earnest. By E. P. Roe. Coloured Illustrations. 22. Near to Nature's Heart. By E. P. Roe. Coloured Illustrations. 23. Opening of a Chestnut Burr. By E. P. Roe. Col. lUust. 24. What Can She Do ? By E. P. Roe. Coloured Illustrations. 25. The Old Helmet. By E. Wetherell. Coloured Illustrations. 26. Daisy. By the same. With Coloured Illustrations. 27. A Knight of the Nineteenth Century. Coloured Illustrations. 28. Woman our Angel. By A. S. Roe. Coloured Illustrations. 29. The Lamplighter. By Miss Cumming. Coloured Illustrations. 30. A Face Illumined. By E. P. Roe. Coloured Illustrations. 31. The Story of Stories. By Mrs. Leatkley, Illustrated. London: WARD, LOCK&' CO., Salisiury Square, E.C. ILLUSTRATED GIFT BOOKS. THE GOOD WORTH LIBRARY, In tfu Good Worth Library no works have been admitted in which the three requisites /or ^ood worth in a book, — namely, the promotion of knowledge^ the Jurt/ierance 0/ wisdom, and the charm of avinsentent — are not combined, and whose perusal will not satisfy the mind, as with good, wholesome and strengthening food. Fully Illustrated aT»l ^midsomely bound, cloth gilt, 3«. td, each. 1, Bunyan'a^^W^rim's Progress, from this World to that which is to Come. With Memoir of the Author by H. W. Dulckbn, Ph.D., and xoo Illustrations by Thomas Dalziei., Engraved by Dalziel Brothers. 2, The Swiss Family Robinson ; or, The Adventures of a Swiss Pastor and his Family on an Uninhabited Island. Translated by Henrv Frith. With Coloured Plates and upwards of 200 Engravings, 3, Andersen^s Stories for the Young. By Hans Christian Andersen. With many full-page and other Engravings. 4, Andersen's Popular Tales for Children, By Hans Christian Andersen. With many full-page and other Engravings. 5, Anne and Jane Taylor's Poetry for Children. Containing the Original Poems, Hymns for Infant Minds, and Rhymes for the Nursery. With many Engravings. 7. Fifty Celebrated Women : Their Virtues and Failings, and the Lessons of their Lives. With many Engravings. 8. Fifty Celebrated Men : Their Lives and Trials, and the Deeds that made them Famous. With many Engravings. 9. Robinson Crusoe. By Daniel Defoe. With Memoir of the Author and many Engravings. 10. The Wonders of the World, in Earth, Sea, and Sky. By Uncle John. With 123 Engravings. 11. Evenings at Home; or, The Juvenile Budget Opened. By Mrs. Barbauld and Dr. Aiken. With many Engravings^ 12. The Gentlemen Adventurers ; or, Antony Wa3rmouth. By W. H. G. Kingston. With full-page Engravings. 13. Sandford and Merton (The History of). By Thomas Day. With jco Engravings by Dalziel Brothers. 14. The Boy's Own Sea Stories. Being the Adventures of a Sailor in the Navy, the Merchant Service, and on a Whaling Cruise. Told by Himself. With full-page Engravings. 16. Great Inventors: The Sources of their Usefulness, and the Re- sults of their Efforts. With 109 Engravings. 17. The Marvels of Nature; or, Outlines of Creation. With 400 Engravings by Dalziel Brothers. 18. The Boy's Own Book of Manufactures and Industries of the World. With 365 Engrarings by Dalziel Brothers. London : WARD, LOCK Ss* CO,, Salisbury Square, E.C, ILLUSTRATED GIFT BOOKS. The Good Worth Library— emitnueJ. 19. Famous Boys, and How they Became Famous Men. With many Engravings. 20. Triumphs of Perseverance and Enterprise. By Thomas Cooper. With many Engravings. 21. The Crusades and Crusaders. The Story of the Struggle for the Holy Sepulchre. By J. G. Edgar. With full-page Engravings. 22. The Merchant's Clerk; or, Mark Wilton. By Rev. C. B. Tavler, M.A. With full-page and other Engravings. 23. 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With Coleured Plates and other Illustrations. 2. Beatrice; or, The Unknown Relatives. By Catherine Sin- clair. With Coloured Plates. 3. Amy and Hester; or, The Long Holidays. By H. A. Ford. With Coloured Frontispiece and many Engravings. 4. Wonders and Beauties of the Year. Popular and Poetical Descriptions of the Wild Flowers, Birds, and Insects of the Months. By H. G. Adams. With Coloured Trontispiece and many Engravings. 5. Wonders and Curiosities of Animal Life. By George Kbarley, With Coloured Frontispiece and many Engravings. 6. Nature's Gifts, and How we Use them. A Familiar Account ?,',.°,"";^^^^'T"'''y Wants, Comforts, and Luxuries. By George Dodd. With Coloured Frontispiece and other Illustrations. 7. Modern Society; or, The March of Intellect By Catherine SiNCLAlB. With Coloured and other Illustrations. 8. Herbert Lovell ; or. Handsome He who Handsome Does. By Rev. F. W. B. BouVEKlE. With Coloured and other Illustrations. 9. The Sailor Hero ; or, The Frigate and the Lugger. By Captain Akmsteong, Author of " The Cruise of the Daring." With full-paee Illustrations, * ^ 10. The Cruise of the " Daring." A Tale of the Sea. By Capt. Armstrong, Author of "The Sailor Hero." With fuU-page Illustrations. 11. Life's Contrasts ; or, The Four Homes. By Mrs. Gother Manh. With Coloured Frontispiece and other Illustrations. 12. Popular Preachers of the Ancient Church : Their Lives and their Works. By Rev. W. Wilson. With Illustrations. 13. Edwin and Mary ; or, The Mother's Cabinet. With Coloured Frontispiece and other Illustrations. 14. The Book of Children's Hymns and Rhymes. With Co- loured Frontispiece and many Engravings. 15. Looking Heavenward : A Series of Tales and Sketches for the SgraWnfs^ "" ^'"''^O''- With Coloured Frontispiece and many 16. Character and Culture. By the Bishop of Burham, Canon Dale, &c. With Passages selected from the Works of Eminent Divines. 17. Pilgrims Heavenward. Essays of Counsel and Encoura.'e- ment for the Christian Life. With Coloured Frontispiece. >-""™ae London: WARD, LOCK S^ CO., Salisbury Square, E.C. FOR EVERY HOME. The Family Circle 1.\k^ks.^— continued. l8. Preachers and Preaching, in Ancient and Modern Times. By the Rev. Henry Christmas. With Portraits. ig. Julamerk ; or, The Converted Jewess. By Mrs. Webb. With Coloured and other Illustrations. 20. Fern Leaves from Fanny's Portfolio. First and Second Series -Complete. With numerous Illustrations. 21. Orange Blossoms : A Book for All who have Worn, are Wear- ing, or are likely_ to Wear Them.* Edited by T. S. Arthur. With numerous Illustrations. 22. The Martyrs of Carthage ; or. The Christian Converts. A Tale of the Times of Old. With numerous Illustrations. 23. Modern Accomplishments ; or. The March of Intellect. By Catherine Sinclair, Author of " Beatrice," '* 'viodern Society,*' &c. With Coloured Plates. 26. Poe's Tales of Mystery, Imagination, and Humour. By Edgar Allan Poe. With numerous Illustrations. 27. Ballads and Poetical Tales. Selected from Percy, Ritson, Evans, Jamieson, Scott, &c. 28. Beeton's Book of Birds ; Showing how to Rear and Manage them in Sickness and in Health. With Coloured Plates by Harrison Weir, and over 100 Engravings. 29. Beeton's Book of Poultry and Domestic Animals : How to Rear and Manage them in Sickness and in Health. With Coloured Plates by Harrison Weir, and over 100 Engravings. 31. Journeys through London ; or. Bye-ways of the Modem Babylon. By James Greenwood, Author of "A Night in a Workhouse," &c. With 12 double-page Engravings. 32. Fanny Fern's New Stories for Children. By the Author of *' Fern Leaves." Illustrated. 33. Adventures of Captain Hatteras. Containing " The English at the North Pole," and "The Ice Desert." By Jules Veeke. With Coloured Plates. 34. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. First and Second Series Complete. By Jules Verne. With Coloured Plates. ! 35. The Wonderful Travels. Containing "Journey into the In- terior of the Earth," and " Five Weeks in a Balloon. By Jules Verne. With Coloured Plates. 36. The Moon Voyage. Containing " From the Earth to the Moon," and "Round the Moon." By Jules Verne. With Coloured Plates. 37. The Boy's Handy Book of Games and Sports. With Hundreds of Illustrations. 38. The Boy's Handy Book of Natural History. With about 100 full-page Engravings by W. Harvey, London: WARD, LOCK &■ CO., Salisiury Square, E.C. PURE LITERATURE BY CHOICE AUTHORS. THE GOOD TONE LIBRARY. The volumes included under this head are those really High-class Works whiofi are most calculated to elevate the mind and give a high tofie to the character. Con- taining! all the interest 0/ a novel without ^^^ objectionable features so frequently attaching to thai class of literature, these Works, designed for tlte perusal of the Youth of Both Sexes, •will be warmly welcomed. The names of the A uthors are in the7nselves sufficient evidence of careful selection, and will assure the public that good taste and purity of spirit constitute the leading features of the *' Good Tone Library." Post Svo, elegantly bound, cloth gilt, price 2j. 6d. 1. The Prince of the House of David. By Rev. J. H. Ingraham. With Coloured Frontispiece. 2. The Wide, Wide World. By Elizabeth Wetherell. With Coloured Frontispiece. 3. Queechy. By Elizabeth Wetherell. With Coloured Frontispiece. 4. Melbourne House. By Elizabeth Wetherell. With Coloured Frontispiece. 5. Uncle Tom's Cabin. By Mrs. H. B. Stowe. With Sketch of the Life of Rev. Josiah Henson. Coloured and other Illustrations. 6. Stepping Heavenward. By E, Prentiss. With Coloured Frontispiece. 7. History of the Fairchild Family. By Mrs. Sherwood. With Coloured Frontispiece. 8. Anna Lee : the Maiden, the Wife, and the Mother. By T. S. Arthur. With Illustrations. 9. Flower of the Family. By E. Prentiss. With Coloured Frontispiece. 10. From Jest to Earnest. By E. P. Roe. With Coloured Frontispiece. 11. The Throne of David. By Rev. J. H. Ingraham. Illustrated, 12. The Pillar of Fire. By Rev. J. H. Ingraham. Illustrated. 13. Shiloh ; or, Without and Within. By Mrs. W. M. L. Jay, With Coloured FroHtispiece. 14. Holiday House. By Catherine Sinclair. With Coloured Frontispiece. 15. Little Women. By Louisa M. Alcott. With Coloured Frontispiece. 16. Good Wives. Sequel to, and by the Author of, "Little Women." With Coloured Frontispiece. 17. The Lamplighter. By Miss Gumming. With Coloured Front- ispiece. 18. The Old Helmet. By the Author of "Queechy," &c. With Coloured Frontispiece. 19. Freston Tower. By Rev. R. Cobbold, Author of " Margaret Catchpole," &c. Illustrated. London: WARD, LOCJC ^ CO., Salisbury Square^ E,C. POPULAR BOOKS BY GOOD AUTHORS. THE FAMILY GIFT SERIES. A chen^ issue of Popular Books, suilahle for Prizes and Rewards. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, price zs. 6d. each. 1. The Swiss Family Robinson. Translated by IIenry Frith, With Coloured Frontispiece and over 200 Engravings. 2. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. With a Memoir of the Author ( by H. W. DULCKEN, Ph.D., and 100 Engravings. ' 3. Robinson Crusoe. By Daniel Befoe. With Biographical I Sketch of the Author, and many Engravings. I 4. The History of Sandford and Merton. By Thomas Day. With 100 Engravings by Dalziel Brothers. 5. Famous Boys, and How they became Great Men. By the Author of " Clever Boys." With many Illustrations. 6. Fifty Celebrated Women : Their Virtues and Failings, and the Lessons of their Lives. With Portraits and other Illustrations. 7. The Gentlemen Adventurers; or, Antony Waymouth. By the late W. H. G. Kingston. With full-page Engravinp.s. 8. Evenings at Home. By Dr. Aikin and Mrs. Barbauld. with many Illustrations. 9. The Adventures of Captain Hatteras. By Jules Verne. Containing " The English at the North Pole," and " The Ice Desert." With Coloured Plates. 10. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. First and Second Series Complete. By Jules Verne. With Coloured Plates. 11. The Wonderful Travels. Containing "Journey into the In- terior of the Earth," and *' Five Weeks in a Balloon." By Jules Verne. With Coloured Plates. 12. The Moon Voyage. Containing "From the Earth to the Moon," and "Round the Moon." By Jules Verne. Coloured Plates. 13. Getting On in the World; or, Hints on Success in Life. By W. Mathews, LL.D. First and Second Series Complete. 14. The Boy's Own Book of Manufactures and Industries of the World. With 365 Engravings. 15. Great Inventors : The Sources of their Usefulness, and the Re- sults of their Eiforts. With 100 Engravings. 16. Marvels of Nature ; or, Outlines of Creation. 400 Engravings. 17. The Boy's Own Sea Stories. With full-page Engravings. 18. Household Stories. By the Brothers Grimm, W. Hauff, &c. With many Illustrations. 19. Fifty Celebrated Men : Their Lives and Trials, and the Deeds that made them Famous. With Portraits and other Illustrations. 20. The Wonders of the World, in Earth, Sea, and Sky. With J23 Engravings. 21. TheTriumphsof Perseverance and Enterprise. By Thomas Cooper. With many Engravings. London: WARD, LOCK &• CO., Salisluiy Square, E.G. POPULAR BOOKS BY GOOD AUTHORS. The Family Gift Series— M«ft'»w«rf. 22. Keble's Christian Year : Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holy Days throughout the Year. With full-page Engravings. ' 23. A Face Illumined. By E. P. Roe, Author of "From Jest to Earnest/' &c. 24. The Scottish Chiefs. By Miss Jane Porter. 25. What Can She Do? By E. P. Roe, Author of "A Face Illumined," &c. 26. Barriers Burned Away. By the Same. 27. Opening of a Chestnut Burr. By the Same. 28. Orange Blossoms. By T. S. Arthur. Illustrated. 29. Mary Bunyan, the Blind Daughter of John Bunyan. By Sallie Rochester Ford. With full-page Engravings. 30. The History of Margaret Catchpole. By Rev. Richard COBBOLD. With numerous Illustrations. 31. 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Ward & Lock's STANDARD ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE ENq^ISH LANGUAGE. A Popular and Comprehensive Guide to the Pronunciation, Parts of Speech, Meanings, and Etymology of all Words, Ordinary, Scientific, and Technological now in General Use. With 40 pages of Engravings and an Appendix, Comprising I. Abbreviations used in Writing and Printing. -. A Brief Classical Dictionary, comprising the Principal Deities, Heroes, Notable Men and Women, &c,, of Greek and Roman My- thology. 3. Letters ; How to Begin, Knd, and Address Them. 4. Words, Phrases, and Proverbs, from the Latin, frequently used in Writing and Speaking. 5. Words, Phrases, and Proverbs, from the French, with English Translations. 6. Words, Phrases, and Proverbs, from the Italian and Spanish with English Translations. 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Royal 8vo, half bound, 5^-. ; demy 8vo, cloth, "This Dictionary must commend itself to every intelligent reader, . . . . Let us add, it is carefully and well printed, and very cheap j .and having said so mush, we feel assured that further recommendation is unnecessary. It is good, use- fill, Aud iAi&a.p."~Liverpool Mail. WEBSTER'S IMPROVED PRONOUNCING DICTION- ARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Condensed and adapted to English Orthography and Usage, with additions by Char lbs Robson. To which are added. Accentuated Lists of Scriptural, Classical, and Modem Geographical Proper Names. Cloth, price 2^. 6d. ; strongly half-bound, 3; . td* WEBSTER^S POCKET PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY OF THE E NGLISH LANGUAGE. Condensed from the Original Dictionary fey Noah Websteh, LL.D. ; with Accentuated Vocabularies of Classical, Scriptural, and Modern Geographical Names. Revised Edition, by William G. 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Exhibiting the Spelling, Pronunciation, Part of Speech, and Meaning of all Words in General Use among English-speak- ing Nations. Containing over 10,000 words. Price %d. ; or, linen wrapper, arf. London: WARD, LOCK &= CO., Salisbury Square, B.C. HEALTH PRIMERS FOR THE PEOPLE. WARD AND LOCK'S LONG LIFE SERIES, Aocurately Written and Oarefnlly Edited by Distinguished Membsn of tlie Medical Profession, Fcap, 8vo, cloth, u. The oljtci of Ward & Lock's " Long Life Series ' itto diffuse as widely as jiossible, amongst all classes, a knowledge of the elementary parts of preventive medicine. The suhjects selected are of vital and practical importance in everyday life, and are treated in as popular a style as is consistent with their nature. Each volume, if the suhject calls for it, is fully Illustrated, so that the text may he clearly and readily understood by anyone hitherto entir-ely ignorant of the structure and functions of the body. The Authors of Ward & Lock's "Long Life Series" have been selected with great care and on account of special fitness each for his suhject, by reason of its previous careful study, either privately or as public teaching. 1. LONG LIFE, AND HOW TO REACH IT. 2. THE THROAT AND THE VOICE. 3. EYESIGHT, AND HOW TO CARE FOR IT. 4. THE MOUTH AND THE TEETH. . s. THE SKIN IN HEALTH AND DISEASE. 6. BRAIN WORK AND OVERWORK. 7. SICK NURSING : A Handbook for aU who have to do with Cases of Disease and Convalescence. 8. THE YOUNG WIFE'S ADVICE BOOK : A Guide for Mothers on Health and Self-Management. 9. SLEEP: HOW TO OBTAIN IT. 10. HEARING, AND HOW TO KEEP IT. n. SEA AIR AND SEA BATHING. 12. HEALTH IN SCHOOLS AND WORKSHOPS. The Saturday Review says : " Messrs. Ward and Lock have done good service to the public in procuring, at the hands of highly qualified memfaers of the medical profession, a series of manuals compressing into the smallest possible space the elementary principles and practical rules of healthful living. It is not much to say of them, as a senes, that the shilling invested betimes in each of them may bo the means of saving many a guinea." London : WARD, LOCK &• CO., Salisbury Square, E.C. iv-\%.i.