Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
The following pages are the result of considerableobservation and experience. Fifteen years ago thewriter published a small volume entitled “Oratory;Sacred and Secular,” in which the same general viewswere set forth, though more slightly and crudely expressed.In this work the recognized defects of thatearlier effort are supplied; and it is believed that allpersons who have natural adaptation to public speechwill here find all necessary directions to guide them bythe shortest and surest road to success.
It is not necessary or even expedient that a bookwhich teaches the mode of eloquence should itself beeloquent. We may watch, admire, and describe theflight of an eagle while standing on the firm groundquite as well as if flying in the air beside him. Noeffort, therefore, has been made to imitate those grandbursts of feeling or lofty flights of imagination inwhich the popular orator may indulge; but we havesought to give such directions about practical detailsas may be useful to the highest genius, while thebroad path toward that kind of excellence most inivharmony with the speaker’s own faculties is clearlymarked out.
The writer is firmly convinced that more than nine-tenthsof those who have any fair degree of ability tospeak in public will succeed best in the mode laid downin the following pages; that is, by thorough preparationand arrangement of thought, combined with spontaneousselection of words in the moment of discourse.
Reasons will be given for considering this the mostnatural, logical, impassioned, and effective mode of discourse;indeed, the superior excellence of extemporespeech is now generally conceded and will requirelittle argument; but it is more important to encouragethe beginner by showing him just how to acquire andpractice fluent, accurate, and impressive off-hand speechin public, with as little embarrassment or fear as ifevery word were written out and in plain sight. Thisis the especial object of the following pages.
| PART I. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary Considerations: | |||