ORATORY ITS REQUIREMENTS AND ITS REWARDS BY JOHN P. ALTGELD CHICAGO CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY 56 FIFTH AVENUE 1901 Copyright, 1901, - By JOHN P. ALTGELD. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page Oratory 7 Knowledge 8 Language 9 Arrangement 10 Delivery Action 12 Gesture 13 Voice 15 Articulation 20 Writing of Speeches 21 Message to Audience 27 Newspapers 27 Breakfast-Table Audience 29 Literary Excellence , 30 Demosthenes 31 Utilitarian Talk 35 Abstemiousness 3$ Hospitality 41 Handshaking 42 Clothes 43 Censorship of Speeches 43 Lawyers 45 Great Subject Pettifogging 47 Justice, not Expediency , 49 Rewards 51 Is Oratory Dying ? 53 Democracy 54 Oratory Develops Oratory 57 Repetition -. 58 Pericles 60 Conclusion* 65 50519 ORATORY 1T5 REQUIREI1ENTS AND ITS REWARDS. Oratory is the greatest art known to man and embraces a number of great arts. In music tradition furnishes the ideas. The poet clothes them in words. The composer sets these to music, and the singer renders them into song. The orator must be able to do all of these things. He must furnish the ideas, he must clothe * them in words, he must give these a rhythmic v arrangement, and he must deliver them with all the care with which a singer sings a song: Each of these elements is of supreme im- portance. The ideas must be bright and seem alive. The language must be chaste and ex- pressive. The arrangement must be logical, '$ <';: / ORATORY. Natural arid 'effective. There must be a natural unfolding of the subject-matter. The delivery requires as much attention to voice and action as is given by a singer. Labor is the foster mother of oratory, and no man has risen to eminence as an orator without great labor. KNOWLEDGE. The orator must have a general knowledge of history, of literature, of religion, of the sciences, of human nature, and of affairs. He must have a full and special knowledge of the subject he attempts to discuss. He must present new ideas, or old ideas in a new light. And they must be lofty ideas, that appeal to the nobler sentiments of men. Mind must commune with mind and soul must talk to soul, or there is no oratory. The soul of the speaker and the soul of the audi- ence must become one. ORATOR 9 LANGUAGE. The intelligent people of America use rea- sonably pure English. If the speaker falls below this level he simply disgusts. If he only stands on this level he may be tolerated but will ga*ther no laurels. Men may say, "He makes a strong talk/' but this is all. It is not oratory. If he would delight and chain his audience so that the doors of the soul may be thrown open to him, his language must have the charm of superior excellence. His words must be simple, pure, chaste and crystalline his sen- tences clear, epigrammatic and sparkling, and his arrangement logical, forceful and climac- teric. In attempting to acquire a superior com- mand of language it must be borne in mind that woi'ds are only the expression of thoughts, and where the thoughts are coarse or careless, and not well arranged, elegance of language is impossible. IO ORATORY. On the other hand elevation of thought pro- duces^ elevation of language. Studying the stars and contemplating nature prepare the soul for great things. A familiarity with polite literature is also essential and experience has taught that the reading and digesting each day of a half page or a page of some classic author, so as to im- bibe his spirit and assimilate his words, will by degrees give elegance of diction and purity and strength of expression. It is necessary to avoid slang and to be care- ful as to our use of words in daily intercourse. By degrees we can acquire an entirely new vocabulary. ARRANGEMENT. Arrangement is the third essential of ora- tory. Without it the effort is lost. The subject-matter should be treated from the point from which it naturally unfolds or ORATORY. 'II develops. Start with the trunk of the tree, and then take up one branch after another so that the casual hearer can get a general idea of the whole subject, and then of its different branches, and see just what relations they bear to each other. The heavy, the statistical and historical parts of the subject should come early and form the foundation on which to build. Then the different branches must be arranged with ref- erence to strength and climax using the strongest toward the last. It is important to bear in mind that while facts are addressed to the intellect, sentiment alone can stir the soul. An audience will swallow a whole library of statistics or arguments unmoved while one divine flash will stir it to its depths. To prevent facts or arguments from becom- ing too dry and heavy, they must be garnished with epigrams whose wit enlivens or whose 12 ORATORY. sentiment inspires. That the audience may leave in high spirit, the close or peroration must appeal to the soul and not to the senses. It must point to the skies and picture the ever- lasting. DELIVERYACTION. But when all has been said, delivery ac- tion is the vital essence of oratory. With- out effective delivery the ideas, the language and the arrangement are all in vain. There must be no trilling of the r's, no drawl no tremor no affectation. Every word must be uttered with the right volume of voice, the right pitch, the right in- flection ; and every sentence must have the right cadence. And to these must be added the earnestness that comes from a burning soul. It has been said that a woman ought not to sing unless her heart is breaking; and it is cer- ORATORY. 13 tainly true that no man can rise to the heights of oratory unless his soul is on fire. The feet of the orator must walk in the sun and every fiber in his body must speak to the audience, not in rant, or quaver, but in the simple fervor of the patriot. GESTURE. No rule can be given to determine when, where and how to gesture, except possibly the general one be natural. Gesture is a part of the art of expression, and, when used without meaning, it simply mars the performance. Art will not admit of the unnecessary. From the standpoint of art it is no more permissi- ble to have unnecessary gestures in a speech than it is to have unnecessary notes in a song. Many a fine speech falls short of oratory because its delivery is marred by meaningless gestures. 14 ORATORY. Thrashing the air with the hands and tear- ing a passion is a part of rant but not of art. There should be no gesture until the mind prompts it to emphasize or illustrate an idea. There must not be a needless gesture, nor a meaningless look. All must fit and work to- gether not stiffly and with self-consciousness, but simply, naturally, and unconsciously. Neither a king nor an orator should be lavish of gestures. The simplicity of the child is necessary ; the slightest embellishment weakens the truth. "Art when seen ceases to be art." Oratory is the masculine of music, and to a certain extent is governed by the same laws. It must have rhythm, cadence, measure, har- mony and at times even melody. Manifestly, such an art can only be mas- tered by great self-denial and perseverance. If years of training and effort are necessary to even set foot in the temple of music, far ORATORY. 15 more is necessary to set foot en the divine platform of oratory. VOICE. Voice is as important to the orator as it is to the singer, and it must be trained with the same care. The speaker must be able to use his voice with the same facility that a singer does, or else his achievement will be meager. He must be able to give it any volume, any pitch and any cadence he chooses, and to change rapidly from one to the other. While music may have greater melody, speech should have equal harmony. Measure, rhythm, cadence, come unconsciously to the man who is master of his subject, has a trained voice, and is sim- ple, earnest and natural in his speech. The voice of almost every great orator had to be made. . Generally it developed during years of practice and effort. I 6 ORATORY. In training the voice it is vital to follow certain well established principles or natural laws. Ignorance of these laws causes many public speakers to grow hoarse in half an hour. This is because they do not inhale deeply, but take the breath from the top of the lungs and form the voice in the throat. If they would bring the breath from the bottom of the lungs, throw it against the roof of the mouth, and form the voice with the lips, they could talk half a day without feeling any inconvenience in the throat. Strange as it may seem, the dia- phragm must be brought into use in talking. Deep inhalations develop the voice and im- prove the health. Five 'minutes' exercise in deep inhalation, practiced several times a day, will greatly increase the strength and volume of the voice and tend to give vigor to the whole system. Care must be taken at first, so as not to produce dizziness. ORATORY. 17 Then a daily systematic exercise of half an hour in sounding the different letters of the alphabet must be kept up. Familiarity with the scale in music is essen- tial in this practice, so as to be able to distin- guish the different degrees of pitch readily; then run the same letter up and down the scale first in a whisper, then in a low tone, then gradually increasing the volume until the ca- pacity of the voice is reached. In all these exercises the breath must be brought from the bottom of the lungs and thrown against the roof of the mouth, and the words formed with the lips. Practice will soon teach the speaker how to use his lips most effectively. It is not only essential to practice deep in- halation, but also to practice holding the breath, and giving it out at will. In other words, learn to husband the breath and give out no more of it in uttering any word than is necessary. 1 8 ORATORY. In music students spend many months and sometimes years, practicing only a few notes, because when they have mastered these the voice is ready for any service. In this manner the practice of sounding the different letters of the alphabet should be kept up, for it develops the vocal organs to their highest efficiency. The speaker must never forget that there is a close connection between the stomach and the organs of speech. Whatever affects the stomach unfavorably will at once affect the voice. TONE. In forming the voice the principal object is to convert the breath into pure tone. As in burning gas to produce light and heat, the object is to get a perfect combustion, be- cause light and heat travel with a velocity ' that gas cannot attain, 'and thus produce re- sults that cannot be produced by gas in its ORATORY. ig unconverted form. So we aim to get a per- fect combustion or explosion of the breath into tone, and the more perfect the conversion the more perfect and pure the tone. Tone or sound travels with a velocity and acquires a power that is impossible for breath. A man could hardly make his breathing heard twenty feet away; but vocalized it creates vi- brations that travel to the gates of eternity. It is therefore not a question as to the vol- ume of breath expended, but of the amount perfectly exploded. The amount of pure tone formed, and its intensity, determine its travel- ing power. In a whistle, a small amount of air forced through a narrow opening and made to react on itself produces vibrations that are felt miles away. We frequently see people with small chests whose voices are clear and can be heard a great distance; while others, with powerful lungs, cannot be understood half so far. This 20 ORATORY. is largely due to perfect explosion of breath into pure tone in the one case, and imperfect explosion in the other. The test of pure tone applied by musicians is to hold a lighted candle to the mouth while running the scale. If the light is not blown out the explosion or con- version is perfect. I have spoken only of pure tone, because in most cases this is all that an orator needs. When once master of it he can easily give other tones, such as the nasal and gutteral. ARTICULATION. Distinct articulation is the diamond of ut- tered speech. Without it there can be no sparkling sentence and no flashing epigram. Without distinct articulation, it is difficult to understand a speaker even when near by, and impossible to understand him when a little distance away. The audience has to labor to catch his words, and this destroys the effect. ORATORY. 21 Without distinct utterance it is impossible to reach the sensibilities and arouse the finer emo- tions. Defective articulation admits of absolutely no excuse. Everybody can overcome it by making the requisite effort, and no man has a right to appear before an audience who is not willing to make every effort that is necessary to his success. We are told that emphasizing vowels makes words carry. While this is true it is no less true that unless the consonants also are dis- tinctly uttered the words cannot be understood. Daily practice in pronouncing the different letters of the alphabet will rapidly improve the articulation. WRITING OF SPEECHES. "In writing are the roots ; in writing are the foundations of eloquence." Quintilian. Should a speech be written ? Yes, emphatic- ally, yes. It should be written several times. 22 ORATORY. Should it then be read to the audience or should it be committed to memory? Neither. When read it becomes simply an essay and is not an oration; and when committed to memory and then delivered, it is simply decla- mation and not oratory. Besides, unless a man has a phenomenal memory, he will not be able to recite a speech, and will break down. What, then, is the purpose of writing it? It is to become accurately familiar with the subject to become steeped in it and saturated with it. We may have a talking knowledge of a subject, but when we undertake to write upon it we soon find that there are many things which we must investigate further. Writing upon a subject tends to make it clear to the mind. It fixes the boundaries, brings to light the subdivisions, their relative importance and their relations to each other. ORATORY. 23 After we have written upon a subject we have a more accurate conception of it than before. And when we have written upon it the second or third time, ideas come to us that had eluded us before. Though in the end the written copy be thrown into the fire the writer will be repaid a hundred fold, for when he faces his audi- ence he will be much better qualified. He will be more confident, and therefore more aggressive. Even if he does not use a single sentence of what he had written he will make a much better speech than he otherwise could have made. The subject-matter will be larger, the presentation clearer, and the language more elegant. After determining definitely what subject to discuss, the best way to prepare a speech is to get a definite idea of the boundaries and natural subdivisions of the subject and the re- lations they bear to each other. Having these 24 ORATORY. things once clearly in mind the subject natui- ally unfolds itself, and the speaker will be carried along step by step, without having com- mitted his speech to memory. Accuracy in the use of language will in time become a habit, so that when the ideas and their proper arrangement are once fixed in the mind the language will come uncon- sciously. We sometimes hear a speaker say that he does not know what he is going to talk about until he gets on his feet. This is a humiliating confession. It is an admission that he has not worked, and it means that it is impossible for him to reach a high standard of art. Gen- erally this class of speakers follow the French- man's formula for writing a love-letter : "Be- gin without knowing what you are going to say, and end without knowing what you have said." ORATORY. 25 to Art does not admit of random touches. It demands entire accuracy. In music the singer is not permitted to be guided by his feelings in dropping or adding notes ; the laws of har- mony must be followed, and like fidelity is de- manded in speech. The mere fact that a speaker can work him- self into a glow of excitement does not by any means prove that he is eloquent. Generally this is simply rant and wearies the audience. No talk is eloquent unless it reads well. Literary excellence is the very breath of elo- quence. To attain this it is indispensable that the speaker know exactly what he is going to say and how he is going to say it. Otherwise he will fail to make a logical argument, fail to make his sentences epigrammatic, and will con- sume the time with tiresome repetitions. The fatal mistake lies in the assumption that by working himself into a glow of excitement 26 ORATORY. he can deliver himself of ideas, of logic and of language that are not in him. No man can get anything out of himself that is not in him. All that the inspiration of any occasion can do is to enable a man to rise to his best. Let it be said again that the inspiration of the greatest occasion cannot help a man to give an audience something he does not pos- sess. He can give it neither wit nor wisdom, neither learning nor eloquence, neither pathos nor beauty. All that can be expected is that the occasion may enable him to give and to do his best. But the stream will not rise higher than its source, and the very best speech cannot get above the accomplishments of the speaker; hence the necessity of thorough preparation. It is an insult to an intelligent audience for a speaker to appear before it without preparation. ORATORY. 27 MESSAGE TO AUDIENCE. Some men are overwhelmed by the thought of trying to prepare a speech. It seems so different from the ordinary affairs of life. The same men could call on a neighbor in regard to almost any errand and tell him their mission without any embarrassment. Let such men treat the prospective audience as they would treat the neighbor. Go before it on a special errand. Go before it because they have something definite to say have a mission to present and they can talk to an audience almost as easily as to a neighbor. No man should appear before an audience un- less he feels that he has a special message for that audience. If he has this feeling, then he can make a good speech. NEWSPAPERS. A copy of a speech should be furnished each newspaper when it is desired to have it pub- 28 ORATORY. lished. It is almost impossible to take a speech in shorthand in the average hall, late at night, and have it printed accurately the following morning. In the first place shorthand notes have to be taken in poor light. It requires a relay force, so that one reporter can go and write up his copy while the other continues to take notes. The notes have to be transcribed in a hurry, frequently in a poor light, and as many shorthand marks are very similar it is a matter of frequent occurrence that one word is substituted for another. Then the matter has to be set up in a hurry, when there are almost no opportunities for correction. Every- thing has to be rushed. Again, until an editor sees a speech he can- not tell how much of it he wants to use. Gen- erally the forms for the press are made up early in the evening, leaving only a little space for new matter that may come in. ORATORY. 2() Under these circumstances it is unreasonable to expect a paper to get and publish much of any address. But if it receives a copy of it twenty-four hours ahead of time the editor can examine it and as much of it as he decides to use can be set up with care and published accurately. In such cases all that is necessary is to write or print at the top of the front page a note stating that it is "the speech of to be delivered at at the hour of .... o'clock on the .... day of 19 .. and is released after delivery/' All honorable editors respect this note, and will refrain from using the copy before it is released. BREAKFAST-TABLE AUDIENCE. Modern oratory has to deal with an audi- ence that the ancients knew not of, and that is the breakfast-table audience, which may num- 30 ORATORY. her several millions, while the audience at the hall numbered only a few thousand. To reach this breakfast-table audience, the orator must depend on his facts, his arrange- ment, and his literary excellence. Neither his voice nor his actions can reach these people. Unless there is something above the ordi- nary in his speech the editor will not use it, and the public would pay no attention to it if he did. The man who wants his speeches published must offer something that rises above the aver- age; and that average in America is already high. LITERARY EXCELLENCE. Literary excellence is the robe of immortal- ity without which no speech can live. The ideas may be great and the delivery may be impassioned, but if it lacks literary finish it will be ephemeral. The breakfast-table audi- ORATORY. 31 ence will not see it, and by the evening of the morrow it will be forgotten. It was literary excellence that saved us the great speeches of antiquity. Without it they would have faded from the earth even before the generations that heard them. Ever-living principles, genius in arrange- ment, and perfection of form, will keep a speech vital to the end of time. We are told that the Greeks had no gram- mar. Instead of beginning with the rules as we do, they developed their wonderful lan- guage by a constant striving after clearness, brevity, smoothness, and rhythm. The eye and the ear were thus trained to demand ex- cellence. The same practice now will improve any man's speech. DEMOSTHENES. As an inspiration to the ambitious I quote the following from Grote's History of Greece, relating to Demosthenes: 32 ORATORY. "He studied Thucydides with indefatigable labor and attention. According to one account he copied the whole history eight times over with his own hand; according to another, he learned it all by heart so as to be able to re- write it from memory when the manuscript was accidentally destroyed. How much the composition of Demosthenes was fashioned by the reading of Thucydides, reproducing the dar- ing, majestic and impressive phraseology, yet without the overstrained brevity and involu- tions of that historian, and striving to blend with it a perspicuity and grace not inferior to Lysias, may be seen illustrated in the elabo- rate criticism of the rhetor Dionysius. While thus striking out for himself a bold and origi- nal style, Demosthenes had still greater diffi- culties to overcome in regard to the external requisites of an orator. He was not endowed by nature, like Aeschines, with a magnificent voice, nor, like Demades, with a ready flow ORATORY. 33 of vehement improvisation. His thoughts re- quired to be put together by careful prepara- tion; his voice was bad, even lisping; his breath short, his gesticulation ungraceful; moreover, he was overawed and embarrassed by the mani- festations of the multitude. "The energy and success with which Demos- thenes overcame his defects in such a manner as to satisfy a critical assembly like the Athen- ian, is one of the most memorable circumstances in the general history of self-education. Re- peated humiliation and repulse only spurred him on to fresh solitary efforts for improve- ment. He corrected his defective elocution by speaking with pebbles in his mouth. He pre- pared himself to overcome the noise of the assembly by declaiming in stormy weather on the seashore at Phaleron. He opened his lungs by running, and extended his powers of hold- ing breath by pronouncing sentences in march- ing up hill. He sometimes passed two or three 34 ORATORY. months without interruption in a subterranean chamber, practicing night and day, either in composition or declamation, and shaving one half of his head in order to disqualify himself from going abroad. After several trials with- out success before the assembly, his courage was on the point of giving way, when Eunomus and other old citizens reassured him by com- paring the matter of his speeches to those of Pericles and exhorting him to persevere a lit- tle longer in the correction of his external de- fects. On another occasion he was pouring forth his disappointment to Satyrus, the actor, who undertook to explain to him the causes, desiring him to repeat in his own way a speech out of Sophokles which he, Satyrus, proceeded to repeat after him with suitable accent and delivery. Demosthenes, profoundly struck with the difference, began anew the task of self-improvement, probably taking constant les- sons from nature's models. In his unremitting ORATORY. 35 private practice he devoted himself especially to acquiring a graceful action, keeping watch on all his movements while declaiming before a tall looking-glass. After pertinacious efforts for several years he was rewarded at length with complete success. His delivery became full of decision and vehemence, highly popular with the general body of the assembly, although" some critics censured his modulation as artifi- cial and out of nature, and savoring of low stage effects, while others of the same spirit condemned his speeches as overlabored and smelling of the lamp. So great was the im- portance assigned by Demosthenes himself to these external means of effect, that he is said to have pronounced action to be the first, sec- ond and third requisite of oratory/' (Chap. 87.) UTILITARIAN TALK. Outside of the circle of oratory there is a great field of what may be called "utilitarian 36 ORATORY. talk." It is the world's every-day talk of its ordinary affairs, including politics, business, re- ligion, etc. It includes the average speech- making, lecturing and preaching ; and most of us are glad to be even a small factor here. The American people average higher than any others as all-around talkers and stump speakers. This is due to the nature of our institutions and the fact that all the people participate in the discussions of every public question. This utilitarian talk is useful, important, and even necessary ; but there is no glory won here. It is the work of the every-day draft-horse, in- dispensable to man's well being; but it is not the every-day draft-horse that commands the world's interest or admiration. He has indeed done the world's work and makes the world his debtor, but he does not stir the blood nor arouse the enthusiasm of men. It is the care- fully trained speedy horse that men go miles ORATORY. 37 to see. Great speed is the result of the high- est training. Let it be understood that the so-called "strong speech," "able speech/' "forceful talk," "excellent points/' etc., are all of the draft- horse variety. They do not rise to the plane of high excellence; they lack art, and do not constitute oratory. The knowledge displayed may be ample, the facts may be conclusive, and the fervor of the talker may be great; but so long as exquisite arrangement, elegance of language and high finish are wanting, the effort falls below ora- tory. But let no man suppose that a speech should be simply an elegant or nice affair. Dillet- tanteism simply excites contempt. The idea I wish to inculcate in the minds of the young is that they must acquire ele- gance of diction and nicety and accuracy of expression; they must cultivate the voice un- 38 ORATORY. til they have a perfect command of it; they must accustom the mind to orderly and logical arrangement; and when they wish to discuss a subject get all the facts, not only into the mind, but into the very blood, then pour the whole soul into it, and they will approach ora- tory. ABSTEMIOUSNESS. Self-denial and self-control are essential to achievement. Great endurance is impossible where there is great indulgence. Cold water, temperate habits and exercise give firm fiber and a clear brain. The appetites give no inspiration and kindle no fires, and their free gratification weakens the body and chokes the soul. Stimulants do not feed, they do not build; they simply bor- row of the future ; they simply consume. Oratory demands the greatest possible serv- ice by the higher faculties. Where these are ORATORY. 39 stupefied by indulgence, or the body is weak- ened by dissipation, no great height can be reached. All things considered I should say let liquor alone. Under no circumstances touch it just before speaking. Speaking is itself a stimu- lant; and if a man is master of his subject, the mere act of talking will soon make his soul glow. If in addition to this he takes an artificial stimulant, the effect of the double stimulation will be to burn up his vitality at once, and at the end of twenty minutes he will be ex- hausted and will simply gasp and flounder through the remainder of his discourse. If at 4:he conclusion of the speech the speak- er finds that his clothes are wet with perspira- tion and he is exposed to danger of taking cold, then a little stimulant may be taken to ad- vantage. 40 ORATORY. But even this must be done with caution, otherwise the stimulant will burn up more vital- ity and leave him in a still more exhausted condition, so that when he steps on the plat- form the next day he will do inferior work. Avoid drinking water during a speech for it will injure the throat. Never wrap or muffle the neck when out of doors for this opens the pores and exposes to cold. Simply turning the overcoat collar up against it is all the pro- tection it needs, and this leaves the air free to circulate around it. The speaker's vitality must be treated like a bank account. It should be drawn on with great caution and then replenished at once. A recumbent position is necessary for quick restoration. Whenever a speaker has an hour's time during a campaign let him go to bed and sleep if possible. The exigencies of his art demand excellence. This requires the highest possible service by ORATORY. 41 every faculty, and if there has been an expendi- ture of nerve force whether by labor or by indulgence which has not been completely re- placed, then some of his faculties will not fully respond, and the speech will drop to the grade of mere utilitarian talk. When on the road during a campaign a speaker must practice as severe a regimen as a prize-fighter who is in training. He must be careful about his diet, his sleep, all his habits. Otherwise the irregularity and expos- ure incident to such a life will soon so jade him that he will give only a common sort of draft-horse performance. He must be as fas- tidious about himself and his speech as a primn. donna is about herself and her song. HOSPITALITY. When on the road, speaking one or more times every day, a speaker cannot accept hos- pitality. If he does his speeches at once drop 42 ORATORY. to a lower level. As a rule if he will lock the door of his room at a hotel he can rest better and make himself more free and at home than he can at the house of a friend. If, after speaking at night, instead of going to bed, he accepts an invitation to the club and chats for an hour and takes a drink or two, his speech the next day will be inferior. Iso- lation is the price of greatness, and the stars are all the friends an orator needs. HAND-SHAKING. Always avoid the crowd. Only candidates are required to submit to promiscuous hand- shaking. A half hour's hand-shaking before speaking will so reduce the vitality, or take the fine edge off the nerve system, as to make the speech tame. Let the speaker constantly bear in mind that the very people who exhaust him with their ORATORY. 43 hand-shaking will not forgive him foi making a poor speech. He is there to talk, not to shake hands. He should never apologize for being ill, or unprepared. An audience wants to hear a speech, not an apology. CLOTHES. The speaker should be so dressed that neither he nor his audience will be made conscious of the fact that he is wearing clothes. He must dress plainly and neatly. New clothes or very poor clothes are apt to attract the conscious- ness of both speaker and audience, and thus weaken the effect. CENSORSHIP OF SPEECHES. Theatrical troupes and opera troupes re- hearse almost daily in order to keep up the tone of the performance. While this is not prac- ticable in the case of public speakers, it would greatly increase the reputation of every speaker and help his cause, besides benefiting the pub- 44 ORATORY. lie, if he could be accompanied by a severe critic who would carefully note his delivery and afterwards require him to rehearse those parts that were not well delivered. When a speaker has been engaged in a cam- paign for some days his sentences get as badly out of form as his body; and his words, like his clothes, get road-worn and dusty. The high finish, the delicate touches, the pathos and the fine sentiments disappear. How guard against this? While he must adapt himself to the needs of the occasion, and cannot always tell just how much time he will have or what topics he can discuss, he can resolve that whatever he does shall be done well. When both body and mind are tired inspir- ation lags, and a special effort must be made. The mind needs food on the road as well as the body; and it is necessary for a speaker to read each day at least a page of polite litera- ORATORY. 45 ture so as to imbibe the spirit of the author, or else read a short discussion of some great principle so as to get elevation of thought, and thus keep his own speech on high ground. LAWYERS. "If our sole material for thought is derived from law cases the gloss of our oratory must of necessity be rubbed off, its joints must grow stiff, and the points of its wit be blunted by daily encounters." So wrote Quintilion eighteen hundred years ago, and this language has more force to-day than it had then. The matter-of-fact proceedings in our courts have a constant tendency to sink to the level of wrangling, which makes the countenance hard and the mind crabbed and unfits for great achievement. To overcome this lowering tendency, the an- 46 ORATORY. cient advocates studied poetry, dialogue, his- tory, painting, sculpture, nature, and whatever tended to ennoble the mind. Nothing better has ever been suggested, and some such course is vital. Other things being equal the lawyer who does this will in a few years greatly distance his companion who does- not do it, for the latter will not only cease to grow but will shrivel. It is a fatal mistake to suppose that the business of the courts no longer calls for ora- tory. The style has indeed changed, but the essence is as much in demand as ever. A clear, forceful, eloquent and convincing talk to either court or jury is more needed now, and will produce greater results and larg- er rewards, than at any other time in the his- tory of jurisprudence. ORATORY. 47 GREAT SUBJECT PETTIFOGGING. The subject-matter of a speech must be great or there can be no oratory. Great principles of justice, of government, or of human hap- piness, must be involved. The speaker must appeal to what is just, what is elevated, and what is noble in man. A covert defense of wrong, no matter how shrewd or adroit or clever, can never com- mand respect. Pettifogging is always on a low plane; in- . stead of elevating and ennobling both speaker and audience as oratory does, pettifogging shrivels, belittles, and degrades. No man who is willing, for fee or reward, for promotion or lionors, to act the part of a pettifogger, can ever stand for one moment on the great platform of oratory. Sincerity and intense earnestness are the es- sence of oratory, and the mind that is trained to make a plausible defense of a doubtful case 48 ORATORY. unconsciously loses this essence. The orator must be absolutely independent, even though he have neither bread to eat nor shoes to wear. Great manhood must go with great oratory. In America we have a class of men who are called corporation lawyers. They are men of force, ability and shrewdness, and are em- ployed by the corporations because they are recognized as strong lawyers. (I am not speaking of lobbyists.) Many of these men before entering the service of corporations gave promise of eloquence, but none of them has risen to the plane of oratory. Even when brilliant and on the right side, there is some- thing about their efforts that smacks of in- sincerity. While these positions have been sought because the salaries are large, I believe the judgment of mankind will be that these able men paid too much for their pottage. ORATORY. 49 JUSTICE, NOT EXPEDIENCY. Justice, not expediency, must be the guiding light. The orator must fix his eye on the pole- star of justice, and plough straight thither. The moment he glances toward expediency he falls from his high estate. The world's great pathos is orj the side of the masses who are doing the world's work and making civilization possible. They are the children of God. The orator must feel their sufferings, their sorrows, and their joys. Here alone does soul respond to soul. The men who eat bread that is earned by the sweat of other men's brows are unrespon- sive and incapable of high sentiment or deep pathos. Wealth and fashion may be inviting and pre- sent a beautiful picture, but the divine fires do not burn there. All the great speeches ever delivered were 5 ORATORY. protests against injustice and appeals for the public welfare. Generally they were on the losing side. Defeat is often the baptism of immortality. James Russell Lowell summed up the whole history of civilization when he penned the lines : "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne But that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch upon his own." Let the would-be orator remember that he lives but once in this world, and therefore can- not afford to waste any time or effort on be- half of injustice, for it will pull him down. He breathes the atmosphere of the plane on which he stands, and if that plane be low the poisons will destroy him. If he would reach the highest estate possi- ble on this earth he must stand resolutely with ORATORY. SI his face toward the sun; and when the cry of oppressed humanity calls for sacrifice, he must promptly say, "Here, Lord, am I." REWARDS. "But," says a would-be orator, "you are demanding too much; you require a man to be a devotee; you ask him to lay all his am- bitions on this altar ; you demand abstemious- ness and self-sacrifice; you offer no resting- place; you begin and you end with labor. What is the reward you offer? What is the harvest you promise ? In what temple of fame shall we abide, or where among the stars shall we dwell?" Oratory offers the acme of human delight; it offers the nectar that Jupiter sips; it offers the draft that intoxicates the gods, the divine felicity of lifting up and swaying mankind. There is nothing greater on this earth. Tis 52 ORATORY. the breath of the Eternal the kiss of the Immortal. Oratory is far above houses and lands, offices and emoluments, possessions and power. While it may secure all of these it must not for a moment be classed with them. These things offer nothing that is worthy of a high ambition. Enjoyed to their fullest, they leave you hard, wrinkled, and miserable. Get all they can give and the hand will be empty, the mind hungry, and the soul shrivelled. Oratory is an individual accomplishment, and no vicissitudes of fortune can wrest it from the owner. It points the martyr's path to the future ; it guides the reaper's hand in the pres- ent, and it turns the face of ambition toward the delectable hills of achievement. One great speech made to an intelligent audience in favor of the rights of man will compensate for a life of labor, will crown a career with glory, and give a joy that is born of the divinities, ORATORY. 53 IS ORATORY DYING ? On the contrary, it is growing in favor and in importance. At no time in the history of the world did men listen as eagerly as they do in America to-day. The newspapers, instead of destroying ora- tory, simply prepare the ground for a higher order of eloquence. They educate the public as to the facts, and thus partially relieve the speaker of dry detail, so that he can devote himself more largely to a discussion of prin- ciples than he otherwise could do. At the same time they multiply his audience by the thousand. Once the speaker reached only the people before him; now he reaches millions in addition, so that the orator can now wield an influence that heretofore was impossible. True, it increases his labor. He must charm not only his hearers, but also delight his read- ers. 54 ORATORY. The universal intelligence among the people, and the presence of cultivated women, have tended to give high character to public meet- ings and to place them far above the audiences of antiquity. Neither Demosthenes nor Cicero ever saw such inspiring audiences as greet the modern orator. DEMOCRACY. Oratory is the child of Democracy. It is the product of Free Institutions; it grows in a republic, it withers in a despotism. Wherever the citizen can publicly discuss the affairs of government and participate in their control, there oratory flourishes; and where he is denied this right there the stillness of the ages creeps over the land. Glancing down the highway of nations, we find that oratory first illuminated the skies of Greece, while democratic institutions prevailed ORATORY. 55 there. Then its flame was seen in the democ- racy of Rome. During the eighteenth century oratory burst forth in England then the only country that was struggling toward constitutional govern- ment ; and France produced some great exam- ples of forensic power at the beginning of her Revolution. In Ireland it subsequently became a mighty protest against injustice and oppression. But it remained for America to give to the world the highest form of the impassioned speech of freedom. Here oratory has been carried to greater heights than anywhere else in the modern \vorld. Looking over the world to-day we see that not even a whisper comes from the Orient, while the vulgar hand of brute force has choked free speech to death and silenced the voice of oratory in the entire basin of the Mediterra- nean, where it was once great, and where with 56 ORATORY. the decadence of oratory came the degradation of the nations. Twenty-seven years ago there was a spasmodic effort to establish a republic in Spain, and the world heard the eloquence of Castelar; but despotism triumphed and degen- eracy followed. On the continent of Europe a brutal official- ism, that eats the bread earned by the toil of others, perpetuates injustice and wrong by fill- ing the prisons with the men and the women who dare appeal to a higher law or speak of the rights of man. It is the English-speaking nations that keep alive the divine flame of oratory, and it is this fact that makes them an invincible force in the world. The golden ages of the world were the ages of democracy and oratory; and the most bril- liant pages of every country's history were written when the voice of free discussion was heard in the land. No people ever reached a . ORATORY. 57 high development among whom this voice was not heard; and every people that strangled it soon sank into degradation and misery. ORATORY DEVELOPS ORATORY. As wit develops wit, so oratory develops oratory. The orator must wrestle with the orator, or he will not become great. Pericles was surrounded by a group of men who disputed every proposition and contested every inch of ground with him. Demosthenes had to meet a number of men, some of whom were considered his superiors. In Rome oratory reached its highest excel- lence in the days of Cicero, who lived among a group of great orators. In England Chatham had to meet men who taxed all his wonderful resources. Pitt was confronted by Fox, Burke, and Sheridan. The French group of orators comprised the 58 ORATORY. men whose names are forever linked with the Revolution. In America Patrick Henry met fierce debat- ers in the Assembly and the Courts of Virginia. Samuel Adams and James Otis were sur- rounded by a galaxy of brilliant speakers in Massachusetts. At a later period in our history Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun were not only contemporaries, but were also members of the United States Senate. The great emancipation orators, headed by Phillips and Sumner, were confronted by men of rare ability. REPETITION. As a rule no speech is transcendently great when first delivered. While repetition of words or arguments in the same speech is abominable, repetition on different occasions gives power. ORATORY. 59 All the great speeches of which we have any knowledge were the result of repetition. After the orator had discussed a question a number of times and from various standpoints, until it cleared and ripened in his mind, then some extraordinary occasion arose which gave him the opportunity and the inspiration to com- bine all his knowledge and power into one supreme effort. Before delivering his oration on the Crown Demosthenes had discussed every one of the subjects involved many times. Patrick Henry had delivered the same speech a hundred times to a hundred different audi- ences before he overwhelmed the Assembly of Virginia with its fire. Before delivering his celebrated reply to Hayne, Daniel Webster, on numerous occa- sions, had discussed every one of the points in- volved. In fact, he had made a speech in the Senate on the identical subject only a few days 60 ORATORY. before; and while this speech was able, as all his efforts were, it attracted no attention. Finally the opportunity came which furnished him the inspiration to combine all his argu- ments, and enabled him to reach the heights of eloquence that were impossible on the prior occasions. PERICLES. It is not the purpose of this paper to give biographies of orators, for it would require volumes; but we point a finger toward one mighty model. Looking at a few of the names that stand out in bold relief against the sky of history, we see "Pericles" burning in letters of living light, the greatest man of antiquity, and in some respects the greatest orator. For twenty- three hundred years this name has been a bea- con to the sons of men. ORATORY. 6l During this time, a thousand great captains and tens of thousands of Croesuses have come and gone, and the world welcomed their rid- dance and forgot them ; but every century adds to the luster of Pericles. He was warrior, statesman, philosopher, orator; more, he was liberal, progressive, and humane ; but greater still, he possessed an inde- pendence and a lofty graudeur of soul that illumined his age and all subsequent ages; a sublimity that lifted him above his contempo- raries and his successors. Look at these words taken from the funeral oration which he delivered over those who had fallen in defense of their country: "Their glory shall never die ; the whole wide world is their sepulchre; their epitaphs are written in the hearts of mankind, and wherever there is speech of noble deeds their names are held in remem- brance." Nothing ever written under the inspiration 62 ORATORY. of even Chaldean skies surpasses this in gran- deur. He was born and reared an aristocrat, but his great intellect and progressive spirit led him to espouse the cause of the common people. He became the leader of the democracy and made it a ruling power for half a century, creating an Athenian splendor that has dazzled the world. He gathered about him the philosophers and the learned of his time, and thus made the gold- en age of Greece. He not only fortified Athens, but he beautified her. During his administration, most of those marvelous structures were erected that have excited the admiration of mankind for thou- sands of years. He employed the immortal sculptor Phidias in this work, and by this act alone he made the world his debtor. Pericles was denounced in his time as a demagogue. He was vilified, maligned and abused by the rich and aristocratic class. They ORATORY. 63 threw his friend Phidias into prison, and forced Pericles to go in person into court and defend the accomplished Aspasia, yet he pursued a lofty and dignified course throughout his en- tire life, constantly pointing the people to higher standards. He was retiring and simple in his habits, and loved the charms of a refined home so much that he spent all his time there when not engaged in the public service. It is said that in his whole life he attended but one evening entertainment, preferring to spend that tinue studying or conversing with cultivated friends. In order not to grow too common, he spoke in public only on great oc- casions. His speeches were prepared with scrupulous care. Before rising to speak he used to pray that no inappropriate word might fall from his lips. He was called the greatest of Grecian or- ators. "The range and compass of his rhetoric were wonderful, extending from the most win- 54 ORATORY. ning persuasion to overwhelming denuncia- tion." While Demosthenes, who came nearly a hundred years later, had more action and more force in his delivery, Pericles surpassed him in grandeur; and the flame of his eloquence, as seen through twenty-three hundred years, is whiter. The people who called Pericles a demagogue died and were buried, and the very dust that covered them is lost. Even the chimney-tops of their houses possessed more of immortality than they. Pericles died and was buried; and for more than two thousand years, the scholars and statesmen and philosophers of earth have stud- ied his career with admiration and profit; and to-day, more than twenty-three hundred years after his death, the great marching columns of humanity halt not only to listen to the charm of his oratory, but to gaze at the ruins of that ORATORY. 65 Athens that was built by this demagogue and his prison friend, Phidias. CONCLUSION. No age in the world's history ever offered such allurement to ambition, or such a field of usefulness, as this age offers to the orator; for he can sway not only his hearers but the civilized world. Would he tread the heights of the ideal? Then here is the path of the martyr, thorny and blood-stained, but glorious. Would he di- rect the vintage of his own time? Then here is the vineyard of humanity calling for men. Is he ambitious? Here is the force that shakes the continents and thrills the nations, that rides upon the centuries and sports with the ages. Here, like Pericles' heroes, he can write his epitaph in the hearts of mankind, and have the whole wide world for a sepulchre. THE END. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. DEC 29 1947 18 MAY18I970X REC'D LD LD 21-100m-9,'47(A5702sl6)476 YA 00402 _ ^50519 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY