Chapter XXI: Afterword

We have now reached the end of our journey; but before parting, let us discuss generally the course over which we have traveled in order that some necessary incidents that may not have impressed themselves strongly on our memories may be reënforced, lest they otherwise be lost.

The public speaker should leave nothing to chance. It is customary to speak of the spontaneous bursting forth of eloquence, but eloquence is not spontaneous--it is the culmination of stored-up knowledge which has reached the point when it is fully matured and ready to use, and its apparent bursting forth is nothing but the arrival of the opportunity for its making its presence known. It is the coming together of the fully prepared man and the occasion that produces the orator. It is an axiom that nothing comes of nothing, and unless the would-be orator is willing to give his best in the way of fitting himself by study, labor, reflection, and industry, in their highest and broadest sense, to be a medium through which eloquence may be conveyed, he will look in vain for its appearance--the seed must be planted before the fruit can be gathered.

In the first place, the vocal mechanism must be thoroughly trained to stand the strain that is to be placed upon it, and to execute properly the manifold duties it will be called upon to perform. This necessitates careful and systematic practice in breathing, voice production, tone coloring, inflection, emphasis, and the many other sections of the vocal work which, when combined, comprise the vehicle which is to convey the thought.

In the second place, the mind must be fed and cultivated so as to enable it to produce thought. It must be strengthened by exercise, fed by reading of good matter, and made active by use. Time must be devoted to meditation, to thinking over the expressions of the ideas of the master minds that have gone before--weighing, refuting, and combining them, as well as receiving them and being influenced thereby--and to keeping the light of our own mind burning by thinking matters out in our own way and giving our thoughts the impress of our individuality. Only by these means can we hope to be at the same time wise and original. Originality that is foolish is worse than useless, and wisdom that is borrowed shines only with a reflected light; but that which is both original and wise will live through many ages and act as a beacon to light others to the attainment of originality and wisdom.

In the third place, an effective delivery is absolutely essential. There can no more be such a thing as an orator without a delivery than there can be a newspaper without paper or some other substance on which to print the news. A publisher might as well print a newspaper and then indifferently circulate it as for a man to fill his mind with great thoughts and ineffectively deliver them. Delivery is the soul of oratory; without it, there can be nothing but the form of speech; with it, there is the spirit that gives life to the words. The matter is the product, the delivery is the mode of conveyance; and each is necessary to the other if either is to be of value to the speaker.

The only really effective form of delivery is the extempore; and, after once it has been acquired, it is the easiest of the many forms. In the opinion of the author, matter that is written out and then read, or matter that is written out, memorized, and then spoken, is in neither case a speech. Speaking is conveying thought by word of mouth, and not by word of pen. The matter that is to form the speech should be diligently gathered, fully digested, and carefully arranged, but the words that are to clothe the thought should be spontaneous. Unless the words are willing servants, well trained, springing instantly to the performance of their duty, coming, not through a conscious effort to recall what has been memorized, but in response to the sub-conscious action of the mind, the words will fail to possess that mentality that alone can give them the expression that is really their soul. Only when the mind is released from all care concerning words can it be placed adequately upon the thought, and only by fully placing it upon the thought can the mentality enter the voice, thereby making the words convey by tone and general expression what they really stand for, and carry to the mind of the listener the thought which is in the mind of the speaker. In this manner is a connection brought about between listener and speaker, and by these means is generated that force which is commonly called magnetism but which is, in reality, the active mind of the speaker getting into communication with the mind of the listener through the mediumship of the vitalized spoken word. The language is but the wire which carries the message, or the atmosphere on which the message is sent; the thought is the electricity which produces the message. The language is material, the mentality is spiritual; the one being the body of expression, the other being the soul.

Finally, why are there so few orators in the world today? Merely because there are so few persons who are willing to spend the time and employ the labor necessary to acquire the qualifications for the making of orators. No great achievement in any walk of life is accomplished without labor, no movement in behalf of man has ever progressed without labor, and nothing is worth having unless it is secured by labor. Run your eye over the pages of history and try to find instances where chance has knocked with its golden wand on the door of man's existence; and for every one so found, at least a dozen will be discovered where man has cut through the rock of difficulties with the iron tools of industry and forged those tools in the fires of determination. Not all men who achieved greatness were born poor in this world's goods. Many of them, men like Marcus Aurelius, Washington, Lafayette, and Roosevelt, won renown in spite of their wealth; while, on the other hand, men like Moses, Franklin, and Lincoln gained their great eminence in the face of poverty. It matters not whether man be rich or whether man be poor, so far as his success in living a useful life is concerned, but it does signify much whether he is an idler or a laborer. Make yourself worthy of success, and success--in its true and only valuable sense--will be yours. Remember, that labor--proud, independent labor--is noble, and that it leads, not only to the making of orators, but to the formation of characters--the building of souls.

A SYSTEMATIZED STUDY OF "HOW TO MASTER THE SPOKEN WORD" _A Guide to Teachers and Students_

Students are advised to read the work as a book, commencing with the first page and continuing straight on to the end. They should skip nothing, not even the long speeches, as they are introduced for specific purposes; but they should also guard against tarrying on the way to study and particular passages that may strike their fancy. They are advised to first read the book carefully in order that they may the better understand its scope and purpose, and gain some idea regarding the general plan that underlies its construction.

It will be noted that the first chapter does not contain instructions as to how the student of oratory is to breathe, or how he is to use the many other functions of body, voice, and mind that are necessary to the correct production of the spoken word; but it shows how famous speakers produced their effects, and it reveals to the student the means he must adopt if he is to produce like results, leaving to later chapters the task of revealing how the means are to be applied. This manner of arranging the matter was adapted in order to insure the student's interest being aroused in the subject at the start, thereby preventing an extinguishing of his enthusiasm by initiating him into the dry mysteries of the technical parts of speech before he had gained a fair idea regarding the means to employ in qualifying himself to become a public speaker. When, however, it is intended to use the work as a textbook, it should not be studied as it is read, but the lesson should be taken up in a natural sequence, beginning with breath and continuing through to the production of the finished speech or oration. Here is given an outline of study, or syllabus, showing the order in which the different subjects treated in the book can be taken up to best advantage.

SYLLABUS

LESSON I Breath 120-126, 133-135

LESSON II Voice 126-133, 135-138

LESSON III Inflection 27-37

LESSON IV Emphasis 37-46

LESSON V Combined Use of Emphasis and Inflection, and Parenthesis and Pause 46-54

LESSON VI Series and Modulation 54-63

LESSON VII Paraphrasing 103-119

LESSON VIII Composition 84-102

LESSON IX Construction 61-83

LESSON X The Making of Oratory 1-25

LESSON XI Delivery 145-157

LESSON XII Memory 138-145

LESSON XIII Lesson Talks 389-406

LESSON XIV Grecian Orators 158-256

LESSON XV Latin Orators 257-297

LESSON XVI Modern Orators 298-388

LIST OF ORATIONS

Against Crowning Demosthenes _Aeschines_ Against Eratosthenes _Lysias_ Against the Tory Government _William E. Gladstone_ At His Brother's Grave _Robert G. Ingersoll_ Cuba Must Be Free _John M. Thurston_ Digging for the Thought _John Ruskin_ Education _Horace Mann_ Encomium on Evagoras _Isocrates_ Eulogy of General Grant _Dean Farrar_ Eulogy of President Garfield _James G. Blaine_ Eulogy of Webster _Rufus Choate_ Evidence and Precedents in Law _Thomas Erskine_ Historical Reading _Arthur James Balfour_ Inaugural Address _Theodore Roosevelt_ In Favor of the Peloponnesian War _Pericles_ Judicial Injustices _Charles Sumner_ Liberty or Death _Patrick Henry_ Menexenus and Others Against Dicaeogenes and Leochares _Isaeus_ On Leaving Springfield _Abraham Lincoln_ On the Foote Resolution _Robert Young Hayne_ On the Murder of Lovejoy _Wendell Phillips_ On Resigning from the Senate _Robert Toombs_ On the Murder of Herodes _Antiphon_ On the Punishment of the Catiline Conspirators _Cato the Younger_ On the Treatment of the Catiline Conspirators _Caesar_ On Withdrawing from the Union _Jefferson Davis_ Oration Against Leocrates _Lycurgus_ Oration on the Crown _Demosthenes_ Our Country _Edwin G. Lawrence_ Peace Between Labor and Capital _John Haynes Holmes_ Robert Burns _George William Curtis_ Speech Against Athenogenes _Hyperides_ Speech in Support of the Oppian Law _Cato the Censor_ Speech on the Mysteries _Andocides_ Speech to His Troops _Catiline_ Speech to the Conspirators _Catiline_ Sumner and the South _L. Q. C. Lamar_ The Birth of an Orator _John Haynes Holmes_ The Blind Preacher _William Wirt_ "The Cross of Gold" Speech _William J. Bryan_ The First Olynthiac _Demosthenes_ The First Oration Against Veres _Cicero_ The "House Divided Against Itself" Speech _Abraham Lincoln_ The Perfect Orator _Richard B. Sheridan_ The Permanency of Empire _Wendell Phillips_ "The Seventh of March" Speech _Daniel Webster_ The Strength of the American Government _John Bright_

Transcriber's Notes.

- The break between pages 1 and 2 is in the word "employs":
em|ploys. In this and all other cases, the whole word was
moved to the earlier page.

- The break between pages 11 and 12 is in the word "contrary":
con|trary.

- On page 24, set the citation of a legal matter, _People vs.
Durant,_ in Italic.

- On page 33, two single line examples were set in body text.
The Transcriber has made them block quotes to match the other
examples on that page.

- On page 36, change "dryest" to "driest."

- The break between pages 51 and 52 is in the word "language":
lan|guage.

- On page 55, the Transcriber capitalized the word
"Christianity" in a Daniel Webster quotation. The word was
capitalized correctly in the same text that is part of a
longer quotation on page 61.

- On page 58, the original text has a sentence that ends as
follows: ". . . we must, in order to retain the concluding
series, give 'ask' the rising inflection, 'knock' the
falling, 'seek' the falling, 'find' the rising, 'knock' the
falling, and 'opened' the falling." The Transcriber corrected
the first "knock" to "given" because the text under
discussion is "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye
shall find; knock, and the door shall be opened unto you."

- On page 59, change "huzza" to "huzzah."

- The break between pages 69 and 70 is in the word "attachment":
attach|ment.

- On page 75, change "deprived of his honor" to "honour"
to correspond with "favour" in the same paragraph.

- The break between pages 78 and 79 is in the word "besieged":
be|sieged.

- The break between pages 103 and 104 is in the word
"considered": con|sidered.

- On page 108, change "Wittenagemote" to "Witenagemot."

- On page 114, change "huzzas" to "huzzahs."

- The break between pages 115 and 116 is in the word
"temporary": tem|porary.

- The break between pages 124 and 125 is in the word
"following": fol|lowing.

- On page 127, change "Immediately voice is produced . . ."
to "Immediately as voice is produced . . . ."

- The break between pages 130 and 131 is in the word
"magnificent": mag|nificent.

- The break between pages 148 and 149 is in the word
"audiences": audi|ences.

- The break between pages 151 and 152 is in the word
"carefully": care|fully.

- On page 164, change the question mark after "I am sadly
deficient" to a period.

- On page 165, change "indicated me for homicide" to
"indicted."

- On page 193, change the question mark after "witness of
his crimes" to a period.

- On page 204, the word "betrothals" was misspelled
"bethrothals" in the sentence "Thus the law makes just
betrothals valid, and unjust ones it declares invalid."

- The break between pages 211 and 212 is in the word
"Menexenus": Menexe|nus.

- The break between pages 214 and 215 is in the word
"Leochares": Leo|chares.

- The break between pages 220 and 221 is in the word
"dishonor": dis|honor.

- The break between pages 223 and 224 is in the word
"hallowed": hal|lowed.

- On page 237, change "Midias' anger" to "Meidias' anger."

- The break between pages 241 and 242 is in the word
"descendants": descend|ants.

- The break between pages 247 and 248 is in the word
"overbearing": over|bearing.

- On page 260, change "tribunitian" to "tribunician."

- On page 265, change "Uticeusis" to "Uticensis."

- In the oration of Cato the Younger, the term "Conscript
Fathers" referring to the members of the Roman Senate,
is not capitalized in the original on pages 265 or 266.
These have been made consistent with the initial-capped
references on page 269 and following.

- On page 268, change "hesitate how to act" to "hesitate
now to act."

- On page 269, change "Cathegus" to "Cethegus."

- The break between pages 273 and 274 is in the word
"putting": put|ting.

- On page 274, in the Caesar oration, this sentence appears
in the original: "But in a large state there arise may men
of various dispositions." The word "may" has been corrected
to "many."

- The break between pages 274 and 275 is in the word
"borrowed": bor|rowed.

- The break between pages 281 and 282 is in the word
"manner": man|ner.

- On page 285, change "proquestor" to "proquaestor."

- On page 292, change "edileship" to "aedileship."

- On page 302, change the word "equalled" to "equaled."

- On page 310, set "On the Clay Compromise" in title case small
caps rather than lower case small caps.

- The break between pages 312 and 313 is in the word
"perfectly": per|fectly.

- On page 314, change "McDowel" to "McDowell" and change the
question mark after "remarks to the press" to a period.

- The break between pages 323 and 324 is in the unit
"slave-trade": slave-|trade.

- On page 325, the period at the end of the final sentence
of Lincoln's "House Divided" speech was missing from the
original.

- The break between pages 330 and 331 is in the word
"principles": prin|ciples.

- The break between pages 335 and 336 is in the word
"Colonies": Col|onies.

- The break between pages 338 and 339 is in the word
"Constitution": Con|stitution.

- The break between pages 341 and 342 is in the word
"confederates": con|federates.

- The break between pages 345 and 346 is in the word
"courageously": coura|geously.

- On page 346, change "memories indulged of the past or the
dead" to "memories indulged of the past or of the dead"
(_insert second "of"_).

- On page 355, the original text of the Robert Burns eulogy
uses the word "woos," spelled "wooes," and "rhythmic,"
spelled "rythmic." The Transcriber modernized the spelling
of both words.

- The break between pages 360 and 361 is in the word
"unreplying": unre|plying.

- On page 367, change "crystalize" to "crystallize."

- On page 381, there is a printing defect in the copy of the
original available to the Transcriber. One sentence reads:
"All his internal powers are at wo__; all his external,
testify their energies." The Transcriber has inferred that
the incomplete word is "work." Confirmation from another
copy of the original would be most appreciated.

- On page 387, a reference to the Decalogue, referring to
The Ten Commandments of the Bible, was not capitalized
in the original. The Transcriber capitalized it.

- The break between pages 391 and 392 is in the word
"opening": open|ing.

- On page 392, in the "opening sentence" paragraph, second
sentence, insert double quotes around first instance of
the word "right."

- The break between pages 392 and 393 is in the word
"positive": posi|tive.

- On page 394, change "Magna Charta" to "Magna Carta."

- On page 395, insert a warning of a sensitive word in the
sixth paragraph of the subsequent oration.

- The break between pages 395 and 396 is in the word
"President": Presi|dent.

- On page 396, change "Magna Charta" to "Magna Carta" and
"Bastile" to "Bastille."

- The break between pages 404 and 405 is in the word
"instances": in|stances.

- In the index, on page 415, change "Dacaeogenes" to
"Dicaeogenes."

- In the index, on page 416, change "Roberts Burns" to
"Robert Burns."