LECTURE XXI.

Public Speaking-Principal requisites of Extempore Speaking-The Art of Composi tion-Arrangement of Thoughts and Language-Process of Analysis—Attention and Association-Dangers of delivering written Speeches memoriter—Suggestions in reference to the Art of Extempore Speaking-The Exordium, or introduction of a Speech-The principal Subject-matter of a Speech-Varieties of mode of treatment-Purity of language-Perspicuity-The Peroration, or conclusion of a Speech -The time when to close a Speech, and how best to end it.

HAVE now to call your attention to the subject of public speaking, to which public reading serves as an excellent introduction; and all that I have said already in previous Lectures as applicable to the latter, bears with equal propriety on the former. But there is much more to be considered. In public reading we have the thoughts and language already provided for us, whether they be our own, or the composition of another; but in public, or extempore, speaking, the thoughts of our own minds are expected to be given, and we have to clothe those thoughts in our own language. To be furnished with appropriate ideas on the subject about to be discussed, to express those ideas aloud in perspicuous phraseology, and to deliver it with ease, freedom, and self-possession on your part, and with the result of producing the effect desired on your audience, are the grand requisites of all public speaking. To enlarge upon the advantages of acquiring an art so important as this in a country enjoying such freedom of speech as our own, would be quite superfluous. As the Archbishop of York said at the annual meeting of the King's College Evening Classes, when his Grace presided at the distribution of the prizes to the students :

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"In this country, and in this age, almost every great religious, political, and social movement was effected by the agency of public speaking, and the advantages of being well versed in this art, as well as in that of public reading, were becoming every day more apparent."

Now the first requisite on the part of any one aiming to be a public speaker is, that he should have certain definite ideas on a given topic, and have them aptly and logically arranged. No man can speak well, unless he knows well what are his thoughts on the subject; in a word, what it is he wishes to say. To those who are entire novices in this branch of our subject, I would recommend, as a very good mode of

training the mind in the development of thought and the arrangement of ideas, to take, at first, any question of importance in which the student feels a special interest, and think well and calmly over it. Let him then take his pen in his hand, and endeavour to express his particular views in clear and appropriate language, and state at length the various facts and reasons which have induced him to come to the conclusion he has arrived at, and also endeavour to answer or anticipate the different objections which may be raised in opposition to his views. Finally, let him summarise all his conclusions, and urge in their favour all that will commend them, not only to the intellect and judgment, but to the feelings and emotions of those who are interested in the subject. I can assure the student that he will find exercises of this character at first most useful, for they will teach him to think and to compose, and he will soon be surprised to find how one idea will seem spontaneously to suggest another, and how thought will become linked with thought. Writing on a subject is one of the best foundations for speaking upon it, and I advise you to cultivate the practice sedulously at first, for it is the only test by which you can distinguish between real thoughts and mere vague, formless, and aimless fancies. My next suggestion would be for you to make a careful analysis of your written speech, putting down on a separate sheet of paper the leading topics, and where the nature of the speech permits your doing so, group these various topics under particular heads. As you do so, reflect alike on the nature of the connection which in your mind leads you on from one head of your discourse to another, as well as on the mental links which group one topic with another under each of the heads into which you have divided your speech. In a word, cultivate and develop to the utmost that which is the leading principle of all systems of mnemonics, viz., the law that governs the association of ideas in the human mind. The great majority of us forget half of what we see, hear, and read from neglecting to cultivate attention and association.

There are several useful works on the modes by which the association of ideas may be best developed and exercised, but I have met with some lately that contain really very useful suggestions, the works on memory, by Dr. Edward Pick,* who delivered an extremely interesting course of lectures on the subject in this College not long since, and the books recently written by Mr. Stokes of the Polytechnic Institution.+ Now, then, having your page of head-notes before you, give your written speech, if you can, to a friend, and get him to act as your audience, while you deliver your discourse as you would in public. Let him occasionally glance at your written composition, that he may see that no topic or argument of any importance is omitted to be introduced by you in the proper place; and if you are failing to do so, let him just mention, in a few words, the leading thought that you had passed over, and do you then, in your own language, supply the omission. Remember, I deprecate strongly the habit of writing a speech, and then delivering it exactly as written. A very striking passage or impressive peroration

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may perhaps, occasionally, be written and then committed to memory, and be spoken with effect.

Some of our most eminent orators have not scrupled to avow they have, on great and special occasions, resorted to this method, and I believe the late Lord Brougham stated that he wrote and rewrote the famous peroration to his speech in defence of Queen Caroline half-a-dozen times before he was satisfied with it himself. But still these are exceptions to the rule I should be disposed to lay down for your guidance. A written speech delivered in extenso et memoriter, is, I think, a dangerous mistake, for a temporary loss of words from failure of recollection will often so completely cause a man, unused to face public assemblies, to lose all self-possession and confidence, that he will be unable to recover himself, or recall a single passage afterwards. I remember once witnessing a most painful scene of this description at a great religious meeting in Exeter Hall. A young and noble earl had risen to propose an important resolution. He began, and went on for ten minutes or so, with wonderful fluency and ease. I believe he had never spoken in any public assembly before, and at first all around me were evidently struck with admiration. His lordship's words were well chosen, and his long and polished sentences beautifully constructed. Alas! too much so,

for it was almost evident at once, to any one who had given his attention to these matters, that it was a very able and carefully written speech that the orator had learned off by heart, and was delivering simply memoriter. But after the youthful lord had spoken for about ten minutes, there was to one of his statements of alleged facts some demur, and loud cries of "No, no!" burst forth from one corner of the hall. A slight disturbance ensued, which, was, however, speedily quelled. But slight as the disturbance was, it had had its effect. The thread of the noble speaker's discourse had been suddenly and rudely snapped asunder, and he could not recover it. His self-possession was completely gone. He hesitated and stammered for a minute or two in the endeavour to recall the words of his speech; but it was all in vain, and he was obliged to resume his seat in a state of confusion and discomfiture, which must have been most painful to himself and nearly as much so to his audience. No, I say emphatically, do not trust to the tenacity of your memory for retaining the words of a previously well-prepared or carefully-written speech.

My advice, therefore, would be briefly as follows:-Choose some fitting occasion, when a question is to be discussed at a public meeting in which you feel an interest. Turn the subject well over in your mind, and view it under all the various aspects in which it may be regarded, and then choose that which seems best adapted to your mode of treatment. Arrange your ideas after you have well considered the subject, as far as you can, in a clear and logical order, and more especially let your arguments be duly linked together, so that the conclusions to which they lead may seem to follow as a necessary consequence, and so make a strong impression on the audience you are about to address. This mental arrangement of ideas then commit in outline to paper-but do not write down more. Content yourself with a clear and simple outline

of the subjects and the mode in which you propose they shall be treated. Endeavour to fix your thoughts firmly in your mind, and remember how much their proper sequence may be aided by carrying out the principle of the association of ideas as the most powerful of all the aids to memory. When you have thoughts, that is, really something to say, it will not be long, even if your earliest attempts are comparative failures, before you will find the facility of clothing those thoughts in language becomes with every succeeding effort greater and greater. No doubt it is a moment calculated to make any man feel nervous and embarrassed when he is called upon for the first time to address an audience in public. But if you will bear in mind the importance of occupying the first few moments after you have risen on your legs, in placing yourself in the best and easiest position for speaking; then of calmly, deliberately, and thoroughly filling your lungs, and quietly survey your audience before you begin, you will be astonished to find how much these mere physical adjuncts will assist in giving mental composure and self-possession.

I would always advise a novice in the art to begin by speaking slowly and deliberately. As he goes on constructing his sentences, let him divide them as much as possible into their proper clauses, between each clause take just such a quiet, easy, imperceptible inspiration as will sufficiently replenish the lungs, and in the pauses between such clauses endeavour to clothe the next ideas in fitting words, and so train the mind to be ever in advance of the tongue. Some of the very best extempore speakers I have ever listened to always begin their addresses very slowly and deliberately-so much so, indeed, that it might be said to be actual hesitation which characterises their opening remarks. But even this is scarcely of an unpleasing effect if the hesitation is between sentences or clauses, and not between the words which compose them. Such speakers, as they enter more fully into their subject, and warm to their work, become every moment more fluent, fervid, and impassioned; and this, too, you will find by practice will be the experience of yourselves. Calmness and deliberation at first will, in general, ensure increasing fluency of ideas and language as you proceed with your address. It is well remarked in a very rare and curious old book (p. 123), entitled "The Art of Speaking," translated from the French work on the subject by the Messieurs du Port Royal, and published in London in the year 1676, that "there is a rhetoric in the eye, the lips, and the general motion of the whole body that impresses and persuades as much as arguments. . . . We judge of an orator by our eyes as well as our ears. Every passion has its peculiar tone, its peculiar gesture, its peculiar mien, and as these are pleasing, powerful, and expressive, or the reverse, so do they make a good or bad orator."

A regular address or speech is a work of art, and ought to be constructed artistically; but still the motto "ars celare artem" must be borne in mind. Though the construction be artificial, it must yet seem to be spontaneous and natural in its arrangement, from the introductory remarks or exordium to its close or peroration. By most speakers the beginning of a speech is considered to be perhaps its most difficult part, and this got over at all in a satisfactory manner, they feel themselves

more at ease, and tolerably sure to be able to go on to a conclusion. without fear of breaking down. A good introduction to a speech is not unfrequently "half the battle," and realises the truth of the old French proverb, "ce n'est que le premier pas qui coûte." In general I may say the prefatory remarks of a speaker should be designed to awaken the attention of an audience, to conciliate their good-will, and elicit their interest in the subject you are about to discuss. A certain air of defer- ¦ ence to the audience whom you are about to address is by no means an unimportant element, especially with a young speaker, in securing their attention and sympathy. It is, in fact, the delicate but silent species of flattery to which public audiences readily yield themselves, and which, I have often noticed, contributes not a little to the good-will and attention shown to an untried or inexperienced speaker.

You may then proceed to show how much there is in the question to awaken the interest of your hearers, and how much you yourself feel its importance; and if there are any particular personal or local reasons which qualify you to form an opinion and express your views on the subject, they may be very properly mentioned or alluded to in your introductory remarks. The ground thus cleared, you are now prepared to enter upon the subject itself. Of course, every subject demands its own mode of treatment, and much, too, depends on the particular standpoint whence the speaker views it. But generally, I may say, endeavour to have in your own mind a clear and definite conclusion to which you desire also to bring the minds of your audience; and mentally arrange, and at first commit to paper, the head-notes of the chain of arguments or reasons by which you propose arriving at such conclusions. Though your chain of reasoning ought to be strictly logical, yet to a miscellaneous popular audience I should not recommend that the logical formula be made too obtrusive. Your aim in almost all public addresses is to persuade or convince. A mere dry, formal argument alone, however sound or logical, seldom affords entire satisfaction to a popular assembly.

A speech requires variety in its progress, and, as far as the nature of the subject will permit, statement should be intermingled with argument, humour with gravity, pathos with gaiety, anecdote and illustration with wit and eloquence. If any scene is described to your audience, endeavour to form a vivid mental picture of it, and as you see it in your "mind's eye" so narrate it with appropriate action to your audience, especially remembering the service which referential gesture, as it is termed, lends upon all such occasions. Of course the introduction of invective, sarcasm, passionate appeal, rhetorical figures and metaphors, must depend much on the nature of the subject, the character of the audience, and the individual temperament of the speaker. Great caution should be exercised in their employment, for if inappropriate they only serve to make a speaker ridiculous. Eschew, too, all that multiplication of sounding epithets, useless synonyms, strings of adjectives and adverbs and many-syllabled nouns, which "our American cousins" sum up in the phrase, "tall talking." Cultivate as much as possible purity and simplicity of language, which will be found to be really the most