LESSON 1

How to Assume a Proper Attitude
for Speaking

KEY WORDS: ACCUSTOM YOURSELF TO ERECT AND
PROPER ATTITUDES.

Consider two pictures of men who are speaking.

One is an Indian chief come to deliver defiance. He stands erect, his shoulders thrown back, his head held high, his chest expanded, his muscles alert and ready to act.

The other is a slave cringing before his master, to whom he has come begging for forgiveness. His body is bent, his head is low, his shoulders droop, his lungs hold hardly enough air for speech, and his muscles are lax and inert.

You also may speak like a conqueror or like a slave.

If you form a habit of speaking with inert body and unexpanded chest that position will react upon what you say. Your position affects your mental attitude. You will speak weakly, your thoughts will lack point, your whole effect will be that of one who is not a conqueror.

Sit at your usual desk, with both feet upon the floor. Throw your shoulders back, straighten your spinal column, and take three deep breaths. Hold that position, keeping the chest well thrown out, whether you lean for

ward, sit erect, or lean backward. You are now in the best position for talking on a business matter.

Do you remember the long-legged boy at school who used to recite while he stood on one foot, with the other foot and leg extended as though he wished he had left them at home?

Do you remember the politician who put his hands into his pockets and talked about himself? And the visitor who leaned on the reading desk as if he were tired? And the stiff, jointless man who never moved while he talked?

Of course you remember them. They have spoken in every school. Don't imitate any of them.

Be yourself, easy and natural, but be dignified.

Stand erect, resting your weight almost equally on both feet, but with one foot slightly advanced, the arms held loosely, the shoulders well thrown back, the head well held, and the stomach kept in. Let the position be easy and in no sense stiff. You are now in the best position for speaking to an audience.

Always assume the proper attitude. Fill your chest. Hold your head high. cles quick and ready. That position think clearly and to speak forcefully.

Sit or stand erect. Speak with muswill help you to

If you stand, rest your weight almost equally on both feet, with one foot slightly advanced. Don't stand, like a stork, on one leg, and don't lean on or against anything. Assume the position of a soldier at attention.

It is never proper to put either hand in a pocket.

Above all, do not sit or stand stiffly. Be strong, forceEul, masterly, but be natural.

Do not hold one position too long. Move about somewhat as you would do if you were alone.

Stand erect, as directed above, take a manuscript or a ight book in the left hand only. If you hold a book lace the first, second, and third fingers under the book, nd the little finger and the thumb on the open pages owards you. You are now in the proper position for -eading to an audience.

Adapt your position to the circumstances, but always be like the Indian chief, dignified, strong, and manly in your attitude. That alone will make you a convincing peaker.

PROBLEM.

Imagine that you are speaking to an audience. ume the proper attitude.

LESSON 2.

How to Use the Hands in Speech

KEY WORDS: MAKE YOUR HANDS SERVE YOUR THOUGHT WHILE SPEAKING.

The hand, like the voice, is a medium of expression.

You should by no means neglect training your hands for the service of your thought.

You should also forbid your hands to interfere with thought.

Loosen all muscular tension in your hands, and let the hands rest lightly on your thighs, or on your desk, if you are sitting, or swing easily at your side if you are standing. Your hands should be in those positions when you speak, unless you use them to emphasize thought.

Nine-tenths of the men, not well trained for public speaking, who go before audiences, put one or both hands into their pockets. Sometimes they jingle coins or keys Sometimes they take firm hold of a table or desk and hang on for dear life during an entire address, or they hold the arms stiffly behind them. Sometimes they passi the hands nervously over the face, or run their fingers through their hair. All this detracts from the dignity of position, and tends to make the speaker stand in & one-sided way.

Worse than that, the attention of the audience is! turned to the speaker's hands, and away from the speak er's thought.