CHAPTER XIII

PREVIOUS PREPARATION

PHYSICAL

1. Health. Health and bodily vigor are prerequisite conditions to success in public speaking. The distinguished orators of the world have almost invariably been men of strong vitality and commanding appearance. Burke, Brougham, Clay, Webster, Pinkney, Choate, Everett, Lincoln, Sumner, Hall, Spurgeon, Beecher, Gladstone, Brooks, and many others were men of this type. Robust health has a cheering influence and is a sweetener of work. To maintain this condition daily attention must be given to physical exercise, deep breathing, bathing, sleep, diet, and recreation.

Doctor Storrs names among specific conditions to success in preaching: Physical vigor, kept at its highest attainable point. He adds: "The general and harmonious intellectual vigor, whereby one conceives subjects clearly and fully, analyzes them rapidly, sets them forth with exactness in an orderly presentation, and urges them powerfully on those who listen-this requires opulence of health; a sustained and abounding physical vigor.'

Doctor Watson's advice to preachers is equally applicable to other classes of speakers: "The working minister should have his study recharged with oxygen every hour, to sleep with his bedroom window open, to walk four miles

day,

to play an outdoor game once a week, to have six weeks'

1 Richard S. Storrs, D. D., Preaching without Notes, p. 86.

holiday a year and once in seven years three months-all that his thought and teaching may be oxygenated and the fresh air of Christianity fill the souls of his people.

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2. Elocution. A public speaker must have a thorough practical knowledge of the art of elocution. The voice, face, arms, and body should be trained to respond with ease and accuracy. The voice and delivery can be highly developed even where the natural conditions seem unpromising. The great orators of the world have been untiring workers in this art. Demosthenes and Cicero subjected themselves for years to a rigorous course of vocal training. Chatham disciplined himself before a looking-glass. Curran, who stuttered in his speech, through diligent practise became one of the most eloquent forensic advocates the world has ever seen. Henry Clay, from young manhood, read and spoke daily upon the contents of some historical or scientific book. "These off-hand efforts," he says, "were made sometimes in a cornfield, at others in the forest, and not unfrequently in some distant barn, with the horse and ox for my auditors. It is to this early practise in the great art of all arts that I am indebted for the primary and leading impulses that stimulated me forward, and shaped and molded my entire subsequent destiny."

Beecher tells of having been drilled incessantly for three years in posturing, gesture, and voice-culture. He was accustomed to practise in the open air, exploding all the vowels throughout the various pitches; and to this drill he attributes his possession of a flexible instrument that accommodated itself readily to all kinds of thought and feeling."

1 Ian Maclaren, The Cure of Souls, p. 281.

2 Henry Ward Beecher, Yale Lectures on Preaching, p. 135.

3. Appearance. An attractive personal appearance is of undoubted advantage to a speaker, as even the first impression made by him may determine his subsequent success or failure. Prejudices and preferences are formed by an audience quickly and unconsciously. The speaker who wishes to make the best impression, therefore, should make the most of himself. His clothes should be plain and in good style. Flashy jewelry should not be worn. He should remember that immaculate linen and scrupulous care of the nails, teeth and hair, are unmistakable signs of culture and refinement.

MENTAL

1. General Knowledge. An ideal orator is necessarily a man of extensive knowledge. According to the ancients he should be well-grounded in religion, law, philosophy, history, logic, and numerous other subjects. Cicero, in speaking of the incredible magnitude and difficulty of the art as a reason for the scarcity of orators, says: "A knowledge of a vast number of things is necessary, without which volubility of words is empty and ridiculous; speech itself is to be formed, not merely by choice, but by careful construction of words; and all the emotions of the mind, which nature has given to man, must be intimately known; for all the force and art of speaking must be employed in allaying or exciting the feelings of those who listen. To this must be added a certain portion of grace and wit, learning worthy of a well-bred man, and quickness and brevity in replying as well as attacking, accompanied with a refined decorum and urbanity. Besides, the whole of antiquity and a multitude of examples are to be kept in the memory;

nor is the knowledge of laws in general, or of the civil law in particular, to be neglected."

Modern writers on this subject, however, do not demand so much of an orator. Bautain says: "The orator's capital is that sum of science or knowledge which is necessary to him in order to speak pertinently upon any subject whatever; and science or knowledge is not extemporized. Altho knowledge does not give the talent for speaking, still he who knows well what he has to say, has many chances of saying it well, especially if he has a clear and distinct conception of it.'

2. Memory. An orator should have a good memory. If naturally defective, it can be greatly improved by judicious exercise. There are numerous systems for training the memory, but only a few suggestions can be offered here.

Correct methods of study and observation will produce a good memory. The habit of careful selection should be cultivated, as only a limited amount of new material can be assimilated at one time. To read large amounts of matter one does not care to remember is harmful to the memory. The aim should always be to secure distinct images and ideas. There should be a deep interest in what is read. Committing to memory lines of prose and poetry will do much to strengthen a weak memory.

3. Rhetoric. An orator must have a thorough and practical knowledge of rhetoric. Cicero says that writing is the best and most excellent modeler and teacher of oratory. "For," says he, "if what is meditated and considered easily surpasses sudden and extemporary speech, a constant

1 Cicero, On Oratory and Orators.