know why it is that my shadow falls on you instead of his own. "The Defense of William Freeman." W. H. SEWARD. THE CONCLUSION, OR PERORATION This is the summing up, or culmination, of all that has gone before, and should be marked by great earnestness. It is the most vital part of a speech, the supreme moment when the speaker is to drive his message home and make his most lasting impression. This calls for the very best that is in a man. The style of conclusion may vary according to circumstances, but generally it should be short, simple and earnest. The customary method is to recapitulate or summarize what has been said, in order to impress it vividly upon the mind of the audience. While an abrupt ending may ruin an otherwise successful effort, the temptation to make the closing appeal too long should be carefully avoided. Whether the speech be memorized throughout or not, the speaker should know specifically the thought, if not the phraseology, with which he intends to end his address. The following conclusions of well-known speeches should be studied and practised aloud: 1. Advance, then, ye future generations! We would hail you, as you rise in your long succession, to fill the places which we now fill, and to taste the blessings of existence where we are passing, and soon shall have passed, our own human duration. We bid you welcome to this pleasant land of the fathers. We bid you welcome to the healthful skies and the verdant fields of New England. We greet your accession to the great inheritance which we have enjoyed. We welcome you to the blessings of good government and religious liberty. We welcome you to the treasures of science and the delights of learning. We welcome you to the transcendent sweets of domestic life, to the happiness of kindred, and parents, and children. We welcome you to the immeasurable blessings of national existence, the immortal hope of Christianity, and the light of everlasting truth! "Plymouth Oration." WEBSTER. can, to your con Meet, if you dare, 2. Go home, if you dare,-go home, if you stituents and tell them that you voted it down! the appalling countenances of those who sent you here, and tell them that you shrank from the declaration of your own sentiments; that, you can not tell how, but that some unknown dread, some indescribable apprehension, some indefinable danger, affrighted you; that the specters of cimeters, and crowns and crescents, gleamed before you, and alarmed you; and that you suppressed all the noble feelings prompted by religion, by liberty, by national independence, and by humanity! I cannot bring myself to believe that such will be the feeling of a majority of this House. "Duty of America to Greece." HENRY CLAY. 3. I might, as a constituent, come to your bar and demand my liberty. I do call upon you by the laws of the land, and their violation; by the instruction of eighteen centuries; by the arms, inspiration, and providence of the present movement-tell us the rule by which we shall go; assert the law of Ireland; declare the liberty of the land! I will not be answered by a public lie, in the shape of an amendment; nor, speaking for the subject's freedom, am I to hear of faction. I wish for nothing but to breathe in this our island, in common with my fellow subjects, the air of liberty. I have no ambition, unless it be to break your chains and contemplate your glory. I never shall be satisfied so long as the meanest cottager in Ireland has a link of the British chain clanking to his rags. He may be naked; he shall not be in irons. And I do see the time at hand; the spirit has gone forth; the declaration of right is planted, and tho great men should fall off, the cause will live; and tho he who utters this should die, yet the immortal fire shall outlast the organ that conveys it, and, the breath of liberty, like the word of the holy man, will not die with the prophet, but survive him. "Declaration of Irish Right." GRATTAN. 4. I may now, therefore, relieve you from the pain of hearing me any longer, and be myself relieved from speaking on a subject which agitates and distresses me. Since Lord George Gordon stands clear of every hostile act or purpose against the Legislature of his country, or the properties of his fellow subjects-since the whole tenor of his conduct repels the belief of the traitorous intention charged by the indictment-my task is finished. I shall make no address to your passions. I will not remind you of the long and rigorous imprisonment he has suffered; I will not speak to you of his great youth, of his illustrious birth, and of his uniformly animated and generous zeal in Parliament for the Constitution of his country. Such topics might be useful in the balance of a doubtful case; yet, even then, I should have trusted to the honest hearts of Englishmen to have felt them without excitation. At present, the plain and rigid rules of justice and truth are sufficient to entitle me to your verdict. "Defense of Gordon." LORD ERSKINE. 5. No, my friends, that will never be the verdict of our people. Therefore, we care not upon what lines the battle is fought. If they say bimetallism is good, but that we can not have it until other nations help us, we reply that, instead of having a gold standard because England has, we will restore bimetallism, and then let England have bimetallism because the United States has it. If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. ""Cross of Gold' Speech." WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN. CHAPTER XVI DELIVERY OF THE SPEECH THE AUDIENCE It is desirable that a speaker should have some knowledge of the people he is to address. It will be to his advantage to know something of their range of thought and their likes and dislikes. He should also know something of the occasion, such as: Who will be there? What is expected of him? How long should he speak? Will there be any other speakers? What will be the spirit of the audience? What will be his subject? These and similar questions will enable him to get his bearings and to adapt himself to a particular audience. It is assumed that the speaker has trained himself in voice and gesture, and being master of these means of expression, he now steps before his audience. THE BEGINNING The first impression made by a speaker will often determine the success or failure of his undertaking. He should assume a natural and easy standing position and begin in a quiet conversational voice. His face should be cheerful and somewhat animated, and his bearing should be modest. By modesty is not meant timidity or an attitude of subservience, for lack of self-confidence is destructive of successful effort. It means rather a sinking of self, or a merging of self into the subject in hand. Modesty is not incompatible with leadership, and a public speaker must be a leader. He should look his audience squarely in the eyes, as this is one of the most effective means of riveting their attention. This eye to eye communication will enable him to estimate the effect of his words, and to know when necessary to emphasize, amplify, or otherwise adapt his thought to particular hearers. PROGRESS There must be evidence of substantial progress being made as a speaker advances in his subject, otherwise the audience will soon become weary and disinterested. A speech should have an onward rising tendency, marked by gradually increasing volume of voice, earnestness of feeling, intensity of facial expression and greater breadth and variety of gesture. Once having secured control of his audience the speaker must keep them so to speak "in his grasp," for should he loosen his hold upon them, even for a few moments, it is doubtful if he could again gain control of them. There should be special strong points in the address, upon which the speaker has particularly prepared himself, all leading up, however, to the great climax which will close his speech. THE CLIMAX In every speech there is a summit to be reached, and it is the duty of the speaker to lead his audience to it step by step. If the subject matter has been arranged in climactic order, as it should be, little difficulty should be experienced in working up the vocal climax. Here the highest powers of the speaker are brought into play,—voice, gesture, facial expression and body movements,-all are summoned to aid him in this final appeal. The man's soul seems |