of Greece, Mother of Eloquence." "Oh, Rome— Rome Thou hast been a tender nurse to me." "The voice of the mountain rolled down into the valleyand the foothills laughed in glee." Vision is especially effective. It represents past events or imaginary objects and scenes as if actually present to the senses. It calls for a high degree of imagery. It has been used chiefly in the Conclusion -or Peroration of a speech. But it may be used in any part of an address. Ingersoll used it throughout his "Dream of War." Note how the opening lines resurrect the dead past and bring it before his hearers in the living present. "The past rises before me like a dream. Again we are in the great struggle for national life. We hear the sounds of preparation, the music of boisterous drums, the silver notes of heroic bugles. We see thousands of assemblages. We hear the appeals of orators. We see the pale cheeks of women and the flushed faces of men. And in those assemblages we see all the dead-whose dust we have covered with flowers." Climax is the most effective figure which the speaker can use. It breaks up monotony, and is the best test of a speaker's power. Keep in mind that it denotes a progression in thought and feeling. It is not limited to the final climax or peroration of a speech; in fact a good speech contains many climaxes before the major climax is reached at the end. Even a simple talk on a commonplace subject should contain "thought progressions" and utilize this rhetorical figure in expressing them. Consider this sentence: "My idea is good, his idea is better, but your idea is best." Read it first with no thought of progression, in a monotonous level tone; then take the mental steps on the ladder of climax, call on your voice to respond, and note the vast difference between the two readings. So do not hesitate to use this figure in ordinary talks. The principle of progression applies just as surely in a practical business talk, as in the soaring climax of the orator who speaks on a great theme and lifts his audience with him on the wings of eloquence to Olympian heights. The student should learn to think the climax ladder step by step, before he attempts to soar. Winans calls attention to the fact that climax is even more important in speaking than in writing; that it "answers an instinctive demand of the hearer, and is the natural expression of one who warms to his work." Anticlimax should always be avoided (except when used for the sake of burlesque) and to proceed without increase of force in a speech gives much the same effect as Anticlimax. The student of expressive English should begin to use the more simple figures in all his speeches. Of course he should not seek to be rhetorical, merely for the sake of the rhetoric, any more than he should strive to be oratorical, merely for the sake of the oratory. There is a skillful and harmonious way to arrange words and there is a bungling and discordant way. Every speaker owes it to his audience to use words as effectively as possible, and to clothe his thought well. ASSIGNMENTS 1. Prepare a talk on "My Hobby" and use Simile, Metaphor, Antithesis, Interrogation, Vision, and Climax. 2. Mark the Figures of Speech in the following selection and classify the Loose, Periodic, and Balanced Sentences. ORATION AT HIS BROTHER'S GRAVE Dear Friends: I am going to do that which the dead oft promised he would do for me. The loved and loving brother, husband, father, friend, died where manhood's morning almost touches noon and while the shadows still were falling toward the West. He had not passed on life's highway the stone that marks the highest point; but being weary for a moment, he lay down by the wayside, and using his burden for a pillow, fell into that dreamless sleep that kisses down the eyelids still. While yet in love with life and raptured with the world, he passed to silence and pathetic dust. Yet, after all, it may be best, just in the happiest, sunniest hour of all the voyage, while eager winds are kissing every sail, to dash against the unseen rock, and in an instant hear the billows roar above a sunken ship. For whether in mid-sea or 'mong the breakers of the farther shore, a wreck at last must mark the end of each and all. And every life, no matter if its every hour is rich with love, and every moment jeweled with joy, will, at its close, become a tragedy as sad, and deep, and dark, as can be woven of the warp and woof of mystery and death. This grave and tender man in every storm of life was oak and rock; but in the sunshine he was vine and flower. He was friend of all heroic souls. He climbed the heights and left all superstition far below, while on his forehead fell the golden dawning of a grander day. He loved the beautiful, and was with color, form, and music touched to tears. He sided with the weak, the poor, the wronged, and lovingly gave alms. With loyal heart and with the purest hands he faithfully discharged all public trusts. He was a worshipper of liberty, a friend of the oppressed. A thousand times I have heard him quote these words: "For Justice all place a temple, all season summer." He believed that happiness was the only good, reason the only torch, justice the only worship, humanity the only religion, and love the only peace. He added to the sum of human joy; and were everyone to whom he did some loving service to bring a blossom to his grave, he would sleep to-night beneath a wilderness of flowers. Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word, but in the night of death, hope sees a star and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing. He who sleeps here, when dying, mistaking the approach of death for the return of health, whispered with his latest breath, "I am better now." Let us believe, in spite of doubt and dogmas, of fears and tears, that these dear words are true of all the countless dead. The record of a generous life runs like a vine around the memory of our dead, and every sweet, unselfish act is now a perfumed flower. And now, to you, who have been chosen from among the many men he loved, to do the last sad office for the dead, we give his sacred dust. Speech cannot contain our love. There was, there is, no gentler, stronger, manlier man. -INGERSOLL. |