Public speaking and debate

Index

PAGE

PROEM It

PUBLIC SPEAKING 23

EDITORIAL NOTES 167

SACRED ELOQUENCE : BRITISH PULPIT 183

Part I.— Derivative Powers. Chapter Pagb

I. Rhetoric 23

IT. Delivery 27

III. Persuasion '. 35

IV. Method 44

V. Discipline 59

VI. Tact 65

PART H.— ACQUIRED POWERS.

VII. Originality 73

VIII. Heroism * 77

IX. Proportion 80

X. Style 83

XI. Similes 90

XII. Pleasantry 95

XIII. Energy 97

XIV. Eloquence 100

XV. Premeditation 105

XVI. Reality 109

XVII. Effectiveness 113

XVIII. Mastery 121

Part Iii.— Applied Powers

XIX. Criticism 127

XX. Debate 130

XXI. Personalities 139

XXII. Questioning 153

XXIII. Repetition 155

XXIV. Poetry 157

Introduction

It is a question of the first importance to all public speakers, especially ministers of the Gospel, how their utterances can be rendered the most effectual. Whatever promises aid in this direction will be seized with earnestness and appropriated with care.

It has become obvious to careful observers that the modern pulpit is more distinguished for strong ability, sound learning, and deep piety than for its eloquence. Since it is true of the thousands now annually entering the ministry, so few are remarkable for their power and success as speakers who are distinguished scholars and writers, their study and training for speaking are either greatly neglected or fearfully misdirected. The numerous text-books on rhetoric, in every liberal course* of study, with the corresponding professorships and hebdomadal declamations, do not indicate a neglect of this branch of education. "We therefore conclude, that by some means its cultivation lias become sadly defective.

Public speaking, and even rhetoric, as taught and practiced of late among students and young speakers, have fallen into great abuses. They are exceedingly superficial. The very name of rhetoric strikes one now as implying little or nothing more than a painting, or outside adorning of discourse, adding a little flippancy to please the unthoughtful. It is supposed to imply something showy and trifling, rather than substantial and excellent. In a thorough course of study, and with good scholars, it does not seem to be generally regarded as an element of power, like that of logic and philosophy, but a kind of educational plaything. Hence no moral quality is attached to its study or practice, nor is it coveted as among " the best gifts " so much for what it has power to accomplish, as for what it appears to be.

Because rhetoric deals so much in forms, it does not follow that it is destitute of principles, and that its foundations do not lie deeper than the drapery of spoken or written discourse. If novices and sophomores treat the powers of oratory as a toy, upright and conscientious speakers should regard it as involving a moral responsibility, such as always accompanies all great powers.

Sacred eloquence especially should be studied and practiced from another standpoint, high, pure, and commanding, like itself, or it will never occupy its true relative position in a course of education. If eloquence in its true character and purposes does not originate in moral emotions, if it does not deal with the moral element of humanity, if it does not propose moral achievements, we cannot affirm what other branch of science or education does. By what authority then has it been brought down, shorn of its inherent merit, and degraded in scholastic estimation ? If it has sometimes been used improperly, to influence men against their judgments and interests, that does not show its nature and designs are such, any more than the perversion of any other science shows it useless or vicious. But, on the other hand, we claim that there is not in all the wide range of education any other department that leads us so directly into, and takes such a firm hold upon, the highest elements of our nature, and influences so powerfully the great interests of humanity, as this. Benevolence and religion covet power to do good; and with men possessed of these qualities, all power will be used exclusively for that purpose, and with this view will.be earnestly sought.

We are confirmed in the opinion that the essential qualities of good speaking are not correctly taught generally in modern training for that purpose, from the fact that of those who have studied the most carefully, written the most extensively, and

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taught the longest, there are found scarcely more really eloquent speakers, in proportion to their number, than of the uneducated. This, however, by no means indicates that this branch of education is not to be elaborately studied, provided it is under the right masters, and in a successful manner. Cudworth says: "Knowledge is not to be poured into the soul like liquor, but rather to be invited and gently drawn forth from it ; nor the mind so much to be filled therewith from without like a vessel, as to be kindled and awakened. 1 ' 1 The application of this fine thought to our modern teaching of oratory would be of decided advantage.

Let us inquire if there are not in operation several causes, forestalling or undermining to a great extent everything that is now done to improve our public speaking. One formidable obstacle in the way of general success in improving pulpit oratory is the force of precedent, and the fear of breaking away from established style. In the ministry of every Christian Church there is a way, or manner, which, if it does not amount to a tone, does to a style, and this must more or less fashion every man's mode of speaking in the ministry. If the individual speaker does not wish it should be so, his associations, with the power of habit, will make it so, unconsciously it may be to himself. Provided he does not feel that his denominational reputation depends on his following the beaten track of style and mannerisms, he will not be above the fear of being thought odd or singular in breaking away from usage. The result is, no matter what a man's natural utterance, he will be to some extent squared to these lines, which so far makes him unnatural. "Who ever was or ever can be eloquent who is not natural? The least constraint is perceptible to an audience and crippling to a speaker. The bar and the stage are comparatively free from this incubus which weighs upon the pulpit. Speakers must be natural or they are repulsive. The naturalness comprehends alike tone, or modulation of voice, position of the body, and gesticulation. A practical observer will detect the least affectation in any one of these particulars. Here lies the danger in all anxious and critical study of eloquence — its continual tendency to interfere with nature, except when taught by masters of the subject. When this occurs, it is mainly to be attributed to the direction of the speaker's attention to wrong points. The young orator resolves to excel, so he speaks and acts as much like an eloquent man as possible, drops everything natural, puts on airs, assumes the gestures and tones of voice which he has observed as pleasing in others, and calls it a success ! A burlesque of eloquence. His efforts should be first to ascertain his own faults as a speaker. Is he too fast, too slow, too calm, too excited, too loud, too low, too argumentative, too superficial ? Having learned by some means what his faults are, he should remove them, no matter what the cost, or despair of success. This was the great effort of Demosthenes, and other great masters of the art, who succeeded oy study. A short breath, a stammering tongue, or indistinct articulation were impediments to his eloquent nature, such as could be overcome only by the greatest painstaking. This is the point to which all public speakers can direct their attention safely and continually. But, alas ! almost any and everything else will be studied before this, which accounts largely for the surprising non-improvement in modern oratory.

When from any cause ministers of the Gospel cease to feel a deep and thrilling interest in their own utterances, they are no longer eloquent. Then the most profound logic and finished rhetoric, though applied to the vital truths of Christianity, will fall dead upon an audience, for in hearing hearts answer only to hearts in spealcing. Without a vital interest of the speaker in what he says, his melodious voice will be like a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, and the people will sleep on. If a minister of Christ does not "grow in grace," and make continual progress in personal and experimental religion; if he studies but superficially the great truths of Christianity; if his discourses are, with himself, old and stale; if his illustrations are trite and worn ; if his attention is drawn off from the salvation of souls, while he preaches or studies to the securing of popular favor, or to his own livelihood ; if the great truths of God, eternity, and the soul are not deeply impressed on his mind, his own soul will grow less and less susceptible, and his speaking more and more ineffectual. When he becomes conscious of this lack of feeling, his first expedient will be to raise his voice, throw about his hands, stamp with his foot, or smite with his fist; and thus, by a superabundance of sound and bluster, strive to atone for lack of thought or real feeling. Should this fail, he will probably start a torrent of exclamations, "O, my hearers!" " O, my brethren!" etc., repeated so frequently and with so little emotion that they become insipid. Such unmeaning phrases, and any sort of clap-trap, used to fill the blanks of thought and real emotion in a discourse, are ridiculous. They discover the nakedness of the land, and show the speaker anxious to be pathetic without the power to be so. The Greeks and Eomans made but little use of these empty sounds, or of the exclamation; neither have such strong and modern writers as Barrow, Sherlock, and Atterbury. Swift says he knew a man who, when he spied an exclamation point at the end of a sentence skipped the whole sentence. Those speakers might do the same who have to manufacture their feeling to order as they go along with 'their discourses. Exclamations, personifications, and apostrophes are dangerous in the hands of unskillful workmen, especially such speakers as attempt to warm their lips with words from frozen hearts.

The forbearance and kindness of a pious people, and their reluctance to find fault with their ministers, we fear have contributed to a growing self-complacency among the clergy, and moreover to a false view of their real abilities. This doubtless has had considerable influence in producing the deficiency of the modern pulpit. We do not think it uncharitable to say, that with a large class of clergymen there is a sad deficiency in hard consecutive study; in profound. original thought; in a clear and impressive apprehension of divine truth ; in a bold, comprehensive, and earnest diction ; in a fearless and manly energy, such as a Christian honesty inspires. But instead of this kind of pulpit attraction we have commonplace thoughts, tame and insipid illustrations, a hesitating and patronizing air of delivery, and apparent indifference to probable or possible results. Such public speaking as this is tolerated nowhere else but in the pulpit, and only tolerated there. Under its deadening influence the lawyer would lose his business, the political orator his audience, and the tragedian would be hissed from the stage. These feeble and forceless incumbents seem quite at ease if they have gained the doubtful compliment: "They are good men, though not great preachers." They should know that this is said often, more because nothing else can be said of them, or because this cannot be well disproved, than because they have any special goodness of character.

The speaking of the pulpit, unlike that of the bar and rostrum, does not furnish the speaker with the immediate and ocular proofs of his success or failure. Hence his constant and imminent danger of deceiving himself, alike as to his success and real abilities. This has a tendency to satisfy him with ordinary efforts, and this cannot fail to make him an ordinary man. In ministerial qualifications goodness should surely be held as a sine qua non; but if the days of miracles are past, strength, both human and divine, is its right arm of power, now as of old.

This state of things in the ministerial profession of the present age has had a tendency to invite into it a class of men who are too weak and powerless to get a living in any other way. In all other professions the incumbents must have some talent and vigorous application, or fail ; but a young man who has not tact or courage to badger a false witness, or extract a tooth, will do for a minister, for "he is a very good young man." By this means the eloquence of the pulpit is greatly marred. For a discourse superficially studied, made up mostly of commonplace and stale thoughts, with dry and antiquated illustrations, no man of sense can deliver with interest or enthusiasm to himself; and then he will fall into a dull, empty, and indifferent way of speaking — the tomb of all eloquence. But when the speaker feels he has elaborated something new, worthy of himself and his hearers, his eye kindles, his spirit rises, his soul is stirred, his voice adjusts itself to his thoughts, and then he has the people with him, and lo, he is pronounced an eloquent man! Non-progressive, unstudious, and unthinking clergymen are often if not generally monotonous in style. This is a common and ruinous feature in pulpit speaking. So little variations of the voice stupefy the hearers, and obscure the fine thoughts of the speaker, if he utters them. Says one writer : " The monotonous wearisome sound of a single bell might be almost as soon expected to excite moral impressions as the general tenor of our pulpit discourses, which are, with few exceptions, drowsily composed and drowsily delivered."

On the other hand, some fall into the habit of a hurried and impetuous style of speaking. This, though less common, is hardly less disagreeable. It is frequently the result of embarrassment or timidity. A fear of coming to a stop, or being unable to call up words rapidly enough, naturally creates hurry. This will often superinduce some trifling mistake, which is hastily corrected, increasing the hurry and confusion, till it becomes painful to both speaker and hearer.

A desire also to be forcible or impressive tends to this impetuosity of style. A rapid torrent of words is thought by some sufficient to carry away an audience, as the current sweeps all before it. An audience without brains, or heart, might possibly be thus overcome — not otherwise.

A slight difficulty in the articulation of words, or sounds, serves to rush a speaker on as rapidly as possible ; and this, too, only augments the evil, as it suppresses, rather than develops the power to articulate. Practice, careful and continued, will soon furnish ability to overcome any such hesitancy in utterance. But such practice requires great deliberation in speaking.

12 INTKODUCTION.

Among the disadvantages of this manner of delivery are the following : it injures the organs of speech, and the health ; it is annoying to the hearers; it obscures the thoughts of the speaker by covering them over with a stream of words; it destroys the power of emphasis, by a constant exhaustion of breath and voice ; it bewilders the attention, and destroys the hearer's power of memory, and thus prevents lasting good results.

To correct this injurious pulpit habit there should be thorough preparation to speak, which will inspire a perfect confidence of the speaker in his ability to proceed. Great care and sufficient time must be taken to enunciate fully and distinctly every word and sound. No long time in this careful practice will be required to obviate wholly the injurious habit of which we complain, provided the correction is undertaken with a truthful view of the existence and extent of the difficulty. Ko fault of delivery will be eradicated until the erring speaker feels his imperfection, and that particular imperfection, and determines it shall cease.

The basis of delivery in preaching should be a dignified and earnest conversational tone ; and there should be no departure from it, except when strong excitement compels it. Let the clerical reader now cast his eye over the circle of his ministerial acquaintances, and ask himself how many of these would, and how many would not be improved by some change in this respect. There is generally too much volume of voice used, too loud and harsh. This diverts attention from the thought of discourse and deadens the feeling. This fault, though common and very detrimental, is easily remedied with care and perseverance. It is said of Cicero, that before he went into Greece he had a rude and coarse voice ; but after remaining there for some time, by industry and force of habit he brought it to a charming smoothness and delicacy.

The little attention paid to the voice, its tones and culture, by public speakers, is really surprising. In noticing other speakers, nothing sooner attracts our attention than the voice. "We at once determine whether it is base, tenor, or soprano, as we do also whether it is agreeable or otherwise. The voice is not only susceptible of these essential qualities, but also of various gradations between them. Its flexibility and susceptibility of culture are almost incredible. It can express every emotion of the soul, and every degree of that emotion. More, it is almost sure to utter the speaker's soul whether he will or not ! It will not play him false, but may expose his hypocrisy if he has any. Such is the power of the human voice ; yet how few public speakers ever attempt in earnest to change their harsh and stupefying tones, tones which not unfrequently utterly ruin their efficiency as speakers ; men whose chief business, too, is speaking !

The base voice has great dignity, and is not at first repulsive, nor is it when occasionally used ; but it will soon grow heavy, and become monotonous, and when long continued it is sure to produce drowsiness. To listen for an hour to a sermon in a uniformly deep and heavy base voice, is about as entertaining as to listen as long to a solitary base singer.

The tenor voice is the best adapted to public speaking, and hence should be cultivated by those whose voices are base or soprano, as all these tones can with ease be greatly modified. This tenor voice, occupying a middle position between the other two, plays up and down most readily.

This tone is also more persuasive and sympathetic, a secret few understand and none can explain, yet an element of great power in a speaker. It has greater variety, and is less inclined to monotony.

The highest voice is sharp and ungraceful. It is more liable to impair the organs of speech and health, and also to create uneasiness with the hearers. It approaches a scream when long continued. It can be used only occasionally with pleasure to the hearers, or with safety to the speaker, except where it is natural, and even then it is disagreeable to the ear.

Speakers cannot be too cautious in watching against bad habits until they are wholly removed. Yet it is possible to become so careful and anxious about the grammar, rhetoric, and pronunciation, and to allow the whole attention to be absorbed, so that the subject itself and the results of its delivery may be entirely forgotten. Many of our most learned and polished speakers, we judge, fall into this grave mistake. Impression and success are sacrificed to a cold exactness, to a dead orthodoxy. Eather than this, let them speak right on, in the fullness of their souls, trusting to the force of accurate habit of study and speaking; then the mind and feelings' will be unembarrassed, and free to enter directly and earnestly into the subject itself. The preacher must not be fastidiously solicitous, or elaborately nice in the arrangement of his sentences and in .the marshaling of periods; for, as Milton says, "True eloquence I find to be none but the serious and hearty love of truth ; and that whose mind soever is fully possessed with a fervent desire to know good things, and with the dearest charity to infuse the knowledge of them into others, when such a man would speak, his words, like so many nimble and airy servitors, trip about him at command, and in well-ordered files, and as he would wish, fall aptly into their own places." Such speaking as this, with a tolerable accuracy and clearness of utterance, constitutes a manly and impressive eloquence, scorning the tricks of the stage, the buffoonery of mountebanks, and the bombast of sophomores.

The following brief quotations contain thoughts worth a permanent place in all literature embracing sacred eloquence :

" Oratory, as it consists in the expression of the countenance, graces of attitude and motion, and intonation of voice, although it is altogether superficial and ornamental, will always command admiration; yet it deserves little veneration. Flashes of wit, coruscations of imagination, and gay pictures ; what are they ? Strict truth, rapid reason, and pure integrity are the only essential ingredients in oratory. I flatter myself that Demosthenes, by his action! action! action! meant to express the same opinion." — John Adams.

" Clearness, force, and earnestness are qualities that produce conviction. True eloquence does not consist in speech. It cannot be brought from. far. Labor and learning may toil for it ; but they toil in vain. Words and phrases may be marshaled in every way ; but they cannot compass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, in the occasion. Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all may aspire after it, but they cannot reach it. It comes, if it come at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force. The graces taught in the schools, the courtly ornaments, studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men when their own lives and the lives of their wives and children and their country hang on the decisions of an hour. Then words have lost their power; rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Then even genius feels rebuked and subdued, as if in the presence of higher qualities. Then patriotism is eloquent. The clear conception outrunning the deductions of logic; the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward — right onward to his object — this, this is eloquence, or rather it is something greater than eloquence ; it is ^ctiye, noble, sublime, and god-like action." — Unknown. (AMA^tAV* r * r

" Ehetoric, as taught in the seminaries, and by itinerant elocutionists, is one thing; genuine, heart-thrilling, soul-stirring eloquence is a very different thing. The one is like the rose in the wax, without odor ; the other like the rose in its native bush, perfuming the atmosphere with its rich odor, distilled from the dew of heaven. The one is the finely finished statue of a Cicero or Demosthenes, more perfect in its lineaments than the original, pleasing the eye and entrapping the imagination; the other is the living man, animated by intellectual power, rousing the deepest feelings of every heart, and electrifying every soul, as with vivid lightning. The one is a picture of the passions all on fire ; the other is the real conflagration, pouring out a volume of words that burn, like liquid flames bursting from the crater of a volcano. The one attracts the admiring gaze, and tickles the fancy of an audience ; the other sounds an alarm that vibrates through the tingling ears to the

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soul, and sends back the rushing blood upon the aching heart ; the one fails, when strong commotion and angry elements agitate the public peace ; the other can ride upon the whirlwind,

-Judson.

"We have been induced to offer to the reading public a republication of this volume, chiefly because we think it supplies a long-felt desideratum in the literature of public speakers, a kind of connecting link between the theory of rhetoric, as taught in our text-books, and the application or practice of it. In this most important aspect of this noble subject, we think the remarks of this author the most highly suggestive and pertinent of any we have ever read. In his sententious and terse style, he sparkles with thought and abounds with practical hints. He assumes from first to last what we think is true, that public speakers generally are more familiar with the rules of rhetoric than they are skillful in the application of them. Could our countless corps of public speakers be reached at this point and thoroughly roused, we might hope to see a much-needed improvement in public speaking. It will be noticed that the idioms, or forms of expression, are not all modern, nor exactly American. Many not such, however, have been changed : but some are left as we found them, where a severe literary taste would seem to require change, fearing we might lessen or mar the author's thought by introducing our own phraseology.

The careful reader will observe that in what we have said in this Introduction, and in the Notes, together with the valuable essay of Henry Eogers in the appendix, we have aimed at producing a book worthy of the attention of clergymen, and such as we think is adapted to promote the efficiency of the pulpit. And if our clerical readers can read this little work as many times as we have, with unflagging interest, they will not regret

that it has fallen into their hands.

L. D. Baeeows.

Boston, Mass., Nov., 1862.

PROEM

The highest truths of transcendental metaphysics will one day reach the populace. Not only the standard of intellect, but that of morality, will be raised. The race of the Papinians, the Cromwells, and Marvels, will be multiplied. It was once said all could not learn to read, write, and account. Now they do learn these and other things. They will one day learn all things. Intellect will conquer all obstacles, and teach the human race to realize untold perfection.

But it will be accomplished piecemeal. Progression is a series of stages. Individuals first, then groups, then classes, then nations, are raised. You can no more introduce, at once, the multitude to the highest results of philosophy, than you can take a man to the summit of a monument without ascending the steps, or reach a distant land without traveling the journey. This book is a stage. As the preceding ones in this series, it is designed for the class of young thinkers to whom knowledge has given some intellectual aspiration, and fate denied the means of its scholastic gratification. It is therefore neither elementary nor ultimate, but a medium between the two. It addresses itself to a want. It deals in results.

It dictates doing.

18 PEOEM.

Spontaneous life is the life of the people. Their knowledge is confined to phenomena. Their practical philosophy is the reality of Hobbism. Disguise it as we may, their sole business is the betterance of their condition. All you can do is to guide their rude interpretation of nature, men, and manners — -to give plain method to their classification, coherence to their inferences, justice to their invectives. They want no new philosophy. There are more old ones which are good than they can study. There is more wisdom extant than they can master, more precepts than they can apply. Weapons innumerable surround them, of which they have to be taught the use. Their watchword is work. The scaling-ladders of the wise which they, having mounted the citadel of wisdom, have kicked down, are yet of service to those who are below. I have picked a few of these ladders up, and reared them in these pages for the use of those who have yet to rise.

Fastidious punctilios of scholarship would be out of place in such a book as this. He who addresses the artisan class must, like the Spartans, write to be read, and speak to be understood. Mechanics and literary institutions cannot cultivate their frequenters, and those greatly mistake the requirements of learning and the state of the people who think they can. They can stimulate improvement, and this is their province. Nations never become civilized and learned till subsistence is secure and leisure abundant. So of individuals. The populace are still engaged in the lowest battle of animal wants ; and even the middle classes are in the warfare of intellectual wants. In the ancient state ofsociety war was the only trade, force the only teacher, and the battle-ax the only

PROEM. 19

argument. A transition has indeed taken place 5 the time, and means, and ends are changed ; but not the relative position of men. ~No more do we struggle for the victory of conquest, but we struggle for wages and more intelligence. Knowledge has reached the mass so as to make them sensible of their ignorance without diminishing their privations, and they are now engaged in a double battle against Want and Error. The struggle, therefore, is resolute. The training wanted is practical ; the weapons serviceable and ready for use. Provided the literary sword will cut, few will quarrel about the polish. If the blade has good temper, he who needs it will put up with a plain hilt.