Practical speaking, as taught in Yale college

Front matter

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Chap. 1. Attitude and Gesture, . Attitude

Gesture,

Dependence of Voice on Respiration,

Voice or Tone of Address,

Agreeable and Impressive Voice,

Refinement and Suavity of Voice,

Keys of the Speaking Voice, Chap. 3. Animated and Impressive Utterance,

Animated Utterance, or Spirited Accent,

Impressive Utterance, or Prolonged Tones, Chap. 4. Articulation and Pronunciation, .

Articulation,

Consonants,

Articulation of Polysyllabic Words, .

Pronunciation,

Chap. 5. Continuous Discourse,

Accent of Construction, or Grouping of Words, Distinct Separation of Syllables, Sustained Expression,

Chap. 6. Emphatic Force, ....

Continued Emphasis, Emphatic Force on Single Words, Contrasts of Force, ....

Page.

36 39 47 51 54 58 60 64

66 67 71

74 74

77 80 84 88

Contents

Deep Earnestness of Tone,

Consciousness of being Earnest and Interesting

Tone of Communicating Thought, .

Part II

Chap. 1. Groups and Phrases, Principles of Grouping, Phrases of Utterance, Phrases of Subject and Predicate,

" of Suspending Clauses,

u of Circumstance, .

w of Object of Active Verb,

" of Apposition,

u of Parallel Construction,

Chap. 2. Inflexions, Rising Inflexions

Contrast of Inflexions,

Questions,

Conditional Clauses,

Concluding Remarks on Inflexions,

CONTENTS

Chap. 3. Emphasis, Emphatic Grouping

Grammatical Emphasis,

1. Pointed AiKrmation or Designation,

2. Negation contrasted with Affirmation

3. Condition and Consequence,

4. Concession and Denial,

5. Question and Answer, G. Antithetical Contrast,

7. Referential Emphasis,

8. Emphasis of Correspondence,

9. Intensive Emphasis, . 10. Emphasis of Remonstrance,

Emphasis of Imagination, Emphasis of Emotion, Chap. 4. Transition between Paragraphs Part III.

EXPRESSION.

Chap. 1. Moods of Delivery, . The Direct Mood of Delivery

The Meditative Mood, Chap. 2. Styles of Address, .

1. Unimpassioned Affirmation,

1. a. Explanatory Affirmation,

2. a. Impassioned Explanatory Affirmation,

3. a. Explanatory Contentious Affirmation, Styles of Speaking characterized hy Sentiment

1. Unimpassioned or Simple Sentiment, .

1. a. Unimpassioned Pathetic Sentiment

2. a. Impassioned Pathetic Sentiment, .

3. Hortatory Sentiment, ....

3. a. Hortatory Pathetic Sentiment, Mixed Styles, ......

Style of Conviction,

Appendix to Part 3. The Tremor of the Voice,

6 CONTENTS.

Part IV. LESSONS FOR EXTRACTS SELECTED BY THE STUDENT

Page.

Established Customs, 400

General Plan of Lessons, 402

Rules of Practice, 402

Sophomore Year, Second Term, 411

Sophomore Year, Third Term, 414

Junior Year, First Term, 417

Junior Year, Third Term, 426

Preparation for Junior Exhibitions and Commencements, . . 430

Appendix To The Volume

Taste, 436

Extemporaneous Delivery, 437

Reading, 433

Poetry, 439

Continued Self-Cultivation in Delivery, 439

ERRATA.

P. 144, line 2d from bottom, for adventurer, read adventurer. P. 161, line 2d from top, for extract, read extracts. P. 222, line 15 from bottom, for effects, read efforts.

NOTATION OF THE EXAMPLES.

It is believed that in general, this will explain itself. But the following references will be convenient. Each line constitutes a phrase of utterance: vide p. 209. Phrases are subdivided into groups of utterance i by a wider space between words : vide pp. 95 to 97. When a hyphen is inserted in the space between two groups, it indicates a compound group, and that the pause may be omitted in rapid delivery : vide p. 204. For the principles for placing the falling inflexion (\) vide p. 229. For those of placing the rising inflexion {/) vide pp. 234 and 236. For the use of \ circumflexes and waves, (\/) (/\) vide pp. 243 and 244. For the , use of italics, and of words with separated letters, vide pp. 143 and 310.

Preface

The following work, as will be perceived upon a ( slight examination, is on a different plan from any which ! has hitherto appeared on the subject of elocution. It is I the result of a laborious study begun in early youth and I continued for upwards of twenty years, of the physiology of the voice and the accompanying instincts of the body in gesture. The great work of Dr. James Rush, of Philadelphia, and the able treatise of Dr. Porter, of Andover, both of which appeared in 1827, were adopted | by the present author immediately on their first appear- | ance, and the truth of their doctrines subjected to the test of practical and independent investigation. The latter of these works was found to be an improvement upon those of Walker, Sheridan, and others ; but the former proved to be accurate and practically useful in proportion to the genius, industry and acuteness of its author. Probably a more difficult and subtle investigation was never entered into in any branch of the sciences of observation, and the more it is submitted to the test of comparison with nature, the more surprising will its completeness and accuracy appear. Yet having been for some time laboriously employed as a teacher of reading and speaking before its appearance, and having continued to be thus occupied for most of the time since, the present writer has uniformly found that such philosophical and strictly scientific modes of describing the functions-of the voice as those adopted by Dr. Rush, require too much time and study to be very useful to those who wish merely to acquire practical skill in reading and speaking, and that for the purpose of teaching elocution, it is absolutely necessary to resort to a different method.

The practical student needs to be informed of those uses only of the voice in which he is liable to err, and that these be described in such a way as corresponds with his feelings of embarrassment and difficulty, when in attempting to read or speak, he finds that his delivery is not such as he wishes it to be. Those who feel their own deficiencies in reading or speaking, have a conception more or less perfect of what they ought to exhibit, but find on trial that their delivery is in fact strangely inferior to the ideal standard in their minds. In this state of disappointment, an elocutionist at his elbow, should be able at once to inform such a one — in the first place what tones he is using, and in what they differ from those of nature and cultivated power ; and in the next place to explain the reason why his voice proceeds differently from what he wishes. This last is the most important service required of the teacher of elocution. Such reasons will always be found to result from some unfortunate habit of body or mind, with which the teacher is familiar from study and experience. The explanation of all such habits belongs to the science of physiology, taken in its widest acceptation, as is done by Chalmers, in his Bridgewater treatise, and as it is familiarly understood by medical men and naturalists. Elocution is properly a branch of physiology, and no more connected with Rhetoric, with which it is so commonly associated, than with music, painting and sculpture, with which also it has considerable connection. Every complete work on physiology treats of voice, gesture, and of the alphabetic elements.

It seems to be commonly supposed that the unfortunate habits above alluded to, which interfere with the free expression of thought and sentiment in reading and speaking, must necessarily result chiefly from mistakes, or neglect in early education. This is a serious error — they proceed rather from that weakness of mental and physical organization, which is shared in a greater or less degree by all. The faults of delivery which a teacher is called upon to correct, are not of very many kinds. They are exhibited with little variation by all who have not cultivated delivery by their own efforts, with no exceptions, except occasionally in the case of one whose organization peculiarly fits and predisposes him for public speaking. To enlarge his sphere of observation, the author at one period welcomed every opportunity of instructing persons cf both sexes and of all ages, from six to forty years and upwards, and for a considerable time gave individual instruction to about two hundred persons a day. He soon found however, that the various difficulties among so many were readily reducible to a few general classes, and that time spent in pointing out faults, was in general, lost. All have certain fundamental requisites of delivery to learn ; all must acquire a voice of greater compass, depth and flexibility, than is developed in common conversation ; all must learn to regulate the breath, and keep the chest in that condition which enables the speaker to emit the successive syllables of discourse with the steadiness and slowness required for large rooms; all must acquire the habit of concentrating the mind on the ideas delivered, to such a degree that no external and embarrassing influences shall prevent the natural impulses from which a good delivery results, from acting with intensity and power ; all must acquire that judgment of the ear by which a speaker distinguishes for himself the actual sound of his voice at a distance, and listens to it after it has issued from him, as if he himself were one of the auditors as well as the speaker ; all must acquire that discipline of the mind, by which the words of a written or a memorized discourse can be taken from the dead letter before they are uttered, and transferred to the mind in the shape of thoughts not yet completely clothed in language, so that when actually spoken, the utterance shall proceed from the same impulses as if he were extemporizing, and the ideas thus have their living embodiment of words with their inseparably associated tones; and finally, all must acquire those unfettered bodily habits, in consequence of which attitude and gesture become as varied and graceful as the impulses from which they spring.

From infancy onwards, the commerce of ordinary life teaches us to talk. We learn to read by expressing aloud the words which silently meet the eye, but in reading merely for our own information, the mind is in the condition of apprehending, not of communicating thoughts. Hence the tone of reading is at first abstracted and inexpressive, and if it becomes otherwise, the natural expression is at first similar to that of soliloquizing, or, still more precisely, it resembles that which one uses in repeating over to himself words which have just been addressed to him by another, in order to be certain that he has caught them correctly. We next attempt to utter them in living tones, to satisfy ourselves that we understand them. But the regular succession of written words and their natural rhythm, cause the voice to proceed more or less in a monotonously regular and a mechanically rhythmical manner. The mind likewise is in a musiiig state. From both these causes, reading is at first naturally characterized by what is called a tone. The tones with which children read are universal, and are equally exhibited by uneducated men. Among the Asiatic nations, indeed, where the people act less from the impulses of the understanding and more from those of the imagination and feelings, all reading is in the style which we call chanting, and in their languages the same word signifies both to read and to sing. Up to this point, we have nothing which can be called delivery. This term implies the act of addressing ideas to others. When children in school have once acquired the ability to pronounce written words at sight, all instruction in propriety of reading consists in teaching them to make an effort to give the tones by which we communicate written ideas to others. This act requires in general, the modulations of the voice used in conversation. But as the mind is in an entirely different state from that of conversation, it is by a long and slow process that the child learns to perform the double mental act, first to make the ideas his own, and then to express them to others. Neither is it necessary for ordinary purposes that these two things be done in perfection. Enough of the latter is merely required to give a reasonable degree of life and interest to the reading.

Speaking however, requires a higher excitement and a stronger effort of mind and body. A word of a single syllable may be uttered in three tones : first in that of talking, next in that, partly of apprehending the meaning, partly of soliloquizing, and partly of talking, which characterizes reading, and lastly in those tones of enforcing or explaining ideas which we use in that higher effort to attract the attention of others, which characterizes speaking. There is indeed still another modification which distinguishes what is called recitation, as when a performer recites a poem before an audience, and which implies an intentional display of art and skill — but of recitation we do not propose to treat in the present volume.

In regard to speaking, it is a curious and important fact, that the power in the vocal organs of expressing words in the tone which naturally belongs to it, is not developed by the common intercourse of society. A considerable proportion of those men whose public delivery is confined to compositions prepared beforehand never use this tone — and when they apply for instruction to teachers of elocution, are found to be incapable of employing it at pleasure. They have never made use of it, except that occasionally when strongly excited, they have done so instinctively, but have not been after-

PREFACE.

wards aware that their vocal organs have been engaged in an unwonted action which they cannot repeat at will. In fact the peculiar open state of the fauces, the more tense contraction of the vocal muscles, and the more sudden and complete emission of the breath which produce the tone of speaking, are natural indeed, but natural only in that sort of excitement of mind which leads a person to speak rather than to talk, and which is not needed in ordinary life. It will be found on investigation that every one who can at pleasure employ the tones of a speaker, has learned to do so at some period subsequent to that of early childhood. Some indeed of the employments of life, such as those of auctioneers, debaters and lawyers, are certain to develope the habit of using the speaking voice, yet those whose regular duties call only for the delivery of compositions previously prepared, are not in circumstances that necessarily elicit this peculiar action of the vocal organs. Boys and young men never exhibit it except after considerable practice ; when once however it is established, from that time they find no difficulty in speaking whenever they wish to do so. They may indeed afterwards improve in delivery, but as soon as they practically understand how to command the voice that distinguishes speaking from* talking or from reading, they feel a consciousness of having acquired a new faculty, and are ever after confident of their ability to use it. It is indeed a kind of muscular action, which like that of swimming or of skating, is perhaps attained after a long continuance of repeated efforts, but when in fact mastered, is often gained suddenly and at once. Like these acts likewise, that of

2* speaking when once learned, is never forgotten or lost from want of practice. All the three may also be learned either slowly, or suddenly and by an instantaneous and felicitous effort. The author continually witnesses instances of the latter kind as well as the former. He has been in the habit of telling those who after a long continued repetition of failures, suddenly break into the speaking tone, that from that time forwards, they will be able to speak.

These facts upon which we have been dwelling so long, lie at the foundation of all philosophical and practical elocution. Though they have been too much overlooked by men of learning, yet the unlearned part of the community have always felt that the very act of speaking is a distinct and peculiar one. A sensible and respectable man will say to a teacher, " In town meetings I can talk but I cannot speak, and I wish my child to be taught at school to speak, so that he may take a higher stand than his father." The most ignorant class of enthusiasts in religion indeed esteem the distinction so fundamental, that they attach an obscure idea of inspiration to a suddenly acquired faculty of making religious harangues. President Dwight remarks of this jclass of religious instructors, that they are generally superior to their hearers in nothing but volubility.* They might also be described as differing from their hearers in the power of using the speaking voice at pleasure.

It is the object of the present volume to assist in acquiring the art of public speaking. The whole course

* Dwight's Travels.

of instruction has for its fundamental idea that the acquisition of this art results in the case of all but a very small number of men, from some course of mental or bodily training. This may be acquired after entering upon life, as is so often done by lawyers and debaters, through practice before audiences ; but it is generally considered desirable, that those who are gaining a liberal education should be enabled to step forth from the seclusion of a seminary of learning, adorned and equipped with this addition to their other accomplishments.

This volume is prepared with an express adaptation to the wants of the institution in which its author is employed, and is confined strictly to the topics which he is constantly called on to discuss in the course of his instructions, and in answer to the numerous enquiries of intelligent young men. The lengthened introduction which follows is addressed exclusively to the students of the institution, and is rendered necessary by there being new classes to teach in each successive year.

As " The Philosophy of the Human Yoice," by Dr. Rush, is a large volume, and found difficult of comprehension by many, the writer would particularly recommend to those who wish to become acquainted with that gentleman's discoveries, a neat and elegant treatise by Prof. Henry N. Day, of Western Reserve College, which is an independent work on the same general plan.

New Haven, Dec. 31, 1845.

PRACTICAL SPEAKING

Introduction

It is the object of the following work, to exhibit the course of instruction in elocution, which is at present pursued in Yale College. Since the writer has had the responsibilities of his present situation, the number of undergraduates in the institution has been on an average about four hundred. The three younger classes receive systematic instruction in speaking throughout the whole of the college year, and any member of the Senior class is accommodated, without charge, with private instruction as often as he wishes. The number to be taught is consequently so great, as to oblige the instructor to resort to short and hurried lessons. It is a necessary rule that each lesson be confined to a single subject, and also that no subject be introduced which is not proved by experience to be absolutely essential in its importance. The problem has all along been, to find out what difficulties most embarrass young men who are preparing to speak in public, and what kind of instruction in reference to these difficulties will be most willingly received.

In consequence of the failure of the writer's physical strength, this volume has been prepared during the present college term, in the midst of his labors as an instructor, and has for its object merely to impart the information which he has hitherto given, in the informal lecturing and conversation which take place in teaching. Not a page having been previously written, and most of it having been composed in a state of severe suffering, it exhibits many deficiencies, yet will enable him to perform his duties with less labor, and, he hopes, with more success. His only alternative is either to resign his situation or attempt to continue by the assistance of a work like the present.

No subject has been omitted which the instructor in this institution is called on to teach. Persevering efforts have in former years been made, to present somewhat of the philosophy of English phonology and orthoepy; the structure and rhythm of English meters ; the rhythm of ancient versification which results from the systematic employment of quantity, considered as distinct from accent ; the distinctions between public reading in various styles, and public speaking ; the difference between public and parlor reading ; and finally, the adaptation of reading, especially in poetry, to the peculiar styles of thought, sentiment and language which characterize our most original writers — so managing elocution as to assist the mind in endeavoring to sympathize with the peculiar genius of each. None of these subjects, however, have any necessary connexion with the main object of enabling each student to do justice in future life to his talents and education when speaking his own written or extemporaneous ideas. For some time likewise, an effort was made to assist the younger students in acquiring a fondness for the beauties of English literature. For this purpose, use was made of the means which are the province strictly of elocution. The peculiar comment afforded by the voice of a practised reader, and his interjection al remarks, are sometimes valuable in awakening an interest in the beauties of literature, and thus preparing the way for the more quiet, but also more studied and learned commentary of the professional critic. The instructor in the present branch, however, has been conscientiously careful never to appear to lend countenance to the opinion, that such accomplishments as he is employed to teach, can be advantageously pursued while any of the severer studies are neglected. All these efforts to teach any thing more than public speaking, have failed, and have been successively abandoned. Serious difficulties have attended etlbrts to introduce any of the subjects above mentioned, and the attempt will not again be made unless by direction of the governing faculty.

The topics discussed in the present volume, have all met with the cordial approbation and sympathy of the students, and notwithstanding the failure of success in respect to the others, the instructor has had the satisfaction of knowing, that though occupying a situation of no official rank or authority, and yet one in which from the very nature of the subject taught, the modest and diffident must be brought forward and protected, and those whose example or conduct obstructs their own and others' improvement must be checked, and if necessary sternly rebuked, he has never to his knowledge made a personal enemy or caused the governing faculty any trouble. It has been by the manifestations of kind respect on the part of the students, that he has been encouraged in carrying into action the principle that " faithful are the wounds of a friend." Young men feel that among those whose example does not entice them to immorality, they can have no worse enemy than he who defrauds them of that part which it is his duty to afford them, of the highest of earthly blessings, education.

The instructor is careful to have it understood that speaking is not to be learned by making him a model, and makes it an important rule to endeavor to accommodate himself to the natural tendencies in delivery of the student — aiming so to manage his corrections that they shall be received thankfully, and assist instead of hinder him in his natural efforts to be expressive and interesting. As a result of this mode of proceeding, no difficulties ever arise from differences of taste. It is not indeed the province of a mere teacher to dictate upon such points, but rather to assist the student towards a satisfactory execution in the style which he prefers, or which is recommended and enjoined by those placed in authority over him. The present instructor at first met with difficulty in persuading some that he taught, to make a hearty effort to be spirited and interesting, in consequence of their supposing that his personal taste was in favor of a disagreeable degree of loudness; but the fact is now well understood in this institution, that loud speaking is at first easier than that which is more subdued, and that the only infallible mode of practice by which a liability to disagreeable loudness can be prevented, is for each one to discipline his own voice until he knows its tendencies and capabilities, and never falls into loudness by mistake. He prefers, more than most persons, a subdued and mellow voice, and finds loudness the most difficult of all faults to correct. It can be successfully done only by means of gymnastic vocal exercises, similar to those employed in the ablest schools of music, by which the tone of the voice is made deep, mellow and clear.

Throughout the whole course, the distinction is carefully kept in view between what can be taught in delivery, and what must be original with the speaker. In a loose way, we may call this distinction that between elocution and eloquence. The latter must be original, and will vary according to talents, temperament and character. A teacher of elocution must conscientiously bear in mind that if the evil is not guarded against, those who are receiving instruction from him will be apt to trust too exclusively to rules, and thus become less individual and consequently less interesting and effective in their several styles of eloquence.

Those who from peculiar organization have a decidedly natural turn of mind for public speaking, seem not to be more in number than two or three in a hundred. Such actually need little or no instruction, and although, when young, they are often the most fond of receiving it, little more is necessary for the teacher than to encourage them to trust boldly to their natural impulses. Experience, however, proves that there is no serious difficulty for the rest, in learning to address a public assembly in a dignified, agreeable, and interesting manner. These also, if their minds are matured and disciplined by a liberal education, may readily make themselves prompt, fluent and methodical, as extemporaneous speakers. Yet it is not to be expected that all will become eloquent. Those who attain to this height, will reach it only by careful and persevering self-cultivation of the imagination and character. An instructor can do no more than encourage and sometimes assist. Tasks cannot be imposed in eloquence, although elocution must be learned by means of them.

It is the object, then, of the present treatise, to exhibit a set of lessons which are to be practised as tasks, and which shall make but little requisition on the knowledge or judgment of inexperienced pupils. It is indispensable that these be neither difficult nor extremely disagreeable to the student — that they be such that he can proceed in them with confidence and pleasure, and with a consciousness of their utility. If well contrived, their practice will ultimately secure good habits, in all the requisites for being an acceptable and effective speaker. Delivery will be audible, distinct, fluent, graceful, earnest, impressive, and in consequence of the union of these qualities, will be forcible and interesting.

The only efficient modes of giving instruction in elocution, are similar in most respects to the methods pursued in the great schools of vocal music. Such methods are generally adopted in our colleges and higher schools. Not only elocutionists, but professors of rhetoric employ them for pupils of every age. Explanation is always accompanied by vocal illustration, and by associated practice time is saved sufficiently to enable all the learners to discipline their own organs thoroughly, instead of waiting in tedious impatience for each one to take his turn. Attempts at private instruction without the assistance of the discipline of an institution, are generally attended with very unsatisfactory success. It is seldom except by such help, that a satisfactory grounding can be given in the elements of any art or science. And in no branch of study is a stringent discipline more required than in this.

Time likewise is an important element among the requisites for success. Superior ability in delivery can only result from a gradual development of capabilities and the formation of habits. Young men who are preparing to be public speakers, sometimes express a wish that they could have it in their power for a while to devote themselves exclusively or principally to this study, and thus finish it as a distinct branch of education. Such wishes imply a serious mistake. To be ultimately successful, the study of delivery must proceed pari passu with that development of mind which results from the whole course of education. Mr. Russell, who is so extensively known as an able teacher of elocution, has well explained, that, delivery proceeds from the whole character. The speaking of a schoolboy must necessarily be boyish, and that of a college student, in the early part of his course, will of course be inferior to what he will be capable of exhibiting after his mind has been strengthened by long application to severe studies. Habits also cannot be formed at once, while rules, lessons and practice are of little use except as they form habits of voice and gesture. In penmanship, " a good hand" is formed by rules and lessons, but graceful writing is executed without elaborate pains, and is the result of habits previously established. To establish habits, the lessons from which they are to proceed must not be in too quick succession. Six lessons given in as many successive hours, will have but little effect compared with what will result if they are given in successive days or weeks. Slowness in this respect is especially true in regard to the mind, and all habits of delivery may be ultimately referred to the mind and character. A further illustration of these truths may be derived from the practice of composition in our highest seminaries. The maturity of style displayed in the magazines conducted by their members, is certainly considerable, and yet it is the result, so far as practice is concerned, not of very frequent trials in composition, but of attempts made at considerable intervals throughout the whole course of education.