The making of an oration

Foreword

THIS manual is the outgrowth of nearly twenty years' experience in teaching rhetoric, in its various forms and applications, to successive classes of college students. Much of it was given originally as informal and unwritten lectures to classes in oratorical composition. Later these lectures were committed to writing for the purpose of making them more useful to my pupils. It is hoped that the informal style and methods of the classroom will not detract from the usefulness of the book.

The aim of the following pages is preeminently practical. Their purpose is to present as clearly and definitely as may be the distinctions between the oration and other forms of discourse, and to set forth concretely and specifically the fundamental methods that must be pursued by him who would attain success in oratorical composition.

No attempt is made to teach the higher and finer forms of oratorical style. What is the use of trying to teach in a book what can not be taught or learned, in any large and satisfying measure, in the classroom or from a book? These higher and finer qualities de-

Foreword

pend upon inborn gifts, a cultivated taste, wide reading, and experience. Webster was right when he said that eloquence " must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion." These are things that can not be taught or learned off-hand. They may come, if the man have right powers of body, mind, and spirit, which have been so cultivated that, when the subject and the occasion conjoin, he may meet them with success; but the most that a textbook can do in preparing him for that occasion is to point out the road he must travel and the methods he must pursue, and to guide him in studying great speeches of others and in the practice of making speeches of his own.

Since the aim of this book is practical, — that is, since its purpose is to help those who study it how to proceed in order to prepare a speech in persuasion, it is of necessity largely, indeed mainly, concerned with the mechanism of oratory. It is a discussion of the art of oratory, except that it does not consider the elocution of that art ; it is the rhetoric of persuasive public speech.

The principles of this art are not, of course, the invention of the teacher. Oratory existed before books were thought of. There is no better way, then, of testing the truth and practicalness of the principles presented in the book, than to study those principles as exemplified in actual speeches of the great orators. For this reason, many of the principles set forth in this book are illustrated by examples drawn from some of the great speeches of the world, and also as many complete

Foreword

speeches are added as space will permit. This collection is supplemented by a list of some of the world's other masterpieces of eloquence, which the student will find it profitable to study.

In their early experience students often find difficulty in choosing subjects for oratorical treatment. In the hope of helping them to solve this difficulty, lists of topics are added that are appropriate for such exercises. This list might be indefinitely extended; questions of current interest will present themselves every day, giving to the alert student abundant matter for practice in persuasive discourse.

It has been thought well not to introduce many notes on the speeches included, but to leave the student free to study out for himself the meaning of any expressions that are not perfectly clear at the first reading. The wide-awake teacher and the interested student will need little help of this kind. One great objection to many editions of masterpieces published for school use is found in the fact that they are so overloaded with notes as to make the mastery of the notes seem more important than the mastery of the literature itself. If the student is led to make his own notes, he will gain the necessary information, and, what is far better, he will get something of the inspiration coming from the study of real literature. The oration, then, becomes vital to him, and quickens his own powers to similar creative effort.

I wish to express my appreciation of the courtesy of

Foreword

the Honorable William Jennings Bryan, for permission to use any of his speeches, to Harper & Brothers, for their approval of my use of the address of George William Curtis as printed in their edition of Mr. Curtis's orations and addresses edited by Professor Norton, and for a similar favor granted by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, to use their copy of the oration quoted from Wendell Phillips.

There are many evidences of a marked revival of interest in the study and practice of oratory in the schools and colleges of our country — especially west of the Alleghanies. It is with the hope of contributing something to this widening interest, and of helping in some measure the ambitious student of this noble art on his way to success, that this little book has been written and is now published.

C. M. B.

Manhattan, Kansas, 1913.

Part III The Composition Of An Oration

IX. The Composition of an Oration 73

X. Qualities of the Introduction 78

XI. Thought and Style of the Conclusion. . 86

XII. General Qualities of Oratorical Style. 95

XIII. Essential Qualities of Oratorical Style. 163

Contents

Part IV Gifts And Habits Of The Orator

PAGE

XIV. Inborn Gifts 169

XV. Reading for the Orator 172

XVI. Two Lines of Preparation 186

XVII. The Delivery of the Oration 196

PART V A List of Speeches for Further Study 404

A List of Subjects Suitable for Oratorical

Treatment 407

Index 423

LIST OF ORATIONS

PAGE

Affairs in Cuba John M. Thurston 324

Ahab and Micaiah Alexander Maclaren 388

" Cross of Gold," The William J. Bryan 314

First Inaugural Address. .Abraham Lincoln 214

Gettysburg Address Abraham Lincoln 226

Inaugural Address Woodrow Wilson 398

Liberty or Death Patrick Henry ... 209

Liverpool Speech Henry Ward Beecher. . . .250

New South, The Henry W. Grady 301

Paul to the Athenians. . . .St. Paul 386

Paul to the Jews St. Paul 381

Paul's Speech to Agrippa . . St. Paul 383

Philippine Question, The . . George F. Hoar 339

Public Duty of Educated Men, The George William Curtis. . .281

Second Inaugural Address. A braham Lincoln 227

Under the Flag Wendell Phillips 230

Chapter I A Working Definition

IN ORDER to attain success in any art, it is necessary to have a clear conception of what that art is. This principle applies no less truly to the art of oratory than it does to the art of painting.

Oratory may be treated either as an art or as a science. A science has been well defined as classified knowledge. From this point of view a discussion of oratory would have as its aim the presentation of the principles of oratory in a systematic order, without special reference to the practical application of those principles in actual public speech. One may know oratory as a science and be wholly unskilled as an orator; just as one may be a critic of painting without being a painter. He may be able to point out with profound insight, keen perception of truth, and exact knowledge, the artistic qualities of Rosa Bonheur's great painting, " The Horse Fair," and not possess enough skill on his own part to draw a sawhorse. In other words, one may be familiar with a science and not be master of the corresponding art. Whether the reverse of this law is true may well be questioned; whether one can be a skilled artist without knowing the laws of that art is more than doubtful. It may be granted that, through native gifts and constant practice, one may attain some measure of success in a given art; but it is only the genius that can reach the highest success without knowing the science on which the art is based, and we have little if any conclusive evidence that even genius has ever attained supreme success in any art without familiarity with the fundamental laws or science of that art. Demosthenes and Cicero are the leading names in the history of oratory; both of them studied for years in order to perfect themselves in this art of all the arts. They studied the science in order to perfect themselves in the art.

Oratory will here be considered primarily as an art. The aim of this manual is preeminently practical. But in order to make it practical, some attention will need to be given to the science on which it is founded and of which it is the outgrowth. Such attention, however, will be incidental. So far as we shall study the science of this type of discourse, we shall study it for the sole purpose of developing skill in the art of preparing orations.

The relation of oratory to rhetoric in general is not difficult to understand. Indeed, oratory is rhetoric turned in a specific direction and applied in a particular way. It is the species of which rhetoric is the genus;

A Working Definition 5

or more precisely, rhetoric is the family, while persuasive discourse is the genus, and oratory the species. Therefore all the laws of rhetoric must find exemplification in oratory, and in addition there is something added that differentiates this type of discourse from all other forms.

What, then, is an oration ? Its general nature may be developed by combining the following characteristics:

I. An oration is an oral address. It is not a short story; it is not an expository address; it is not exclusively an argument. It may combine the characteristics of any or all these, but these are not what give it its distinctive character. It is an oration partly because it is designed for presentation in a face-to-face and an eye-to-eye contact with an audience. This fact gives it peculiarities of structure and peculiarities of style that adapt it to effective vocal delivery, but that would not always be desirable or even allowable in other forms of discourse.

It is said that Edmund Burke held the theory that oratory, so far as its style is concerned, should differ in no respect from discourse written for leisurely reading. But Burke himself, although professedly exemplifying his theory, actually proved the rule to the contrary; for, while he adorned his speeches with all the fullness of thought and richness of imagery appropriate to written discourse, he not infrequently emptied the House of Commons. The speeches that are read with delight were often heard with indifference.

Because it is oral discourse the oration has both advantages and disadvantages that do not pertain to that which is written for the reader. It has the advantages of the magnetic presence, the kindling eye, the thrilling voice, the suggestive gesture. On the other hand, the orator labors under the disadvantage incident to the necessity of delivering his soul in a single utterance, with no opportunity to elaborate his thought or to give to its expression those graces of style that the essayist or the novelist has, who writes at leisure for the instruction or amusement of those who read at leisure. Because it is an oral address, therefore, the oration must possess all the ease, flexibility, rhythm, simplicity, directness, and intensity of earnest extemporaneous speech, and at the same time it must proceed on those broad and general lines of thought adapted to arouse the interest of the hearers, fit their understanding, and especially direct their purposes.

2. In the second place, an oration is an oral discourse on a worthy and dignified theme. Not all subjects are suitable for oratorical treatment. They lack dignity, or they lack seriousness, or they lack that elevation of thought essential to genuine eloquence. They may be too literary in substance, — appropriate to the essay or book, but requiring too elaborate treatment for the platform. They may be too philosophical, or too abstract, or too technical, and thus be incapable of impressing the popular mind, of arousing the popular feeling, or of moving the popular will.

A Working Definition 7

To admit of oratorical treatment a subject must be worthy of noble thought. No trivial topic will answer. A student once offered the plan of an oration on the subject, " The Dog as Man's Best Friend," stating that his purpose was to induce his hearers to buy a dog. It is needless to say that the discussion of such a theme is not oratory. That student might have been a " howling success " as the doorkeeper of a menagerie, but he would hardly be likely to develop into a Demosthenes. The harangue of an auctioneer or a street peddler is never synonymous with eloquence. If the theme is ignoble, no art can make the discourse noble. At the best the result will be either bombast or burlesque. The speech must be on a theme suited by its very nature to quicken the mind, to lift the imagination, to stir the feelings, to strengthen the convictions, to arouse all that is highest in the speaker and prepare him to exercise his best powers with such vigor and effectiveness that his hearers will not only be led to accept his opinions, but be strengthened in the determination to act accordingly.

The intimate relation between the theme and its treatment cannot be too strongly emphasized. A theme may, in itself, be a good theme, yet not a theme suitable for oratory, properly so called. Nor does the fact that it is orally delivered necessarily classify the discourse as an oration. Because all orations are oral addresses, it by no means follows that all oral addresses are orations. Such addresses may be, and often are, simply expositions of some truth, or some idea, or some fact. They may be merely essays in criticism or in history orally presented. The method of presentation does not in itself classify them as orations. A subject to be suitable for oratorical treatment must, as already suggested, be susceptible of such development as shall appeal to the whole spiritual nature of the hearer — to his intellect, his sensibilities, and his will. Then and only then is it " a worthy and dignified theme.'*

3. In the third place, an oration is an oral discourse on a worthy and dignified theme adapted to the average hearer. The speech, in both theme and treatment, should be of such a nature as to appeal to the every-day mind. It is not, exclusively, for any " aristocracy of intellect " ; nor, on the other hand, is it primarily for the dullard. It is, at once, for all grades of ability and training, such as are to be found in any popular audience. It is this element that lies at the basis of any rational discussion of oratory as an art. For, since the art does not find its end in itself but is practiced with a view to its desired effect upon the hearer, any treatment of the subject must be mainly occupied with a consideration of how best to accomplish this purpose. How shall I gain the respect and confidence of my hearers? How shall I remove their indifference or, it may be, their prejudice toward my subject? How shall I excite their interest and convince their reason ? How shall I arouse, control, and direct their passions? How shall I do all these things so as to lead them, ultimately, to the desired decision of will? These are questions that the orator

A Working Definition 9

must, consciously or unconsciously, ask himself in preparing and pronouncing every speech. And the answer to these questions involves all the considerations that have to do with the discovery, selection, and arrangement of material, with the choice of words, the construction of sentences, the use of figures, the employment of illustrations, the final delivery — in a word with all the considerations that involve questions of invention, of style, and of utterance.

4. In the fourth place, an oration is an oral discourse on a worthy and dignified theme, adapted to the average hearer, and whose aim is to influence the will of that hearer. It is a speech pronounced in order to persuade. As such it belongs to the highest type of prose discourse. It may, and not improbably will, contain exposition and argument, but it does not find its end in these forms of discourse. They are satisfied when they have enlightened the understanding or convinced the reason. Oratory may subserve both these purposes, and may likewise kindle the imagination and arouse the emotions, but it does not stop there. It not only appeals to the intellect and stirs the sensibilities, but most of all, it lays hold of the will.

It is this feature more than any other that differentiates oratory from all other types of discourse. One may pronounce an oral discourse on a worthy theme, but unless his speech is designed and adapted to move the will it cannot properly be classed as oratory. Webster truly describes eloquence, which is the soul of orator}', as " urging the whole man onward, right onward to his object/' He who fails to attain that "object," fails in his ultimate purpose as an orator. Whatever other excellences his production may possess of learning, of noble thought, of beautiful language, lacking the element of persuasion, it is not oratory. The crown of eloquence encircles the brow, not of him that " draws a bow at a venture," but of him that consciously and successfully aims to bring down the game. The true orator, as the late President E. G. Robinson, himself no mean orator, was wont to say, " puts a hook in the nose of his audience and leads it " ; or, to use the expressive phrase of President Martin B. Anderson, the orator by the power of speech " brings things to pass." Thus it was the highest praise of eloquence when, after listening to a fiery philippic of Demosthenes, the Athenians raised the cry : " Up, let us march against Philip ! "

Chapter II Types Of Oratory

THE fourth characteristic of an oration, as above defined, gives rise to the inquiry whether we do not too much limit the province of oratory by describing it as invariably an appeal to the will. How, then, shall we class those addresses that do not aim at definite action? Dr. Nott's great address on " The Death of Hamilton," Webster's speech on " The First Settlement of New England" — were not these orations?

This inquiry suggests a distinction, which needs to be recognized, between the different types of oratory — a distinction based on the recognized difference between speeches calling for immediate and definite decision and action and those not so calling. This distinction gives rise to a twofold division, to which have been given the names : Determinate Oratory and Demonstrative Oratory.

i. Determinate Oratory. — Under this name may be included all those examples of persuasive speech that anticipate direct and specific action on the part of those addressed.

The action contemplated in this class of discourse may culminate in a vote, a resolution, a verdict, or in a silent yet real resolution to pursue a certain course. But it is definite and the operation of the will is positive and immediate. Such is the oratory of deliberative assemblies, or legislative bodies, where the action under discussion has to do with public policy; the oratory of the platform, whose end is to gain votes in an approaching election, or to secure cooperation in some proposed undertaking; the oratory of the bar, whose end is to secure a verdict of a jury or a favorable decision from a court; much of the oratory of the pulpit, whose conscious purpose is to win those who are not Christians to a definite and willing acceptance of the Christian faith and those who are Christians to resolve upon a life of closer obedience and service. Thus, wherever and however displayed, determinate oratory includes all those speeches that seek for a specific decision of the will, attended or followed by some act or course of action.

2. The other great type of oratorical discourse has been called Demonstrative Oratory. Under this name we may include all those speeches that do not call for a specific action at a definite time on the part of the hearer, but that nevertheless demand a genuine decision of the will on his part. Such speeches aim to bring about in each hearer's mind an unexpressed and perhaps even unformulated resolution to live differently, to cherish certain sentiments, to hold a certain attitude, to cultivate certain habits, to follow a certain course, or to be a certain kind of man. Although no particular action is aimed at, this type of oratory is none the less an appeal to the will; the chief difference between this and determinate oratory is that this seeks for a decision that shall manifest itself

Types of Oratory 13

not in a single immediate action so much as in, perhaps, a course of life, in an attitude. The decision of the will, as already suggested, may not be expressed in language, and the hearer may not be conscious that he has formed a decision. It is manifest, rather, in a general bracing of the will in regard to the question at issue. Like a rivulet flowing into a river, the speech contributes a real, even if an imperceptible, accretion to the stream of the hearer's determination.

Not a little preaching and much platform speaking m&£ be classed as demonstrative oratory. Here is where Dr. Nott's "Death of Hamilton " and Webster's " First Settlement of New England " belong. A speech on such a theme as " The Character of Lincoln," if it presented that character in such a manner as to lead the hearers to resolve to cultivate Lincoln's virtues; an address on " The Oratory of Wendell Phillips," if it portrayed that oratory with such attractiveness as to induce the hearers to emulate, so far as their gifts and opportunities would permit, the qualities of that oratory; an eloquent discussion of " True Patriotism," if it so exalted such patriotism as to persuade the hearers to exemplify it in their own lives, would be true oratory, because it would lay hold on the will. Such addresses belong to demonstrative oratory. Indeed, most speeches that serve to arouse public sentiment, to quicken patriotism, to awaken admiration for exalted character or high achievement, to stir and stimulate a purpose for right living and noble endeavor, are of this type.

Chapter III

AN ORATION, like any other well constructed discourse, is made up of a variety of parts. The number of parts that should be recognized will vary according to circumstances, to the kind of oratory, to the minuteness of analysis desired, and to other factors that need not now be enumerated. For example, a sermon has an element not found in other forms of public speech in the text that is commonly used in this type of discourse. The text may well be regarded as a part of the sermon, and not rarely it is the best part.

Still further the analysis will depend upon the use of terms. No two writers precisely agree in their nomenclature. They use words in different senses and give different names to the same idea. Aristotle, for example, recognized as parts of an oration the introduction, the proposition, the proof, and the conclusion, but he claimed that neither the introduction nor the conclusion was essential. Quintilian, the great Latin rhetorician, on the other hand, enumerated five parts, which he named the introduction, the narration, the proof, the refutation, and the conclusion. What he called the narration belonged especially to the oratory of the bar; it was what in modern times is termed the lawyer's statement of his case, and included substantially the ground covered by Aristotle's " Proposition." So, likewise, the " Proof " and the " Refutation " in Quintilian's analysis are simply the positive and the negative sides of one process.

In the present discussion it is desired to avoid extended and minute analysis, and to proceed as much as may be on broad and general lines. For the sake of simplicity, therefore, we need to recognize only four main divisions of a completed oration: (i) the introduction; (2) the proposition or object; (3) the discussion; (4) the conclusion.

We say the " completed " oration reveals these parts, because we wish to distinguish between the finished product and the skeleton on which that product is built. The skeleton, or plan, includes and sharply defines all the details and particulars; it states the title, theme, object, introduction, discussion with its various partitions and subdivisions, and the nature of the conclusion ; but in the speech, as pronounced, some of these details are buried. They are present, giving unity, coherence, order, proportion, progress, strength, and climax to the discourse, but they do not usually appear to the hearer — at least not so prominently as to obtrude themselves upon his attention. What he realizes, so far as the topic now under discussion is concerned, is that the discourse has a beginning, a pervading general thought, the development of that thought, and an appropriate ending, and that these different parts, while vitally connected, are, nevertheless, distinct one from another. If he be an intelligent and attentive listener, he knows where one ends and another begins. For purposes of convenience, therefore, the four parts above named may be considered as constituting the groundwork of a typical oration. It is the present purpose to discuss simply the nature, functions, and in a limited measure the form of these parts, leaving such matters as the method of development and details of style for later consideration.

i. The Introduction. — As its name implies, the introduction is that part at the beginning of an oration which " leads into " the discourse and prepares the way for the presentation and proposed discussion of the main topic. Its aim is simply, naturally, briefly, and effectively to interest the audience in the theme and prepare it for listening fairly and, if it may be, sympathetically to the development of that theme. It is the nexus between the theme and the hearers. The speaker has these factors before him — his theme and his audience. How shall he bring these two factors together? This is the problem that is set for him. The process of solving this problem is revealed in the introduction. That it be solved is of supreme importance.

The introduction has for one of its functions to lead the audience into the subject without shock. " Mental processes, to be agreeable, must be gradual." For an orator to plunge without preface of some sort into the heat of a discussion would be as contrary to the law of mind as for the sun to burst from midnight darkness to noonday splendor without the gradations of the dawn would be contrary to the law of the physical universe. The introduction performs the office of a herald, gracefully to announce and impressively to marshal in the full procession of the thought.

But the introduction does more than this. It serves to arouse sympathy on the part of the audience with the speaker's own feelings toward his subject. He, presumably, is not only interested in the question in hand, but excited over it. His hearers, on the contrary, are relatively indifferent if not positively hostile in their attitude toward that question. It will never do to plunge without prelude into the full blaze of the discussion. The heat would be too great; instead of warming the sympathies of the hearers it would rather scorch and wither them. " Behold how great a conflagration a little fire kindleth ! " The orator must begin not with the blasting conflagration but with the little fire. He may be, himself, profoundly stirred; indeed he must be if he would achieve the highest oratorical success; but to arouse his hearers to a similar frame of mind is a gradual process. He must first overcome their intellectual and emotional inertia. The engineer that pulls the throttle of the locomotive wide open at the first touch invites disaster. He does not move the train, he breaks the coupling, and if the machine does not jump the track it goes tearing along the course alone. The introduction to a speech is the gradual opening of the valve, by which the wise orator puts his audience in motion, so to speak, with himself, and prepares them to move without jar in full harmony with his own thought and feeling to the chosen destination.

Once more, the introduction affords the speaker an opportunity of putting not only his theme but himself on good terms with his audience. If his hearers are indifferent or hostile to him, or if they are distrustful of him, he can do nothing with them. They do not separate, in their thoughts, the speech from the speaker. He must remove their prejudices before he can move them. The introduction affords him an opportunity of doing this. It gives him a chance to convince them of his frankness and sincerity, of his honesty of purpose and method, of his profound conviction of the truth and importance of the position he holds, of the uprightness of his character, of his mastery of the subject in hand, so that they may hear him as one that speaks with authority. Such, then, is the threefold function of the introduction : it prepares the audience for the intellectual apprehension of and interest in the subject; it enables the speaker to place himself on good terms with his hearers ; it helps him bring them into sympathy of feeling with himself toward the subject. All this is what Cicero meant by his famous assertion that the purpose of the exordium is " reddere auditores benevolos, attentos, dociles " — that is, to render the hearers " well disposed " toward the speaker, " attentive " to what he may have to say, and " teachable " or open-minded in regard to the sentiments he may have to express. At least one and perhaps all these purposes will be exemplified and subserved in every effective introduction. This principle will explain why so many speeches and lectures begin with a more or less amusing story or joke. It is an attempt, on the part of the speaker, to put himself at the outset on good terms with his hearers. Some speakers manifest great tact and adroitness in taking advantage of unforeseen circumstances to secure the goodwill of their audiences. Several years ago, at a large religious convention in Washington, a great audience had gathered to listen to a distinguished speaker. When the speaker was introduced, there was the usual courteous applause. In the midst of the applause a pane of glass fell from one of the windows to the floor. There was an instant's hush at the unexpected interruption. " There," exclaimed the speaker, before the sound of the breaking glass was fairly ended, " I 'm bringing down the house already," and this time the applause was genuine. By such a ready wit he had placed himself on terms of good-fellowship with his audience and they were prepared to listen in a friendly attitude to all that he had to say. His introduction was made for him by circumstances.