THE ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. J. BERG ESENWEIN DALE CARNAGEY. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: J. BERG ESENWEIN DALE CARNAGEY
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of the earth will constitute an international police

      force to preserve the peace and the dove will take the eagle's

      place.

      Our differences will be settled by an international court with

      the power to enforce its mandates. In times of peace prepare for

      peace. The wages of war are the wages of sin, and the "wages of

      sin is death."

      --_Editorial by D.C., Leslie's Weekly; used by permission._

      FORCE

      However, 'tis expedient to be wary:

      Indifference, certes, don't produce distress;

      And rash enthusiasm in good society

      Were nothing but a moral inebriety.

      --BYRON, _Don Juan_.

      You have attended plays that seemed fair, yet they did not move you,

      grip you. In theatrical parlance, they failed to "get over," which means

      that their message did not get over the foot-lights to the audience.

      There was no punch, no jab to them--they had no force.

      Of course, all this spells disaster, in big letters, not only in a stage

      production but in any platform effort. Every such presentation exists

      solely for the audience, and if it fails to hit them--and the expression

      is a good one--it has no excuse for living; nor will it live long.

      _What is Force?_

      Some of our most obvious words open up secret meanings under scrutiny,

      and this is one of them.

      To begin with, we must recognize the distinction between inner and outer

      force. The one is cause, the other effect. The one is spiritual, the

      other physical. In this important particular, animate force differs from

      inanimate force--the power of man, coming from within and expressing

      itself outwardly, is of another sort from the force of Shimose powder,

      which awaits some influence from without to explode it. However

      susceptive to outside stimuli, the true source of power in man lies

      within himself. This may seem like "mere psychology," but it has an

      intensely practical bearing on public speaking, as will appear.

      Not only must we discern the difference between human force and mere

      physical force, but we must not confuse its real essence with some of

      the things that may--and may not--accompany it. For example, loudness is

      not force, though force at times may be attended by noise. Mere roaring

      never made a good speech, yet there are moments--moments, mind you, not

      minutes--when big voice power may be used with tremendous effect.

      Nor is violent motion force--yet force may result in violent motion.

      Hamlet counseled the players:

      Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus; but use

      all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say)

      whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a

      temperance, that may give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to

      the soul, to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a

      passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the

      groundlings[2]; who, for the most part, are capable of nothing

      but inexplicable dumb show, and noise. I would have such a

      fellow whipped for o'er-doing Termagant; it out-herods Herod.

      Pray you avoid it.

      Be not too tame, neither, but let your discretion be your tutor:

      suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this

      special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature;

      for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose

      end, both at the first, and now, was, and is, to hold, as

      'twere, the mirror up to Nature, to show Virtue her own feature,

      Scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his

      form and pressure. Now, this overdone, or come tardy off, though

      it make the unskillful laugh, cannot but make the judicious

      grieve; the censure of the which one must, in your allowance,

      o'erweigh a whole theater of others. Oh, there be players that I

      have seen play--and heard others praise, and that highly--not to

      speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of

      Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, or man, have so

      strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature's

      journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated

      humanity so abominably.[3]

      Force is both a cause and an effect. Inner force, which must precede

      outer force, is a combination of four elements, acting progressively.

      First of all, _force arises from conviction_. You must be convinced of

      the truth, or the importance, or the meaning, of what you are about to

      say before you can give it forceful delivery. It must lay strong hold

      upon your convictions before it can grip your audience. Conviction

      convinces.

      _The Saturday Evening Post_ in an article on "England's T.R."--Winston

      Spencer Churchill--attributed much of Churchill's and Roosevelt's public

      platform success to their forceful delivery. No matter what is in hand,

      these men make themselves believe for the time being that that one thing

      is the most important on earth. Hence they speak to their audiences in a

      Do-this-or-you-_PERISH_ manner.

      That kind of speaking wins, and it is that virile, strenuous, aggressive

      attitude which both distinguishes and maintains the platform careers of

      our greatest leaders.

      But let us look a little closer at the origins of inner force. How does

      conviction affect the man who feels it? We have answered the inquiry in

      the very question itself--he _feels_ it: _Conviction produces emotional

      tension_. Study the pictures of Theodore Roosevelt and of Billy Sunday

      in action--_action_ is the word. Note the tension of their jaw muscles,

      the taut lines of sinews in their entire bodies when reaching a climax

      of force. Moral and physical force are alike in being both preceded and

      accompanied