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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and we have been spurned

      with contempt from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these

      things, may we indulge in the fond hope of peace and

      reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish

      to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable

      privileges for which we have been so long contending; if we mean

      not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been

      so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to

      abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be

      obtained, we must fight; I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An

      appeal to arms, and to the God of Hosts, is all that is left us!

      They tell us, sir, that we are weak--"unable to cope with so

      formidable an adversary"! But when shall we be stronger? Will it

      be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are

      totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in

      every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and

      inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by

      lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of

      hope, until our enemies have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are

      not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God

      of Nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people,

      armed in the holy cause of Liberty, and in such a country as

      that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our

      enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our

      battles alone. There is a just Power who presides over the

      destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our

      battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it

      is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have

      no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too

      late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat, but in

      submission and slavery. Our chains are forged. Their clanking

      may be heard on the plains of Boston. The war is inevitable; and

      let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come! It is in vain, sir,

      to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry "Peace, peace!" but

      there is no peace! The war is actually begun! The next gale that

      sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of

      resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why

      stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would

      they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be

      purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it,

      Almighty Powers!--I know not what course others may take; but as

      for me, give me liberty or give me death!

      2. Live over in your imagination all the solemnity and sorrow that

      Lincoln felt at the Gettysburg cemetery. The feeling in this speech is

      very deep, but it is quieter and more subdued than the preceding one.

      The purpose of Henry's address was to get action; Lincoln's speech was

      meant only to dedicate the last resting place of those who had acted.

      Read it over and over (see page 50) until it burns in your soul. Then

      commit it and repeat it for emotional expression.

      3. Beecher's speech on Lincoln, page 76; Thurston's speech on "A Plea

      for Cuba," page 50; and the following selection, are recommended for

      practise in developing feeling in delivery.

      A living force that brings to itself all the resources of

      imagination, all the inspirations of feeling, all that is

      influential in body, in voice, in eye, in gesture, in posture,

      in the whole animated man, is in strict analogy with the divine

      thought and the divine arrangement; and there is no

      misconstruction more utterly untrue and fatal than this: that

      oratory is an artificial thing, which deals with baubles and

      trifles, for the sake of making bubbles of pleasure for

      transient effect on mercurial audiences. So far from that, it is

      the consecration of the whole man to the noblest purposes to

      which one can address himself--the education and inspiration of

      his fellow men by all that there is in learning, by all that

      there is in thought, by all that there is in feeling, by all

      that there is in all of them, sent home through the channels of

      taste and of beauty.

      --HENRY WARD BEECHER.

      4. What in your opinion are the relative values of thought and feeling

      in a speech?

      5. Could we dispense with either?

      6. What kinds of selections or occasions require much feeling and

      enthusiasm? Which require little?

      7. Invent a list of ten subjects for speeches, saying which would give

      most room for pure thought and which for feeling.

      8. Prepare and deliver a ten-minute speech denouncing the (imaginary)

      unfeeling plea of an attorney; he may be either the counsel for the

      defense or the prosecuting attorney, and the accused may be assumed to

      be either guilty or innocent, at your option.

      9. Is feeling more important than the technical principles expounded in

      chapters III to VII? Why?

      10. Analyze the secret of some effective speech or speaker. To what is

      the success due?

      11. Give an example from your own observation of the effect of feeling

      and enthusiasm on listeners.

      12. Memorize Carlyle's and Emerson's remarks on enthusiasm.

      13. Deliver Patrick Henry's address, page 110, and Thurston's speech,

      page 50, without show of feeling or enthusiasm. What is the result?

      14. Repeat, with all the feeling these selections demand. What is the

      result?

      15. What steps do you intend to take to develop the power of enthusiasm

      and feeling in speaking?

      16. Write and deliver a five-minute speech ridiculing a speaker who uses

      bombast, pomposity and over-enthusiasm. Imitate him.