Читать книгу THE ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING - J. BERG ESENWEIN DALE CARNAGEY - Страница 21

1. In your own words define (a) cadence, (b) modulation, (c) inflection,

(d) emphasis.

2. Name five ways of destroying monotony and gaining effectiveness in

speech.

3. What states of mind does falling inflection signify? Make as full a

list as you can.

4. Do the same for the rising inflection.

5. How does the voice bend in expressing (_a_) surprise? (_b_) shame?

(_c_) hate? (_d_) formality? (_e_) excitement?

6. Reread some sentence several times and by using different inflections

change the meaning with each reading.

7. Note the inflections employed in some speech or conversation. Were

they the best that could be used to bring out the meaning? Criticise and

illustrate.

8. Render the following passages:

Has the gentleman done? Has he completely done?

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

9. Invent an indirect question and show how it would naturally be

inflected.

10. Does a direct question always require a rising inflection?

Illustrate.

11. Illustrate how the complete ending of an expression or of a speech

is indicated by inflection.

12. Do the same for incompleteness of idea.

13. Illustrate (_a_) trembling, (_b_) hesitation, and (_c_) doubt by

means of inflection.

14. Show how contrast may be expressed.

15. Try the effects of both rising and falling inflections on the

italicized words in the following sentences. State your preference.

Gentlemen, I am _persuaded_, nay, I am _resolved_ to speak.

It is sown a _natural_ body; it is raised a _spiritual_ body.

SELECTIONS FOR PRACTISE

In the following selections secure emphasis by means of long falling

inflections rather than loudness.

Repeat these selections, attempting to put into practise all the

technical principles that we have thus far had; emphasizing important

words, subordinating unimportant words, variety of pitch, changing

tempo, pause, and inflection. If these principles are applied you will

have no trouble with monotony.

Constant practise will give great facility in the use of inflection and

will render the voice itself flexible.

_CHARLES I_

We charge him with having broken his coronation oath; and we are

told that he kept his marriage vow! We accuse him of having

given up his people to the merciless inflictions of the most

hot-headed and hard-hearted of prelates; and the defence is,

that he took his little son on his knee and kissed him! We

censure him for having violated the articles of the Petition of

Right, after having, for good and valuable consideration,

promised to observe them; and we are informed that he was

accustomed to hear prayers at six o'clock in the morning! It is

to such considerations as these, together with his Vandyke

dress, his handsome face, and his peaked beard, that he owes, we

verily believe, most of his popularity with the present

generation.

--T.B. MACAULAY.

_ABRAHAM LINCOLN_

We needed not that he should put on paper that he believed in

slavery, who, with treason, with murder, with cruelty infernal,

hovered around that majestic man to destroy his life. He was

himself but the long sting with which slavery struck at liberty;

and he carried the poison that belonged to slavery. As long as

this nation lasts, it will never be forgotten that we have one

martyred President--never! Never, while time lasts, while

heaven lasts, while hell rocks and groans, will it be forgotten

that slavery, by its minions, slew him, and in slaying him made

manifest its whole nature and tendency.

But another thing for us to remember is that this blow was aimed

at the life of the government and of the nation. Lincoln was

slain; America was meant. The man was cast down; the government

was smitten at. It was the President who was killed. It was

national life, breathing freedom and meaning beneficence, that

was sought. He, the man of Illinois, the private man, divested

of robes and the insignia of authority, representing nothing but

his personal self, might have been hated; but that would not

have called forth the murderer's blow. It was because he stood

in the place of government, representing government and a

government that represented right and liberty, that he was

singled out.

This, then, is a crime against universal government. It is not a

blow at the foundations of our government, more than at the

foundations of the English government, of the French government,

of every compact and well-organized government. It was a crime

against mankind. The whole world will repudiate and stigmatize

it as a deed without a shade of redeeming light....

The blow, however, has signally failed. The cause is not

stricken; it is strengthened. This nation has dissolved,--but in

tears only. It stands, four-square, more solid, to-day, than any

pyramid in Egypt. This people are neither wasted, nor daunted,

nor disordered. Men hate slavery and love liberty with stronger

hate and love to-day than ever before. The Government is not

weakened, it is made stronger....

And now the martyr is moving in triumphal march, mightier than

when alive. The nation rises up at every stage of his coming.

Cities and states are his pall-bearers, and the cannon beats the

hours with solemn progression. Dead--dead--dead--he yet

speaketh! Is Washington dead? Is Hampden dead? Is David dead? Is

any man dead that ever was fit to live? Disenthralled of flesh,

and risen to the unobstructed sphere where passion never comes,

he begins his illimitable work. His life now is grafted upon the

Infinite, and will be fruitful as no earthly life can be. Pass

on, thou that hast overcome! Your sorrows O people, are his

peace! Your bells, and bands, and muffled drums sound triumph in

his ear. Wail and weep here; God makes it echo joy and triumph

there. Pass on, victor!

Four years ago, O Illinois, we took from your midst an untried

man, and from among the people; we return him to you a mighty

conqueror. Not thine any more, but the nation's; not ours, but

the world's. Give him place, ye prairies! In the midst of this

great Continent his dust shall rest, a sacred treasure to

myriads who shall make pilgrimage to that shrine to kindle anew

their zeal and patriotism. Ye winds, that move over the mighty

places of the West, chant his requiem! Ye people, behold a

martyr, whose blood, as so many inarticulate words, pleads for

fidelity, for law, for liberty!

--HENRY WARD BEECHER.

_THE HISTORY OF LIBERTY_

The event which we commemorate is all-important, not merely in

our own annals, but in those of the world. The sententious

English poet has declared that "the proper study of mankind is

man," and of all inquiries of a temporal nature, the history of

our fellow-beings is unquestionably among the most interesting.

But not all the chapters of human history are alike important.

The annals of our race have been filled up with incidents which

concern not, or at least ought not to concern, the great company

of mankind. History, as it has often been written, is the

genealogy of princes, the field-book of conquerors; and the

fortunes of our fellow-men have been treated only so far as they

have been affected by the influence of the great masters and

destroyers of our race. Such history is, I will not say a

worthless study, for it is necessary for us to know the dark

side as well as the bright side of our condition. But it is a

melancholy study which fills the bosom of the philanthropist and

the friend of liberty with sorrow.

But the history of liberty--the history of men struggling to be

free--the history of men who have acquired and are exercising

their freedom--the history of those great movements in the

world, by which liberty has been established and perpetuated,

forms a subject which we cannot contemplate too closely. This is

the real history of man, of the human family, of rational

immortal beings....

The trial of adversity was theirs; the trial of prosperity is

ours. Let us meet it as men who know their duty and prize their

blessings. Our position is the most enviable, the most

responsible, which men can fill. If this generation does its

duty, the cause of constitutional freedom is safe. If we

fail--if we fail--not only do we defraud our children of the

inheritance which we received from our fathers, but we blast the

hopes of the friends of liberty throughout our continent,

throughout Europe, throughout the world, to the end of time.

History is not without her examples of hard-fought fields, where

the banner of liberty has floated triumphantly on the wildest

storm of battle. She is without her examples of a people by whom

the dear-bought treasure has been wisely employed and safely

handed down. The eyes of the world are turned for that example

to us....

Let us, then, as we assemble on the birthday of the nation, as

we gather upon the green turf, once wet with precious blood--let

us devote ourselves to the sacred cause of constitutional

liberty! Let us abjure the interests and passions which divide

the great family of American freemen! Let the rage of party

spirit sleep to-day! Let us resolve that our children shall have

cause to bless the memory of their fathers, as we have cause to

bless the memory of ours!

--EDWARD EVERETT.