Читать книгу THE ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING - J. BERG ESENWEIN DALE CARNAGEY - Страница 27

It is one thing to convince the would-be speaker that he ought to put

feeling into his speeches; often it is quite another thing for him to do

it. The average speaker is afraid to let himself go, and continually

suppresses his emotions. When you put enough feeling into your speeches

they will sound overdone to you, unless you are an experienced speaker.

They will sound too strong, if you are not used to enlarging for

platform or stage, for the delineation of the emotions must be enlarged

for public delivery.

1. Study the following speech, going back in your imagination to the

time and circumstances that brought it forth. Make it not a memorized

historical document, but feel the emotions that gave it birth. The

speech is only an effect; live over in your own heart the causes that

produced it and try to deliver it at white heat. It is not possible for

you to put too much real feeling into it, though of course it would be

quite easy to rant and fill it with false emotion. This speech,

according to Thomas Jefferson, started the ball of the Revolution

rolling. Men were then willing to go out and die for liberty.

_PATRICK HENRY'S SPEECH_

BEFORE THE VIRGINIA CONVENTION OF DELEGATES

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions

of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth,

and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us to

beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and

arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the

number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear

not, the things which so nearly concern our temporal salvation?

For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am

willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to

provide for it.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the

lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future

but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what

there has been in the conduct of the British Ministry for the

last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have

been pleased to solace themselves and the House? Is it that

insidious smile with which our petition has been lately

received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your

feet. Suffer not yourselves to be "betrayed with a kiss"! Ask

yourselves, how this gracious reception of our petition comports

with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and

darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of

love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to

be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our

love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the

implements of war and subjugation, the last "arguments" to which

kings resort.

I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its

purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign

any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy in

this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of

navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us;

they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and

to rivet upon us those chains which the British Ministry have

been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall

we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten

years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing.

We have held the subject up in every light of which it is

capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to

entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which

have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir,

deceive ourselves longer. Sir, we have done everything that

could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. We

have petitioned, we have remonstrated, we have supplicated, we

have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored

its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the Ministry

and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our

remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our

supplications have been disregarded, 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.