Читать книгу THE ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING - J. BERG ESENWEIN DALE CARNAGEY - Страница 28

Animis opibusque parati--Ready in mind and resources.

--_Motto of South Carolina_.

In omnibus negotiis prius quam aggrediare, adhibenda est

præparatio diligens--In all matters before beginning a diligent

preparation should be made.

--CICERO, _De Officiis_.

Take your dictionary and look up the words that contain the Latin stem

_flu_--the results will be suggestive.

At first blush it would seem that fluency consists in a ready, easy use

of words. Not so--the flowing quality of speech is much more, for it is

a composite effect, with each of its prior conditions deserving of

careful notice.

_The Sources of Fluency_

Speaking broadly, fluency is almost entirely a matter of preparation.

Certainly, native gifts figure largely here, as in every art, but even

natural facility is dependent on the very same laws of preparation that

hold good for the man of supposedly small native endowment. Let this

encourage you if, like Moses, you are prone to complain that you are not

a ready speaker.

Have you ever stopped to analyze that expression, "a ready speaker?"

Readiness, in its prime sense, is preparedness, and they are most ready

who are best prepared. Quick firing depends more on the alert finger

than on the hair trigger. Your fluency will be in direct ratio to two

important conditions: your knowledge of what you are going to say, and

your being accustomed to telling what you know to an audience. This

gives us the second great element of fluency--to preparation must be

added the ease that arises from practise; of which more presently.

_Knowledge is Essential_

Mr. Bryan is a most fluent speaker when he speaks on political problems,

tendencies of the time, and questions of morals. It is to be supposed,

however, that he would not be so fluent in speaking on the bird life of

the Florida Everglades. Mr. John Burroughs might be at his best on this

last subject, yet entirely lost in talking about international law. Do

not expect to speak fluently on a subject that you know little or

nothing about. Ctesiphon boasted that he could speak all day (a sin in

itself) on any subject that an audience would suggest. He was banished

by the Spartans.

But preparation goes beyond the getting of the facts in the case you are

to present: it includes also the ability to think and arrange your

thoughts, a full and precise vocabulary, an easy manner of speech and

breathing, absence of self-consciousness, and the several other

characteristics of efficient delivery that have deserved special

attention in other parts of this book rather than in this chapter.

Preparation may be either general or specific; usually it should be

both. A life-time of reading, of companionship with stirring thoughts,

of wrestling with the problems of life--this constitutes a general

preparation of inestimable worth. Out of a well-stored mind, and--richer

still--a broad experience, and--best of all--a warmly sympathetic heart,

the speaker will have to draw much material that no _immediate_ study

could provide. General preparation consists of all that a man has put

into himself, all that heredity and environment have instilled into him,

and--that other rich source of preparedness for speech--the friendship

of wise companions. When Schiller returned home after a visit with

Goethe a friend remarked: "I am amazed by the progress Schiller can make

within a single fortnight." It was the progressive influence of a new

friendship. Proper friendships form one of the best means for the

formation of ideas and ideals, for they enable one to practise in giving

expression to thought. The speaker who would speak fluently before an

audience should learn to speak fluently and entertainingly with a

friend. Clarify your ideas by putting them in words; the talker gains as

much from his conversation as the listener. You sometimes begin to

converse on a subject thinking you have very little to say, but one idea

gives birth to another, and you are surprised to learn that the more you

give the more you have to give. This give-and-take of friendly

conversation develops mentality, and fluency in expression. Longfellow

said: "A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better

than ten years' study of books," and Holmes whimsically yet none the

less truthfully declared that half the time he talked to find out what

he thought. But that method must not be applied on the platform!

After all this enrichment of life by storage, must come the special

preparation for the particular speech. This is of so definite a sort

that it warrants separate chapter-treatment later.

_Practise_

But preparation must also be of another sort than the gathering,

organizing, and shaping of materials--it must include _practise_, which,

like mental preparation, must be both general and special.

Do not feel surprised or discouraged if practise on the principles of

delivery herein laid down seems to retard your fluency. For a time, this

will be inevitable. While you are working for proper inflection, for

instance, inflection will be demanding your first thoughts, and the flow

of your speech, for the time being, will be secondary. This warning,

however, is strictly for the closet, for your practise at home. Do not

carry any thoughts of inflection with you to the platform. There you

must _think_ only of your subject. There is an absolute telepathy

between the audience and the speaker. If your thought goes to your

gesture, their thought will too. If your interest goes to the quality of

your voice, they will be regarding that instead of what your voice is

uttering.

You have doubtless been adjured to "forget everything but your subject."

This advice says either too much or too little. The truth is that while

on the platform you must not _forget_ a great many things that are not

in your subject, but you must not _think_ of them. Your attention must

consciously go only to your message, but subconsciously you will be

attending to the points of technique which have become more or less

_habitual by practise_.

A nice balance between these two kinds of attention is important.

You can no more escape this law than you can live without air: Your

platform gestures, your voice, your inflection, will all be just as good

as your _habit_ of gesture, voice, and inflection makes them--no better.

Even the thought of whether you are speaking fluently or not will have

the effect of marring your flow of speech.

Return to the opening chapter, on self-confidence, and again lay its

precepts to heart. Learn by rules to speak without thinking of rules. It

is not--or ought not to be--necessary for you to stop to think how to

say the alphabet correctly, as a matter of fact it is slightly more

difficult for you to repeat Z, Y, X than it is to say X, Y, Z--habit has

established the order. Just so you must master the laws of efficiency in

speaking until it is a second nature for you to speak correctly rather

than otherwise. A beginner at the piano has a great deal of trouble with

the mechanics of playing, but as time goes on his fingers become trained

and almost instinctively wander over the keys correctly. As an

inexperienced speaker you will find a great deal of difficulty at first

in putting principles into practise, for you will be scared, like the

young swimmer, and make some crude strokes, but if you persevere you

will "win out."

Thus, to sum up, the vocabulary you have enlarged by study,[4] the ease

in speaking you have developed by practise, the economy of your

well-studied emphasis all will subconsciously come to your aid on the

platform. Then the habits you have formed will be earning you a splendid

dividend. The fluency of your speech will be at the speed of flow your

practise has made habitual.

But this means work. What good habit does not? No philosopher's stone

that will act as a substitute for laborious practise has ever been

found. If it were, it would be thrown away, because it would kill our

greatest joy--the delight of acquisition. If public-speaking means to

you a fuller life, you will know no greater happiness than a well-spoken

speech. The time you have spent in gathering ideas and in private

practise of speaking you will find amply rewarded.