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The Art of Public Speaking

J. BERG ESENWEIN

AUTHOR OF

"HOW TO ATTRACT AND HOLD AN AUDIENCE,"

"WRITING THE SHORT-STORY,"

"WRITING THE PHOTOPLAY," ETC., ETC.,

AND

DALE CARNAGEY

PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING, BALTIMORE SCHOOL OF COMMERCE AND

FINANCE; INSTRUCTOR IN PUBLIC SPEAKING, Y.M.C.A. SCHOOLS, NEW

YORK, BROOKLYN, BALTIMORE, AND PHILADELPHIA, AND THE NEW YORK

CITY CHAPTER, AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF BANKING

=Things to Think of First=

The efficiency of a book is like that of a man, in one important

respect: its attitude toward its subject is the first source of its

power. A book may be full of good ideas well expressed, but if its

writer views his subject from the wrong angle even his excellent advice

may prove to be ineffective.

This book stands or falls by its authors' attitude toward its subject.

If the best way to teach oneself or others to speak effectively in

public is to fill the mind with rules, and to set up fixed standards for

the interpretation of thought, the utterance of language, the making of

gestures, and all the rest, then this book will be limited in value to

such stray ideas throughout its pages as may prove helpful to the

reader--as an effort to enforce a group of principles it must be

reckoned a failure, because it is then untrue.

It is of some importance, therefore, to those who take up this volume

with open mind that they should see clearly at the out-start what is the

thought that at once underlies and is builded through this structure. In

plain words it is this:

Training in public speaking is not a matter of externals--primarily; it

is not a matter of imitation--fundamentally; it is not a matter of

conformity to standards--at all. Public speaking is public utterance,

public issuance, of the man himself; therefore the first thing both in

time and in importance is that the man should be and think and feel

things that are worthy of being given forth. Unless there be something

of value within, no tricks of training can ever make of the talker

anything more than a machine--albeit a highly perfected machine--for the

delivery of other men's goods. So self-development is fundamental in our

plan.

The second principle lies close to the first: The man must enthrone his

will to rule over his thought, his feelings, and all his physical

powers, so that the outer self may give perfect, unhampered expression

to the inner. It is futile, we assert, to lay down systems of rules for

voice culture, intonation, gesture, and what not, unless these two

principles of having something to say and making the will sovereign have

at least begun to make themselves felt in the life.

The third principle will, we surmise, arouse no dispute: No one can

learn _how_ to speak who does not first speak as best he can. That may

seem like a vicious circle in statement, but it will bear examination.

Many teachers have begun with the _how_. Vain effort! It is an ancient

truism that we learn to do by doing. The first thing for the beginner in

public speaking is to speak--not to study voice and gesture and the

rest. Once he has spoken he can improve himself by self-observation or

according to the criticisms of those who hear.

But how shall he be able to criticise himself? Simply by finding out

three things: What are the qualities which by common consent go to make

up an effective speaker; by what means at least some of these qualities

may be acquired; and what wrong habits of speech in himself work against

his acquiring and using the qualities which he finds to be good.

Experience, then, is not only the best teacher, but the first and the

last. But experience must be a dual thing--the experience of others must

be used to supplement, correct and justify our own experience; in this

way we shall become our own best critics only after we have trained

ourselves in self-knowledge, the knowledge of what other minds think,

and in the ability to judge ourselves by the standards we have come to

believe are right. "If I ought," said Kant, "I can."

An examination of the contents of this volume will show how consistently

these articles of faith have been declared, expounded, and illustrated.

The student is urged to begin to speak at once of what he knows. Then he

is given simple suggestions for self-control, with gradually increasing

emphasis upon the power of the inner man over the outer. Next, the way

to the rich storehouses of material is pointed out. And finally, all the

while he is urged to speak, _speak_, _SPEAK_ as he is applying to his own

methods, in his own _personal_ way, the principles he has gathered from

his own experience and observation and the recorded experiences of

others.

So now at the very first let it be as clear as light that methods are

secondary matters; that the full mind, the warm heart, the dominant will

are primary--and not only primary but paramount; for unless it be a full

being that uses the methods it will be like dressing a wooden image in

the clothes of a man.

J. BERG ESENWEIN.

NARBERTH, PA.,

JANUARY 1, 1915.