Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The Lives of the Greatest Orators and their
Best Orations from Earliest Times to Present
Day with an Account of Place and Time of
Delivery of Each Oration and Explanatory
Notes on Obscure Passages.

ARRANGED IN EIGHTEEN GREAT EPOCHS OR BOOKS

[ocr errors]

By Charles Morris,

Author of Manual of Classical Literature" "Half-Hours with Best American
Authors," "History and Triumphs of the Nineteenth Century," Etc., Etc., Etc.

CITY

Profusely Illustrated with Great Historic Scenes and
Portraits of Brilliant Orators.

PHILADELPHIA

THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO.

CHICAGO

TORONTO

8955 M87

SINERAL

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1902 by W. E. SCULL, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

All Rights Reserved

[ocr errors]

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ORATORY

-AND THE

END, AIM AND PURPOSE OF THIS WORK

case,

RATORY is, in its essential elements, the oldest of the arts, for it is one that requires, for its ordinary exercise, no other equipment than fluency of speech and some degree of self-confidence on the part of the speaker. It has, therefore, been practiced for ages past, as well among savage and barbarous tribes as among civilized peoples, in evidence of which may be mentioned the striking examples of native oratory attributed to the American Indians. This being the it might naturally be conceived that the literature of civilization would be overflowing with oratorical productions of high merit. Yet such a conclusion would be by no means a safe one. When we come to consider the abundant examples of oratory on record, it is to find the pure gold of eloquence often sadly alloyed. The orations of supreme merit, those which have won a position in the world's best literature, are few in number, and the list of world-famed orators is less extended than in almost any other field of human art.

From this fact we can but conclude that the necessary equipment for the higher type of oratory demands far more than mere readiness in speech, grace in gesture, and fluent command of language. Back of these accomplishments must rest superior powers of thought, logical consistency in reasoning, quickness and brilliancy of conception, control of rhetorical expedients, and much of what is known as personal magnetism,

[ocr errors]

ii

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ORATORY

the ability to sway the feelings of hearers by sympathetic warmth of utterance. To these there must be added, for eminent success upon the rostrum, rich and full powers of voice, large training in the effective use of language, graceful and commanding attitudes and gestures, and all those personal qualities which give a living force to spoken words. The orator should have the art of the poet as well as the force of the reasoner, be capable of clothing his thoughts in a brilliant cloak of words and phrases, of controlling the feelings as well as appealing to the judgment of his hearers, in short, of employing all the expedients of which language is susceptible, all the attraction of which the voice and person are capable, and all the powers of thought with which the intellect is furnished.

THE EFFECT OF ORATORY

An oration, to be fully appreciated, must be heard, not read. Much of what gave it force and effect is lost when it is committed to print. The living personality is gone-the flashing eye, the vibrating voice, the impetuous gesture, the passionate declamation, the swaying and sweeping energy of eloquence which at times gives to meaningless words a controlling force. Much is lost, but by no means all. The real flesh and blood of the oration is left-its logic, its truth, its quality as a product of the intellect. When thus read, apart from the personal influence of the orator and with cool and judicial mind, the sophistry, the emptiness, of many showy orations become pitifully evident, while the true merit of the really great effort grows doubly apparent. No longer taken captive by the speaker's manner and the external aids to eloquence, the reader can calmly measure and weigh 1.is words and thoughts, with competence to reject the vapid example of speech-making and give its just pre-eminence to the truly great oration.

From what is above said it should be evident that the powers of the orator are not alone those of pure reasoning, of logic reduced to its finest elements. No example of oratory

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ORATORY

iii

should be judged from such a point of view. An orator is essentially a partisan. He takes sides almost necessarily, and is apt to employ any means at his command to give the supremacy to his own side of the question at issue. He is the counterpart, not of the judge-who calmly and logically weighs the two sides of the case to be decided and seeks to avoid preference to either-but of the advocate, whose aim it is to convince the jury that his own side is the correct one, and who does this by employing every sophistry, every trick of speech and argument, every device to add to the strength of his client's case and lessen that of his opponent. But ordinarily the orator, partisan though he may be, has a wider audience than a jury, and a higher sense of duty to himself and his hearers than is usually to be found in a jury trial. jury trial. Though it may be his purpose rather to convince than to prove, and though he may not hesitate to help his side of the argument by oratorical devices and skillful deceptions, he must have an earnest belief in the strength and cogency of his own cause or he can scarcely hope to succeed. No man can serve God and Mammon. The great oration must come from the heart and not from the lips. Yet it is not enough for a man to believe in his cause; his cause as well as his belief must be strong. The speech which does not ring true to a judicious reader is defective either in its cause or its advocate. Sophistry may weigh well on the platform, but it becomes hollow and empty in the cabinet, and the merit of no oration can be justly decided upon until it has been put to the test of the reader's mind.

While, therefore, the idea is widely entertained that an oration must be heard to be truly appreciated, this conception is far from correct. There are two things to be considered in judging every oration; the real quality and merit of the thought expressed, and the effect of delivery-the speaker's powers of elocution and the magnetic influence of voice and personality. The latter has often an immense effect, and the hearer frequently leaves the presence of the orator convinced against the

« PreviousContinue »