mechanical exercise of the memory. Thus stiffness of position, monotonous delivery, and rhythmical utterance—all of them common faults with the unpracticed speaker—are likely to be the unpleasant accompaniments of the long speech that taxes the memory.

These extracts, though widely varied in subject, are yet, for the most part, closely related to the history and the present problems of our country. A few speeches of a different sort, dealing with matters of vital human interest, have also been included. The editor has sought only what is likely to be serviceable, and has not inserted any selection merely for the sake of novelty. No apology is deemed necessary for reprinting a number of the old favorites in this collection. Some American orations have become classics. Such speeches as Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" and Patrick Henry's "Call to Arms," however hackneyed to the instructor, are fresh to every new generation of students, and familiarity with them should form part of the education of every American youth.

It is not the purpose of this Introduction to set forth the principles of elocution or the essentials of successful oratory. Many valuable text-books on the subject have been published, and the student is referred to them. Several treatises likely to be especially valuable to the public speaker are Mr. James E. Murdoch's "Analytic Elocution," Mr. Ralph C. Ringwalt's "Modern American Oratory," Mr. F. Townsend

Southwick's "Steps to Oratory," Mr. Albert M. Bacon's "Manual of Gesture," and Professor Francis T. Russell's "Vocal Culture."

It is well to bear in mind, however, that the many details of delivery can, from one point of view, be reduced to a single principle. "The successful speaker," says Mr. Raymond M. Alden in his "Art of Debate," "is one who is able to reach and move his audience. To do this he must not speak as though talking to himself, or into the air, but must talk to them. He must reach out after them, must touch them by his speech, must enter into their sympathies so as to move their feelings and wills. Two great facts must be in his mind: his subject and his audience. To bring these two together, as he sees them, is the whole end of his work. Himself he must for the time being forget. If this principle is operating in an ideal way, the brain will act logically, the style will move in orderly and fluent lines, and the whole physical man, as well as the man of thought and feeling, will be at his best." The editor desires to express his thanks to those publishers who have generously allowed him to use copyrighted material and to the many public men who have given him permission to reprint extracts from their speeches.

STATE COLLEGE, PA., June, 1901.

A. H. E.

FORENSIC DECLAMATIONS

THE POWER OF ELOQUENCE

HENRY B. STANTON

Taken from an address on "Ultraists, Conservatives, Reformers," delivered before the Adelphic Union Society of Williams College, at Williamstown, Mass., August 20, 1850.

In every enlightened age, eloquence has been a controlling element in human affairs. Eloquence is not a gift, but an art; not an inspiration, but an aquisition; not an intuition, but an attainment. Excellence in this art is attained only by unwearied practice and the careful study of the best models. The models lie all around us. The rest is within us. Demosthenes and Cicero will be household words, in all climes, to the end of time. But the more one studies the masters of Grecian and Roman eloquence, the more readily will he yield to the growing opinion that England, France, and America, during the last sixty or seventy years, have produced a greater number of eloquent orators than flourished in all Grecian and Roman history. As objects increase in size when seen through

I

a mist, so men tower into giants when seen through the haze of antiquity.

Without neglecting the ancient models, let us study those of our own times. From both we may catch some of that inspiration which bound the audience to the orator, and bade him play upon their emotions as the master touches the keys of his familiar instrument; which subdued them to tears or convulsed them with laughter; which bore them aloft on the wing of imagination, or blanched them with horror, while narration threw upon the canvas the colors which held the judgment and the fancy captive, as reason forged the chain of argument, and poetry studded its links with the gems of illustration; which poured over the subject a flood of rare knowledge, laden with the contributions of all sciences and all ages; which gamboled in playful humor, or barbed the point of epigram, or sketched the laughing caricature, gliding from grave to gay, from lively to severe, with majesty and grace;—that inspiration which, as Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and the judgment, made Felix tremble; as Demosthenes anathematized Macedonia, made the Greeks cry out, "Lead us against Philip"; at the thrilling tones of Patrick Henry, made America ring with the shout, "Give us liberty, or give us death"; when the thunder of Danton shook the dome of the Convention, roused all Paris to demand the head of Louis; and lashed into fury or hushed into repose acres of wild peasantry, as the voice of O'Connell rose or fell.