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CHAPTER XV

READING FOR THE ORATOR

FEW words on the relation of reading to the style of the reader himself, may not be out of place as preliminary to some specific suggestion as to reading for the orator.

The English language and English literature are one flesh, and cannot be safely divorced. He, therefore, who would use the language effectively must know how it has been used by others who have used it effectively. He must read the great literature of the world. The union of such reading, with constant writing in emulation of the masters, is the true laboratory method. It is the inductive process applied to the work of ascertaining the facts of the language at first hand and the application of the knowledge so acquired to the process of attaining power in speech on the part of the investigator himself.

If we read the history of our great writers, we shall find that a surprisingly large proportion of them learned their art by seeing that art exemplified in real literature. Call the long roll of the immortals whose names make luminous the literary history of the world. So far as they revealed the secret of their power, almost without exception, they claim to have acquired their magic of

speech through the study and conscious imitation of the great writers that have gone before them. Time would fail to tell of Ben Franklin and Stevenson, and Burroughs, of Tennyson and Burns and Lamb, of Ruskin and Coleridge, of Edmund Spenser and Milton and Pope, of Ben Jonson and Sir Philip Sidney, of Wordsworth also, and Addison and DeQuincey and Irving, and many others whose names shine with conspicuous brilliancy in the firmament of the world's great writers. These have all gained a good reputation through the splendor with which their messages to men have been expressed. And they learned how to clothe those messages with beauty and power, because their own minds were enriched and their own style given form and impulse through absorption, as it were, of the very heart's blood of the masters who went before them. So their works do follow them. So they have learned how to work "by watching the masters' work," thus gaining

Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play.

One may know the rules of good writing by heart, and violate every one of them. We are all unconscious as well as conscious imitators. We catch from our associates habits of thought, tricks of manner, forms of speech. If the boy is so wise as to choose a father and a mother that speak good English, and select a home of culture where books are his daily companions, it is reasonably certain that he will speak and write correctly, though he never learn a formal rule of grammar and though he

would not recognize a law of rhetoric, as such, were he to meet it face to face. He uses the language as he hears and reads it as used by others. On the other hand, the boy that is brought up amid illiterate surroundings will commit linguistic murder with every sentence he utters. If, then, we would counteract the corrupting effects of evil associations as applied to this subject, we must see to it that all opportunity and all encouragement be given to read sympathetically the works of those that have obtained a place among the world's great writers.

The preceding remarks are as applicable to the orator as to him who would use language effectively with the pen. He, too, must saturate his mind with the eloquent speech of the masters of assemblies, if he would himself become a master of assemblies. He cannot safely trust to untrained genius, even on the assumption that he has genius. He needs to read not only for the immediate occasion, but as a means of general oratorical culture; not simply for information, but for inspiration. In general, it may be said that all reading, if of the right kind, will be of value to the speaker. All books should add something to his store from which he can draw as occasion offers. The more knowledge he has, the wider will be his stock of supplies and the greater will be his range of vision, the richer his resources.

While all good books are of real value to the public speaker, certain lines of reading are especially important. For one thing the speaker should give much attention to History. A knowledge of the ancient peoples and their

civilizations, the great works they have accomplished, the deeds they have done, the ideas for which they have stood,— all this will be of value in furnishing the mind with material from which the orator may draw as occasion offers. The great movements of the world, also crises in the progress of the nations should be familiar to his mind. The fall of the Roman Empire, the Reformation in the various countries of Europe, the French Revolution, the Magna Charta in England, the growth of constitutional government during the last hundred years, some knowledge of the great religions that have. shaped the course of history, at least a general familiarity with the development of modern science,- all these things will be of value to him who would make of himself a well finished speaker.

As of value in his work, also, the speaker should keep in touch with the great questions of his time. The great political movements of his day, not only in his own country but in other lands; great religious movements; great missionary undertakings; education; reforms; benevolent efforts; economic and sociological discussions,— with these great tides of human thought as they ebb and flow in the world around him, the speaker must be familiar; and he can best gain familiarity with them not only through first-hand contact, but through the reading of books and discussions. Thus will his thinking be kept abreast of the march of progress.

Still further, he who would be an orator will do well to read much of biography. The history of the race is

little more than the record of the great men that have led the race. The most interesting object on earth is a human being; the most instructive, suggestive, inspiring truths are those illustrated in the lives of human beings. The closer contact one that aspires to be a speaker can have with the great men of all ages, the more likely he is himself to become great. Many a boy has been inspired to high endeavor, many a youth has been encouraged to noble effort, many a man has found helpful material and lofty ideals, in the experiences, character, and achievements of other men, who have done something and been something in the world.

Once more, the orator will find it of advantage to read much of the best general literature. From those productions that require hard, close thinking, the fiber of his own mind is made tough and flexible, his own mental processes are quickened and lifted, his imagination is given a broader range, and his emotional nature a greater responsiveness. The reading of the best poetry, especially, has this value. Attention has already been called to the fact that the work of the orator is in many particulars analogous to that of the poet. His mind is of the same cast. In powers of thought, in reach of imagination, in sensitiveness of emotion, orator and poet are of the same cast. The main difference in their work is that the work of the poet is in verse, while that of the orator is in prose, and that the poem is written to be read, while the oration is prepared and spoken to be heard.

The wide reading of literature is valuable because it