attempting to explain their ideas to a single person previous to addressing a meeting, that it has been only the continued experience of this fact that has prevented their being disheartened by it. But this may be readily accounted for:-first, there is the additional stimulus arising from the sympathy of numbers; there is the absolute necessity of not showing any hesitation, and the acquired habit of giving up the expression you want, if it does not come to hand, and substituting some other, though much less forcible, in its stead; again, in conversation men have generally to arrange their arguments as they go on; new ideas are suggested or sought for whilst they speak; they are not exactly decided what they want to say, nor are they familiar enough with their subject to have all the terms and expressions ready for Let them, however, be telling you something of which their whole mind is full, some piece of good news or some story of an injustice done to them, and there will be very little hesitation. Hence want of fluency in conversation, or in the first attempts at public speaking, is by no means primâ facie evidence that a man will not eventually speak without the least hesitation. use. Secondly, subject-matter is apt to fail the speaker. This objection is perhaps the one which carries the greatest weight with it, and yet it may be shown, more than any other, to be based on a fallacy. It is founded on the supposition that the term extempore refers to matter as well as to language. The lawyer has seldom much difficulty in speaking, because he has always fresh facts and fresh arguments which have to be conveyed to his hearers. If the speaker neglect to store his mind with new ideas and new arguments, the surprise would be if his subject-matter did not fail him. He is expecting to do that which no other class of persons ever has been able to do or simple enough to attempt. Another advantage of the mind being well stored with subject-matter is, that any slight hesitation or verbal inaccuracy is scarcely more observed than it would be in conversation; and for this reason— -that it does not indicate that a man is getting out of his depth, and at a loss what to say next; thus the hearer's mind is carried along by a connected argument, and it is only when that connection seems to be endangered, that any nervousness is likely to be felt for the speaker. In answering the third objection, that the speaker has not the power of arranging his ideas into a clear and convincing argument, we must take into consideration the fact which experience amply bears outthat the majority of men are so educated, that, except on the most ordinary subjects, or on questions which have become matters of private or public discussion, they have no definite ideas at all; and it is only when they attempt to render their dim and shadowy conceptions sufficiently tangible to be grasped by the mind of another that they perceive any difficulty; they then find that their outline of thought is often in itself very incomplete, and the details either refuse to arrange themselves in harmony with it, or are in some places wanting altogether. If the truth of these remarks be admitted, it follows that some plan will have to be adopted by a speaker to overcome this difficulty, inasmuch as he cannot possibly convey to others that which he has not clearly conceived himself. He will, I think, be obliged to have recourse to writing. By this means he will at once unravel the tangled skeins of thought which may have been lying in a confused and useless mass in his mind. The first putting pen to paper will also be the signal for a host of new ideas to rally round him; and, as he advances upon each division of his subject, fresh recruits will continually be pouring in-raw levies they may be, but requiring only care and subordination to constitute them valuable auxiliaries; camp followers and baggage there must be none; all must be meant for service, "not yet mature" perhaps, "but matchless :" then, if the plan of the campaign be but skilfully laid, and execution be not wanting, not more surely would the exiled Prince, returning once more to claim his own, and, gathering strength at every step, advance to conquest, than would the orator, wielding at will the powers which his patience had disciplined, make all difficulties fly before the onward march of his resistless argument. If, on the contrary, whether despising his adversary or overconfident in himself, he advances prematurely to the conflict, discomfiture must inevitably be the consequence a discomfiture not the less galling because it is to be attributed solely to the fact that he has, wantonly or presumptuously, neglected the only proper means of ensuring a different result. The fourth objection, that a person will put forward much that maturer thought would have led him to suppress, can only arise from the abuse not the use of extempore speaking. If a man acquires the power of keeping strictly to the subjectmatters that he has prepared, in the mere choice of words it is only possible for him to commit verbal errors. CHAPTER II. "The wise and active conquer difficulties HE first requisite for public speaking is the power of clothing thoughts previously conceived in appropriate language; the second, the power of weaving together a succession of thoughts into a harmonious whole. In the outset, then, we shall find that some men have greater difficulties to contend with than others. For instance, the man, some eight or ten years of whose life has been spent in studying the classics, will have gained an accurate and almost instinctive perception of the various shades of meaning expressed by nearly synonymous words; and more than this, a continual habit of translating classical authors will have given him not only a ready command of words, but an aptitude for arranging them, so as best to convey his meaning. For those who have not had this previous training, perhaps the |