Public Speaking: Principles and Practice Part 39

4

I see a race without disease of flesh or brain,--shapely and fair,--the married harmony of form and function,--and as I look, life lengthens, joy deepens, love canopies the earth.

TONE COLOR

Use the imagination to see and hear. Suit the voice to the sound, form or movement of your image, or to the mood of mind indicated.

Read with melody and pause. Take plenty of time.

1

There's a lurid light in the clouds to-night, In the wind there's a desolate moan, And the rage of the furious sea is white, Where it breaks on the crags of stone.

2

The Sun's rim dips; the stars rush out: At one stride comes the dark; With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea, Off shot the specter-bark.

3

Is this a time to be gloomy and sad; When our mother Nature laughs around; When even the deep blue heavens look glad, And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground?

4

The breeze comes whispering in our ear, That dandelions are blossoming near, That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing, That the river is bluer than the sky, That the robin is plastering his nest hard by; And if the breeze kept the good news back, For other couriers we should not lack; We could guess it all by yon heifer's lowing,-- And hark! how clear bold chanticleer, Warmed by the new wine of the year, Tells all by his l.u.s.ty crowing!

VARIETY--IN PITCH, TIME, FORCE, COLOR, AND MODULATION

1

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky; Ring out the false, ring in the true.

2

Good work is the most honorable and lasting thing in the world.

3

O Thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers, whence are thy beams, O Sun, thy everlasting light!

4

I am thy father's spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purg'd away.

5

"Well, gentlemen, I am a Whig. If you break up the Whig party, where am _I_ to go?" And, says Lowell, we all held our breath, thinking where he _could_ go. But, says Lowell, if he had been five feet three, we should have said, Who _cares_ where you go?

GESTURE

Have the action simple and unstudied, expressing the dominant purpose rather than ill.u.s.trating mere words or phrases. Avoid stiltedness and elaboration. Try to judge where and how the gesture would be made.

I

Nor do not _saw the air_ too much with your _hand, thus_, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of pa.s.sion, _you must acquire and beget a temperance_ that may give it smoothness.

2

In my native town of Athens is a monument that crowns its central hills--a plain, white shaft. _Deep cut into its shining side is a name_ dear to me above the names of men, that of a brave and simple man who died in brave and simple faith. Not for all the glories of New England--from Plymouth Rock all the way--would I exchange the heritage he left me in his soldier's death.

3

Sir, when I heard the gentleman lay down principles which place the murderers of Alton side by side with Otis and Hanc.o.c.k, with Quincy and Adams, _I thought those pictured lips_ (pointing to the portraits in the Hall) would have broken into voice to rebuke the recreant American,--the slanderer of the dead.

4

Suppose I stood at the foot of Vesuvius, or aetna, and, seeing a hamlet or a homestead planted on its slope, I said to the dwellers in that hamlet, or in that homestead, "_You see that vapor which ascends from the summit of the mountain._ That vapor may become a dense, black smoke, that will obscure the sky. _You see the trickling of lava from the crevices in the side of the mountain._ That trickling of lava may become a river of fire. _You hear that muttering in the bowels of the mountain._ That muttering may become a bellowing thunder, the voice of violent convulsion, that may shake half a continent."

5

And what have we to oppose them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer.

CHARACTERIZATION

1

Learn from real life. Don't go by the spelling. Don't overdo the dialect.

'E carried me away To where a dooli lay, An' a bullet come an' drilled the beggar clean.

'E put me safe inside, An' just before 'e died: "I 'ope you liked your drink," sez Gunga Din.

2

Sergeant Buzfuz began by saying that never, in the whole course of his experience,--never, from the very first moment of his applying himself to the study and practice of the law, had he approached a case with such a heavy sense of the responsibility imposed upon him.

3

I'm a walkin' pedestrian, a travelin' philosopher. Terry O'Mulligan's me name. I'm from Dublin, where many philosophers before me was raised and bred. Oh, philosophy is a foine study! I don't know anything about it, but it's a foine study!

4

It is de ladies who do sweeten de cares of life. It is de ladies who are de guiding stars of our existence. It is de ladies who do cheer but not inebriate, and, derefore, vid all homage to de dear s.e.x, de toast dat I have to propose is, "De Ladies! G.o.d bless dem all!"