The Art of Public Speaking Part 29

III. THE BIRTH OF OUR NATION WAS UNDER CHRISTIAN AUSPICES.

1. Christian character of Washington.

2. Other Christian patriots.

3. The Church in our Revolutionary struggle. Muhlenberg.

IV. OUR LATER HISTORY HAS ONLY EMPHASIZED OUR NATIONAL ATt.i.tUDE. Examples of dealings with foreign nations show Christian magnanimity. Returning the Chinese Indemnity; fostering the Red Cross; att.i.tude toward Belgium.

V. OUR GOVERNMENTAL FORMS AND MANY OF OUR LAWS ARE OF A CHRISTIAN TEMPER.

1. The use of the Bible in public ways, oaths, etc.

2. The Bible in our schools.

3. Christian chaplains minister to our law-making bodies, to our army, and to our navy.

4. The Christian Sabbath is officially and generally recognized.

5. The Christian family and the Christian system of morality are at the basis of our laws.

VI. THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE TESTIFIES OF THE POWER OF CHRISTIANITY. Charities, education, etc., have Christian tone.

VII. OTHER NATIONS REGARD US AS A CHRISTIAN PEOPLE.

VIII. CONCLUSION: The att.i.tude which may reasonably be expected of all good citizens toward questions touching the preservation of our standing as a Christian nation.

_Writing and Revision_

After the outline has been perfected comes the time to write the speech, if write it you must. Then, whatever you do, write it at white heat, with not _too_ much thought of anything but the strong, appealing expression of your ideas.

The final stage is the paring down, the re-vision--the seeing again, as the word implies--when all the parts of the speech must be impartially scrutinized for clearness, precision, force, effectiveness, suitability, proportion, logical climax; and in all this you must _imagine yourself to be before your audience_, for a speech is not an essay and what will convince and arouse in the one will not prevail in the other.

_The t.i.tle_

Often last of all will come that which in a sense is first of all--the t.i.tle, the name by which the speech is known. Sometimes it will be the simple theme of the address, as "The New Americanism," by Henry Watterson; or it may be a bit of symbolism typifying the spirit of the address, as "Acres of Diamonds," by Russell H. Conwell; or it may be a fine phrase taken from the body of the address, as "Pa.s.s Prosperity Around," by Albert J. Beveridge. All in all, from whatever motive it be chosen, let the t.i.tle be fresh, short, suited to the subject, and likely to excite interest.

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

1. Define (_a_) introduction; (_b_) climax; (_c_) peroration.

2. If a thirty-minute speech would require three hours for specific preparation, would you expect to be able to do equal justice to a speech one-third as long in one-third the time for preparation? Give reasons.

3. Relate briefly any personal experience you may have had in conserving time for reading and thought.

4. In the manner of a reporter or investigator, go out and get first-hand information on some subject of interest to the public.

Arrange the results of your research in the form of an outline, or brief.

5. From a private or a public library gather enough authoritative material on one of the following questions to build an outline for a twenty-minute address. Take one definite side of the question, (_a_) "The Housing of the Poor;" (_b_) "The Commission Form of Government for Cities as a Remedy for Political Graft;" (_c_) "The Test of Woman's Suffrage in the West;" (_d_) "Present Trends of Public Taste in Reading;" (_e_) "Munic.i.p.al Art;" (_f_) "Is the Theatre Becoming more Elevated in Tone?" (_g_) "The Effects of the Magazine on Literature;"

(_h_) "Does Modern Life Destroy Ideals?" (_i_) "Is Compet.i.tion 'the Life of Trade?'" (_j_) "Baseball is too Absorbing to be a Wholesome National Game;" (_k_) "Summer Baseball and Amateur Standing;" (_l_) "Does College Training Unfit a Woman for Domestic Life?" (_m_) "Does Woman's Compet.i.tion with Man in Business Dull the Spirit of Chivalry?" (_n_) "Are Elective Studies Suited to High School Courses?" (_o_) "Does the Modern College Prepare Men for Preeminent Leadership?" (_p_) "The Y.M.C.A. in Its Relation to the Labor Problem;" (_q_) "Public Speaking as Training in Citizenship."

6. Construct the outline, examining it carefully for interest, convincing character, proportion, and climax of arrangement.

NOTE:--This exercise should be repeated until the student shows facility in synthetic arrangement.

7. Deliver the address, if possible before an audience.

8. Make a three-hundred word report on the results, as best you are able to estimate them.

9. Tell something of the benefits of using a periodical (or c.u.mulative) index.

10. Give a number of quotations, suitable for a speaker's use, that you have memorized in off moments.

11. In the manner of the outline on page 213, a.n.a.lyze the address on pages 78-79, "The History of Liberty."

12. Give an outline a.n.a.lysis, from notes or memory, of an address or sermon to which you have listened for this purpose.

13. Criticise the address from a structural point of view.

14. Invent t.i.tles for any five of the themes in Exercise 5.

15. Criticise the t.i.tles of any five chapters of this book, suggesting better ones.

16. Criticise the t.i.tle of any lecture or address of which you know.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 10: _How to Attract and Hold an Audience_, J. Berg Esenwein.]

[Footnote 11: Adapted from _Compet.i.tion-Rhetoric_, Scott and Denny, p.

241.]

CHAPTER XIX

INFLUENCING BY EXPOSITION

Speak not at all, in any wise, till you have somewhat to speak; care not for the reward of your speaking, but simply and with undivided mind for the truth of your speaking.

--THOMAS CARLYLE, Essay on _Biography_.

A complete discussion of the rhetorical structure of public speeches requires a fuller treatise than can be undertaken in a work of this nature, yet in this chapter, and in the succeeding ones on "Description," "Narration," "Argument," and "Pleading," the underlying principles are given and explained as fully as need be for a working knowledge, and adequate book references are given for those who would perfect themselves in rhetorical art.