Model Speeches for Practise | Page 5

but
now that the wig is gone all is gone." I have thought I have seen some
signs of encouragement in the faces of my English friends after I have
consoled them with this little story.
But I must not allow myself to indulge in any further remarks. There is
one virtue, I am sure, in after-dinner oratory, and that is brevity; and as
to that I am reminded of a story. The Lord Chief Justice has told you
what are the ingredients of after-dinner oratory. They are the joke, the
quotation, and the platitude; and the successful platitude, in my
judgment, requires a very high order of genius. I believe that I have not
given you a quotation, but I am reminded of something which I heard
when very young--the story of a Methodist clergyman in America. He
was preaching at a camp meeting, and he was preaching upon the
miracle of Joshua, and he began his sermon with this sentence: "My
hearers, there are three motions of the sun. The first is the
straightforward or direct motion of the sun; the second is the retrograde
or backward motion of the sun; and the third is the motion mentioned
in our text--'the sun stood still.'"
Now, gentlemen, I don't know whether you see the application of the
story--I hope you do. The after-dinner orator at first begins and goes
straight forward--that is the straightforward motion of the sun. Next he

goes back and begins to repeat himself--that is the backward motion of
the sun. At last he has the good sense to bring himself to the end, and
that is the motion mentioned in our text, as the sun stood still.

ENGLAND, MOTHER OF NATIONS
BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen:--It is pleasant to me to meet this great
and brilliant company, and doubly pleasant to see the faces of so many
distinguished persons on this platform. But I have known all these
persons already. When I was at home, they were as near to me as they
are to you. The arguments of the League and its leader are known to all
friends of free trade. The gaieties and genius, the political, the social,
the parietal wit of "Punch" go duly every fortnight to every boy and girl
in Boston and New York. Sir, when I came to sea, I found the "History
of Europe" on the ship's cabin table, the property of the captain;--a sort
of program or play-bill to tell the seafaring New Englander what he
shall find on landing here. And as for Dombey, sir, there is no land
where paper exists to print on, where it is not found; no man who can
read, that does not read it, and, if he can not, he finds some charitable
pair of eyes that can, and hears it.
But these things are not for me to say; these compliments tho true,
would better come from one who felt and understood these merits more.
I am not here to exchange civilities with you, but rather to speak on that
which I am sure interests these gentlemen more than their own praises;
of that which is good in holidays and working-days, the same in one
century and in another century. That which lures a solitary American in
the woods with the wish to see England, is the moral peculiarity of the
Saxon race,--its commanding sense of right and wrong,--the love and
devotion to that,--this is the imperial trait, which arms them with the
scepter of the globe. It is this which lies at the foundation of that
aristocratic character, which certainly wanders into strange vagaries, so
that its origin is often lost sight of, but which, if it should lose this,
would find itself paralyzed; and in trade, and in the mechanic's shop,

gives that honesty in performance, that thoroughness and solidity of
work, which is a national characteristic. This conscience is one element,
and the other is that loyal adhesion, that habit of friendship, that
homage of man to man, running through all classes,--the electing of
worthy persons to a certain fraternity, to acts of kindness and warm and
staunch support, from year to year, from youth to age,--which is alike
lovely and honorable to those who render and those who receive
it;--which stands in strong contrast with the superficial attachments of
other races, their excessive courtesy, and short-lived connection.
You will think me very pedantic, gentlemen, but holiday tho it be, I
have not the smallest interest in any holiday, except as it celebrates real
and not pretended joys; and I think it just, in this time of gloom and
commercial disaster, of affliction and beggary in these districts, that on
these very accounts I speak of, you should not fail to keep your literary