The Art of Public Speaking | Page 2

assert, to lay down systems of rules for voice
culture, intonation, gesture, and what not, unless these two principles of
having something to say and making the will sovereign have at least
begun to make themselves felt in the life.
The third principle will, we surmise, arouse no dispute: No one can
learn how to speak who does not first speak as best he can. That may
seem like a vicious circle in statement, but it will bear examination.
Many teachers have begun with the how. Vain effort! It is an ancient
truism that we learn to do by doing. The first thing for the beginner in
public speaking is to speak--not to study voice and gesture and the rest.
Once he has spoken he can improve himself by self-observation or
according to the criticisms of those who hear.
But how shall he be able to criticise himself? Simply by finding out
three things: What are the qualities which by common consent go to
make up an effective speaker; by what means at least some of these
qualities may be acquired; and what wrong habits of speech in himself
work against his acquiring and using the qualities which he finds to be
good.
Experience, then, is not only the best teacher, but the first and the last.
But experience must be a dual thing--the experience of others must be
used to supplement, correct and justify our own experience; in this way
we shall become our own best critics only after we have trained
ourselves in self-knowledge, the knowledge of what other minds think,

and in the ability to judge ourselves by the standards we have come to
believe are right. "If I ought," said Kant, "I can."
An examination of the contents of this volume will show how
consistently these articles of faith have been declared, expounded, and
illustrated. The student is urged to begin to speak at once of what he
knows. Then he is given simple suggestions for self-control, with
gradually increasing emphasis upon the power of the inner man over
the outer. Next, the way to the rich storehouses of material is pointed
out. And finally, all the while he is urged to speak, speak, SPEAK as he
is applying to his own methods, in his own personal way, the principles
he has gathered from his own experience and observation and the
recorded experiences of others.
So now at the very first let it be as clear as light that methods are
secondary matters; that the full mind, the warm heart, the dominant will
are primary--and not only primary but paramount; for unless it be a full
being that uses the methods it will be like dressing a wooden image in
the clothes of a man.
J. BERG ESENWEIN. NARBERTH, PA., JANUARY 1, 1915.

THE ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
Sense never fails to give them that have it, Words enough to make them
understood. It too often happens in some conversations, as in
Apothecary Shops, that those Pots that are Empty, or have Things of
small Value in them, are as gaudily Dress'd as those that are full of
precious Drugs.
They that soar too high, often fall hard, making a low and level
Dwelling preferable. The tallest Trees are most in the Power of the
Winds, and Ambitious Men of the Blasts of Fortune. Buildings have
need of a good Foundation, that lie so much exposed to the Weather.
--WILLIAM PENN.

CHAPTER I
ACQUIRING CONFIDENCE BEFORE AN AUDIENCE
There is a strange sensation often experienced in the presence of an
audience. It may proceed from the gaze of the many eyes that turn upon
the speaker, especially if he permits himself to steadily return that gaze.
Most speakers have been conscious of this in a nameless thrill, a real
something, pervading the atmosphere, tangible, evanescent,
indescribable. All writers have borne testimony to the power of a
speaker's eye in impressing an audience. This influence which we are
now considering is the reverse of that picture--the power their eyes may
exert upon him, especially before he begins to speak: after the inward
fires of oratory are fanned into flame the eyes of the audience lose all
terror.
--WILLIAM PITTENGER, Extempore Speech.
Students of public speaking continually ask, "How can I overcome
self-consciousness and the fear that paralyzes me before an audience?"
Did you ever notice in looking from a train window that some horses
feed near the track and never even pause to look up at the thundering
cars, while just ahead at the next railroad crossing a farmer's wife will
be nervously trying to quiet her scared horse as the train goes by?
How would you cure a horse that is afraid of cars--graze him in a
back-woods lot where he would never see steam-engines or
automobiles,