to. There will be no danger of rant or bombast, provided that ideas are spoken, and not mere words. Rant and bombast are the expression, not only of want of thought, but also of want of real imagination.

Another suggestion is often found to be of great service. Writers are apt to feel that it will not be safe or proper, to express with force or enthusiasm, ideas which are not absolutely new. Here again is a mistake. The true question is not whether an idea is new, but whether it is important and interesting. Sometimes indeed the interest is partly or wholly that of novelty, but ideas of the deepest interest, appeal to universal human nature, and ought not to be wholly new. It is a great error to attempt to depend solely on novelty for interest. Indeed, at best, the interest of mere novelty is apt to be of an inferior kind. In short, the writer and speaker must take for granted, that what deeply interests him, will certainly interest his audience, provided he gives an adequate expression to his own feelings.

As to diffidence, a single consideration should be sufficient. The performances of modest young men who are considered as having talent and scholarship, are always interesting to cultivated audiences. Let another fact, however, be borne in mind; diffidence never manifests itself outwardly in any disagreeable degree, when a speaker is once master of a natural and extemporaneous style of delivery. But if still further suggestions be needed, let it be remembered that diffidence is no natural obstacle to enthusiasm; than which nothing is either more interesting or more safe. Simply let care be taken that diffidence do not proceed from egotism, and the speaker may be relieved from all embarrassment by yielding himself up unreservedly to the inspiration of his subject. A certain abstractedness, both from self, and from the accidental circumstances of the time and place, must exist in all good delivery. Vide the remarks under the head of the 'Meditative Mood,” p. 340.

To prepare a composition of greater length than a mere extract, for speaking in a manner to do it full justice, is somewhat of a task. If the writer say he cannot do this without audiences upon whose patience to practice, he proves himself destitute of a useful knowledge of delivery. Experience demonstrates that those who take this ground, will be certain not to succeed. A student who had a poem to recite at an approaching commencement, carried it to the most celebrated of American actors, requesting to be instructed how to deliver it. The actor glanced at the poem, and replied: "It would cost me three weeks of study to prepare for delivering this myself, and I cannot undertake to qualify you."

The labor of writing, correcting and rewriting, causes ideas to lose their freshness. The necessary hesitation respecting the choice of words and arrangement of style, during the process of composition, perplexes the memory of the speaker, and distracts his mind from that main course of thought, upon which a successful delivery principally depends. Without careful study in reference to speaking, even the best composition will be liable to appear immethodical, confused and dull. By study, the ideas will be restored to that fresh interest with which they first suggested themselves to the mind; the several parts of the composition will be connected in the mind in their proper order and mutual bearing, and their proportionate importance will be associated with them in the memory. It sometimes happens indeed, that after thoroughly preparing a composition for delivery, by several repetitions of preparatory speaking, the student complains that he experiences a loss of interest in the ideas, and finds it difficult to speak them with animation. But if the delivery has been well studied, this is an indication not unfavorable. In such cases the student has often subsequently informed the writer, that the actual presence of the audience, at once relieved every such difficulty, and caused the whole series of thoughts to pass through his mind as if he were speaking ex

temporaneously, and were then for the first time conceiving them. To be in this state of mind before an audience, is said by those who have made a thorough preparation, to be extremely inspiriting and agreeable.

The following are the rules adopted in this institution, in regard to preparing for Exhibitions and Commencements.

1. The compositions must be finished and committed to memory, before the beginning of the week which precedes that in which the Exhibition or Commence

ment occurs.

2. They are to be fully prepared for public delivery, before the week in which the Exhibition or Commencement takes place.

A great benefit results from making an early preparation, and then suffering the mind to remain for three or four days, in a state free from anxiety or the necessity of labor. In this way, the speaker appears before the public with a fresh and cheerful interest, and his delivery becomes more natural and animated.

3. The student is to prepare his own delivery, at least up to the point of being able clearly to exhibit the ideas and the methodical course of thought which characterize his composition.

He is to pay particular attention to the pauses and transitions, at the paragraphs into which it is divided.

4. The plan has been tried and found to be of great benefit, to require each performer to associate with him, in practice before the instructors, one of his companions, as a friend and critic, to assist, by communicating his impressions, the advice of the instructors, and the taste and judgment of the performer himself.

Such is now the established rule. The performer feels a more just confidence, when his delivery gratifies one of his fellows, than when he is assisted by no sympathy but that of those who are far removed from him in age.

5. It is absolutely necessary, that a young man who is to address a crowded audience in a large room, for the first, or at most for but the second time in his life, have several opportunities of practising the accommodation of his voice, attitude and gesture, to the room in which he is actually to appear.

For the information of the friends and patrons of this institution, it will be not unimportant to mention, in this place, that skill in public speaking is considered an accomplishment of no value, except for those whose education qualifies them for usefulness. No one is appointed to appear before the public merely because he is a speaker.

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APPENDIX.

THE size which this volume has reached, owing to the necessity of inserting a sufficient number of examples for practice, compels us to omit nearly the whole of an appendix, in which we had discussed the following topics. 1. The general subject of good taste in respect to the kinds of delivery most appropriate on different occasions: 2. The management of the mind, when carrying on in conjunction the two processes of composition and of speaking-i. e. its management in Extemporaneous Speaking: 3. Reading, in its two kinds of Public and Parlor reading 4. The delivery of Poetry: 5. Continued Self-Cultivation in Elocution: 6. The Elocution of Conversation: 7. The influence of public speaking on Health.

Without attempting to discuss any of these important subjects in full, we will briefly mention a few considerations sufficient to complete the present work as a practical treatise on Public Delivery. Such ideas will be selected as an instructor is most often called on to suggest in answer to enquiries; yet they will be merely indicated, as space is wanting for their full development.

1. Good Taste.-All public delivery may be divided into two kinds; the Elevated and the Familiar.

Elevated Delivery ought always to be characterized by Gravity, Dignity, Suavity, and Sympathy.

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Familiar Delivery should especially exhibit Liveliness, Fluency, Grace, and as much Rapidity, as is consistent with intelligibility. Vide last par. p. 344.

In both kinds, Grace and Self-Possession ought to manifest themselves as established personal habits of the speaker. As