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PRACTICAL RULES.

373

defeats the highest success. Naturally easy speakers, as they are termed, who extemporize volubly without study, are usually narrow in their range, shallow in their thoughts, and repetitious, and bring a reproach on their art. Speakers who discard the use of the manuscript before the audience should spend more labor in preparation than would be necessary previously to write out their addresses.

31. Practical Rules of Elocution. -The following rules embrace the most valuable general principles of Elocution:

(1.) Be thoroughly prepared for the work which you intend to perform. If to read the production of another person, let it be studied beforehand, so that you are sure of comprehending and feeling fully the thoughts and emotions of the author. If to read your own production, be as independent as possible of the. manuscript. If to speak from memory, let it be so well committed as to require no conscious effort to recall it. If to speak extemporaneously, be sure that you have an abundant supply of material on hand, with the general arrangement or order thoroughly at command. Whoever faithfully obeys this rule, when possible, will be ready to make an efficient speech, even when he has no opportunity to prepare for it.

(2.) As far as possible be unwearied, and in good physical and mental condition, and be deliberate and self-possessed, remembering that if you have a right to speak, it is too late when on the floor to entertain any doubts about the matter, and that self-possession is a prime requisite of successful oratory.

(3.) Enunciate distinctly and loud enough, in all you say, to be heard by all whom you wish to address, and do not allow yourself to speak for a long time with such excessive energy of voice and manner as to react on yourself, and loosen your hold upon the audience, and remember the advantage of speaking with fully inflated lungs.

(4.) Be thoroughly in earnest. Avoid unnecessary repetitions, and seek brevity.

(5.) Though entirely absorbed in the subject, and unconscious of rules, except only so far as to prevent you from glaringly violating them, still persistently oppose and break up any known evil habit of posi tion, gesture, or intonation.

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Byron, Lord, illustrates Personifica- | Dickens quoted, to illustrate Vision,
tion, 154.

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on earnestness, 243.
-, on rapid writing, 242.
Chesterfield, Lord, on proverbs, 232.
Choate, Rufus, choice of words, 47.
hyperbole, from, 134.
long sentence from, 199.
period from, 206.
style of Erskine, 41.

Choice of subjects, 315.

Cicero, figurative language, 106.
Climax, 209.

Coleridge, S. T., illustration of Alle-
gory, 126.
Comparisons, 87.

combined with antitheses, 119.
Construction of Sentences, 195.
Corwin, illustration of Irony, 144.
Coultas, H., illustration of Redun-
dancy, 58.

Cowper, illustration of Personifica-
tion, 148.

illustration of Idiomatic Style,

230.
Curran, illustration of Wit, 175.

D.

168.

Didactic productions, 256.

Discussion, rules for, 333.

Doddridge, epigram quoted, 179.

E.

Earnestness, 243.
Egotism, 248.

Elocution, advantage of practice in,
369.

an art, 352.
defined, 351.

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Falsehood, can one plead for? 245. Henry, Patrick, scriptural allusion
Feet, in poetry, 295.
by, 95.
Fessenden, W. D., quoted to illus- Hexameter Verse, 297.
trate Irony, 143.
Historians, style of, 278.
Fiction, 283.

Historical Present, 167.

Figurative Language and Emotion, History, 277.

247.

Invention in, 324.

Figures, miscellaneous examples of, Hitchcock, Rev. Dr., to illustrate
Personification, 147.

170.

Franklin, Benjamin, anecdote of, Holland, Dr. J. G., on value of words,
71.

234.

tion, 133.

quoted to illustrate Exaggera- Holmes, Dr. O. W., on morality of
words, 71.
practice of, in Invention, 327. Hood, Thomas, to illustrate Allu-
sions, 99.

witticism of, quoted, 178.

Froude, quoted to illustrate Argu- Hooker, Rev. R., a period quoted
mentative Comparison, 91.
from, 204.

Hopkins, Rev. Dr., to illustrate Vis-
ion, 169.


G.

Garrick, sensibility of, 354.

Hugo, Victor, to illustrate Antithet-
ical Comparison, 119.

Humor, 182.

Gaussen, quoted to illustrate Exag- Huntington, Rev. Dr., quoted to il-
lustrate Personification, 150.

geration, 133.

Gesticulation, 364.

Gibbon, quoted to illustrate Meta-

phors, 105.

labors of, to acquire a good

style, 237.

Goethe, quoted to illustrate Allusion,

96.

Grammar, general, 189.
Greek language, 33.

Huxley, Prof., quoted to illustrate
Repetition, 55.

Hyperbole, 131.

I.

Idiomatic Style, 231.

Idioms, 228.

-, new, 232.

Greeley, H., quoted to illustrate Imagination should be cultivated,

Comparisons, 93.

H.

291.

Information, importance of, to a
writer, 319.

Innuendo, 100.
Interjections, 209.

Hamilton, Dr. R. W., quoted to il- Interrogation, 208.
lustrate Apostrophe, 156.

Hamilton, Sir Wm., on relation of
words to thought, 19.

use of idioms by, 230, 231.
Hare, Archbishop, ironical writing
of, 141.

Hayne, R. Y., speech of, in Senate,
337.

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