The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS, JULY 17, 1858.

Reform Bill, although he was a stammering and
ineffective speaker. To cite a more illustrious
instance, the Duke of Wellington always spoke
with much difficulty. We have ourselves seen
him shew pain from exerting himself in the House
of Lords ; his articulation was indistinct, and his
respiration seemed much affected by the labour
of speaking. His great services, and his match-
less public virtues, always invested him with a
sway over his audience which the finest oratory
of Pitt or Fox could not attain. These, how-
ever, are exceptional instances ; and it cannot be
denied that politicians of moderate social station,
and of even dubious character, exercise often, by
means of skilful speaking, an influence most dis-
proportionate to their personal importance or
political pretensions.
On the whole, there is a decided decline in the
estimate of an orator's vocation. In the old
republics a great public speaker exercised some
of the influences peculiar to a minister, a tribune,
and a modern newspaper. In Greece and Rome
a brilliant public speaker discharged an amount
of direct and representative influence which can
scarcely (except at a crisis) be enjoyed by an
orator in our period of civilization. Intelligence
is now diffused amongst numerous classes, and
tens of thousands of readers exist for one before
the printing-press was discovered. As a general
rule, therefore, mere orators cannot exercise at
all as much influence as in the old republics.
Hence the art of speaking is not of so much
importance as formerly, and the taste of our edu-
cated and fastidious community recoils from his-
trionic artifices. Yet it is certain that the art of
speaking, and the rules which conduce to effective
delivery, are too much neglected by many public
characters who trespass upon the patience of as-
semblies. An English gentleman need not, like
a professional orator, study the arts of composi-
tion, but it is expected that he should be ac-
quainted with English grammar ; and in the
same way, though he need not aim at being a
complete orator, at least he should be familiar
with the grammar of elocution.

To attain proficiency in eloquence there is no
royal road, and Cicero and Qtuntilian have left
little for any succeeding writer on public speaking.
Blair, in his " Rhetoric," has almost entirely fol-
lowed the rules of Cicero; but Blair had not
much knowledge of the eloquence peculiar to the
bar, or to purely popular assemblies. His most
valuable observations are those directed to aca-
demical and didactic eloquence. In Lord
Brougham's sketches of statesmen, and in his
miscellaneous essays on public orators, there
are some most valuable hints—such as could
have come only from an experienced speaker;
and we must observe that, Timon's (Carmenia)
" Livre des Orateurs" abounds in practical re-
marks well meriting the attention of aspirants to
oratory. We are surprised that M. Bautain
makes no allusion to that curious and valuable
work.

We agree with this author in thinking that
enough of stress is not placed upon the manage-
ment of the voice. Audiences often grow tired,
though he who is addressing them may be using
admirable language and employing sound argu-
ments. In many cases the fatigue of the audience
arises from the monotony of the voice addressing
their ears. There must be variety of tone, key,
and emphasis. Is the speaker vehement and
energetic ? In that case he should remember
that it is a fixed rule in declamation " that no
" monotony is so wearisome as the monotony of
" energy." On the other hand, has the speaker
a weak and tremulous voice, without vibration ?
In that case he should take particular care to be
distinct in his articulation, deliberate in his
manner, and to use the resources of gesture. M.
Haut in well observes :
The voice, inc;nding all the organs which serve to
produce or modify it, is the speaker's chief instrument;
and its quality essentially depends, in the first instance,
upon the formation of the chest, the thrust, mud mouth.
Art can do little to ameliorate this formation. but it can
do much to facilitate and strengthen the organic move-
ments in all that regards breathing, the emission of
sound, and pronunciation. These matters ought to the
object of a special study.

It is very important, in speaking as in singing, to know
how to Rend forth and how to husband the breath, so as to
spin lengthened sounds and deliver a complete period,
without being blown, and without breaking a sentence
already begun, or a rush of declamation by a gasp,—ueed-
fill, indeed, for lungs that have failed, but araki, a sort of
disagreeable gap or stoppage.
Care should also be taken not to speak too fast, too
loud, or with too much animation at the outset; for if you

force your voice in t he beginning you are presently out of
breath, or paur voice is cracked or hoarse, and then lon
can no longer proceed without repeated efforts which
fatigue the hearers and exhaust the speaker. All then.,
precautions, which appear trivial, but which are really of
high importance, are learned by labour, practice, and
personal experience. Still it is a very good thing to be
warned and guided by the experience of others, arid this
may be insured advantageously by frequent recitations
aloud under the direction of some muter of elocution.

Enough stress is not laid on these things, if, indeei,
they are attended to at all, in the schools of rhetoric, in
literary estatlishments, and in seminaries,—whereio
orators, nevertheless, are expected to be formed. Scarce
any but actors now-a-days trouble themselves about them,
and that is the reason we have so few men in the liberal
professtons who know how to speak, or even to read or
recite a discourse, rightly.

The voice, unlike other organs, can be formed.
It is said that there is no instance of a truly great
actor or actress of the highest class who had not
power of eye, but there are many instances of
defects of voice being triumphed over. Sheri-
dan's voice was husky, but he managed it artfully;
and his posture before an audience, as well
as his
_gestures, were highly impressive. Lord
John Russell's voice is weak and mincing,
but in moments of real excitement, we have
seen him rouse the House of Commons by
the genuine animation of his manner. The
late Mr. Sheil was a most brilliant and successful
orator of the artificial school, yet his voice was
extremely disagreeable. He carefully paused,
and took much pains to be impressive in his
manner. We once asked a gentleman who
had risen to great distinction as a Parlia-
mentary speaker, whether he ever felt a tremor
in rising to speak in the House of Commons.
" I was always tormented by one thing—by the
" consciousness of my stentorian voice; and what
" troubled me most was, the fear lest I should
" stun the House." The following remarks on
the voice are just:—

The modulation of the voice proceeds principally from
the larynx, which produces and modifies it almost without
limit, by expansion and contraction. First, then, we have
the I ormation of the larynx, with its muscles, cartilages,
membranes, and tracery, which are to the emission of vocal
sound what the involutions of the brain probably are,
instrumentally, in the operations of thought. But, in the
one case as in the other, the connection of the organs
with the effects produced entirely escapes us ; and although
we are continually availing ourselves of the inhtrittnent,
we do not perceive in any manner the how of its ministra-
tions. It is only by use, and experiments often repeated,
that we learn to employ them with greater ease and power,
and our skill in this respect is wholly empirical. The
researches of the subtlest anatomy have given ns no
discovery in the matter. All that we have ascertsined is,
that every voice has its natural bell-tone, which makes it
a bass voice, a tenor, or a soprano, each with intermediate
gradations. The middle voice, or tenor, is the most
favourable for speaking; it is that which maintains it-elf
the best, and which reaches the farthest when well articu-
lated. It is also the most pleasing, the moat endeanng,
and has the largest resources for inflection, because, being
in the middle of the scale, it rises or sinks with greater
ease, and leans itself better to either hand. It therefore
commands a greater variety of intonations, which hinders
monotony of elocution, and reawakens the attention of the
hearer, so prone to doze.

The upper voice, exceedingly clear at first, is continually
tending towards a scream. It harshens as it proceeds,
and at last becomes falsetto and nasal. It requires great
talent, great liveliness of thonght, language, and elocution
to compensate or redeem this blemish. One of the most
distinguished orators of our time is so example in point.
He used to succeed in obtaining a hearing f‘ir several
hours together, in spite of his lank and creaking voice,—
a real victory of mind over matter.

A bass vofce is with difficulty pitched high, and con-
tinually tends back. Grave and majestic at the outset, it
soon grows heavy and monotonous ; it has magnificent
chords, but, if long listened to, produces frequently the
effect of a drone, and soon tires and lulls to sleep by the
medley of commingling sounds. What, then, if it be
coarse, violent, uttered with bursts ? Why it crushes the
ear, if it thunders in too confined an apartment ; and it it
breaks forth amidst some vast nave, where echoes almost
always exist, the billows of sound reverberating from every
side, blend together, should the orator be speaking fast,
and the result is a deafening confusion, and a sort of
acoustic chaos.

The author, evidently, is master of his subject.
He then proceeds to dwell on the advantage of a
middle voice, and he happily observes :

In all cases, whatever be the tone of the voice, bass,
tenor, or soprano,—what most wins upon the hearers, what
best seizes and must easily retains their attention, is what
may be called a sympathetic voice. It is difficult enough
to say in what it consists ; but what very clearly charac-
terizes it, is the gift of cansiug itself to be attended to. It is
a certain power of attraction which draws so it the hearer's
mind, and on its accents hangs his attention. It is a secret
virtue which is in speech, and which penetrates at once,
or little by little, through the ear to the mind or into the
heart of tho'e who listen, charms them, and holds them
beneath the charm, to inch a degree that they are disposed,
not only to listen, but even to admit what is said, and to
receive it with confidence. It is a voice which inspires au

affection for him who speaks, and puts you instinctively on
his side, so that his words find an echo in the mind, repeat-
ing there what he says, and reptoducing it easily in the un-
derstanding and the heart.
A sympathetio voice singularly helps the .effect of the
diEcourse, and is, besides, the best, the most insinuating of
exordiums (introductions).
It is a defect in this work, as in other
treatises on the art of speaking, that the author
does not supply hints for those who aim at a
lower style than flights of eloquence. Men of
business, suddenly thrust into public situations,
do not know how to introduce their subject.
Their facts will not amine themselves, and in
their anxiety to put out all their knowledge, they
become confused. All such persons should learn
that it is well to arrange their facts under two or
three heads, and deliver what they have to say
in sequence. Lucidua ordo ' • a clear and conse-
cutive arrangement, is particularly necessary in
all statements of facts,- and the raw speaker
should be taught that all the facts cannot be told
in a speech : there must be selection of topics
and points, and it is only the important ones
that should be dwelt upon. Before speaking it
is imperative that a man should know what
he is going to say, and he should sketch
it out either on paper or mentally. M.
Bautain gives plans and methods of arrange-
ment, which would be very useful to speakers of
high class, who wish to make what is good still
better, and to advance again beyond the com-
parative degree. But novices in public speaking,
of mature years, could not acquire much from
this essay. His description of the trials of an
orator are very good, and we shall conclude with
one or two impressive passages.
Of fast and flippant talkers, cursed with a
"fatal facility," he says :
Woe to him wha experiences no fear before:speaking in
public! It shows him to be unconscious of the importance
of the fanction which he is about to discharge,—that he
does not understand what truth is, whose apostle he himself
should be, or that he little cares, and that he is not anima-
ted by that sacred fire which comes down from heaven to
burn in the soul. I except altogether the Prophets, the
Apostles of Jeans Christ, all who speak under supernatural
inspiration, and who have been told that they must not pre.
pare what they shall say when they shall stand before the
powerful and the arbiters of the world, for that all they
should say shall be given to them at the time itself.
It is not for men like these that we write. The Almighty,
whose instruments they are, and who fills them with His
Spirit, makes them act and speak as He pleases, and to
them the resources of human experience are entirely un•
necessary. They never are afraid, because He who is
truth and light is with them, and speaks by them. But
others are not afraid because their enlightenment is small
and their self-assurance great. They are unconscious of
the sacredness of their task and of their ministry, and they
go forward like children who, knowing not what they do,
play with some terrible weapon, and with danger itself. The
meet valiant troops always feel some emotion at the first
cannon-shot, and I have heard it stated that one of the
most celebrated generals of the empire,—who was even
called " the bravest of the brave," was always obliged to
dismount from his horse at that solemn moment; after
which he rushed like a lion into the battle. Braggarts, on
the contrary, are inn of assurance before the engagement,
and give way during the action.

He utters his caution, however, against a person
entertaining a nervous fear, and falling into the
other extreme :

Nevertheless, there is an illusion against which you must
be on your guard; it is that of thinking yourself ill when
you have to speak in public, and to mistake for inability
the often very feasible indisposition which you experience
when called upon for a discourse, either through the indo•
lence which is deterred by labour and fatigue, or on
account of the extreme emotion which is felt at the thought
of appearing in public, an emotion which produces on the
body, and on the bowels especially, an effect reacting all
ever you. Your arms and legs hang dead, you can hardly
drag yourself along, or even stand upright. There is an op.
pression of the respiration, a weight on the chest, and a,
man experiences, in a fashion sometimes very burdensome•
what was felt by the bravest of the brave at the first cannon
shot. Many a time do I remember having found myself
in this state at the moment for mounting the pulpit anti
while waiting for my summons. Could I have only fled
away without shame, moat assuredly I should have made
off, and I envied the lot of those poor creatures who think
of nothing or of no great matter, and who know not these
agonies and lacerations.
They who have not the strength to overcome these
temptations and discouraoecnents will never know how to
speak. They will not even have the courage to expose
themselves to such trials. 1 may as wellsay it, they amount
occasionally to such a torture that a man involuntarily
compares himself to a convict dragged to the gallows.
Those who have known this state and triumphed over it
are aware that I do not exaggerate.
• • • •

I know hut one effectual remedy for this fear,—the
remedy l have already indicated ; it is never to mount
platform or pulpit, save on the call of conscience alone,—
to fulfil a duty, and to put aside whatever is merely
personal—glory, reputation, public opinion— wh never
'elates to self. A man then goes forward as a victim of