The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-02-06
The Art of Speaking and Writing.

sic, knows nothing practically of the art 1t
matters very little to the listening world how
much he knows, if he can neither play nor sing.
A man may talk or write very intelligently Of
pictures and sculpture without the slightest
practical skill in either branch of performance.
So there are multitudes of men with we'll
stored minds who live without access TO the
public, simply because they are not accom-
plished in the arts of expression by pen and
tongue. These men have been trained for pub
lie life. They have expected to obtain live
lihood by public service. All their education
has been shaped to this end, yet they lack just
one thing which will enable them to do it.
That mode of approach and expression which
is essential to their acceptableness as writers
and speakers is lacking; and so their lives are
failures.
The professorship of rhetoric and elocution
has been regarded in most colleges as rather
ornamental than useful and only here and
there has its incumbent manifested the disposi-
ton and the power to magnify his Office, and
perform the great duty that is placed in his
hands. Slovenly writer's and awkward and un-
attractive speakers are turned out of our COL
leges every year, almost by thousands, whose
failure in public life is assured from the first,
because they have acquired no mastery of the
arts of expression. Men of inferior knowledge
and inferior mental culture surpass them in the
strife for public favor and influence, by address
and skill. They are disguised with the public,
and charge their failure upon the popular stu.
pidity. aOur honest toll has been in vain,"
they say; "for the people cannot appreciate
what we are, or what we have done. Ihey IKE
the shallow man best"
This is not just judgment. The brighter
and stronger the man, the better the people
like him, always provided that he understands
the art of writing and speech. Mr.. Beecher,
Mr.. Phillips, Mr. George w. Curtis, and Mr..
Collyer, are not shallow men, but they are ac-
cepted everywhere, and in all assemblies, as
the masters of oratory. Mr.. Webster, Mr.. Clay,
and Mr.. S. s. Prentiss, in the old days, were
not shallow men, but they were orators, and
their power over multitudes was the power of
giants Not one of these men would now be
heard of as men of national reputation had
they not won the mastery of expression.
There is a quality in all good writing-wri-
ting thoroughly adapted to its purpose-which
we call "readableness." 1t is hard to define it,
because in the different productions it depends
on different elements. Wit and humor impart
this quality, if they are spontaneous and un-
obtrusive Eminent lucidity, gracefulness of
structure, epigrammatic terseness and strength,
downright moral earnestness, gracefulness and
| facility vi llluSIIdIiOiI, VPPooipO onoi'hSoi',
forms of expression and uses of words that are
characteristic of individual thought and feel
ing-each and all these have their function in
imparting readableness to the productions of
the pen. We find Carlyle readable through
quality which is Carlyle's own-while Emerson
and Lowell and Holmes are readable because of
their individual flavor. There are ten thousand
| educated men in America who are fairly capa-
BILE of comprehending these writers, yet who
would render them all unreadable by underta-
king to clotbe their thoughts and fancies in
their own forms of language When this strong
individual flavor is lacking-an element that
belongs mainly to genius-art must be more
thoroughly cultivated. No man of moderate
ability and education can possibly make him
self acceptable as writer without skill in the
arts of expression which can be won alone
through patient study and long practice.
| We have but few men in the country who
designedly write for the few. We all seek to
write for the million and to find the largest au-
dience. Readableness, then, must depend very
largely upon still another element, which is,
perhaps, more important than all-direct, in
telligent ministry to the public need. People
will not be interested in the discussion Of sub
jects that have no practical relation TO their
| life. Any production, in order to be readable,
must be based on knowledge of the wants of
the people and the age. What will amuse, in
struct, enlighten, or morally and Intellectually
interest the people? The writer who is not
sufficiently in sympathy with the people and
the age to answer this question intelligently to
himself, cannot be readable, except BY accident.
The man who shuts himself up in his library,
away from his kind, and refuses to make him
self convesant with their wants and with the
questions that concern them, has no one to
blame but himself if they refuse to read what
he writes.
The clergyman, conscious of Christian pur-
poses and Of thorough culture, and earnestly
believing that he understands the message of
his Master finds with grief that he is not an
accepted teacher. Let him learn, if it be not
too late that it is his mode of presenting truth
that makes him impotent. Water tastes better
| from cut-glass than pewter, and people will 60
where they are served from crystal. Salt is
salt, but what if it have lost its savor? There
are very few preachers who fail in knowledge
of their message, but there are multitudes who
know nothing of the people to whom they de-
liver it, or of the art of so proclaiming it that
men will pause to hear and heed. The art OF
writing and speaking is both shamefully and
fatally neglected. Without it, cultivated to its
highest practicable point the learning of the
schools is comparatively useless. Without 1t,
the preacher Is utterly unprepaieu ioi ms WIN
for the grand, essential thing which will make
his knowledge and culture practically y available
| is wanting. The man who cannot say we'll
that which he has to say may safely conclude
that he has no call to the pulpit.
There is no editor of newspaper or maya
zine who is not constantly returning manu-
scripts full of useful and good material, which
he cannot publish because it is not readable.
The style lrgid, or involved, or affected, or
slovenly, or diffnse. If The style happens to be
good, the subject is uninteresting, or it is treat
ed for scholars, and numbered with redundant
learning Of course the editor would @ not hurt
tn the ,mss pride ef sht bs ~ti bs % 0 ae no
"availabie." >" They think the editor stupid,
and he is content so long as they do not accuse
him of i'll nature. 1t is only when they charge
him with the purpose of refusing all writing
that is better than his own that he loses pa