McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1885-03-05
Emerson ON Oratory.

cept Mr.. Whittemore's offer.-Mrs.
H. p. Handy.
Emerson ON OratOry.
Eloquencei is eminently the art which
only ffourishes in free countries. 1t
shows the power and responsibility of
man. Recall the delight that sudden
eloquence gives-the surprise that the
moment is SO rich. The orator is the
physician. Whether he speaks in the
capitol or on a cart, he is the bene-
factor that lifts men above themselves,
and creates higher appetite than he
satisfies. The orator is he whom
every man is seeking when he goes
into courts, into conventions, into any
popular assembly. There is no true
orator who is not hero. His speech
is not to be distinguished from action.
His speech must be just ahead of the;
assembly, ahead of the whole human!
race, or it is superfluous. No act in
dictates more universal health than
eloquence. The special ingredients
Of this force are clearly perceptions,
memory, power of statement, logic,
Imagination; or the skill to clothe
your thought in natural images, pas
sion which is the heat, and then grand
will. AS soon as man shows rare
power of expression, all the great in
terests, whether of state or of property,
crowd to him to be their spokesman; :,
so that he is at once potentate, a
ruler of men. 1t is easy to see that
the great and daily growing interests
at stake in this country must pay pro-
portional prices to their spokesman
and defenders. But this power, which
SO fascinates and astonishes and COM
mands, is only the eXaggeration of a
talent which is universal. All men
are competitors in this art. Eloquence
is as natural as swimming-an art which
all men might learn, though so few do.
The orator must command the whole
scale of the language, from the most
elegant to the most low and vile.
Everyone has felt how superior in:
force is the language of the street to:
that of the academy. The street must
be one of his schools. Ought not the
scholar to be able to convey his mean
ing in terms as short and strong as
the porter or truckman uses to con-
vey his? The speech of the man in
the street is invariably strong, nor
can you mend it by making it what
you call parliamentary. The power
of his speech is that it is perfectly I'M
derstood by all; and believe it to be
true that when any orator at the bar
OF at the senate rises IN his thought he
1escends in his language-that is,
when he rises to any height of thought
or of passion he comes down to lam
guage level with the ear of his audience.
It is the merit of John Brown and of
Abraham Lincoln-one at Charleston,
one at Gettysburg the two best
specimens of eloquence we have had
in this country.
If l should make the shortest list of
the qualifications of the orator, l
should begin with manliness and, per-.
haps, it means here presence OF mind
Men differ so much in control of their
aculties Fundamentally, all feel,
like and think alike, and at a great,
neat they can express themselves with.
an almost equal force, But it costs a.
great heat to enable heavy man to.
come up with those who have a quick.
sensibility. These are ascending stairs
"a good voice, winning manners,
plain speech, chastened, however, by.
the schools into correctness but we
must come to the main matter, of
power of statement-know your fact
hug your fact For the essential thing
is heat. and heat comes of sincerity.
Speak what you know and believe.
Eloquence is the power to translate
truth into language perfectly intelli-
gible to the person to whom you
speak. What is said is the least part
Of the Grafton. 1t is the attitude
taken, the unmistakable sign, never SO
casually given, in tone of voice, or
manner, or word, that a greater
speaks from you than is spoken to in
nim. When a great sentiment, as
religion or liberty, makes itself deeply
felt in any age or country, then
great orators appear.
If there ever was country where
loquence was a power, 1t is the
Tnited States. Here is room for every
1egree of it, on every one of its
ascending stages-that of useful
paech, in our commercial, manu-
featuring, railroads, and educational
conventions that of political advice
and persuasion on the grandest
tbeater, reaching, as all good men
trust, into vast future, and so COM
pelling the best thought and noblest
adm: illustrative ability that the citizen
can offer, Is it not worth the amhi-
ton of every generous youth to train
and arm his mind with all the resourc-
rs of knowledge, of method, of grace,
and of character, TO serve such a
constituency