The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-05-07

and the Oratorical instinct are each born
with the man, and each must be deveI-
oped, trained, before we can have either
the poet or the orator. Many man with
what Professor Austin Phelps calls ia
certain leakage OF words what the
world calls the 'sgift of gab,' has
come short of being an oritor, be-
cause he was not born with the
oratorical instinct 1t seems to
me the orator is born and made, and
that the only way whereby a young man
can ascertain whether or not he has the
s'oratorical INSTINCT is by trying it.
CIcERo's STANDARD OF REQUIREMENTS.
There is a widespread belief that to be
an orator one must not only have to be
born with the oratorical instinct, but that
nature must also endow him in other di-
rections.
There are those who think with Cicero
that the orator must be man of almost
universal knowledge, of retentive mem
ory, OF splendid presence, of fine voice, of
trained facility in, the devices of rhet-
ORIG, and above all a graceful and digni-
fed delivery.
This is a rather discouraging catalogue
OF requirements. Who then can hope to.
be an orator?
We may be philosophers, editors,
merchants, princes, ward politicians,
presidents OF the United States, political
bosses. philanthropists, poets, in spite of
lack OF universal knowledge, in spite of
physical defects-lack OF stature, lack of
grace, lack of voice. But your orator
must be, according to Cicero, ''the para
gon OF animals. -
WHAT THE ANGLo-SAXoN RECORD PROVES.
Fortunately history teaches that Cicero
was not infallible; that there have been
great orators who did, by no manner of
means, come up to his standard, especi-
ally as far as physical pecu liarities were
concerned.
Without going as far back as Demos
themes, with mouth full of pebbles trying
to cure his stammer, we find that men
who left their mark on their age as ora
tors have varied in their physical charac-
teristics as widely as in their mental
makeup.
Edward Irving was giant in stature,
with voice of great power, but he was
no greater orator, if as great, as John
Knox, who had at times hardly strength
enough to crawl up the stairs of the
pulpit from which he thundered his de-
nunciations.
Daniel Webster, with his massive frame,
beetling brows, deepset, searching eyes
and imperial port, called from Theodore
Parker the remark that 'ssince Charlie
magne there has not been such glorious
figure in all Christendom; but John
Randolph, one of the great orators of his
day, is described as having a "short,
small body, perched upon high crane legs,
SO that when he stood up you did not
know where he was to end;" and vet he
swayed audiences almost at will, in spite
of his grotesque figure and his shrill,
high-pitched voice.
Summerfiield, one of the most remark
able pulpit orators ever heard in this
and with his broad, white brow, large,
deep blue eyes, delicate and sensitive
mouth, was almost feminine in the love-
illness and beauty of his person; yet he
was no less an orator than Sylvester
Larned, who in his physical perfections
seemed to reach Cicero's ideal, and of
whom John Quincy Adams said that he
had never heard his equal in the pulpit.
Henry Clay was tall and commanding,
and his voice won for him the title OF
'sSilver tongued Harry of the West;'
but John Curran, whose influence as an
orator was not less than Clay's, was
small in stature, plain in feature, with a
harsh voice and hasty articulation which
won for him at school the title of s'Stut-
tering Jack Curran.''
Erskine is described as having "form
peculiarly graceful, slender and supple,
with features regularly beautiful. and
sion. and at times lighted up with a
smile of SURPRISING sweetness - and
Lord Brougham said of him that his
motions resembled those of a bIooded
race horse; but it is doubtful if he had
more power over his hearers than
had Wilberforce, who had s'pigmy body
and weak and painfully shrill voice. .
1t was of Wilberforce that Bos-
well wrote: 81 saw what seemed
to be mere shrimp mount upon the
table, but as l listened he grew and
grew until the shrimp became
whale" Burke with his awkward gait
and gesture, his harsh voice and
strong brogue, Chatham with his tall
and striking figure, noble features and
superb tones; Richard Lawlor Shell, with
his dwarfish body and shrieking voice;
O'Connell with his massive body and
voice which Disraeli said was the
finest ever heard in parliament:
Wendell Phillips, with his perfect