The part of a lecture which consumes the first ten or fifteen minutes is called the exordium, from the Latin word exordiri--to begin a web. The invariable rule as to the manner of...
Speaking mannerisms are of two kinds, those of manner, of course, and those which by a metaphorical use of the term may be called mannerisms of matter. "The memory," said the quain...
The close of a lecture is called the peroration--the word oration prefixed by the Latin preposition "per." "Per" has several meanings, one of them being "to the utmost extent" as i...
It is the function of language to convey ideas. Ideas are the real foundation of good lecturing and words must always be subordinate. The English Parliamentarian, Gladstone, had th...
I had just concluded a lecture in Grand Junction, Colo., over a year ago, when a burly railroad man stepped forward and introduced himself. I forget his name, but remember well wha...
THE PLACE In traveling through the country on a street-speaking tour about the first thing a speaker observes is the poor judgement shown by the local comrades in the selection of...
A great lecture must have a great theme. One of the supreme tests of a lecturer's judgment presents itself when he is called upon to choose his subject. Look over the list of subje...
William Ewart Gladstone, one of the most generally admired orators the English house of commons ever listened to, spoke at an average of 100 words a minute. Phillips Brooks, the br...
Lecturers learn by experience that the chairman question may become at times a very trying problem. Many a meeting has been spoiled by an impossible chairman, and the lecturer who...
Really great debaters, like the animal reconstructed, as Bret Harte relates, before "The Society on the Stanislaw," are "extremely rare." This is because the great debater must hav...
We are by this time agreed that the sale of the proper books at lecture meetings is greatly to be desired. In this article we shall consider the chief instrument by which this is a...
The Shakespearian saying that "all's well that ends well" is only a half truth. A good lecture must not only end well; it must begin well. The value of first impressions is univers...
The platform has no greater nuisance than that interminable bore--the speaker who cannot stop. Of all platform vices this is about the worst. The speaker who acquires a reputation...
There are a great number of tricks that may be practiced in debate. They should be avoided by the serious man who is debating to defend a great cause. It is well to know the best m...
For some time I have been besieged with requests to open a "Speakers' Class" or "A School of Oratory," or, as one ingenious correspondent puts it, a "Forensic Club." With these req...
A lecturer should realize his grave responsibility to his audience. Nothing but absolute physical impossibility is a sufficient excuse for disappointing an assembly. Have it thorou...
I met him at Napa, Cal., after the meeting. His name was Mueller; a tall, fine old German. He had been through the Bismarck "exception law" persecution and was well informed in all...
In concluding this series I will group several items of importance which did not suggest themselves under any previous head. Gestures should be carefully watched, especially at the...
Said Francis Bacon, the author of "Novum Organum," "Reading maketh a full man, writing an exact man, and conversation a ready man." The first in importance of these is to be "a ful...
The definition of science as "knowledge classified," while leaving much to be said, is perhaps, as satisfactory as any that could be condensed into two words. A trained capacity fo...
The tones of the speaker's voice fade away and are forever lost. Too often the ideas which the voice proclaimed drift into the background and presently disappear. This is the crown...
The very first essential to successful course lecturing is--no chairman. On three different occasions I have tried to deliver a long course of lectures with a chairman, as a conces...