hearers is a severe test of the speaker's earnestness. The student becomes afflicted with self-consciousness; sometimes the sense of the incongruous is overmastering; an address that he spoke earnestly, it may be, to an imaginary audience in his room, he finds difficulty in delivering earnestly in a class exercise. The difficulty, it must be admitted, is a real one, but this does not mean that it cannot be overcome. Indeed, the very fact that it can be overcome should lead the speaker to summon all his powers in the way of earnestness. There is this encouraging feature: students in oratory, while they are quick to detect poor speaking, are also quick to recognize good speaking.

As to the seeming incongruity of speaking before a teacher alone, this, too, can be eliminated by training and practice. The student with the oratorical or dramatic instinct finds no great difficulty in imaginatively peopling the empty seats, as Henry Clay found an audience in the forest trees. Under such circumstances - under all circumstances it should be remembered that it is always easy to speak according to habit, be the habit good or bad. The faults that appear in the class room usually characterize the student's delivery on other occasions. Granting that the circumstances mentioned do make earnestness difficult, it is all the more valuable training for more propitious occasions. The best training for speaking earnestly on all occasions is to speak earnestly on the least favorable occasions. The well-trained speaker, as the well-trained actor, will not fail, though his audience does.

Rarely does the young speaker meet a hostile audience, and in any event so much depends upon the peculiar circumstances that directions are impracticable. The speaker's purpose is, of course, to master such an audience. He may do this by placating at first, or by the majesty of moral courage. Beecher at Liverpool said the unexpected thing,

and appealed to the sense of fair play. Phillips at Faneui Hall threw down the gauge of battle and hurled the invective of which he was a master. When an audience perceives that a speaker will not be downed, there gradually develops the feeling, if no sinister motive lies back of the hostility, that he ought not to be downed; and "He is God's own anointed king," says Carlyle, "who melts all wills into his."

Relation to Technique. It may be asked, and frequently is asked, by the student, "How can I think of so many things at once? How can I think about how I am carrying myself, or using my voice, and at the same time think of the ideas and respond to the emotions be in earnest?"

In Chapter II it was shown that drill in technique should lead to an unconscious habit. One should never have his art on exhibition. The highest art is to conceal art. But while his technique must never be uppermost in the field of consciousness, the trained speaker will always have a subconsciousness as to whether or not his thought is finding effective expression. He will know what he is about. He will know what he should be doing, and know if he is doing it. There should be a coördination of thought, emotion, and will. The relative amount of attention that should be paid to each of these elements will vary with the individual. One student is all emotion; he needs to stress the mental aspects of his address. Another is coldly intellectual; he needs to stimulate his imagination and cultivate the sentimental, emotional side of his being. Another is knockkneed - has not the courage of his convictions; he needs to cultivate more will power.

The will should also be exercised in directing earnestness through proper channels. Self-consciousness comes from a clogging of the natural channels of expression. "Forget

about yourself and think only of your subject" is a common direction that needs qualifying. Forget about yourself in one sense, it may be; but know what you are doing with voice and body. Do you say they will take care of themselves? Perhaps so and perhaps not. We have all heard speakers when we wished a kind Providence would remind them of themselves. Of course the speaker is not to indulge in vocal or physical gymnastics on the platform, nor is he by any means to give the detailed attention to technique which has been given earlier in this book. But, I repeat, he is to know what he is doing; if his voice is way up, to bring it down; if he is yelling, to return to a normal force. Now, this knowing what you are about, this sub-consciousness, is not incompatible with the most sincere earnestness: it is earnestness in its highest sense, for it is the method of a rational being. Emerson refers to this coördination of mind, emotion, and will when he says that "the truly eloquent [earnest] man is a sane man with power to communicate his sanity."

Earnestness the Expression of Character. Earnestness may be stimulated and directed by the mind, the emotions, and the will, but the speaker cannot give more than he has; he cannot express more than he is. Earnestness cannot be feigned, for an audience soon distinguishes the true coin from the counterfeit. Surely art alone will never make an effective speaker. Some would-be orators go to a teacher of oratory when they should be seeking a minister. "There can be no true eloquence," says Emerson, "unless there is a man behind the speech." True eloquence springs from the moral nature. Hence Christ, who spake as never man spake, represents the ideal in oratory, as He does in conduct. The history of oratory shows that it has flourished at those times when great moral questions were at stake,

injustice to be resented, a reform to be instituted, and that its exponents were men terribly in earnest; that "its great masters," to quote Emerson again, "whilst they valued every help to its attainment, and thought no pains too great which contributed in any manner to further it, . . . yet never permitted any talent-neither voice rhythm, poetic power, sarcasm -to appear for show; but were grave men, who preferred their integrity to their talent, and esteemed that object for which they toiled, whether the prosperity. of their country, or the laws, or a reformation, or liberty of speech, or of the press, or letters, or morals, as above the whole world, and themselves also."

SUMMARY.

We have seen that earnestness, communicated to the audience, is essential to effective public speaking; that earnestness may be acquired through study of and belief in the subject-matter of a speech, and its expression aided by the use of the will; that practice in the technique of delivery is not incompatible with the most sincere earnestness; and lastly, that the character of a speech is limited, as regards its earnestness, to the character of the speaker.

CHAPTER XI.

PHYSICAL EARNESTNESS - GESTURE.

Expression by Action. We now approach the second means of expression, that effected by action; for while other arts appeal to but one of the senses, speech appeals to both the ear and the eye. Avoid it as we will, that part of public speaking that appeals to the eye is a most important part, and is too often sadly neglected. Were it not important,-nay, essential, then the speaker had as well speak behind a screen, and there would be no cause for that instinctive desire on the part of all listeners to see the speaker. The public speaker cannot, if he would, escape the public gaze. His action, therefore, his carriage, bearing, physical control, poise, play of features, in short, his whole bodily expression,-may powerfully aid or mar his expression by voice. This, in its broad sense, is gesture. It is a "physical action caused by psychic activity." It is that part of delivery that speaks to the eye. The student of speaking must therefore answer such questions as these: How do you carry yourself? Do you stand up or slouch ? Have you a graceful carriage and pleasing bearing? Is your body the servant of your soul, as it should be, or is your soul cramped and buffeted by a listless, uncontrolled body? If you have not, like O'Connell, the "stature of Apollo," or, like Webster, a "precipice of brow, with eyes glowing like anthracite coal,” —even if you have not a commanding physique, are you making the best possible use of the physique that you have? In considering means of ex