For an orator delivery is everything. — GOETHE. Tact is not a sixth sense, but it is the life of all the five. It is the open eye, the quick ear, the judging taste, the keen smell, and the lively touch; it is the interpreter of all riddles, the surmounter of all difficulties, the remover of all obstacles. Talent is power, tact is skill; talent is weight, tact is momentum ; talent knows what to do, tact knows how to do it. Tact makes no false steps; it hits the right nail on the head; it loses no time; it takes all hints; and, by keeping its eye on the weathercock, is ready to take advantage of every wind that blows. - Condensed from London Atlas. PART IV DELIVERY The crown, the consummation, of the discourse is its delivery. Toward it all preparation looks, for it the audience waits, by it the speaker is judged. Whatever of stress has been laid upon previous chapters has been for the sake of bringing the discourse to a successful delivery. All the forces of the orator's life converge in his oratory. The logical acuteness with which he marshals the facts about his theme, the rhetorical facility with which he orders his language, the control to which he has attained in the use of his body as a single organ of expression, whatever richness of acquisition and experience are his, these all are now incidents, the fact is the sending of his message home to his hearers. Inventive genius, materials, workmanship, completed gun, powder, marksmanship, yes, and ball itself, exist not more singly and really for the sake of sending that projectile to the enemy's vital point, than do all the instruments of public speech exist for the sake of its effective delivery. You cannot over-estimate this truth. The hour of delivery is the "supreme, inevitable hour" for the orator. It is this fact that makes lack of ade quate preparation such an impertinence. And it is this that sends such thrills of indescribable joy through the orator's whole being when he has achieved a success it is like the mother forgetting her pangs for the joy of bringing a son into the world. CHAPTER XIX HELPS AND HINDRANCES IN THE AUDIENCE Eloquence is in the assembly, not merely in the speaker. : The orator speaks not only to his auditors, but for them as well. Therefore let him study them to know what manner of men they are, where lies the way to their hearts, how the strongholds of their approval may best be taken, in short, how to attract and hold them. There is not an hour in all his preparation when the speaker dare lose sight of his audience. They must ever sit before him, with all their helping and hindering habits; so that, when at last he comes to face them, they shall not seem strangers, even though he has never seen a single man of them before. Whom are you to talk to? Forecast the answer as fully as you can. There is much to be found out without actual contact with an audience. What is the nature of public assemblies? What characteristics of a successful speaker seem most to please or arouse his hearers? What themes are listened to with most eager interest? Do refined audiences respond to the same style of material and delivery as move assemblies of the com mon people? What conditions and circumstances seem to affect the mood of an audience? Audiences differ quite as widely as authors' themes, so why should the speaker think to handle the one without thought when he bestows such care upon the other? Some of the greatest platform successes have been made by this nice appreciation of what is due an audience, both in extemporaneous and in written effort; while many brilliant speakers have failed because of a misapprehension of the spirit of those whom they were addressing or about to address. It is a problem of adjusting means to ends, of knowing human nature, and of saying the right word at the right time. Abraham Lincoln once said: "I always assume that my audiences are in many things wiser than I am, and the most sensible thing I can to them. I never found that they did not understand me." I say This great man's biographers assert that he strove to establish an alliance with his hearers he never talked at them, but with them. Most audiences are not unfriendly, but apathetic. They stand an immense amount of nonsense before they and impressively retire. get up (with creaking boots) Seldom do auditors speak out so frankly as did a little chap whom the author once knew. A tedious speaker had long been droning through a Sunday-school address, when the lad impatiently called out to the superintendent, "Oh pshaw, let's sing number thirty-six!" It served the speaker right. He should have suited his preparation to his audience. Pericles |