5. Do not Overlook the Value of Translating Languages

6. Study Word Derivations

A notable sermon on "Joy," preached by the Rev. Dr. Maltbie D. Babcock, grew out of the orator's keen discriminations between the word joy and such kindred words as pleasure, happiness, amusement, and recreation. A flood of light may stream over a subject when the origin of a word is disclosed. A prefix or a suffix may essentially change the force of the stem, as in master-ful and master-ly, contempt-ible and contemptuous, envi-ous and envi-able. Thus to study words in groups, according to their stems, prefixes, and suffixes, is to gain a mastery over their shades of meaning, and introduce us to other related words.

7. Do not Favor one Set or Kind of Words more than Another

Sixty years and more ago, Lord Brougham, addressing the students of the University of Glasgow, laid down the rule that the native (Anglo-Saxon) part of our vocabulary was to be favored at the expense of that other part which has come from the Latin and Greek. The rule was an impossible one, and Lord Brougham himself never tried seriously to observe it; nor, in truth, has any great writer made the attempt. our language highly composite, but the

Not only is component

words have, in De Quincey's phrase, 'happily coalesced.' It is easy to jest at words in -osity and -ation, as 'dictionary' words, and the like. But even Lord Brougham would have found it difficult to dispense with pomposity and imagination."1

1 Handbook of English Composition, Hart, p. 341.

CHAPTER XIII

STYLE IN PUBLIC DISCOURSE

If I am ever obscure in my expression, do not fancy that therefore I am deep. If I were really deep, all the world would understand. CHARLES KINGSLEY.

are.

Clear writers, like clear fountains, do not seem so deep as they - WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.

In the last chapter we saw the value of a large and accurate oratorical vocabulary. We are now to note by what means individual words are to become fused in the alembic of the soul and become a power in speech.

Walter Pater once said that a man should have "a vocabulary faithful to the coloring of his own spirit"; and Buffon wrote, "Style is the man himself." Both of these maxims recognize a truth fundamental to our theme

I. Personality must Dominate the Style in Public

Discourse

It is true that the qualities of Purity, Propriety, and Precision in diction, and of Clearness, Unity, Emphasis, Force, Harmony, and Vitality, in general composition, are of primary importance1 in spoken discourse as well

1 See pp. 100-108.

as in written; it is furthermore true, as will presently appear, that other facts also help determine the style of the speaker; but personality must pervade and dominate them all.

"A poet is born; an orator, made," said Horace. This is only half true. The orator must possess certain native gifts which are susceptible to culture, and personality is one of these. Expression grows out of personality; hence the former must receive tone and spirit from the latter. When a man is surcharged with life, he can't help doing and saying things; if he did not, he would burst.

Thus we see that all the qualities and acquirements . of manhood are influential in forming the speaker's style. He may simulate for a while the possession of qualities not his own, he may repress his real nature upon occasions, he may even act skillfully in delivering the words of others; but in the long run personality will color the matter as well as the style of his discourse.

According to the personality of the man and the "quality of the information in the treasure house of the understanding, will be the style-scant or plentiful in words, clear or confused in expression, vivacious or dull, yielding ideas leaden or golden, gems of paste, or diamonds rich and rare." 1

In view of this truth, let it be observed that modesty, sincerity, naturalness, earnestness, and all other personal characteristics, as revealed in style, cannot be.

1 Public Speaking and Debate, Holyoake, p. 222.

taught by rhetoricians, but must be the outward expression of an inward character. The way to have them is to build them into the life. Then, and then only, can they find true expression.

The structure and the handling of language are indeed subjects of instruction; but only as instruments to convey thought, feeling, and will, are they part of the orator's equipment. His real power is from within. Personality is the dynamic of oratory. To cultivate it is the work of a life. First impression, then expression; first be, then speak; first will, then command. Do you suppose that anything other than the high plane of thought on which Gladstone constantly moved could have made possible and inevitable the lofty style which clothed his sentiments? Could aught but a spirit tremendously in earnest have given voice to such fervid periods as burned in the eloquence of Wendell Phillips? Could a heart less bound up in the interests of men and causes that he loved have inspired such bursts of moving appeal as gushed from the lips of Daniel Webster?

It is such full natures as these that give to their hearers the strong sense of power in reserve, and cause them to hang upon each word as it falls from the orator's lips as though within its compass were enfolded momentous issues. When such dynamic minds attempt utterance, quietness is not mistaken for dullness, nor gentleness for timidity. Theirs is not the gentleness of a limpid brook, which moves quietly because it has no