ページの画像
PDF
ePub

think of addressing Miss Languish yourself, I suppose you would have me marry the aunt; or if you should change your mind, and take the old lady, 'tis the same to me- -I'll marry the niece. Sir A. Upon my word, Jack, thou art either a very great hypocrite, or-but, come, I know your indifference on such a subject must be all a lie-I'm sure it must. Come, now, hang your demure face; come, confess, Jack, you have been lying, haven't you? You have been playing the hypocrite, hey? I'll never forgive you, if you haven't been lying and playing the hypocrite.

Capt. A. I am sorry, sir, that the respect and duty which I bear to you should be so mistaken.

Sir A. Respect and duty! But come along with me. I'll write a note to Mrs. Malaprop, and you shall visit the lady directly. Her eyes shall be the Promethean torch to you-come along, I'll never forgive you if you don't come back stark mad with rapture and impatience-if you don't, 'egad, I'll marry the girl myself.

[Exeunt.

CHAPTER VIII

HOW TO TRAIN THE MEMORY

The extemporaneous style of delivery should be the ultimate aim of every public speaker. To this end the memory should be cultivated to the highest possible degree. Many persons despair because of their poor and unreliable memories, but they are unwilling to give the time and practise necessary to develop them. There is no royal road to this as to any other branch of study. The memory can be cultivated, however, by any one having the necessary perseverance and application.

Memory is largely a matter of association of ideas. If we cultivate the habit of being interested, we are at the same time strengthening the memory. Memory depends upon securing vivid first impressions. These come through concentration, and we concentrate when we are sufficiently interested.

There are numerous so-called "memory systems," but the objection usually offered to them is that the end does not justify the means. If the average student had sufficient time and patience to carry the exercises to completion, he would doubtless be greatly benefited, but in most cases he soon becomes disheartened and gives up his study before any substantial results are possible.

What constitutes a good memory? One might answer, the ability to recall accurately and instantly the greatest

126 POWER AND PERSONALITY IN SPEAKING

number of things at the moment of need. A well-trained memory, then, may be likened unto a series of pigeon-holes, in which knowledge may be found so systematized as to make it casily available.

If the memory be poor it will be helpful at first to inquire into the reason for this condition. Such questions may be asked as: Is it lack of proper practise? Is it due to ill health? Is it lack of observation or of interest? Is there a systematic plan of gathering and recording knowledge? Are the daily habits of thinking and reading well-ordered? Is there lack of thoroughness, accuracy, and deliberateness? These and similar questions should be answered frankly, and a determined effort made to correct such faults as are noted.

To strengthen the memory it is advisable to form the habit of making comparisons and contrasts. In reading a book one should take notes and at the first opportunity try to repeat from memory, to some other person, the general ideas of what has been read. It is helpful also to interrogate one's self as to what has been seen or read. A good exercise is to read a passage from some writer and endeavor to repeat the same ideas in different words and in as many ways as possible. Vivid picturing of the thought helps to impress it upon the mind, and frequent repetition of a passage or speech will gradually fix it in the memory.

Committing to heart each day a verse or prose extract will train the memory with surprizing rapidity. An exercise that has been used with good results is to enter a room, take a quick glance around, walk out, and write down what you remember of the things that you have seen. The same exercise can be applied to passing a shop-window.

The following selections are suggested for memorizing,

[merged small][ocr errors]

the student taking a passage for each day. He may indefinitely extend the list at his own taste and discretion.

1. Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close. Then let every one of these short lives leave its sure record of some kindly thing done for others; some goodly strength or knowledge gained for yourself.

JOHN RUSKIN.

2. The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces; let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting beds weary and content and undishonored, and grant us in the end the gift of sleep. "Morning Prayer.” ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

3. Let no soft slumber close my eyes,

Ere I have recollected thrice

The train of actions through the day.
Where have my feet marked out their way?
What have I learnt where 'er I've been,
From all I've heard, from all I've seen?
What know I more that's worth the knowing?
What have I done that's worth the doing?
What have I sought that I should shun?
What duties have I left undone,

Or into what new follies run?
These self-inquiries are the road
That leads to virtue and to God.

"Self-Inquiry."

From the Greek of PYTHAGORAS.

4. A little thing, a sunny smile,
A loving word, at morn,

And all day long the sun shone bright,
The cares of life were made more light,
And sweetest hopes were born.

A little thing, a hasty word,

A cruel frown, at morn,

And aching hearts went on their way
And toiled throughout a dreary day,
Disheartened, sad and lorn.

"In the Morning."

COL. ROBERT G. INGERSOLL.

5. Do not keep the alabaster boxes of your love and tenderness sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness. Speak approving, cheering words while their ears can hear them and while their hearts can be thrilled and made happier; the kind things you mean to say when they are gone, say before they go. The flowers you mean to send for their coffin, send to brighten and sweeten their homes before they leave them. If my friends have alabaster boxes laid away, full of fragrant perfumes of sympathy and affection, which they intend to break over my body, I would much rather that they would bring them out in my weary and troubled hours, and open them, that I may be refreshed and cheered while I need them. I would rather have a plain coffin, without a flower, a funeral without a eulogy, than a life without the sweetness of love and sympathy. Let us learn to anoint our friends beforehand for their burial. Post-mortem kindness does not cheer the burdened spirit. Flowers on the coffin cast no fragrance backward over the weary way. COL. ROBERT G. INGERSOLL.

6. Now Love is the remedy, the great sweetener of the mind and body. It produces harmony, and harmony is equilibriumhealth.

This must first be established in the mind through belief and trust in the Infinite Love, and Omnipresent Good, then the practise of love and self-forgetfulness toward others.

If we would attract love to ourselves, we must feel it for others, and make ourselves lovable; and that should be our whole concern, to love more and more, and think less and less of self; then we will grow sweet and wholesome, and fragrant as a flower. The blood will be pure and rich, and filled with vitality,

« 前へ次へ »