XI. Fox: "Let us Pause" (from Speech on Rejection of Bonaparte's Overtures for ker Hill Oration; Plymouth Oration (selec- XV. LINCOLN: The Gettysburg Speech PAGE 273 281 325 397 XVI. GLADSTONE: The Commercial Value of Art (from Speech on Josiah Wedgwood). 403 XVII. INGERSOLL: Vision of War and Vision of the Future (from Decoration Day Oration, Selections from Robespierre, Daniel O'Connell, Pitt, Canning, Lord Brougham, Clay, Calhoun, 425 457 497 504 W PREFACE HEN we consider that two learned professions, those of the law and the church, depend largely for their success on skill in public speaking, it seems a little strange that oratory has so far fallen into neglect. We have many schools of elocution and dramatic art, but not one school of true oratory; and even the law schools and theological seminaries pay all too little attention to public speaking. So true is this, that there is not now published in the United States a hand-book in which may be found the great model orations of the past. School "Speakers" filled with poems, dialogues, and amusing recitations are published by the hundred; but even in these only a few eloquent paragraphs of great oratory have been included, and in no case a single complete oration. That interest in oratory still exists, however, is evidenced by the fact that three great collections of the best orations of the world have lately been published, each in ten or more large volumes, for subscription sale. These, however, are not available for the aspiring student, both because of their high price and because of their unwieldy form and bulk. Two difficulties confront the editor of orations at the outset. A great speech is usually a long speech, and present day interest in the subject would not permit the ordinary reader to wade through a lengthy discussion of an issue dead and buried in the past. Besides, only a few long speeches can be included in one ordinary volume. The extreme on this side is to be seen in the subscription collections of orations already referred to. On the other hand, a mere declamatory paragraph is not an oration. The extreme on this side is seen in the selections from orations to be found in school readers and speakers. In the present volume there will be found half à dozen entirely complete orations, and half a dozen more so abridged that the element of construction is not destroyed. Most great orations were not written out, and we have to depend on short-hand reports more or less imperfect. Besides, oratory is a thing of an occasion, and many things belong to an occasion which are only a hindrance to the reader who is wholly removed from that occasion. There is, therefore, by no means the same objection to abbreviating our record of an oration that there is to cutting up a carefully written and finished essay. Had the orator himself lived to our time, he would have cut up his own orations in a similar fashion. There is, indeed, a most excellent reason for attempting to condense some great orations, such as that of Demosthenes "On the Crown," for example. Demosthenes spoke to an audience deeply interested in the subject and the question at issue; we are interested only in Demosthenes. Yet if we would understand Demosthenes, we must let him play upon our attention and emotions as he played upon those of his audience over two thousand years ago. Because of the distance of time and difference of manners and customs, our interest is but a shadow, and we must be played upon by a much smaller oration, not too large for our interest to master. therefore understand the skilfully abbreviated oration far better than we would the complete one. We In order to get the effect of any speech, we ought to see before us in imagination the time and place, and understand the emotions of the people the orator was addressing. Then we shall appreciate what he accomplished by his oratory. No edition of selections known to the editor has attempted to provide this dramatic setting. In the present volume, however, the introductions will provide something of this dramatic setting for the imagination of the reader. English oratory has run far too much to "lofty declamation"; but this is not the only effective kind; indeed it often leads to failure by reason of its excess. The editor of this volume has tried, as far as possible, to present the different ways in which a speaker may sway his audience, and in his introductions he has suggested the peculiar advantages of each mode. While elocution is essential to good oratory, it is by no means the principal thing. Others who have written on elocution have done so with far more knowledge and experience than the present editor can claim. He has, therefore, devoted his attention chiefly to the great questions of rhetorical construction, and the human problem of moving men by speech. Whatever this volume is more than a reprint, the editor may claim without acknowledging indebtedness to any. Indeed, he felt himself sorely handicapped by the dearth of material accessible in Chicago. |