their personal sympathy for the cause he advocated.

 

As Webster said, it is of no use to try to pretend to sympathy or feelings. It

cannot be done successfully. "Nature is forever putting a premium on reality."

What is false is soon detected as such. The thoughts and feelings that create

and mould the speech in the study must be born again when the speech is

delivered from the platform. Do not let your words say one thing, and your voice

and attitude another. There is no room here for half-hearted, nonchalant methods

of delivery. Sincerity is the very soul of eloquence. Carlyle was right: "No

Mirabeau, Napoleon, Burns, Cromwell, no man adequate to do anything, but is

first of all in right earnest about it; what I call a sincere man. I should say

sincerity, a great, deep, genuine sincerity, is the first characteristic of all

men in any way heroic. Not the sincerity that calls itself sincere; ah no, that

is a very poor matter indeed; a shallow braggart, conscious sincerity, oftenest

self-conceit mainly. The great man's sincerity is of the kind he cannot speak

of--is not conscious of."

 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

 

It is one thing to convince the would-be speaker that he ought to put feeling

into his speeches; often it is quite another thing for him to do it. The average

speaker is afraid to let himself go, and continually suppresses his emotions.

When you put enough feeling into your speeches they will sound overdone to you,

unless you are an experienced speaker. They will sound too strong, if you are

not used to enlarging for platform or stage, for the delineation of the emotions