"Extemporaneous speech" has sometimes been made to mean unprepared speech, and

indeed it is too often precisely that; but in no such sense do we recommend it

strongly to speakers old and young. On the contrary, to speak well without notes

requires all the preparation which we discussed so fully in the chapter on

"Fluency," while yet relying upon the "inspiration of the hour" for some of your

thoughts and much of your language. You had better remember, however, that the

most effective inspiration of the hour is the inspiration you yourself bring to

it, bottled up in your spirit and ready to infuse itself into the audience.

 

If you extemporize you can get much closer to your audience. In a sense, they

appreciate the task you have before you and send out their sympathy.

Extemporize, and you will not have to stop and fumble around amidst your

notes--you can keep your eye afire with your message and hold your audience with

your very glance. You yourself will feel their response as you read the effects

of your warm, spontaneous words, written on their countenances.

 

Sentences written out in the study are liable to be dead and cold when

resurrected before the audience. When you create as you speak you conserve all

the native fire of your thought. You can enlarge on one point or omit another,

just as the occasion or the mood of the audience may demand. It is not possible

for every speaker to use this, the most difficult of all methods of delivery,

and least of all can it be used successfully without much practise, but it is

the ideal towards which all should strive.