The Orator's Manual

be made to convey or make prominent different ideas, according to the conception or wish of the speaker. (§§ 32, 53, 63, etc.) Let students find out why the particular emphasis or gesture that is marked is appropriate, and not forget that unless they can gain such control of themselves as to deliver at will these passages as the author of this book conceives of their meaning, they cannot at will deliver them as they themselves conceive of their meaning.

206. As a rule, in these selections,

a. Pauses are not marked except in places where otherwise they might be overlooked.

b. Upward inflections it has not been thought necessary, in all cases, to mark.

c. Downward inflections are all marked; but the majority of these are to be given with merely a downward bend of the voice, starting higher than the general pitch. (See §§ 75-77.)

207. A greater number of gestures are marked than, in an ordinary oration, it would be appropriate to make. The object of marking so many of them is to afford the pupil as much practice of gesticulation as possible in a given space, and also an opportunity of selecting from a large number of gestures those that he can use most readily in public.

208. Advanced pupils, by consulting the references given in previous sections of this work, and the captions and marks used in connection with the following selections, will find among the latter illustrations of all the different elements of emphasis considered in this book.

PRELIMINARY EXERCISE IN DECLAMATION.

209. In order to understand pauses, inflections, force and gestures, let the student explain the marks in the following.

In order to overcome bad habits of delivery and to begin to cultivate good ones, let him practice it, till he can declaim it perfectly as marked.

longer |

And, if the war must go ón, why put off

the declaration | of independence? That measure | will

RO snatch to C Ft on op. waist 1 f RO 1 S RO

strengthen us it will give us character || abroad.

If we

*For the manner of forming these gestures, see pp. 136-140; for their meaning, p. 134.

w to ls LC

fail, it can be no worse | for us.

But we shall not fail. 1 S L

The cause will raise up | àrmies; the cause will create]

nàvies. The people, | the people, | if we are trúe to them,|

RCF up on br

w m RC to sf RC

h RC

will carry ús, and will carry themselves, | gloriously |

push R Cf and down

through this struggle.

Sír, the declaration will inspire |

the people with increased || courage.

| Instead of a long |

w tr to RCF on br pointing up

and bloody | wár | for restoration | of privileges, | for re

dress of grievances, | for chartered | immúnities, | held |

under a British | king, | set before them | the glorious

object of entire independence, and it will breathe into them

anèw the breath of life.

slowly lift Ꭱ Ꮯ to shoulder level

Through the thick | gloom | of the présent I see the

h RCF

RCF drop

brightness of the future, as the sùn | in heaven. I

shall make this a glòrious, | an immòrtal | day.

are in our graves | our children | will honor it.

w 1 tr BC

When we

They will

w to 1 bk BC

not of agony | and distress,- | but of

mid B O

low

2. Tell me, man of military science, | in how many

turn

and

to 1 bk R C

months were the Pilgrims | all | swept off by the thirty

of New England?

w 1 tr LO to LO

1 LO

Tell me, | politician, | how long || did

this shadow of a cólony, | on which your convéntions |

and treaties | had not smiled, | lànguish | on the distant |

w 1 tr BO to

BO 1

wltr B C to 1 BC

coast? Student | of history, compare for me the baffled |

shuffle

shuffle bk BC

projects, the abandoned | adventures of other times, |

3. Now, sír, | what was the conduct of your own |

RCF at side pointing

1 front R C F pointing down

allies | to Poland? | Is there a single | atrocity of the

repeat F down repeat F

repeat F

W to

French in Italy, | in Switzerland,- | in Egypt, if you

1 RO

1 R

1 R O snatch to fist on op waist

1 RO exaggerated s

f RO

turn

4. Yés; they will give enlightened freedom to our minds, RCF up on br w m RC to f s m R C prone stroke who are themselves the sláves of passion, àvarice and pride!

They offer us their protèction: yes, such protection as vûl

h R C shuffle

1 RC

tures give to lâmbs,— covering and devoùring them!

w to 1 bk BC

least of âll, | sùch | change | as they | would bring us.

Students who cannot give the downward inflection may, at first, attempt to accent each word necessitating a downward inflection as if the sentence ended on it. After they have acquired facility in doing this they can learn to start the downward inflection, if necessary, on a higher key (§§ 75-77.) Beginners should use only the closing part of the circumflex, which, unless very emphatic, is not well given except when it is slightly given, and usually requires some cultivation of the voice.

VEHEMENT, VIGOROUS AND APPELLATORY

SELECTIONS.

For obvious reasons, the extracts published in this work are none of them of a partisan, sectional or sectarian character; and have all been selected, on the principle of the survival of the fittest, from those that, in the author's own experience, have been found to be best adapted for the purposes for which they are used.

210. In all these the predominating

Time is slower, Pitch slightly higher, and Tone much louder than in ordinary conversation.

Force is natural, tending toward sustained (§§ 113, 114); explosive on very vehement passages, otherwise expulsive; and

Quality, orotund, often made aspirate to express intensity, and guttural to express hostility (§§ 135-137).

211. Assertive, Positive Style; mainly Downward Inflections. Predominating Terminal stress (§ 101); but on vehement passages, Initial (§ 100), and sometimes, on very emphatic syllables, not followed by others in the same word, Compound (see § 45: b, c; § 103: a).

1. REPLY TO MR. FLOOD, 1783.- Henry Grattan.

It is not the slander of an evil tòngue that can defàme me. No man, who has not a bad | character, | can ever say that I decèived. No country can call me a cheat. But I will suppòse such a public character. I will suppose such a mần | to hàve | exìstence. I will begin with his character in his political | crádle, and I will follow him to the last stage of political | dissolution. I will suppóse him,

1 fRO

in the first stage of his life, to have been intemperate; in the second,

to have been corrupt; and in the last, seditious;-that, after an

w to br m R C

envenomed attack on the persons and measures of a succession of W m RC

SRC

víceroys, and after much | declamation against their illegalities and w tr R C to waist and w to 1 f RO their profúsion, hè | took office, and became a supporter of Gov

1 R

ernment, when the profusion of ministers had greatly increased, and

S RO

their crimes múltiplied beyond example.

With regard to the liberties | of América, which were insépar

w br L C to

able | from ours, I will suppose this gentleman to have been an

ms LC

W tr LC to SL C

ênemy decided and unreserved; that he voted against | her liberty,

1 LO

butchers "armed negotiators," and stood with a metaphor in his

móuth and a brìbe in his pócket, a châmpion against the rights of

America,-of Amèrica, the only hope of Ireland, and the only |

refuge of the liberties | of mankind. Thus defective in every | relationship, whether to constitútion, cómmerce, or tolerátion, I will 1 fROF suppose this man to have added much private | improbity to pub

Ꭱ Ꮯ

1fRO

w to

lic | crìmes; that his probity was like his patriotism, and his honor

on a level with his oath. He loves to deliver panégyrics on himself. I will interrupt him, and say:

Sir, you are much mistaken if you think that your talents have been as great as your life has been reprehensible. You began your parliamentary career with an acrimony and personality which could

1 L O

have been justified only by a supposition of virtue; after a rank and