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to act unconsciously of an audience; the other speakers are his audience, and he a part of theirs: the true aim, then, in dialogue, should be to act for your fellow actors, and neither by look or innuendo to appear to be acting at or to the audience. This is the secret of success; and to him who bears his part in the drama most naturally, supposing it to be a real scene, is awarded the applause and praise of the audience.

And now let it be observed, that all our practice in declamation and recitation, as important as it is, is so because it is preparatory to another step of far greater importance in the drama of life. Its object is to prepare the youth to write and speak his own speeches, and to enable him to rise and make extemporaneous addresses, in his own sphere, upon topics of great and manifold interest. No educated American, in the nineteenth century, should be " unaccustomed to public speaking," or should be called on pectedly," when the interests of his country, of education, of philanthropy, are at stake.

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The spirit of a free people is the true spirit of oratory; because it is natural, fearless, and earnest. American natural orators are everywhere renowned, and even the Indians, our unfortunate predecessors in this goodly land, give us, without the excellent culture of the schools, matchless models of eloquence, subsidizing nature, inventing rhetoric, and extorting our praise. This brings us to the point from which we started, viz.: that nature is the true source of the best oratory, and that art is only its handmaid and adorner. The Latin poet knew the value of this naturalness when he wrote

Si vis me flere, dolendum est
Primum ipsi tibi;"

for that naturalness is the earnest of human sympathy, and true sympathy makes all oratory interesting and attractive.

If to this we add that culture which, based upon nature and sympathy, is only intended to develop the powers of nature to the utmost; to detract nothing from its reality, but to give it new avenues of power and beauty, we shall do proper homage to the most expressive of the arts, at once useful and æsthetic, ELOCUTION.

In closing these introductory remarks on the subject of elocution, the compiler desires to explain the divisions which he has

made in classifying and arranging his selections. The classification is based upon general rhetorical principles. It is as follows:I. DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE.

II. RECITATIONS IN POETRY. III. THE DRAMA.

I. DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE.

Under the general head of Declamations in Prose are included extracts from all kinds of public discourse, as the subdivision will show. The first part of this subdivision is

1. Academic and Popular.-In this part are included such efforts as are found in special orations, in seminaries and colleges, before literary societies, in addresses on great anniversaries, in speeches before public meetings on issues other than political; in a word, this part comprises a very varied selection from occasional discourses of literary or popular interest. To these are added eloquent extracts from certain written works of the same general character, and specially adapted to be spoken to an audience.

2. Judicial, Forensic, and Parliamentary. This part easily explains itself, as containing extracts from the charges of judges on the bench, the speeches of lawyers at the bar, and addresses in houses of legislation, such as the English Parliament, our own Congress, and our state legislatures.

3. Historical, Biographical, and Descriptive.-In this subdivision will be found extracts from historical and biographical lectures, and from written histories and biographies, with a few descriptive sketches from books of travel and cognate works. The custom so prevalent in our day of lecturing in public on such themes, offers, it is evident, a new avenue for the teacher of elocution and the compiler of such books as this volume. This subdivision has been virtually neglected in other books of this description, and has been monopolized heretofore by the Readers or Reading Class-Books.

4. Religious, Moral, and Didactic.-In most books of extracts for reading and speaking, this part is entirely neglected, or most inadequately supplied. The truth is, there is in amount more eloquence and rhetorical power from the pulpit than from all the other sources of oratory combined. It has been deemed proper to collect here a fair representation of pulpit orators, and as varied as possible, including numerous denominations of Christians.

II. RECITATIONS IN POETRY.

It was unnecessary under this grand division to designate many varieties. They are all included under three heads, for the sake of convenience of reference.

1. Epic, Lyric, and Descriptive.-This is a large and varied department, in which will be found many new pieces, unhackneyed by that constant repetition which has robbed some of the finest English pieces of their original charm.

2. National Odes and Battle Pieces.-This subdivision of stirring and patriotic selections, gives some idea of the enthusiasm of the human heart in all countries when called out to defend its fatherland. The author feels sure that it will be generally regarded as an interesting and distinguishing feature of this book.

3. Wit and Humor in Verse.-Under this title have been grouped many entirely new pieces, containing unforced wit and true humor. With two or three exceptions, the author has aimed to present what the student will not find in similar works.

III. THE DRAMA.

Although the Drama must be written in prose or poetry, and might fairly come under one of the two principal heads already mentioned in a rhetorical arrangement, for convenience and distinction it has been classified as separate from either. It has also two subdivisions.

1. Soliloquies and Monologues.-All the best dramas abound in passages of this nature, which, when extracted, make excellent separate speeches; but which, in such portion of the drama itself as could be placed in a work of this compass, would be too long and tedious in colloquy.

2. Dialogues and Colloquies.-Varied extracts from dramas, old and new, tragic and comic, are included in this part, and complete the volume. They have been chosen with great care, and with special regard to eliminating that license and immorality which have so infected the stage drama in our day. It is hoped they will give ease of colloquy to students, while at the same time they offer them a new and extensive selection from the works of English and American dramatists.

THE

SELECT ACADEMIC SPEAKER⠀⠀⠀⠀

PART I.

DECLAMATIONS IN PROSE.

ACADEMIC AND POPULAR.

THE ORATOR'S ART.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. THE eloquence of the college is like the discipline of a review. The art of war, we are all sensible, does not consist in manoeuvres on a training-day; nor the steadfastness of the soldier in the hour of battle, in the drilling of his orderly sergeant. Yet the superior excellence of the veteran army is exemplified in nothing more forcibly than in the perfection of its discipline. It is in the heat of action, upon the field of blood, that the fortune of the day may be decided by the exactness of manual exercise; and the art of displaying a column, or directing a charge, may turn the balance of victory, and change the history of the world. The application of these observations is as direct to the art of oratory as to that of war. The exercises to which you are here accustomed are not intended merely for the display of the talents you have acquired. They are instruments put into your hands for future use. Their object is not barely to prepare you for the composition and delivery of an oration to amuse an idle hour on some public anniversary. It is to give you a clue for the labyrinth of legislation in the public councils; a spear for the conflict of judicial war in the public tribunals; a sword for the field of religious and moral victory in the pulpit.

From "Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory," delivered at Harvard, 1808.

THE ORATOR'S GIFT.

ABBE BAUTAIN.

ART may develop and perfect the talent of a speaker, but cannot produce it. The exercises of grammar and of rhetoric will teach a person how to speak correctly and elegantly; but nothing can teach him to be eloquent; or give that eloquence which comes from the heart and rges to the heart. All the precepts and artifices on earth can but forur the appearances or semblance of it. Now this true and natural eloquence which moves, persuades and transports, consists of a soul and a body, like man, whose image, glory, and word it is.

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The soul of eloquence is the centre of the human soul itself, which, enlightened by the rays of an idea, or warmed and stirred by an impression, flashes or bursts forth to manifest, by some sign or other, what it feels or sees. This it is which gives movement and life to a discourse; it is like a kindled torch, or a shuddering and vibrating

nerve.

The body of eloquence is the language which it requires in order to speak, and which must harmoniously clothe what it thinks or feels, as a fine shape harmonizes with the spirit which it contains. The material part of language is learnt instinctively, and practice makes us feel and seize its delicacies and shades. The understanding then, which sees rightly and conceives clearly, and the heart which feels keenly, find naturally, and without effort, the words and the arrangement of words most analogous to what is to be expressed. Hence the innate talent of eloquence, which results alike from certain intellectual and moral aptitudes, and from the physical constitution, especially from that of the senses and of the organs of the voice.

From "The Art of Extempore Speaking."

THE WONDERS OF THE DAWN.

EDWARD EVERETT.

MUCH as we are indebted to our observatories for elevating our conceptions of the heavenly bodies, they present even to the unaided sight scenes of glory which words are too feeble to describe. I had occasion, a few weeks since, to take the early train from Providence to Boston; and for this purpose rose at two o'clock in the morning. Everything around was wrapt in darkness and hushed in silence, broken only by what seemed at that hour the unearthly clank and rush of the train. It was a mild, serene, midsummer's night,-the sky was without a cloud, the winds were whist. The moon, then in the last quarter, had just risen, and the stars shone with a spectral lustre but little affected by her presence. Jupiter, two hours high, was the herald of

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