STUDY OF MODEL SPEECHES

MODEL SPEECHES, WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR THEIR STUDY


There is no better way for you to improve your own public speaking than
to analyze and study the speeches of successful orators.

First read such speeches aloud, since by that means you fit words to
your lips and acquire a familiarity with oratorical style.

Then examine the speaker's method of arranging his thoughts, and the
precise way in which they lead up and contribute to his ultimate object.

Carefully note any special means employed--story, illustration, appeal,
or climax,--to increase the effectiveness of the speech.


_John Stuart Mill_

Read the following speech delivered by John Stuart Mill, in his tribute
to Garrison. Note the clear-cut English of the speaker. Observe how
promptly he goes to his subject, and how steadily he keeps to it.
Particularly note the high level of thought maintained throughout. This
is an excellent model of dignified, well-reasoned, convincing speech.

"Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen,--The speakers who have preceded me
have, with an eloquence far beyond anything which I can command, laid
before our honored guest the homage of admiration and gratitude which we
all feel due to his heroic life. Instead of idly expatiating upon things
which have been far better said than I could say them, I would rather
endeavor to recall one or two lessons applicable to ourselves, which
may be drawn from his career. A noble work nobly done always contains in
itself not one but many lessons; and in the case of him whose character
and deeds we are here to commemorate, two may be singled out specially
deserving to be laid to heart by all who would wish to leave the world
better than they found it.

"The first lesson is,--Aim at something great; aim at things which are
difficult; and there is no great thing which is not difficult. Do not
pare down your undertaking to what you can hope to see successful in the
next few years, or in the years of your own life. Fear not the reproach
of Quixotism or of fanaticism; but after you have well weighed what you
undertake, if you see your way clearly, and are convinced that you are
right, go forward, even tho you, like Mr. Garrison, do it at the risk
of being torn to pieces by the very men through whose changed hearts
your purpose will one day be accomplished. Fight on with all your
strength against whatever odds and with however small a band of
supporters. If you are right, the time will come when that small band
will swell into a multitude; you will at least lay the foundations of
something memorable, and you may, like Mr. Garrison--tho you ought not
to need or expect so great a reward--be spared to see that work
completed which, when you began it, you only hoped it might be given to
you to help forward a few stages on its way.

"The other lesson which it appears to me important to enforce, amongst
the many that may be drawn from our friend's life, is this: If you aim
at something noble and succeed in it, you will generally find that you
have succeeded not in that alone. A hundred other good and noble things
which you never dreamed of will have been accomplished by the way, and
the more certainly, the sharper and more agonizing has been the struggle
which preceded the victory. The heart and mind of a nation are never
stirred from their foundations without manifold good fruits. In the case
of the great American contest these fruits have been already great, and
are daily becoming greater. The prejudices which beset every form of
society--and of which there was a plentiful crop in America--are rapidly
melting away. The chains of prescription have been broken; it is not
only the slave who has been freed--the mind of America has been
emancipated. The whole intellect of the country has been set thinking
about the fundamental questions of society and government; and the new
problems which have to be solved and the new difficulties which have to
be encountered are calling forth new activity of thought, and that great
nation is saved probably for a long time to come, from the most
formidable danger of a completely settled state of society and
opinion--intellectual and moral stagnation. This, then, is an additional
item of the debt which America and mankind owe to Mr. Garrison and his
noble associates; and it is well calculated to deepen our sense of the
truth which his whole career most strikingly illustrates--that tho our
best directed efforts may often seem wasted and lost, nothing coming of
them that can be pointed to and distinctly identified as a definite gain
to humanity, tho this may happen ninety-nine times in every hundred, the
hundredth time the result may be so great and dazzling that we had
never dared to hope for it, and should have regarded him who had
predicted it to us as sanguine beyond the bounds of mental sanity. So
has it been with Mr. Garrison."

It will be beneficial for your all-round development in speaking to
choose for earnest study several speeches of widely different character.
As you compare one speech with another, you will more readily see why
each subject requires a different form of treatment, and also learn to
judge how the speaker has availed himself of the possibilities afforded
him.


_Judge Story_

The speech which follows is a fine example of elevated and impassioned
oratory. Judge Story here lauds the American Republic, and employs to
advantage the rhetorical figures of exclamation and interrogation.

As you examine this speech you will notice that the speaker himself was
moved by deep conviction. His own belief stamped itself upon his words,
and throughout there is the unmistakable mark of sincerity.

You are impressed by the comprehensive treatment of the subject. The
orator here speaks out of a full mind, and you feel that you would
confidently trust yourself to his leadership.

"When we reflect on what has been and what is, how is it possible not to
feel a profound sense of the responsibilities of this Republic to all
future ages? What vast motives press upon us for lofty efforts! What
brilliant prospects invite our enthusiasm! What solemn warnings at once
demand our vigilance and moderate our confidence! The Old World has
already revealed to us, in its unsealed books, the beginning and the
end of all marvelous struggles in the cause of liberty.

"Greece! lovely Greece! 'the land of scholars and the nurse of arms,'
where sister republics, in fair processions chanted the praise of
liberty and the good, where and what is she? For two thousand years the
oppressors have bound her to the earth. Her arts are no more. The last
sad relics of her temples are but the barracks of a ruthless soldiery;
the fragments of her columns and her palaces are in the dust, yet
beautiful in ruins.

"She fell not when the mighty were upon her. Her sons united at
Thermopyl・and Marathon; and the tide of her triumph rolled back upon
the Hellespont. She was conquered by her own factions--she fell by the
hands of her own people. The man of Macedonia did not the work of
destruction. It was already done by her own corruptions, banishments,
and dissensions. Rome! whose eagles glanced in the rising and setting
sun, where and what is she! The Eternal City yet remains, proud even in
her desolation, noble in her decline, venerable in the majesty of
religion, and calm as in the composure of death.

"The malaria has but traveled in the parts won by the destroyers. More
than eighteen centuries have mourned over the loss of the empire. A
mortal disease was upon her before C誑ar had crossed the Rubicon; and
Brutus did not restore her health by the deep probings of the
senate-chamber. The Goths, and Vandals, and Huns, the swarms of the
North, completed only what was begun at home. Romans betrayed Rome. The
legions were bought and sold, but the people offered the tribute-money.

"And where are the republics of modern times, which cluster around
immortal Italy? Venice and Genoa exist but in name. The Alps, indeed,
look down upon the brave and peaceful Swiss in their native fastnesses;
but the guaranty of their freedom is in their weakness, and not in their
strength. The mountains are not easily crossed, and the valleys are not
easily retained.

"When the invader comes, he moves like an avalanche, carrying
destruction in his path. The peasantry sink before him. The country,
too, is too poor for plunder, and too rough for a valuable conquest.
Nature presents her eternal barrier on every side, to check the
wantonness of ambition. And Switzerland remains with her simple
institutions, a military road to climates scarcely worth a permanent
possession, and protected by the jealousy of her neighbors.

"We stand the latest, and if we fall, probably the last experiment of
self-government by the people. We have begun it under circumstances of
the most auspicious nature. We are in the vigor of youth. Our growth has
never been checked by the oppression of tyranny. Our Constitutions never
have been enfeebled by the vice or the luxuries of the world. Such as we
are, we have been from the beginning: simple, hardy, intelligent,
accustomed to self-government and self-respect.

"The Atlantic rolls between us and a formidable foe. Within our own
territory, stretching through many degrees of latitude, we have the
choice of many products, and many means of independence. The government
is mild. The press is free. Religion is free. Knowledge reaches, or may
reach every home. What fairer prospects of success could be presented?
What means more adequate to accomplish the sublime end? What more is
necessary than for the people to preserve what they themselves have
created?

"Already has the age caught the spirit of our institutions. It has
already ascended the Andes, and snuffed the breezes of both oceans. It
has infused itself into the life-blood of Europe, and warmed the sunny
plains of France and the lowlands of Holland. It has touched the
philosophy of Germany and the North, and, moving onward to the South,
has opened to Greece the lesson of her better days.

"Can it be that America under such circumstances should betray herself?
That she is to be added to the catalog of republics, the inscription
upon whose ruin is, 'They were but they are not!' Forbid it, my
countrymen! forbid it, Heaven! I call upon you, fathers, by the shades
of your ancestors, by the dear ashes which repose in this precious soil,
by all you are, and all you hope to be, resist every attempt to fetter
your consciences, or smother your public schools, or extinguish your
system of public instruction.

"I call upon you, mothers, by that which never fails in woman, the love
of your offspring, to teach them as they climb your knees or lean on
your bosoms, the blessings of liberty. Swear them at the altar, as with
their baptismal vows, to be true to their country, and never forsake
her. I call upon you, young men, to remember whose sons you are--whose
inheritance you possess. Life can never be too short, which brings
nothing but disgrace and oppression. Death never comes too soon, if
necessary, in defense of the liberties of our country."

You can advantageously read aloud many times a speech like the
foregoing. Stand up and read it aloud once a day for a month, and you
will be conscious of a distinct improvement in your own command of
persuasive speech.

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The Art of Public Speaking