2 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS before an audience stammering dolts or downright dunces, it is not to the credit of our educational methods. And this sug- gestion is the more significant in the light of the fact that em- inent students of our people and government ascribe so much power to public discussion and appeal. This volume is pub- lished in the firm conviction that the appreciation of the rela- tion of practical public speech to the well-being of the state and nation, is growing rapidly. To treat fairly of this subject within the limits of a single chapter is manifestly impossible. For the speeches herein planned should be orations in minia- 2. Pabticulab ture ; and of all types of literature, the DIRECTIONS HEBE oratiou is most complex. The compos- iMPOSSiBLE ition, not to mention the delivery, in- volves an art quite beyond communica- tion through the medium of the printed page. Skill in any art, indeed, is vastly more than instruction and knowledge : it rep- resents usually long-continued practice under the direction of one skilled in that art: it is attained through repeated revi- sions based on intelligent criticism. For illustration, it is generally considered impossible, through the medium of a book, adequately to instruct in the art of vocal or instrumental music. Just so probably no satisfactory * * text, * * however long or learned, will ever be written on the preparation and deliv- ery of public appeals. It is believed, however, that the following general sugges- tions will prove helpful. They are based upon some years of experience in teaching the Composition and Delivery of Pub- lic Address. Now it is assumed that the student will be made to feel free to seek sympathetic and legitimate criticism from his teach- ers : and it is further assumed that he 3. Sympathetic will not be satisfied with one writing of CBiTicisM his speech, nor even with two; but nbcessaby that he will pursue persistently the suggestions made and that he will em- body in his final production his very best thought and skill.
