SUGGESTIONS ON BIOGRAPHICAL SPEECHES 5 Similarly, it is assumed that his delivery of the message will represent patient practice under competent criticism. Lack of confidence on the part of the student prompts this appeal to teachers. The beginner has heard much fun made of ' ' fire-eating orators ' ' ; and he feels 4. Lack of confi- that his productions, especially of the DBNCB AK OBSTACLE morc formal kind, will be looked upon patronizingly, if not scornfully. It surely is not too much to hope that in his efforts toward the careful composition and public presentation of a vital mes- sage, the student will receive the same generous consideration accorded him in his other endeavors. The form of Oral Discourse herein treated may be called the Biographical Speech. To this class of appeals belong various kinds of public discourse, not- n. The Compoeition of ably commemorative speeches deliv- the Biographical ered for the most part on anniversary Speech occasions, as on Washington's Birth- day or on Decoration Day. These bio- 1. EiND graphical addresses, then, are typical of a very large class of speeches gath« ering about the inspiration of mighty characters or of epochal events. From the first it must be borne in mind that compositioA for oral delivery is different from that intended for read- ing. **A speech is to be written as in 2. Oral, discoubse the presence of an audience and for an PBCULIAB audience. ' ' It is not prepared for pri- vate reading, but for public hearing. To write something to he read by another at his pleasure again and again, if he desires, is one thing : to compose a vital mes- sage to he acted upon after a mere collective hearing j is quite another thing. Serious public speech aims, then, not at heing something merely, but at doing something. It must do some- thing with the hearer. It aims at some decision on his part ; and so while addressed more immediately to the mind, it is prepared and presented for the purpose of moving the will. Let no one think, then, that the speeches herein considered are
