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to invite a handicap. Doubtless many clergymen prefer finish to fervor--let them choose: they are rarely men
who sway the masses to acceptance of their message. What they gain in precision and elegance of language
they lose in force.
There are just four motives that can move a man to read his address or sermon:
1. Laziness is the commonest. Enough said. Even Heaven cannot make a lazy man efficient.
2. A memory so defective that he really cannot speak without reading. Alas, he is not speaking when he is
reading, so his dilemma is painful--and not to himself alone. But no man has a right to assume that his
memory is utterly bad until he has buckled down to memory culture--and failed. A weak memory is oftener
an excuse than a reason.
3. A genuine lack of time to do more than write the speech. There are such instances--but they do not occur
every week! The disposition of your time allows more flexibility than you realize. Motive 3 too often
harnesses up with Motive 1.
4. A conviction that the speech is too important to risk forsaking the manuscript. But, if it is vital that every
word should be so precise, the style so polished, and the thoughts so logical, that the preacher must write the
sermon entire, is not the message important enough to warrant extra effort in perfecting its delivery? It is an
insult to a congregation and disrespectful to Almighty God to put the phrasing of a message above the
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The Art of Public Speaking
message itself. To reach the hearts of the hearers the sermon must be delivered--it is only half delivered
when the speaker cannot utter it with original fire and force, when he merely repeats words that were
conceived hours or weeks before and hence are like champagne that has lost its fizz. The reading preacher's
eyes are tied down to his manuscript; he cannot give the audience the benefit of his expression. How long
would a play fill a theater if the actors held their cue-books in hand and read their parts? Imagine Patrick
Henry reading his famous speech; Peter-the-Hermit, manuscript in hand, exhorting the crusaders; Napoleon,
constantly looking at his papers, addressing the army at the Pyramids; or Jesus reading the Sermon on the
Mount! These speakers were so full of their subjects, their general preparation had been so richly adequate,
that there was no necessity for a manuscript, either to refer to or to serve as "an outward and visible sign" of
their preparedness. No event was ever so dignified that it required an artificial attempt at speech making. Call
an essay by its right name, but never call it a speech. Perhaps the most dignified of events is a supplication to
the Creator. If you ever listened to the reading of an original prayer you must have felt its superficiality.
Regardless of what the theories may be about manuscript delivery, the fact remains that it does not work out
with efficiency. Avoid it whenever at all possible.
Committing the Written Speech and Speaking from Memory
This method has certain points in its favor. If you have time and leisure, it is possible to polish and rewrite
your ideas until they are expressed in clear, concise terms. Pope sometimes spent a whole day in perfecting
one couplet. Gibbon consumed twenty years gathering material for and rewriting the "Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire." Although you cannot devote such painstaking preparation to a speech, you should take time
to eliminate useless words, crowd whole paragraphs into a sentence and choose proper illustrations. Good
speeches, like plays, are not written; they are rewritten. The National Cash Register Company follows this
plan with their most efficient selling organization: they require their salesmen to memorize verbatim a selling
talk. They maintain that there is one best way of putting their selling arguments, and they insist that each
salesman use this ideal way rather than employ any haphazard phrases that may come into his mind at the
moment.
The method of writing and committing has been adopted by many noted speakers; Julius Caesar, Robert
Ingersoll, and, on some occasions, Wendell Phillips, were distinguished examples. The wonderful effects
achieved by famous actors were, of course, accomplished through the delivery of memorized lines.
The inexperienced speaker must be warned before attempting this method of delivery that it is difficult and
trying. It requires much skill to make it efficient. The memorized lines of the young speaker will usually
sound like memorized words, and repel.
If you want to hear an example, listen to a department store demonstrator repeat her memorized lingo about
the newest furniture polish or breakfast food. It requires training to make a memorized speech sound fresh and
spontaneous, and, unless you have a fine native memory, in each instance the finished product necessitates
much labor. Should you forget a part of your speech or miss a few words, you are liable to be so confused
that, like Mark Twain's guide in Rome, you will be compelled to repeat your lines from the beginning.
On the other hand, you may be so taken up with trying to recall your written words that you will not abandon
yourself to the spirit of your address, and so fail to deliver it with that spontaneity which is so vital to forceful
delivery.
But do not let these difficulties frighten you. If committing seems best to you, give it a faithful trial. Do not be
deterred by its pitfalls, but by resolute practise avoid them.
"1_1_16">CHAPTER XVI. METHODS OF DELIVERY 95
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