Essentials of Public Speaking: For Secondary Schools (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Essentials of Public Speaking: For Secondary Schools

But skill ih speaking is still more valuable as a means of persuasion. The time will never come when people will not flock to hear men plead causes of vital interest. There will always be a demand for those who can speak well, for business interests require men who can present cases well in the courts. The effective jury lawyer will secure a much larger share of the business of the courts than the man of equal learning and high character who is not effective as a speaker. Leaders in committees, conventions, and other deliberative assemblies are almost invariably effective speakers, for it is a well-known fact that most of the important business of life is shaped by pithy, energetic, short speeches.

The testimony of the great orators is overwhelming in sup port of faithful and vigorous practice in the art of public speaking. Gladstone declares that time and money spent in training the voice and body is an investment that pays a larger interest than any other and Spurgeon says, I believe that every one Should train his voice and body, first, for the health it affords; second, for its educating effects' third, for the advantage it gives over others for usefulness. And Wendell Phillips, in defense of such training, a very important factor in his own education, declares that it is useless to waste words on any man ignorant of the vast power of agree able and eloquent speech in a republic.

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