ontinue
to play an important part in the communication of information and in the
compelling of thought it is worth while to consider some of the rules
that contribute to the effectiveness of the pulpit and the platform.

Sometimes I receive a letter from a young man who informs me that he is
a born orator and asks what such an one should do to prepare him for his
life-work. I answer that while an orator must be born like others his
success will not depend on inheritance, neither will a favourable
environment in youth assure it. An ancestor's fame may inspire him to
effort and the associations of the fireside may stimulate, but ability
to speak effectively is an acquirement rather than a gift.

Eloquence may be defined as the speech of one who _knows what he is
talking about_ and _means what he says_--it is _thought on fire_. One
cannot communicate information unless he possesses it. There is quite a
difference in people in this respect; we say of one that he knows more
than he can tell and, of another, that he can tell all he knows, but it
is a reflection upon a man to say that he can tell more than he knows.

The first thing, therefore, is to know the subject. One should know his
subject so well that a question will aid rather than embarrass him. A
question from the audience annoys one only when the speaker is _unable_
to answer it or does not _want_ to answer it. Many a speaker has
been brought into ridicule by a question that revealed his lack of
information on the subject; and a speaker has sometimes been routed by
a question that revealed something he intended to conceal. Before
discussing a subject one should go all around it and view it from every
standpoint, asking and answering all the questions likely to be put by
his opponents. Nothing strengthens a speaker more than to be able
to answer every question put to him. His argument is made much more
forcible because the question focuses attention on the particular point;
a ready answer makes a deeper impression than the speaker could make
by the use of the same language without the benefit of the question to
excite interest in the proposition.

But knowledge is of little use to the speaker without earnestness.
Persuasive speech is from heart to heart, not from mind to mind. It is
difficult for a speaker to deceive his audience as to his own feelings;
it takes a trained actor to make an imaginary thing seem real. Nearly
two thousand years ago one of the Latin po