y of
party hate, the taunt of "recreant" and "traitor," of
"renegade" and "coward," but what is harder to bear, the
amazement, the doubt, the grief, the denunciation, of those
as sincerely devoted as he to the common welfare. I can
imagine him pushing firmly on, trusting the heart, the
intelligence, the conscience of his countrymen, healing angry
wounds, correcting misunderstandings, planting justice on
surer foundations, and, whether his party rise or fall,
lifting his country heavenward to a more perfect union,
prosperity, and peace. This is the spirit of a patriotism
that girds the commonwealth with the resistless splendor of
the moral law--the invulnerable panoply of states, the
celestial secret of a great nation and a happy people.

GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS: _The Public Duty of Educated
Men_, 1877

CHAPTER VI.

GETTING MATERIAL

The Material of Speeches. So far this book has dealt almost entirely
with the manner of speaking. Now it comes to the relatively more
important consideration of the material of speech. Necessary as it is
that a speaker shall know how to speak, it is much more valuable that
he shall know what to speak. We frequently hear it said of a speaker,
"It wasn't what he said, it was the way he said it," indicating
clearly that the striking aspect of the delivery was his manner; but
even when this remark is explained it develops frequently that there
was some value in the material, as well as some charm or surprise or
novelty in the method of expression. In the last and closest analysis
a speech is valuable for what it conveys to its hearers' minds, what
it induces them to do, not what temporary effects of charm and
entertainment it affords.

Persons of keen minds and cultivated understandings have come away
from gatherings addressed by men famous as good speech-makers and
confessed to something like the following: "I was held spellbound all
the time he was talking, but for the life of me, I can't tell you one
thing he said or one idea he impressed upon me." A student should
judge speeches he hears with such things in mind, so that he can hold
certain ones up as models, and discard others as "horrible examples."

It should be the rule that before a man attempts to speak he should
have something to say. This is apparently not always the case. Many a
man tries to say something when he simply has nothing at all to say.
Recall the