or an hour to the merest nonsense, so uttered, than
to the very wisdom of angels if given in a confused or nasal or slovenly
way. If you wish to know what I mean by a clear and satisfactory utterance,
go to a woman-suffrage convention, and hear Miss Mary F. Eastman.

As to your employment of language, the great aim is to be simple, and, in a
measure, conversational; and then let eloquence come of itself. If most
people talked as well in public as in private, public meetings would be
more interesting. To acquire a conversational tone, there is good sense in
Edward Everett Hale's suggestion, that every person who is called on to
speak,--let us say, at a public dinner,--instead of standing up and talking
about his surprise at being called on, should simply make his last remark
to his neighbor at the table the starting-point for what he says to the
whole company. He will thus make sure of a perfectly natural key, to begin
with; and can go on from this quiet "As I was just saying to Mr. Smith," to
discuss the gravest question of Church or State. It breaks the ice for him,
like the remark upon the weather by which we open our interview with the
person whom we have longed for years to meet. Beginning in this way at the
level of the earth's surface, we can join hands and rise to the clouds.
Begin in the clouds,--as some of my most esteemed friends are wont to do,--
and you have to sit down before reaching the earth.

And, to come last to what is first in importance, I am taking it for
granted that you have something to say, and a strong desire to say it.
Perhaps you can say it better for writing it out in full beforehand. But
whether you do this or not, remember that the more simple and consecutive
your thought, the easier it will be both to keep it in mind and to utter
it. The more orderly your plan, the less likely you will be to "get
bewildered," or to "lose the thread." Think it out so clearly that the
successive parts lead to one another, and then there will be little strain
upon your memory. For each point you make, provide at least one good
argument and one good illustration, and you can, after a little practice,
safely leave the rest to the suggestion of the moment. But so much as this
you must have, to be secure. Methods of preparation of course vary
extremely; yet I suppose the secret of the composure of an experienced
speaker to lie usually in this, that he has made sure beforehand of a
sufficient number of good point