r last
important word. This is not advocated as a method of composing a
speech--it is merely an extreme measure which may save you in tight
circumstances. It is like the fire department--the less you must use it
the better. If this method is followed very long you are likely to find
yourself talking about plum pudding or Chinese Gordon in the most
unexpected manner, so of course you will get back to your lines the
earliest moment that your feet have hit the platform.

Let us see how this plan works--obviously, your extemporized words will
lack somewhat of polish, but in such a pass crudity is better than
failure.

Now you have come to a dead wall after saying: "Joan of Arc fought for
liberty." By this method you might get something like this:

"Liberty is a sacred privilege for which mankind always had to fight.
These struggles [Platitude--but push on] fill the pages of history.
History records the gradual triumph of the serf over the lord, the slave
over the master. The master has continually tried to usurp unlimited
powers. Power during the medieval ages accrued to the owner of the land
with a spear and a strong castle; but the strong castle and spear were
of little avail after the discovery of gunpowder. Gunpowder was the
greatest boon that liberty had ever known."

Thus far you have linked one idea with another rather obviously, but you
are getting your second wind now and may venture to relax your grip on
the too-evident chain; and so you say:

"With gunpowder the humblest serf in all the land could put an end to
the life of the tyrannical baron behind the castle walls. The struggle
for liberty, with gunpowder as its aid, wrecked empires, and built up a
new era for all mankind."

In a moment more you have gotten back to your outline and the day is
saved.

Practising exercises like the above will not only fortify you against
the death of your speech when your memory misses fire, but it will also
provide an excellent training for fluency in speaking. _Stock up with
ideas._

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

1. Pick out and state briefly the nine helps to memorizing suggested in
this chapter.

2. Report on whatever success you may have had with any of the plans for
memory culture suggested in this chapter. Have any been less successful
than others?

3. Freely criticise any of the suggested methods.

4. Give an original example of memory by association of ideas.

5. List in order the chief ideas of any speec