Bacon, the author of "Novum Organum," "Reading maketh a
full man, writing an exact man, and conversation a ready man."

The first in importance of these is to be "a full man." The lecturer
should not deliver himself on any subject unless he has read about all
there is of value on that question.

If, when you read, the words all run together in the first few minutes,
or, you invariably get a headache about the third page, let lecturing
alone. Remember that there must be listeners as well as lecturers, and
you may make a good listener, a quality none too common, but, as for
lecturing, you have about as much chance of success as a man who could
not climb ten rungs of a ladder without going dizzy, would have as a
steeplejack.

The speaker who writes out his speech and commits it to memory and then
recites it, has at least, this in his favor: his performance represents
great labor. An audience usually is, and should be, very lenient with
anyone who has obviously labored hard for its benefit.

Writing out a speech has many advantages, and beginners especially
should practice it extensively. It gives one precision or, as Bacon puts
it, makes an "exact" man. It gives one experience in finding the correct
word.

If you have not learned to find the right word at your desk where you
have time to reflect, how do you suppose you will find it on the
platform where you must go on?

In trying a passage in your study it is well to stand about as you would
on a platform. My friend Jack London assured me that when he took to the
platform his chief difficulty arose from never having learned to think
on his feet.

Writing is also a great test of the value of a point. Many a point that
looks brilliant when you first conceive it turns out badly when you try
to write it out. On the other hand, an unpromising idea may prove quite
fertile when tried out with a pen. It is better to make these
discoveries in your study than before your audience.

As to conversation and its making a "ready" man, a better method
perhaps, is to argue the matter out with a mirror, or the wall, in about
the same manner and style as you expect to use on the platform.

To practice before one or two persons in the style you expect to adopt
before an audience is so inherently incompatible with the different
circumstances, that I don't believe anybody ever made it succeed. It is
far better to be alone, especially when working out your most important
points, and b