oothness of the
sentence. So it had to go.

Avoid long words wherever possible, and never use a word you do not
understand. As an example of the vast picture which half a dozen short
words of Saxon English will conjure up, take these lines from "The
Ancient Mariner":

"Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea."

The power of expression in a single word, appears in Keats' description
of Ruth, in his "Ode to the Nightingale."

"The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown;
Perhaps the selfsame song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn."

What a master-stroke is the use of "alien," this time a Latin
derivative, in the last line quoted. What a picture of that old time
drama, with its theme of love and sorrow co-eval with the human race.

First get your idea, then express it in words that give it forth
clearly. No verbiage, no fog or clouds, no jargon, but simplicity,
lucidity, vividness, and power.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE AUDIENCE

A lecturer should realize his grave responsibility to his audience.
Nothing but absolute physical impossibility is a sufficient excuse for
disappointing an assembly. Have it thoroughly understood that when your
name appears on a program, you will be at your post.

Never allow, if you can possibly prevent, anybody to announce you to
speak without consulting you and getting your consent. In some cities
the method of announcing a speaker, when it is not known whether or not
he can be present and, in some cases, even when it is known he cannot,
has prevailed in the Socialist party. The temptation to do this consists
in the possibility of using a prominent name to attract a large audience
and then, with some lame excuse, put forward somebody else.

This succeeds for a time; then comes disaster. In such a city a good
meeting becomes almost impossible. With the public it is, once bit,
twice shy. For myself, if when I am announced to speak and I am not
there and there is no message in the hands of the chairman reporting my
death or some other almost equally good reason, it is almost safe to say
my name has been used without my consent.

Any lecturer who treats his audience lightly has no reason to expect it
will take him seriously. There is no lecturing future ahead of the man
who says to some disappointed auditor he meets afterward on the street: