ader,
the fame he enjoyed with his own generation. The readers
of Fisher Ames--alas, too few--can well comprehend the spell
which persuaded an angry and reluctant majority to save the
treaty to which the nation had pledged its faith, and, perhaps,
the life of the nation itself. With these exceptions, the
number of American orators who will live in history as orators
can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

I have never supposed myself to possess this gift. The instruction
which I had in my youth, especially that at Harvard, either
in composition or elocution, was, I think, not only of no
advantage, but a positive injury. Besides the absence of
good training, I had an awkward manner, and a harsh voice.
Until quite late in life I never learned to manage so that
I could get through a long speech without serious irritation
of the throat. But I have had good opportunity to hear the
best public speaking of my time. I have heard in England,
on a great field day in the House of Commons, Palmerston,
Lord John Russell, and John Bright, and, later, Disraeli,
Gladstone and Bernal Osborne. I have heard Spurgeon, and
Bishop Wilberforce, and Dr. Guthrie in the pulpit.

At home I have heard a good many times Daniel Webster, Edward
Everett, Rufus Choate, Robert C. Winthrop, John P. Hale,
Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner, Richard H. Dana, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, James G. Blaine, Lucius Q. C. Lamar, James
A. Garfield, William McKinley, William M. Evarts, Benjamin
F. Thomas, Pliny Merrick, Charles Devens, Nathaniel P. Banks,
and, above all, Kossuth; and in the pulpit, James Walker,
Edwards A. Park, Mark Hopkins, Edward Everett Hale, George
Putnam, Starr King, and Henry W. Bellows. So, perhaps, my
experience and observation, too late for my own advantage,
may be worth something to my younger readers.

I am not familiar with the books which have been lately published
which give directions for public speaking. So I dare say
that what I have to advise is already well known to young
men, and that all I can say has been said much better. But
I will give the result of my own experience and observation.

In managing the voice, the speaker when he is engaged in earnest
conversation, commonly and naturally falls into the best tone
and manner for public speaking. Suppose you are sitting about
a table with a dozen friends, and some subject is started
in which you are deeply interested. You engage in an earnest
and serious dialogue