There are certain requirements in public speaking which you and every
other speaker must observe. You must be grammatical, intelligent, lucid,
and sincere. These are essential. You must know your subject thoroughly,
and have the ability to put it into pleasing and persuasive form.
But beyond these considerations there are many things which must be left
to your temperament, taste, and individuality. To compel you to speak
according to inflexible rules would make you not an orator but an
automaton.
The temperamental differences in successful speakers have been very
great. One eminent speaker used practically no gesture; another was in
almost constant action. One was quiet, modest, and conversational in his
speaking style; another was impulsive and resistless as a mountain
torrent.
It is safe to say that almost any man, however unpretentious his
language, will command a hearing in Congress, Parliament, or elsewhere,
if he gives accurate information upon a subject of importance and in a
manner of unquestioned sincerity.
You will observe in the historical accounts of great orators, that
without a single exception they studied, read, practised, conversed, and
meditated, not occasionally, but with daily regularity. Many of them
were endowed with natural gifts, but they supplemented these with
indefatigable work.