The three greatest qualities in a successful public speaker are
simplicity, directness, and deliberateness.
Lincoln had these qualities in preeminent degree. His speech at
Gettysburg--the model short speech of all history--occupied about three
minutes in delivery. Edward Everett well said afterward that he would
have been content to make the same impression in three hours which
Lincoln made in that many minutes.
The great public speakers in all times have been earnest and diligent
students. We are familiar with the indefatigable efforts of Demosthenes,
who rose from very ordinary circumstances, and goaded by the realization
of great natural defects, through assiduous self-training eventually
made the greatest of the world's orations, "The Speech on the Crown."
Cicero was a painstaking disciple of the speaker's art and gave himself
much to the discipline of the pen. His masterly work on oratory in which
he commends others to write much, remains unsurpassed to this day.
John Bright, the eminent British orator, always required time for
preparation. He read every morning from the Bible, from which he drew
rich material for argument and illustration. A remarkable thing about
him was that he spoke seldom.
Phillips Brooks was an ideal speaker, combining simplicity and sympathy
in large degree. He was a splendid type of pulpit orator produced by
broad spiritual culture.
Henry Ward Beecher had unique powers as a dramatic and eloquent speaker.
In his youth he hesitated in his speech, which led him to study
elocution. He himself tells of how he went to the woods daily to
practise vocal exercises.
He was an exponent of thorough preparation, never speaking upon a
subject until he had made it his own by diligent study. Like Phillips
Brooks, he was a man of large sympathy and imagination--two faculties
indispensable to persuasive eloquence.
It was his oratory that first brought fame to Gladstone. He had a superb
voice, and he possest that fighting force essential to a great public
debater. When he quitted the House of Commons in his eighty-fifth year
his powers of eloquence were practically unimpaired.
Wendell Phillips was distinguished for his personality, conversational
style, and thrilling voice. He had a wonderful vocabulary, and a
personal magnetism which won men instantly to him. It is said that he
relied principally upon the power of truth to make his speaking
eloquent. He, too, was an untiring student of the speaker's art.
As we examine the lives and records of eminent speakers of other days,
we are imprest with the fact that they were sincere and earnest
students of the art in which they ultimately excelled.