An Original Dissertation On Public Speaking.

delivery . Effect ? wh y , they send us to sleep like the sermon which follows . AVouid it not be a good thing if layreaders were appointed in our churches and chapels to shame the clergy and ministers into learning how to read 1

And yet there are some amongst them who read and preach magnificently , the mere mention of the names of the late Bishop of Winchester , the Bishops of Peterborough aud Ely , the Rev . J . Bellew , ( now , alas ! no more ) , is sufficient proof of my assertion .

I had the privilege once of attending the Dean of Ripon , Dr . McNeil's Church in Liverpool , for six or seven months . During nearly the whole of that time the gifted preacher read the lessons for the day , and preached frequently . I never had such lessons in elocution in my life as I had then : it was wonderful .

By the genius and sympathetic utterance instilled into the tones of that melodious resonant voice , with all its modulations and intonations , the reading was a commentary itself of the chapter before us . That beautiful chapter in Genesis

( the 27 th ) where Jacob stole Esau ' s birthright ; how well I remember it . When he lead : " And Esau cried with an exceeding bitter cry , ' Hast thou no blessing for me , oven me , oh , my father '"—you too would have wept in sympathy at the

rntiful accents which were real , not simulated—by the great interpreter of the Holy Book—and you would with closed eyes have seen the moving picture , the blind old patriarch , aud the wild hunter withhisfurrowed cheeks bedewed with tears .

It was Demosthenes , I think ( as quoted by Cicero and Quintilian ) , who , when asked what was the first point in oratory , answered—Delivery . The second ? Delivery ! The Third % Delivery !! " To superficial thinkers" Blair observes

, , " the management of the voice and gesture in public speaking may appear to relate to decoration only , and to be one of the inferior arts of catching an audience . But this is far from being the case . It is intimately connected with what is or ought

to be the end of all public speaking , persuasion , and therefore deserves the study of the most grave and serious speakers is much as of those whose only

aim is to please . For let it be considered , " he says , " wnenever we address ourselves to others by words our intention certainly is to make some impression on those to whom we speak , it is to convey to them our own ideas and emotions . Now , the tone of our voiceour looks and gestures interpret our

, ideas and emotions no less that words do , nay , the impression they make on others is frequently much stronger than any that words can make . We often see that an

expressive look or a passionate , unaccompanied by words , conveys to others more forcible ideas , and rouses within them stronger passions than can be communkated by the most eloquent discourse . The signification of our sentiments made by tones and gestures has this advantage above that made by words , that it is the language of nature . It is that method of intevpretinff our mind which nature has dictated to

all , and which is understood by all ; whereas , words are only arbitrary conventional symbols of our ideas , and by consequence must make a more feeble impression . So true is this , that to render words fully significant they must always in every case receive some aid from the

manner of pronunciation and delivery ; and he who in speaking should employ bare words without enforcing them by proper tones and accents would leave us with a

faint and indistinct impression , often with a doubtful and ambiguous conception of what he had delivered . Nay , so close is the connection between certain sentiments , and the proper manner of pronouncing them , that he who does not pronounce them after that manner , can never persuade us that he believes or feels the sentiments themselves . "

How true is the language of the learned author of the " Belles Lettres " there are few of us but will admit . I suppose that in public speaking the speaker should adopt those tones , looks and gestures , which are most appropriate to

the nature of whatever he delivers ; he must suit the action to the word , and the word to the action , always remembering that " rightly to seem is transiently to be . " For what says Hamlet ? You will remember his advice to the players . ( To be continued . )