Extemporaneous Oratory: For Professional and Amateur Speakers (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Extemporaneous Oratory: For Professional and Amateur Speakers

Before entering college I determined to study law, and accordingly took great interest in debate, in attending courts, and in reading accounts of cases. But young men frequently change, and a few years later I had become a minister, and was obliged to make choice among different methods of public speaking. After experiments with all 1 adopted the extemporaneous, and ever since have systematically practiced and studied this art.

In searching for the excellencies of others I discovered many defects in myself, and while contemplating others' imperfections, saw that some methods might be improved which had been fancied perfect.1 discerned that many who thought themselves extemporizers were not so. Under erroneous instruction I fought against the deepest tendencies of my own nature, and wasted energy in the pursuit of fixed ideals.

I found that ancient authors and some comparatively modern (especially Fenelon, in his Dialogues on Eloquence) had treated the subject more satisfactorily than recent writers.

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