Finally, preserve your health, preserve your health, preserve your
health. Work, work, work. Cling to the loftiest ideals of your
profession which your mind can conceive. Do these; keep up your nerve;
never despair; and success is certain, distinction probable, and
greatness possible, according to your natural abilities.
VI
PUBLIC SPEAKING
"And the common people heard him gladly," for "he taught them as one
having authority." These sentences reveal the very heart of effective
speaking. Considered from the human view-point alone, the Son of Mary
was the prince of speakers. He alone has delivered a perfect
address--the Sermon on the Mount.
The two other speeches that approach it are Paul's appeal to the
Athenians on Mars Hill, and the speech of Abraham Lincoln at
Gettysburg. These have no tricks, no devices, no tinsel gilt. They do
not attempt to "split the ears of the groundlings," and yet they are
addressed to the commonest of the world's common people.
Imagination, reason, and that peculiar human quality in speech which
defies analysis as much as the perfume of the rose, but which touches
the heart and reaches the mind, are blended in each of these
utterances in perfect proportion.
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