In the prophetic old
Scotchman's iron philosophy there was no room for anything but deeds.
If such instruction is needed; if a great movement requires the
forming and constructive word to interpret it and give it direction;
if a movement in a wrong direction needs halting and turning to its
proper course; if a cause needs pleading; if a law needs
interpretation; if anything really _needs to be said_--the occasion
for the orator, in the large sense of that word, has arrived.
Therefore when he speaks "the common people will hear him gladly";
they will hear him because he teaches, and does it "as one having
authority."
Whenever a speaker fails to make his audience forget voice, gesture,
and even the speaker himself; whenever he fails to make the listeners
conscious only of the living truth he utters, he has failed in his
speech itself, which then has no other reason for having been
delivered than a play or any other form of entertainment.
Very few of the great orators have had loud voices, or, if they did
have them, they did not employ them. I am told that Wendell Phillips
always spoke in a conversational tone, and yet he was able to make an
audience of many thousands hear distinctly; and Phillips was one of
the greatest speakers America has produced.
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