But Christ's
addresses were not "extemporaneous." All His life He had been
preparing His few sermons--lessons.
The great speakers to whom I have listened have confirmed certain
conclusions upon the subject of speaking at which I arrived while in
college. It seemed to me that the college method of speaking was wrong
because it was irrational--that the studied gestures, the "cultivated"
voice, the staccato impressiveness, were all artificial devices to
attract the attention of an audience to these things, instead of to
the thought of the address.
Analysis of the problem convinced me that an audience is only a larger
person--a great collective individuality--and therefore that whatever,
in manner and matter, will please, persuade, and convince a person,
will have the same effect upon an audience. Hence one readily deduces
that a simple, quiet, but direct, earnest address; a straightforward,
unartificial honest manner, without tricks of oratory, is the most
effective method of lodging truth in the minds of one's hearers.
Any affectation, any mannerism, detracts from the thought because it
calls the attention of the listener to the mannerism or affectation,
when his whole attention should be monopolized by the thought.
Pages:
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230