If it comes naturally, spontaneously, it is a pleasant tribute
to your cause. But if you win it by your art, it is merely a tribute
to your powers. And you are not speaking for yourself--you are
speaking for your cause.
The wife of one of the most effective of American speakers is reported
to have said to him: "I wish you would deliver a speech which no one
can possibly applaud." Of course what she meant was that she would
like to see him devote himself to getting the truth before the people
without resorting to any of the tricks of oratory.
No matter how much a wizard of words Nature may have made him; no
matter that he has the dark art of making the worse appear the better
reason; no matter that his golden voice is like music, and his very
appearance pleasantly thrills you with the strange and subtle
magnetism of the man: if he have not sincerity, all these are nothing.
And he cannot affect sincerity and fool the people very long. He may
fool them in one speech or in one campaign if he be a political
speaker, but ultimately the people will sense his moral quality and he
will be discredited.
This very thing happened to a celebrated American speaker who may be
said to have been endowed with genius.
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