The Art of Public Speaking

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The Art of Public Speaking
BY
J. BERG ESENWEIN
AUTHOR OF
"HOW TO ATTRACT AND HOLD AN AUDIENCE,"
"WRITING THE SHORT−STORY,"
"WRITING THE PHOTOPLAY," ETC., ETC.,
AND
DALE CARNAGEY
PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING, BALTIMORE SCHOOL OF COMMERCE AND FINANCE;
INSTRUCTOR IN PUBLIC SPEAKING, Y.M.C.A. SCHOOLS, NEW YORK, BROOKLYN,
BALTIMORE, AND PHILADELPHIA, AND THE NEW YORK CITY CHAPTER, AMERICAN
INSTITUTE OF BANKING
THE WRITER'S LIBRARY
EDITED BY J. BERG ESENWEIN
THE HOME CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL
SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
PUBLISHERS
Copyright 1915
THE HOME CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
TO F. ARTHUR METCALF

A FOREWORD
The efficiency of a book is like that of a man, in one important respect: its attitude toward its subject is the
first source of its power. A book may be full of good ideas well expressed, but if its writer views his subject
from the wrong angle even his excellent advice may prove to be ineffective.
This book stands or falls by its authors' attitude toward its subject. If the best way to teach oneself or others to
speak effectively in public is to fill the mind with rules, and to set up fixed standards for the interpretation of
thought, the utterance of language, the making of gestures, and all the rest, then this book will be limited in
value to such stray ideas throughout its pages as may prove helpful to the reader−−as an effort to enforce a
group of principles it must be reckoned a failure, because it is then untrue.
It is of some importance, therefore, to those who take up this volume with open mind that they should see
clearly at the out−start what is the thought that at once underlies and is builded through this structure. In plain
words it is this:
Training in public speaking is not a matter of externals−−primarily; it is not a matter of
imitation−−fundamentally; it is not a matter of conformity to standards−−at all. Public speaking is public
utterance, public issuance, of the man himself; therefore the first thing both in time and in importance is that
the man should be and think and feel things that are worthy of being given forth. Unless there be something of
value within, no tricks of training can ever make of the talker anything more than a machine−−albeit a highly
perfected machine−−for the delivery of other men's goods. So self−development is fundamental in our plan.
The second principle lies close to the first: The man must enthrone his will to rule over his thought, his
feelings, and all his physical powers, so that the outer self may give perfect, unhampered expression to the
inner. It is futile, we assert, to lay down systems of rules for voice culture, intonation, gesture, and what not,
unless these two principles of having something to say and making the will sovereign have at least begun to
make themselves felt in the life.
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