Excerpt from The Rhetorical Speaker: Comprising Selections for Declamation, and Suggestions, Designed to Assist the Efforts of Inexperienced Speakers

Many, ln this day, object to the practice of speaking in schools, and colleges, as having a tendency to produce formality, and stiffness. But the necessity of constant practice in declamation is acknowledged in, all our acad emies and colleges, by the regular monthly orwekly ex croises which are appropriated to this object. Whatever theories, or systems of elocution are adopted, and what ever course of instruction ls given, it is generally allowed by teachers, that no progress can be made in public Speak ing without personal experience, and effort. Many stu dents, however, feel that talent and learning can render this practice unnecessary. But the timorous youth who re solved never to trust himself to the water until he should have acquired the art of Swimming, had a far better pros peet of becoming an expert swimmer, than the student can have of becoming an orator, while he stands aloof from public declamation. And he who makes that exer cise a delight, and perseveres in it, with patient efforts to improve, will (if properly instructed) eventually be a good speaker.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.