HOW TO GET STRONG
not almost count them on your thumbs. Yes, and include the other professions as well as yours. At the very last Presidential election, for instance, how came the New York World to say, not only that "For the best eloquence all the powers of the mind are brought into the service of the orator; reason and imagination are the chief of these powers." But it well asked: "Is there any man of moving or governing eloquence on either side? Is there one who can handle the thunders as they were handled by Daniel Webster; or who can weave a spell around the reason like that which was woven by Henry Clay; or who can stir the fires of the spirit as they were stirred by Wendell Phillips; or who can use our English speech as it was used by Abraham Lincoln?" And it added, suggestively, "The rewards that await eloquence are tempting indeed. No wonder that the gift is so eagerly sought after. No wonder that so few capture it. We would like to see an orator of true eloquence, Democrat or Republican, in the political campaign which has opened here. Surely, the great city of New York ought to produce one. There is fame for any American who can make a great speech during the coming week."
Does this look as if real orators were many, when in a city of millions of inhabitants they seem to be in serious doubt whether there is even one?
Is not real oratory founded on deep convictions and tremendous earnestness of purpose; where a man feels what he says so deeply that it burns the marrow in his bones till he gets it uttered? And do you believe that he who tamely, often listlessly, reads his words has any such feeling?
Do you mean to say that all preachers should drop their notes and only preach—not read? No, not all. But
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