Oratory has already been named (see page 3) as one of three broad literary types, distinct from didactic prose on the one hand, and from poetry on the other, yet partaking largely of both. It is the type which, for success, calls for the largest resources, being an address to the whole man intellect and feeling, culminating in appeal to the will, — and therefore utilizing most fully the highest powers of the rhetorical art.

·I.

Characteristics of Oratory in General. The sphere of truths in which oratory moves, and the fact that these truths must be brought home for immediate effect upon an audience, make imperative some characteristics of oratory which, though they have already been intimated, need to be here briefly recapitulated.

Eloquence, the Sum of the Oratoric Style. To define eloquence, in the fullness of its idea, is as hard as it is to define poetry. Mechanically, it may be described as impassioned prose,' obeying the laws and liberties of spoken discourse. But this brings us only a little way toward a definition. To true eloquence so many things are essential the character of the orator, his skill in swaying the emotions and sentiments of an audience, the greatness of subject and occasion - that a brief definition is impossible. Perhaps we can do no better than to take Daniel Webster's description of eloquence, inwoven as it is throughout with the quality he is defining. He says: 3

"When public bodies are to be addressed on momentous occasions, when great interests are at stake, and strong passions excited, nothing is valuable in speech farther than as it is connected with high intellectual and moral endowments. Clearness, force, and earnestness are the qualities which produce conviction. True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It cannot be brought

1 See preceding, p. 71.

2 See preceding, p. 76.

8 Webster, Oration on "Adams and Jefferson."

from far. Labor and learning may toil for it, but they will toil in vain. Words and phrases may be marshalled in every way, but they cannot compass it. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, al' may aspire to it; they cannot reach it. It comes, if it come at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force. The graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments and studied contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men, when their own lives, and the fate of their wives, their children, and their country, hang on the decision of the hour. Then words have lost their power, rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then feels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. Then patriotism is eloquent; then self-devotion is eloquent. The clear conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward to his object, this, this is eloquence; or rather, it is something greater and higher than all eloquence, - it is action, noble, sublime, godlike action."

From the above paragraph let us endeavor to draw some practical conclusions for our benefit in oratory.

1. Eloquence is not synonymous with an ambitious or pretentious style, nor is it unfriendly to the plainest language. It is simply wise to take advantage of occasion. When the occasion itself is eloquent, then eloquence shows its genuineness by silence; and it knows when homeliness and even bareness of statement works with the occasion to have power on men.

2. Eloquence does, however, exclude considerations that are subtle and far-fetched, hair-splitting discriminations of thought, over-literary phrase and imagery; because these are ill adapted to the transparency of spoken style, and do not appeal to the manner of thinking of average people, for whom oratory exists.

3. Eloquence, dealing with common men, moves most naturally

among common thoughts, grounds itself on everyday motives and principles, and is indeed embodied common-sense. Its ideal is dignified conversation, grappling closely and earnestly with the important issues of life.

4. When on occasion eloquence rises into splendor of style and imagery as it has full liberty to do, it is still at the impulsion of a practical end. Such flights cannot be mechanical, and if not compelled by the subject they are but bombast and fustian. There must be a man and a cause underneath them, so informing that they shall appear as inevitable.

Exactions of the Popular Element in Oratory. - Oratory is, in the truest sense, popular literature; that is, it exists for the people, for low as well as high. This fact has a very determining influence on the general structure of the oration, and on the kinds of arguments and considerations most to be relied on for effect.

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1. As to general structure, the oration is, of all literary forms, most dependent on the qualities of unity and simplicity. It will not do for the orator to content himself lazily with saying something about " his chosen subject. He needs first of all to resolve his thought into absolute unity of aim and effect, rejecting mercilessly all that distracts from this or unduly delays it. Then for working this effect, let him depend on a few points so clearly articulated and so strongly maintained that no hearer can mistake their drift.1

2. As to the kinds of argument most relied on in oratory, we may say, in general, they are the arguments wherein there is only one step from premise to conclusion. Such are, preeminently, arguments from example and analogy, which may almost be called the distinctive oratorical forms. Long trains of inductive reasoning are perhaps least fitted for oratory; and, in general, no kind of argument should be used where the end is long uncertain, or where the premises are meaningless without their conclusion. It

1 For some excellent rules and remarks on the management of a popular address, see Thomas Wentworth Higginson's little handbook, "Hints on Writing and Speech-Making."

is not safe to leave any loop-holes for a remission of attention; nor, on the other hand, to leave places which, if remitted, will invalidate what succeeds.

Every argument should contain, as far as possible, its own practical application; should, by its very form and nature, be so living with appeal that no further adjustment to conduct will be needed. by way of application.

II.

Kinds of Oratory. — According to the various spheres of action with which persuasion has to deal, we recognize certain broad classes of oratory.

As persuasion, which is the distinctive element of oratory, implies incitement to a determinate issue in conduct, such public lectures and addresses as seek merely to give information or entertainment do not properly come under the head of oratory. The accident of their public oral delivery demands that they conform to the requisites of spoken style, as already shown on page 79; further than this they belong merely to didactic or descriptive literature in its ordinary types.

Oratoric discourses that do seek a determinate issue may be divided into two classes, according as the issue is immediate and definite or remote and unlimited.

1. Determinate Oratory. This name we may give to oratory that contemplates direct and immediate action as its result; that is, action that may express itself in a vote, or in a verdict, or more generally in a change and improvement of life. Oratory of this kind may be grouped under three heads.

1. Oratory of the law, or forensic oratory, is concerned with the general end of justice and right. It is the most direct and practical kind of oratory, dealing with plain facts and principles, and laboring to secure an immediate verdict on the truths brought to light. The staple of it therefore is ordinarily very simple and direct; but there is also room for occasional efforts of the highest eloquence.

2. Oratory of legislative assemblies or parliamentary oratory, is concerned with the general end of public weal and political expediency. Its range of resources is very great, having for its sphere whatever may influence political action for the future, and all motives from lowest to highest. The modern taste in oratory of this class is unfriendly to the elaborate efforts of antiquity, or even of a century ago; and parliamentary debate is becoming more and more a matter of business. A more popular form of such oratory, and sometimes more fiery and ambitious, is seen in platform political speaking, which labors for the end of influencing votes and shaping public opinion.

3. Oratory of the pulpit, or sacred oratory, is concerned with the general end of inducing men to follow Christ, and by consequence of reforming and developing their moral and spiritual life. In seeking such a lofty and comprehensive issue, it must both work for immediate effect, in the case of those whose first duty is to yield to divine claims, and for a remoter compliance, in the case of those whose spiritual life needs education and enlightenIt fails, however, when it wanders too far from a definite and immediate issue; just as it is more glorified in proportion as it comes close home to people and speaks in the language of their daily business.

ment.

2. Demonstrative Oratory. This name may be given to that class of orations wherein no defined end is directly proposed, but wherein none the less the demands of persuasion are present, in a general impulsion toward noble, patriotic, and honorable sentiments, and toward a large and worthy life. Oratory of this kind may be exemplified in such addresses as Webster's at Bunker Hill and on the First Settlement of New England, Everett's oration on The Character of Washington, and Blaine's eulogy of President Garfield. Much of the better class of platform speaking, when the country is in the grasp of great public questions, partakes largely of this character.

There is a field for such demonstrative oratory much more important than people ordinarily realize. It is, or may be made, a