Grenville Kleiser

“ Lord Chesterfield was not very far wrong when, in his letters to his son, he told him that any man of reasonable abilities might make himself an orator; not an orator like Cicero's magnificent myth, who should have "the acuteness of the logician, the wisdom of the philosophers, the language almost of poetry, the memory of lawyers, the voice of tragedians, the gesture of the best actors" ”

“ He comes to it a mere tyro, and thinks to manage all its stops, and command the whole compass of its varied and comprehensive power; he finds himself a mere bungler in the attempt, wonders at his failure, and settles it in his mind forever that the attempt is vain"—that it can be done only by genius.
Nothing can be more mischievous and unfortunate to the student than for him to fall into such an error—to hold the opinion that excellence in speaking is a gift of nature and not the result of patient and persistent labor and study. ”

“ Law and logic are the immediate and foundation studies of the advocate, but they are not all. Besides these he must drink deep at the fountains of science, philosophy, history and belles-lettres. These are the handmaids of oratory. They enlarge and liberalize the mind, embellish the style and afford illustrations, ideas, arguments, phrases, words, and last, tho not least, intellectual enthusiasm. There are few occasions, indeed, on which an advocate will not derive assistance from a cultivated taste and extensive knowledge. ”

“ One sterling author to call my own, ever most conspicuous and most at hand, read, reread, "marked and quoted," will do much to form the mind, to teach one to think, to give precision of expression, purity of taste, loftiness of views and fervency of spirit. No better selection can be made by the advocate than the works of Edmund Burke. "Among the characteristics of Lord Erskine's eloquence," observes one of his recent biographers, "the perpetual illustrations derived from the writings of Burke is very remarkable. ”

“ It is frequently the case, that students do nothing more in practise than to exercise their voice, and not even that skilfully—and try their strength of lungs and volubility of tongue. Such practise is but a waste of breath. The student should make it a cardinal rule always to do his best even while practising in his room; to speak on subjects that he has deliberately considered, and in such a style as he would adopt were an audience before him. Of course, that kind of speaking will be most advantageous to the advocate which is most in accordance with the business of his life. ”

“ The biographies of Pultney, of Burke, of Pitt, of Erskine, of Grattan, of Brougham—of all the great orators of England—contain records of the same careful training and discipline in the art of speaking.
Nor have American orators found the path to success less difficult. Rufus Choate—who was, perhaps, the most accomplished advocate America has yet produced—was a noble illustration of what systematic culture and discipline can do. He was, in the truest sense of the term, a made orator. ”

“ There is no art that can teach one to be eloquent without knowledge. Attention to style, diction, and all the arts of speech, can only assist the orator in setting off to advantage the stock of materials which he possesses; but the stock, the materials themselves, must be brought from other quarters than from rhetoric. In the first place, the advocate must have a profound knowledge of the law. On this depends his reputation and success, and nothing is of such consequence to him or deserves more his deep and serious study. ”

“ For the acquirement of any other art, men expect to serve long apprenticeships; to study it carefully and laboriously; to master it thoroughly. If one would learn to sing, he attends a master and is drilled in the elementary principles; and it is only after the most careful discipline that he dares to exercise his voice in public. If he would learn to play a musical instrument, how patiently and persistently does he study and practise, that he may draw out, at will, all its various combinations of harmonious sounds, and its full richness and delicacy of expression. ”

“ There is nothing like the pen to correct vagueness of thought and looseness of expression. Every argument, every speech should, so far as possible, be carefully written out. It is not necessary, nor is it even advisable, to commit it to memory, save in rare instances. The mind should be left untrammeled by any set speech to take advantage of the inspiration of the moment. But the simple act of carefully composing and writing down an argument will fix in the mind the general order and sequence of facts and illustrations, and will greatly aid in a clear and forcible arrangement. ”

“ The student of advocacy can not give too much attention to the culture of expression. Orators in every age have made it a specific study. Cicero says, "The proper concern of an orator, as I have already often said, is language of power and eloquence accommodated to the feelings and understanding of mankind." Language and its elements, words, are to be mastered by direct, earnest labor. A speaker ought daily to exercise and air his vocabulary and add to and enrich it. The advocate does not want a diction gathered from the newspapers, caught from the air, common and unsuggestive ”

“ It is to the ambitious student as the touch of mother earth was to Antæus in his struggle with Hercules—renewing his strength and reviving his flagging zeal. It rouses him to severer self-denial, to more assiduous study, to more self-sustaining confidence, and leads him to feel, like Themistocles of old, that "the trophies of Miltiades will not let me sleep." These examples will teach him that God has set a price on every real and noble achievement; that success in oratory, as in everything else worth succeeding in, can be purchased only by pain and labor ”

“ Cicero followed this plan two thousand years ago, as he himself has told us, and Curran and Choate were both indefatigable in this practise.
Such are the means, such the labors by which the student may make himself an advocate. It is not the work of an hour or a day or a year, but of years—years of application and of industry—of patient plodding and painful study. It is not by starts of application and intermittent labor that anything valuable can be achieved. It is the outgrowth of well-directed and persistent effort. ”

“ The minute which is gone can never be recalled, while the next minute is fraught with uncertainty. We are sure—not of this minute, but of this instant only, of time. Then, while we may, let us say the loving word, do the kind act, suppress the unkind remark, encourage those who are struggling by the way—this minute. ”

“ There can be but one answer. Remembering with Lincoln—and with Hughes—that ours is a government of the people, and for the people, let us return to the pure ideal of the Constitution and secure a government by the people. ”

“ It is even as Quintilian said: "It is not writing rapidly that you come to write well, but by writing well you come to write rapidly." In mental culture, as in the culture of the earth, the seed sown in the deepest furrows finds a more fruitful soil, is more securely cherished and springs up in its time to more exuberant and healthful harvest. Without this discipline, the power and practise of extemporaneous speech will yield only an empty loquacity—only words born on the lips. In this discipline, deep down there are the roots, there the foundations ”

“ Those who know not the cause of any thing extraordinary and beyond them may well be astonished at the effect; and what the uncivilized ascribe to magic others ascribe to genius—two mighty pretenders who, for the most part, are safe from rivalry only because by the terror of their names they discourage in their own peculiar sphere that resolute and sanguine spirit of enterprise which is essential to success. ”

“ There is another essential, aside from the knowledge of the law, for the successful court lawyer—that is eloquence; the sort of eloquence which Blair defines to be "the art of speaking in such a manner as to attain the end for which we speak." Most young men, who study with a view of coming to the bar, have an ambition, more or less strong, to become advocates—to be able to convince judges and persuade juries by the power of their logic and the graces of their style and utterance ”

“ Besides a knowledge of the general principles of law, another thing highly material to the success of every advocate is a diligent and careful attention to every cause that is intrusted to him, so as to be thoroughly master of all the facts and circumstances relating to it, Cicero has left a very instructive record of the method pursued by him in the preparation of a cause for trial, and which we commend to the careful consideration of every student and lawyer. ”

“ From these examples we may learn that all truly noble orators in every age have trusted, not to inspiration, but to discipline; that great as were their natural abilities, they were much less than the ignorant rated them; that even the mightiest condescended to certain rules and methods of study by which the humblest are able to profit. It is good for the student to read of the studies and labors, the trials and conflicts, the difficulties and triumphs, of such men. ”

“ Oh, it offends me to the soul, to hear a robustious, periwigpated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise.... Be not too tame, neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor; suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature; for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was, and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature ”

“ There is no individual whose life is more closely identified with the history of his country than George Washington. You all know the story of his life by heart. To-day, on the anniversary of his birth, it is proper and fitting for Americans to dwell upon the virtues of this great man. Washington's character was magnanimous. He was kind to the aged, and sympathetic toward his fellow men. Thomas Jefferson may have had Washington in mind when he wrote, in the Declaration of Independence, the words "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." ”

“ President Lincoln owed his success as a speaker to his ancestry and parentage, his knowledge of human nature, and his mastery of English. His Puritan-pioneer ancestry endowed him with the great physical and mental vigor that characterized all his life; and his parents inspired him with the love of learning, the high moral sense and the devotion to truth, freedom and religion, that made him the man we so revere. His knowledge of human nature was due to his early life and studies, and is best illustrated by his use of stories. ”

“ There is no greater difficulty confronting the business man to-day than that of finding men to fill positions where initiative and original thought are necessary. The call comes from the business world everywhere, "Give us men of ideas—men of ability—men who have mastered the art of thinking for themselves." Our schools and colleges are engaged in the task of storing the mind with facts. This is a splendid work, but we need to go one step farther, we must teach men how to apply and develop and use this knowledge. It is not how much a man knows that makes him a successful business man ”

“ Lack of perseverance in performing the labor necessary to the student of elocution, or ignorance of the method to be pursued; or, in many cases, a notion that orators, like poets, "are born, not made," has served to make the number of eloquent advocates very small indeed.
The most universal idea seems to prevail, that industry can effect nothing; that every one must be content to remain just what he happens to be, and that eminence is the result of accident. ”

“ If genius is a mark of divine Providence made manifest in the preferred of human kind, the life of Lincoln shows clearly the power and guidance of God. Notwithstanding the adverse conditions surrounding his early life, he struggled upward, almost unknowingly, to the preeminent position of power and trust ordained for him, fully equipped to meet and master every problem. ”

“ The eyes of all our countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings and praises if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the tyranny meditated against them. Let us, therefore, animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a freeman contending for liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth. ”

“ We need say nothing with regard to emphasis, pauses, tones and gestures. Every one who goes about his work in earnest will devote proper attention to these matters, and will gain more from experience and observation than from the rules laid down in the books. One thing seldom laid down in the books is of the highest importance to the advocate: that is, to study always to feel what he speaks. ”