orators. This, combined with the habit of reading and re-reading the
best prose writers and poets, accounts in large measure for the
felicitous style of such men as Burke, Erskine, Macaulay, Bolingbroke,
Phillips, Everett and Webster.

I can not too often urge you to use your pen in daily composition as a
means to felicity and facility of speech. The act of writing out your
thoughts is a direct aid to concentration, and tends to enforce the
habit of choosing the best language. It gives clearness, force,
precision, beauty, and copiousness of style, so valuable in
extemporaneous and impromptu speaking.


ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF MEMORIZING SPEECHES

Some of the most highly successful speakers carefully wrote out,
revised, and committed to memory important passages in their speeches.
These they dexterously wove into the body of their addresses in such a
natural manner as not to expose their method.

This plan, however, is not to be generally recommended, since few men
have the faculty of rendering memorized parts so as to make them appear
extempore. If you recite rather than speak to an audience, you may be a
good entertainer, but just to that degree will you impair your power and
effectiveness as a public speaker.

There are speakers who have successfully used the plan of committing to
memory significant sentences, statements, or sayings, and skilfully
embodying them in their speeches. You might test this method for
yourself, tho it is attended with danger.