Show broughams Brough ams advice io to macaulay Maca ulay in 1823 lord brougham 0 addressed a letter to Macau fays tays father offering suggestions on 1 the education of the deceased historian then a student at cambridge starting t on the principle that the foundation of all excellence is to be laid in early application to general knowledge lord brougham proceeds to give advice as to the best mode of cultivating the talent for public speaking which whim the son then possessed he says i 1 the first point is this the beginning I 1 of the art is to acquire a habit 0 of f easy speaking id let him first of all learn to speak easily and fluently as well and as sensibly as he can no doubt but at any rate let him learn to speak this is to eloquence or good erblic public speaking what the being able to tal tai talk taik in a child is to correct grammatical speech it is i the requisite foundation and on it you must i build moreover it can only be acquired young therefore let it by all means and at any sacrifice be gotten hold of forthwith 2 the next step is the grand one to convert this style of easy speaking into chaste eloquence I 1 do earnestly entreat your son to set daily and nightly before him the greek models I 1 first of all he may look to the best modern speeches burkes best compositions as the thoughts on the cause 0 of the present discon tents speech on the american conciliation and on the nabob of arnots debt foxs coxs speech on the westminster scrutiny on the russian Arma Ar manant nanty and on the war 51 1803 with one or two of hams best and very few or rather none of 0 Sheri dans but he must by no means sto stop phere here if he would be a great orator he must go at once to the fountain head and be familiar with every one of the great orations of demosthenes I 1 take for granted that he knows those of cicero by heart they are very beautiful but not very useful except perhaps the ailo pro li ligario atio ario and one or two more but the greek in must positively be the model and merely reading it as boys do to know the language wont do at all he must enter into the spirit of each speech thoroughly know the positions of the parties f follow ollow each turn of the argument and make the absolutely perfect and most chaste and severe composition familiar to his mind in this view I 1 hold a familiar knowledge of dante tobe to be next to demosthenes it is in vain to say that imitations of these models wont do for our times first I 1 do not counsel any imitation but only an imbibing of the same spirit secondly I 1 know fro from m experience th that at nothing is ii half so sd successful e in these times bad though they be as what has been formed on the greek models I 1 use a very poor instance in giving in my own experience but I 1 do assure you that ith both in courts of law and parliament and even to mobs I 1 have never made so much play to use a very modern phrase as when I 1 was almost translating latin from the greek this leads me to remark that though speaking with writing beforehand until is very well until the habit of easy speech is acquired yet after that he can never write too much this is quite clear but I 1 go further and say even to the ena end of a mans life he be must prepare word for word most of his finer passages now would he be a great orator or no in other words would he have almost absolute power of doing good to mankind I 1 in a free country or no so be he wills this be he must follow these rules 31 |