Thoth, who was looked upon as the god of skilful speech or eloquence.'

As no previous history records the cultivation of oratory as an art, Greece may be called its birthplace and home. Here it rose to its highest perfection; from here its fame has spread in all the earth, till to-day the names of Aristotle, Demosthenes, Pericles, are as familiar as the names of the leading statesmen of the present time. Notwithstanding their limited knowledge of the physics and physiology of the subjects, their treatises upon the art are valuable in many particulars. Plato's conception of sound and hearing is fanciful: "We may certainly conclude that voice (sound) is a shock transmitted through the ears to the soul by the air, the brain, and the blood, and that the motion thereof, which begins in the head and ends in the region of the liver, is hearing. When this motion is swift, the sound is acute; when slow, grave. If the motion is regular, the sound is even and smooth; if the opposite, harsh. A great motion gives a loud sound, the opposite a faint one." †

Aristotle (384 B. C.) had a more perfect conception of the organs of voice. He states the larynx emits vowel sounds; the teeth and lips, consonants. His treatise is elaborate. The different parts of the art were assigned to especial teachers, and prescribed physical and vocal practice for development of body and voice. They gave attention to the hygiene of the voice, and established public contests in declamation.

The genius of their free institutions, their taste for art, fostered the cultivation of this art of arts; besides, the highest places in the nation were possible only to eloquence. So everything conspired to make a race of orators.

*Gordon Holmes, L. R. C. P., " Vocal Physiology and Hygiene of the Voice."

↑ Holmes, "Vocal Physiology."

Rome borrowed her eloquence, her methods of cultivating it, from Greece, as she did her other arts and learning, till "victorious Rome was herself subdued by the arts of Greece."

Republican Rome was well adapted to nurture oratory. Their patience and attention to minute particulars are surprising to us of this age of hurry. Quintilian's "Institutes of Oratory" is a very elaborate treatise upon the art. At last oratory was abused; the niceties of the art became fantastic, and finally declined with the Empire.

Then the Christian church became the custodian of the art, and preserved and cultivated oratory. Chrysostom, the "golden mouth" of the fourth century, is familiarly known as the most distinguished orator of the early church fathers.

After the darkness of the early Middle Ages, the revival of oratory began in Italy after the twelfth century, continuing to the present civilization. Crolius preceded Bossuet and Massillon of France by nearly a century.

Our attention is next attracted to the famous orators of Great Britain and Ireland, then to the distinguished examples of our earlier civilization.

It cannot be said, however, that oratory has been generally or systematically cultivated in modern time. Professional speakers who have given attention to it are in the minority. This neglect is partially accounted for by the fact that, after the revival of letters, the world was busy acquiring knowledge, and then the art of printing was a convenient agent in discussion and in the dissemination of knowledge.

We have not felt the necessity of cultivating the art; we have waited for the leisure to attend to it as an accomplishment. Logically and historically, facts or knowledge must precede their use. Relatively we have the knowledge. It has been increased and disseminated, till now it seems to me oratory will have a chance, in its legitimate field, of making such skilful use of the facts that they shall be adapted to persuade. This latter function is the chief end of oratory.

Treatises on the art have appeared from time to time, some having special value, but most of them touching only one phase of the subject and none possessing the merit of a complete and practical discussion.

The subject, as presented by Delsarte, so far as our knowledge will permit us to judge, seems to have been a thorough discussion of the subject according to the scientific method.

As it comes to us through his pupils, it is fragmentary and not unfrequently mystical. But for all these drawbacks, there is much in the analysis that is practical as well as suggestive..

For years the teaching of oratory has been left quite generally in the hands of charlatans and quacks. As a rule the responsibility of training in oratory has been assumed by those who had a measure of natural ability as readers or speakers, and have therefore presumed they could teach, though ignorant, and lacking in every qualification of the teacher. Many speakers and readers, unable to find other help, have gone to actors for instruction. That an artist is a great actor is no assurance that he is a good teacher.

A better class of teachers are now entering the field. Long neglect, producing its race of incompetent speakers, seems about to make a favorable reaction.

These facts, with the additional one that leading colleges and universities and men in professions are yearly giving increased attention to the subject, lead us to think that we are on the eve of a revival that shall make the cultivation of the art necessary and general.

Systems of oratory have been distinguished from one another, and the respective merits of each extolled, as though systems of oratory were a matter of invention and capable of indefinite multiplication. No wonder that laymen have been suspicious, and regarded systems of oratory as collections of tricks, or, at best, capable only of making unskilled mechanics.

Whatever may be said as to the excellence of any classification or arrangement, it should be distinctly understood that the true system of oratory is not the result of inventive genius. It does not depend upon the caprice of individuals.

The fundamental principles of expression exist naturally, and may be discovered and classified. According to a law in expression, the falling inflection asserts; the assertion may be of will, of knowledge, of authority. The rising inflection. appeals; the appeal may be to another's will or knowledge.

The quality of voice indicates the character of emotion or quality of things, as in secrecy or fear the voice naturally taking the aspirated quality. The character of an event, whether important or trivial, is suggested by the great or small quality of voice. In attitude, conscious strength assumes weak positions, as in the case of the athlete, while conscious weakness assumes strong positions, as in the case of children and aged people, putting their feet far apart for a wide base. These principles must form the normal standard to which all forms of expression are to be referred.

That which appears in the consciousness is thought, emotion, will, spiritual products. They must be materialized before they can be communicated to others. These spiritual products may be measurably put in written form and address the eye, or they may be put in speech and action and address both ear and eyę. To do this effectively is no easy task. The power of thought is God-given, but it must be cultivated. The power of expression is distinct from the power of thought; but in many minds the two are confused and identical. As the ability of thinking is cultivated, so also is the power of expression.

5.-ORATORY AS AN ART.

The use of the agents of expression is an art. The Greeks so understood it, and compared oratory to sculpture and

painting. Our English word "orator" is rather confusing. We sometimes apply the word to a man of genius, and speak of orator as we do of poet. The Roman understood orator in the official sense of pleader. The Greek use of the word 'Pitwo, meaning speaker, is the clearest use of the term: then every speaker is more or less orator.

Aristotle's definition of oratory is perhaps the clearest and most comprehensive, "The power of saying on every subject whatever can be found to persuade." Phocian's definition is, "The power to express the most sense in the fewest words." Quintilian calls it "the power of persuading."

The subject will be considered as THE ART OF EXPRESSING

BY SPEECH AND GESTURE THAT WHICH IS IN THE CONSCIOUS

NESS. Very plainly the object of the orator is to have others think as he thinks and feel as he feels, and through this to secure their action in a desired direction.

The controlling principle of this instruction is utilitarian, — economy consistent with efficiency. The orator should know the power of every word, emphasis, inflection, act, and so use them that the truth he utters may be "UNDERSTOOD, FELT,” by the audience.

This instruction repudiates artificial rules, of which we have counted in one work twenty-nine on one part of analysis. It discourages servile imitation, and does not attempt to tell a speaker when to strike attitudes, when to make gestures, when to thunder, and when to be calm. Artificial methods are an utter abomination. M. De Cormorin satirically puts it: "Be impassioned, thunder, rage, weep up to the fifth word of the third sentence of the tenth paragraph of the tenth leaf. How easy that would be! Above all, how natural!" Proper instruction only tells a man how to do a thing; the speaker himself must do it when he must, not before.

In man as we find him now, the functions of expression are impaired. Faulty habits of voice, inflection, and gesture have been taken on. Thought and emotion arise for utterance, the