8. What are the two ways of increasing capacity mentioned in the lessons?

9. Why would it be bad to take breathing lessons to increase capacity and control if the posture were poor?

10. Someone said of a great speaker, "He owes his success to his diaphragm." What does that mean? Could it be true? Why?

11. Do you stand correctly? Practice the exercise given for the second day and the exercise given on page 110, over and over again. Do they help?

12. Which breathing exercises do you find most helpful? 13. What is the normal position?

14. Who was Demosthenes? What are some of his famous orations?

15. What is the value of a "good start"? How can you over

come nervousness?

LESSON 8

SUBJECTIVE ASPECTS OF DELIVERY

While the mechanical requirements of correct posture and breathing must be met, there are also certain subjective attributes which are essential to effective delivery. To insure success with audiences, attractive personal qualities must exist in the speaker. These qualities re-enforce the message itself, they add to its weight, or they make its acceptance more agreeable. Because of deficiency in these subjective attributes, many a keen thinker is listened to stolidly, if not defiantly, and his fairest conclusions only grudgingly granted. Yet, on the other hand, there are speakers with whom audiences are glad to agree so long as their ideas have the barest plausibility. Evidently something in the speaker either helps or hinders the most favorable acceptance of his words by the audience. It is the purpose of this lesson to outline the inner or subjective traits which make for efficiency and suggest methods of cultivating them in the speaker.

1. PERSONALITY

The broadest term we can use to designate the subjective elements of charm, power, and attractiveness of a speaker is personality. It sums up those general, permanent attributes which show through all his transitory words and deeds. If that underlying, permanent self

appeals to us, we say that the man has a good personality. Naturally all do not have the same taste in this matter and a man may seem pleasant to one person and be colorless or even repulsive to another. Indeed, as widely as individuals differ, just so wide is the divergence in response to personality. Yet there are certain attributes which are quite universally looked upon as positive elements in a good personality. Let us enumerate some of these features which are especially sought for in a speaker.

(a) Magnetism

The term magnetism is often used instead of good personality. It is peculiarly applicable to successful speakers and directs attention not so much to what is the source of the man's power as to the effect it has upon others. By magnetism we mean a composite of personal attributes which draws people to the speaker and tends to incline them to sympathize with or rally around him. An old gentleman once recounted to the writer the following incident in the life of Henry Ward Beecher.

The gentleman was from the British West Indies and was visiting New York, just before the Civil War. All his sympathies were with the South on the slavery question and he could not understand why people like Beecher should agitate for abolition. Yet, out of curiosity, he went one Sunday to the Broadway Tabernacle to hear Beecher speak on slavery. In those days, such special lectures were advertised by hand stickers or posters slapped up against telegraph poles and walls. On this occasion the announcement said, "Henry Ward Beecher will speak on Slavery, at the Broadway Taber

nacle," etc., etc. There was in New York at that time a volunteer fire company made up of ruffians who would now be called election repeaters and strong-arm men. It was led by a great bully and corrupt politicianlet us call him John Doe. The posters had not been up long before there appeared, under the announcement that Beecher would speak, the words, "Like Hell he will.-John Doe." Consequently, those who attended the lecture came expecting trouble and possibly bloodshed. The gentleman from the West Indies was in the front of the gallery. As he looked down, he saw there on the ground floor, filling all the seats back from the stage one-third into the house, a great number of the red-shirted, volunteer firemen-ruffians. The leader stood in front cursing and threatening in violent language what he would do to Beecher. At the appointed time, Beecher suddenly ascended the steps of the platform and began to speak. There was a pause in the uproar and then dead silence. Even John Doe and his followers were hushed. In that moment Beecher became master. The stranger in the gallery afterward said, "If that red-shirted devil had dared to stir a finger to harm Henry Ward Beecher, I'd have jumped down on his neck and killed him." Others must have felt the same way; even the would-be rioters were subdued by the spiritual power of the speaker. This was a victory of character, personality, and magnetism, quite independent of what Beecher said.

Possibly we do not often get such a dramatic proof of the power of magnetism, but we have all experienced the force which some men display in manner, attitude, and presence-external signs of something permanent and admirable within. Others, less fortunate, have to con

tend not only with the audience but also against their own unfortunate selves. Before enumerating some of the foremost elements of a good personality or magnetism, we may note two things: First, magnetism is purely subjective-it resides in the speaker irrespective of what he is saying at a given time; second, it seems to have a twofold source-mental and physical. We shall list mental traits first.

1. Friendliness is the first attribute of a magnetic speaker. His attitude toward those he addresses is one of trustfulness. He approaches with a confiding air; he treats them as friends. The opposites of this are coldness, arrogance, superiority, and distrust. It is well known that every speech occasion is made by the audience as well as the speaker. He contributes to the situation, but so do they. What they add depends greatly upon the friendliness he displays. If they feel his cordiality, they will respond and the very atmosphere will vibrate with stimulating good feeling between the two.

The young speaker must not get the notion that he can easily pretend to be friendly, that he can smile and assume an agreeable air when delivering a particular speech. All this may help, but the real spirit of universal friendliness must be a permanent part of his character. If such is not the case, isolated pretenses of friendliness are apt to be patronizing performances which repel by their conscious condescension. Now the question arises, how can one develop this trait if it is wanting or weak?

At all times, the speaker must be friendly in thought and act. His daily intercourse with all people must be frank, cordial, and interested. He must converse with