ited by all men and which they are strongly moved to act out under appropriate stimulation.

Fourth Day.-List settled ideals and prejudices common to most Americans. Combine the lists of the second, third, and

fourth days.

Fifth Day.-Outline a speech designed to secure a definite action. Precede the outline with an analysis of the particular audience you imagine. List the springs to action the audience has. Tell the make-up of the audience and then enumerate:

1.

2.

3.

Possible external influences;

Inherited tendencies;

Settled habits of routine action;

4. Settled prejudices and ideals which can be connected with your particular purpose.

Additional Task.-Whenever you read speeches proposing actions, analyze the appeals in the manner given above. Do this very often and write out such an analysis of a speech, from time to time, in your notebook.

TEST QUESTIONS

These questions are for the student to use in testing his knowledge of the principles in this lesson. They are suggestive merely, dealing largely with the practical application of the principles, and are to be placed in the notebook for future reference.

1. What is the rank of a speech urging to action, in the oratorical scale of values? What is the popular notion of the high-water mark of oratory?

2. Is there such a thing as unconscious action? Among animals? Among men?

3. What is meant by tropism? Are human beings tropic?

4. What is an inherited tendency? What is a reflex? What is a habitual action?

5. How does conscious action differ from unconscious response?

6. What are the possible stimuli to action? What agency does a speaker employ? Are words as influential as real situations?

7. What influence has a speaker over unconscious responses?

8. What are the essential features of an impulsive action? How are the emotions affected?

9. Has attention anything to do with action? If so, what? 10. Has interest anything to do with action?

11. Of images, concepts, and proved beliefs, which is the strongest stimulus to immediate action? Which tends to guarantee the surest action?

12. What are the essential features of selective action?

13. Do ideals and judgment affect selective action as much or more than inherited instincts? Is there a rule to be applied to all people in this respect?

14. What is meant by the persisting stimulus? Can you name others besides that given?

15. Would an advertising man or a salesman profit by reading this lesson? Would a teacher or parent? Would a foreman or boss of other men?

16. What relation does this lesson bear to the previous lessons? to lesson 3 for example? or lesson 8 or 9 or 12? Could you prepare an outline of the course showing the relation of each topic and lesson to the whole and to each other?

17. What material treated thus far in this course would you put into a course in Personal Efficiency?

18. What from this course would you put into a popular text on applied psychology?

LESSON 17

SPEECH MATERIAL AND ITS PREPARATION

Thus far we have discussed the material of a speech as made up of images, concepts, judgments, and arguments, and we have shown how each may be presented, how each may be demonstrated as representing an existing actuality, and how each may be used to provoke feelings and acts of various sorts. All this implies that the materials used by a speaker-the ideas symbolized by his words-may be divided and subdivided along psychological lines.

Now, however, we wish to make another sort of subdivision-one which recognizes that part of this various material used by the speaker is very directly limited to a particular speech, while part of it is general in character. One portion is the heart of the particular message itself, while the other portion is a kind of general filling or explanatory accompaniment. Every speech contains a mixture of these two ingredients, and the speaker must discover them-must make them come to mind. The act of bringing forth the images, ideas, and arguments was known by the ancient writers as "invention." But invention is not possible in the case of a particular speech without some previous preparation. Furthermore, the preparation which brings forth the specific subject-matter is different from the preparation which bears the general fruit. In this lesson we shall explain the nature and purposes of these two kinds of matter and indicate methods of preparation for their invention.

1. SPECIFIC MATTER AND GENERAL MATTER

The following passage from William Wirt's Eulogy of Jefferson and Adams (delivered October 9, 1826, in the House of Representatives) will serve to illustrate, within the limits of a paragraph, the two kinds of matter which are presented to an audience:

Man has been said to be the creature of accidental position. The cast of his character has been thought to depend upon the age, the country, and the circumstances in which he has lived. To a considerable extent, the remark is, no doubt, true. Cromwell, had he been born in a republic, might have been guiltless of his country's blood; and, but for those civil commotions which wrought his mind into a tempest, even Milton might have rested "mute and inglorious." The occasion is, doubtless, necessary to develop the talent, whatever it may be; but the talent must exist, in the embryo at least, or no occasion can quicken it into life. And it must exist too under the check of strong virtues, or the same occasion that quickens it into life will be extremely apt to urge it on to crime. The hero who finished his career at St. Helena, extraordinary as he was, is a more common character in the history of the world than he who sleeps in our neighborhood, embalmed in his country's tears, or than those whom we have now met to mourn and honor.

The direct thought expressed by the orator in this passage is somewhat as follows: Although time, place, and occasion have much influence in determining a man's character, still, to develop great talent, an embryo of greatness must first exist; furthermore, true greatness requires that talent be checked by virtue. This specific message, however, is very compact and difficult to understand for the first time in the form just stated by us. To make the meaning more open and clear, to adapt it to the particular audience, general, illustrative matter is called into service. Wirt's first principle, that circumstances tend to develop the man, is made concrete by recalling the lives of two men-Cromwell and Milton. Similarly, Napoleon is a particular illustration of the truth that talent unchecked by virtue results in evil. On the other hand, Washington is a noble type where talent and virtue go hand in hand. Now these happened to be the illustrations chosen by Wirt. But he could have found others. No matter. Whatever he might have found and might