of a great soul upon whom had been laid a mighty and inspiring responsibility. He had a great style because, primarily, he was a great man, living at a great crisis, speaking on great themes.

But, in addition to what he owed to his inborn gifts and to the conditions of his life, Lincoln's style was due in no small measure to his early reading. He did not read many books, but he read a few until they were his own. But those few were Shakespeare, Milton, Bunyan, the English Bible. With these masters of speech as his models, furnishing the very pabulum of his early thought and life, it is not surprising that when he spoke he should speak their language. The influence of biblical thought and imagery upon his style is especially noticeable. Read, for illustration, the second inaugural. In one place he says:

The Almighty has his own purposes. Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.

And again:

If God wills that the war continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

What has been said about Lincoln's reading suggests that there are some books that every public speaker will find it of advantage to make himself familiar with.

The very first that should be named is the English | Bible. Many reasons for this statement might be advanced, only one or two of which need here be emphasized. For one thing, it should be read because of the splendor of its language. One who would acquire command of a strong, simple, beautiful style can do no better than to read in the King James English, until its language is his own, this book of all books. This translation was made by the scholars of the time, and yet it was made for the use of the common people. Consequently it blends the speech of the masses with that of the cultured people of that time. From Shakespeare's day to our own this has been the one book which everybody has known more or less. One whose style is influenced by the language of this book, therefore, is certain to use language suited to all ranks of men, both the learned and the unlearned.

Another reason why the orator will find it an advantage to know the Bible is found in the fact that no other book is the source of so many quotations and allusions as this. It is hardly too much to say that no man can understand and appreciate the great literature of our tongue who is not familiar with the thought, stories, teachings, language, characters of the Bible. Our whole literature is saturated with it. Because of this fact, without reference to its religious teachings, this book ought to be a required study in every public school. More quotations, more allusions are drawn from this than from any other source, whose meaning cannot be understood,

or whose beauty and force appreciated by the reader, unless he is acquainted with the original as found in the Old or New Testament. Such quotations and allusions are so common in literature, partly because they are more likely to be understood and enjoyed by the reader than if they were drawn from obscure sources which the average reader or hearer would probably not be familiar with. Another reason is that this book is so full of wisdom and suggestion that it is a more prolific source of helpful and applicable sayings than any other book that can be named. Consequently, the orator should study the Bible both as a training in the best and most suggestive language and at the same time as furnishing an inexhaustible treasury of wisdom from which he may draw more effectively than from any other one source.

Perhaps next to the Bible, the orator will find it to his advantage to know the works of Shakespeare. This, mainly because this greatest of English poets let the plummet down deeper into the mysteries of the human soul than any other uninspired man that has ever lived. The orator must know human nature, and a great help to the acquisition of such knowledge is always accessible in the plays of the Bard of Avon. In these plays, also, we find one of the best means of attaining power in the use of language. Shakespeare, it is said, employed a larger vocabulary than any other writer of the language. The speaker, therefore, who would gain a large and flexible mastery of speech, may wisely study the works of this master of speech.

But time and space would fail to present, even briefly, reasons for reading books that the orator will find it an advantage to know for training in his art. It may be helpful, however, to name a few more that he will find beneficial and inspiring. Among these should be included a copy of Plutarch's Lives, The Arabian Nights, a book on classic mythology, The Pilgrim's Progress, Paradise Lost, Homer, Virgil, Don Quixote, Goethe's Faust, Burns' poems, Dante's Divina Comedia; with these at least the orator will find it an advantage to be fairly familiar. Such works he should have upon his own bookshelves, as standard and tried friends, to which he may always resort, with confidence that they will never fail him. There will be, of course, many other books that he will read for information, or recreation, or inspiration, or all these purposes combined.

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CHAPTER XVI

TWO LINES OF PREPARATION

OO much emphasis cannot be placed upon the im

portance to the speaker of careful and untiring preparation, and hence in, 1, Practice in Writing. This is especially true if he is gifted with readiness of utterance. The fluent man,- the man who is never at a loss for words, who speaks readily even without preparation, needs in particular to be on his guard. Such fatal fluency is a delusion and a snare. The one that possesses such readiness is always subject to the temptation of depending on his glibness of tongue at the expense of that patient, full, and thorough preparation which alone will insure steady and permanent growth and a high measure of excellence. If genius is the infinite capacity for taking pains, as someone has declared it to be, surely he who has ability, ambition, high ideals, unfaltering determination, and unending industry may hope to succeed and even obtain some measure of prominence in the art of persuading men. The main question is whether he is willing to pay the price. The story of Demosthenes speaking by the roaring sea, with pebbles in his mouth to correct weakness and defects of voice, is both a lesson and an inspiration. Because he was willing to pay the price, because he had