is a wonderful clarifier of thought. One does not know how muddy his ideas are till he has passed them through the filter of conversation. Let him, then, who has "thought himself empty" and "read himself full," preparatory to making a speech, talk with some intelligent and sympathetic friend. By " sympathetic " is not meant, necessarily, one that takes the same view of the subject as the speaker himself. Indeed it may be an advantage that the listener disagree; for then the speaker will better learn his weak points than might otherwise be possible. By sympathetic is rather meant one who is interested in the subject and in the speaker. Nor is it necessary that the conversation be with one as well informed as himself; the very effort of conversing on the matter enables him to put his ideas in definite language and thus deliver his soul, and also place him in a position to use to advantage any suggestions that are offered. So will his thought and his treatment of it be made lucid.

Daniel Webster, when speaking of the value of conversation to the orator, said to Charles Sumner:

In my education, I have found that conversation with the intelligent men I have had the good fortune to meet has done more for me than books ever did; for I learn more from them in a talk of half an hour than I could possibly learn from their books. Their minds, in their conversation, come into intimate contact with my own mind; and I absorb certain secrets of their power, whatever be its quality, which I could not have detected in their works. Converse, converse, CONVERSE with living men, face to face, and mind to mind, that is one of the best sources of knowledge.

A

CHAPTER VIII

THE ORDERING OF MATERIAL

FTER the work of gathering material has been com

pleted, the speech maker must solve the problem of putting the material so accumulated into proper form for advantageous use. In other words, he must make, on the basis of his gathered material, a framework or skeleton of the structure he purposes to build. The various steps of this process may be intimated as follows:

1. A Provisional Analysis.- After he has thoroughly thought through his subject, as before explained (p. 53 sq.), and has taken notes covering the results of his thinking, the maker of a speech should pass these notes under the closest scrutiny. As a result of such examination, he will find that his knowledge and ideas, as thus indicated, can be combined into a few more or less homogeneous and clearly defined groups. Let him formulate for these groups general statements, under which the various items can be included. They will constitute an outline for the main parts of his speech. Under each one of them, as the work proceeds, may be gathered the various subdivisions that indicate the line of development of these several main divisions. When this work is completed he will have gone far toward building up a plan of his discussion that will be of great value, indeed

altogether essential to the highest success, in the subsequent labor of further accumulation of material and development of his discourse.

The plan as thus made will be, of course, provisional, subject to modification as the result of the further work of reading and conversation. After these processes are completed the plan should be put into final form, and stated so fully and suggestively that the speaker can then give his powers wholly to the work of composition. Then let him hold to the plan thus formulated from beginning to end. If this work be adequately done, no helpful ideas will be likely to crowd upon him in the heat of the discourse that may not be appropriately included somewhere in this plan.

2. Statement of the Proposition and Object.— The nature of the proposition has already been discussed, as has also the proper form for what we have called "the object," or proposition turned into the form of an imperative. This object is to dominate the entire work, from the accumulation of material, through the introduction, the discussion, and the conclusion, to the delivery of the speech. Since it is desired to make our work as practical as possible, it may be helpful to choose a subject, and illustrate the process of plan making by actually working out a plan on that subject.

As a working basis, then, for the development of a plan, let us assume a subject already suggested, "The College Settlement." From this subject was derived the theme: "The College Settlement as a Sphere of Useful

ness for Educated Men." This theme, turned into proper form for the "object," would be, say, "Let Educated Men Engage in College Settlement Work." As it is ordinarily better to plan the introduction after it is clearly known what is to be introduced, it will be best to wait for that until the rest of the plan is put in order.

(3) Plan of the Discussion.-The next step, then, in our work is to plan the discussion. The final result of this process will be developed in response to the question: "How may I, out of the material gathered in the processes of thought, reading, and conversation, so expound, establish, illuminate, and enforce my proposition as best to accomplish my object? The answer to this question will have been partially reached in the provisional analysis already considered. A fuller answer must now be found.

66

Returning to our proposition we begin to question it: Sphere of Usefulness? Usefulness to whom? And we conclude that it would be "useful" to those among whom such work was done-useful to them as individuals, as members of society, and as citizens. So, likewise, it would be useful" to the community and to the state. But "useful" in what particulars? And we reason that it would be beneficial to the poor, in teaching them industry, in teaching by both precept and example the principles of economy and thrift, in doing away with certain prejudices, in making them intelligent and more moral, in leading them to help themselves and one another; that it would help the community and the state as a result of thus elevating the people so affected. But we conclude,

likewise, that such work would be "useful" to those that engaged in it, as well as to others, because it would bring them into personal and practical relations to and sympathy with the poor, the ignorant, the vicious — and would thus broaden and ennoble their own character by cultivating the spirit of unselfish devotion to the uplifting work of helpfulness to others. Thus, in every way, such service would help bring them to an altruistic, experimental appreciation of the great truth of human brotherhood. We reason, further, that such service would be "useful" in honoring God-in its spirit, in its purposes and in its results.

But why a "Sphere of Usefulness for Educated Men"? And we answer, because college settlement work was especially designed by and for such men; because it needs men of large intelligence and training to appreciate and help solve the problems with which such work has to deal; and because, by thus bringing the extremes of culture and ignorance into common interests, the purposes for which the enterprise was inaugurated will be I best subserved.

By examining these and other results of thought and study concerning our proposition, we find that they can be grouped under three or four general classes of motives. There are motives of personal advantage, or duty to self; of duty to others in their individual as well as associated capacities; motives of duty toward God; and there is the motive arising from the fact that education fits one for the appreciation of and usefulness in this kind of work.