Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]

THE

SCIENCE AND ART

OF

ELOCUTION AND ORATORY:

CONTAINING SPECIMENS OF

THE ELOQUENCE OF THE PULPIT, THE BAR, THE STAGE, THE
LEGISLATIVE HALL, AND THE BATTLE-FIELD.

IN THREE PARTS.

PART I.-THEORETIC AND SCIENTIFIC; PART II.-RHETORICAL,
CLASSICAL, AND POETICAL: PART III.-

COMICAL AND MUSICAL.

BY WORTHY PUTNAM,

PROFESSOR OF PARLIAMENTARY

AND FORENSIC ORATORY IN THE OHIO STATE
AND UNION LAW COLLEGE.

"There's a charm in Oratory, a magical art,

That thrills like a kiss from the lips to the heart."-MRS. WELBY.

NEW YORK:

MASON, BAKER & PRATT,

142 & 144 GRAND STREET.

Xa2
Putnam

Latered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred

and fifty-four,

BY MILLER. ORTCN & MULLIGAN

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern District of New York.

[blocks in formation]

TEOL.S

28

* B

LIBRARY

27,303

PREFACE.

This book must speak for itself. It has been prepared at the request of many teachers, public speakers, and others interested in the author's entertainments, lectures, and teachings. It is the result of long and patient investigation of the art and science of reading and speaking. The author humbly trusts that his experience as a teacher of Elocution, has enabled him to produce a work, so true to nature and so practical, as to make it the interest and pleasure of teachers and students, readers and speakers, to welcome it as a teacher and friend.

Reading and speaking are arts-great, noble, intricate arts. The mind plays upon nature's organs, but science must tune them; and consequently the speaker gives tones and expression to thought, corresponding with the amount and quality of instruction.

My friends, you are charmed with elegant speaking or read ing. You devoutly desire such accomplishments. Come, then, arouse your energies; open this book, and acquire a treasure more noble, more enduring, than the wealth of Golconda or California-the treasure of cultivated thought, emotion, and speech. Thought is an immortal action of mind, but confined to the individual being; speaking is thought with a momentum, a noble, philanthropic action, that, like the sun, scatters its beams of light broadcast, to cheer and bless mankind.

By attending with an energy of purpose and action to the scientific part of this work, you can learn the true elements of

speech; discipline your articulation; create a musical and pow erful voice; improve your health; regulate your gestures and attitude; fortify yourself with confidence; and gain a clear and definite knowledge of the philosophy of reading and speaking. In the Rhetorical and Classical department for practical delivery, you are furnished with ample means for regulating your style of expression, as well as with the loftiest aspirations of genius. Your deepest affections and tenderest sensibilities will be reached, while you may continually indulge by the way in the noblest inspirations of thought.

In the Comical and Musical part, many a moral is enforced, many a deep impression is given, and many a lesson of wisdom is imparted through the medium of a hearty laugh, or by the smiles and sparkles of wit and humor.

To the youth whose generous and noble natures aspire to happiness, usefulness, and honor, the author tenders this work. They have so universally met him with kindness and confidence, as their teacher and friend, in the various institutions of learning, in which he has given lessons and lectures, as to enlist in their behalf his best energies, and make the desire to advance them "onward and upward," a part of his being.

To teachers, public speakers, and others of literary and classical taste, the author submits this book, and is cheered with the hope of their kind consideration and generous approval THE AUTHOR.

« AnteriorContinuar »