,,hints ,,on ,,extemporaneous ,,preaching4 ,,by ,,henry ,,ware1 ,,jr4 ,,minister ,,of ,,the ,,second ,,church ,,in ,,boston4 ,maximus vero studiorum fructus est1 et velut prmium quoddam amplissimum longi laboris1 ex tempore dicendi facultas4 ,quinct4 x4 #g4 ,,boston3 ,,published ,,by ,,cummings1 ,,hilliard ,,co4 #ahbd4 ,university ,press--,hilliard ,metcalf4 ,,to ,,the ,,students ,,in ,,the ,,theological ,,seminary ,,in ,,harvard ,,university1 ,,this ,,little ,,treatise1 ,,with ,,the ,,sincerest ,,prayers ,,that ,,they ,,may ,,become ,,profound ,,divines ,,and ,,powerful ,,preachers1 ,,is ,,affectionately ,,inscribed ,,by ,,the ,,author4 ,,contents4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,advantages of ,extemporaneous ,preaching ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,disadvantages--,objections considered ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,rules ,,preface4 ,it is the object of this little work1 to draw the attention of those who are preparing for the christian ministry1 or who have just entered it1 to a mode of preaching which the writer thinks has been too much discountenanced and despised2 but which1 under proper restrictions1 he is persuaded may add greatly to the opportunities of ministerial usefulness4 ,the subject has hardly received the attention it deserves from writers on the pastoral office1 who have usually devoted to it but a few sentences1 which offer little encouragement and afford no aid4 ,burnet1 in his ,treatise on the ,pastoral ,care1 and ,fenelon in his ,dialogues on ,eloquence1 have treated it more at large1 but still very cursorily4 ,to their arguments and their authority1 which are of great weight1 ,i refer the more distinctly here1 because ,i have not quoted them so much at large as ,i intended when ,i wrote the beginning of the second chapter4 ,besides these1 the remarks of ,quinctilian1 x4 #g4 on the subject of speaking extempore1 which are full of his usual good sense1 may be very profitably consulted4 ,it has been my object to state fully and fairly the benefits which attend this mode of address in the pulpit1 and at the same time to guard against the dangers and abuses to which it is confessedly liable4 ,how far ,i may have succeeded1 it is not for me to determine4 ,it would be something to persuade but one to add this to his other talents for doing good in the church4 ,even the attempt to do it1 though unsuccessful1 would not be without its reward2 since it could not be fairly made without a most salutary moral and intellectual discipline4 ,it is not to be expected--nor do ,i mean by any thing ,i have said to intimate--that every man is capable of becoming an accomplished preacher in this mode1 or that every one may succeed as well in this as in the ordinary mode4 ,there is a variety in the talents of men1 and to some this may be peculiarly unsuited4 ,yet this is no good reason why any should decline the attempt1 since it is only by making the attempt that they can determine whether or not success is within their power4 ,there is at least one consequence likely to result from the study of this art and the attempt to practise it1 which would alone be a sufficient reason for urging it earnestly4 ,i mean1 its probable effect in breaking up the constrained1 cold1 formal1 scholastic mode of address1 which follows the student from his college duties1 and keeps him from immediate contact with the hearts of his fellow men4 ,this would be effected by his learning to speak from his feelings1 rather than from the critical rules of a book4 ,his address would be more natural1 and consequently better adapted to effective preaching4 ,,hints ,,on ,,extemporaneous ,,preaching4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,it is a little remarkable that1 while some classes of christians do not tolerate the preaching of a written discourse1 others have an equal prejudice against all sermons which have not been carefully precomposed4 ,among the latter are to be found those who favor an educated ministry1 and whose preachers are valued for their cultivated minds and extensive knowledge4 ,the former are1 for the most part1 those who disparage learning as a qualification for a christian teacher1 and whose ministers are consequently not accustomed to exact mental discipline1 nor familiar with the best models of thinking and writing4 ,it might seem at first view1 that the least cultivated would require the greatest previous preparation in order profitably to address their fellow-men1 and that the best informed and most accustomed to study might be best trusted to speak without the labor of written composition4 ,that it has been thought otherwise1 is probably owing1 in a great measure1 to the solicitude for literary exactness and elegance of style1 which becomes a habit in the taste of studious men1 and renders all inaccuracy and carelessness offensive4 ,he who has been accustomed to read and admire the finest models of composition in various languages1 and to dwell on those niceties of method and expression which form so large a part of the charm of literary works2 acquires a critical delicacy of taste1 which renders him fastidiously sensitive to those crudities and roughnesses of speech1 which almost necessarily attend an extemporaneous style4 ,he is apt to exaggerate their importance1 and to imagine that no excellencies of another kind can atone for them4 ,he therefore protects himself by the toil of previous composition1 and ventures not a sentence which he has not leisurely weighed and measured4 ,an audience also1 composed of reading people1 or accustomed to the exactness of written composition in the pulpit1 acquires something of the same taste1 and is easily offended at the occasional homeliness of diction1 and looseness of method1 which occur in extemporaneous speaking4 ,whereas those preachers and hearers1 whose education and habits of mind have been different1 know nothing of this taste1 and are insensible to these blemishes2 and1 if there be only a fluent outpouring of words1 accompanied by a manner which evinces earnestness and sincerity1 are pleased and satisfied4 ,it is further remarkable1 that this prejudice of taste has been suffered to rule in this way in no profession but that of the ministry4 ,the most fastidious taste never carries a written speech to the bar or into the senate4 ,the very man who dares not ascend the pulpit without a sermon diligently arranged1 and filled out to the smallest word1 if he had gone into the profession of the law1 would1 at the same age and with no greater advantages1 address the bench and the jury in language altogether unpremeditated4 ,instances are not wanting in which the minister1 who imagined it impossible to put ten sentences together in the pulpit1 has found himself able1 on changing his profession1 to speak fluently for an hour4 ,i have no doubt that to speak extempore is easier at the bar and in the legislature1 than in the pulpit4 ,our associations with this place are of so sacred a character1 that our faculties do not readily play there with their accustomed freedom4 ,there is an awe upon our feelings which constrains us4 ,a sense1 too1 of the importance and responsibility of the station1 and of the momentous consequences depending on the influence he may there exert1 has a tendency to oppress and embarrass the conscientious man1 who feels it as he ought4 ,there is also1 in the other cases1 an immediate end to be attained1 which produces a powerful immediate excitement2 an excitement1 increased by the presence of those who are speaking on the opposite side of the question1 and in assailing or answering whom1 the embarrassment of the place is lost in the interest of the argument4 ,whereas in the pulpit1 there is none to assault1 and none to refute2 the preacher has the field entirely to himself1 and this of itself is sufficiently dismaying4 ,the ardor and self-oblivion which present debate occasions1 do not exist2 and the solemn stillness and fixed gaze of a waiting multitude1 serve rather to appal and abash the solitary speaker1 than to bring the subject forcibly to his mind4 ,thus every external circumstance is unpropitious1 and it is not strange that relief has been sought in the use of manuscripts4 ,but still1 these difficulties1 and others which ,i shall have occasion to mention in another place1 are by no means such as to raise that insuperable obstacle which many suppose4 ,they may all be overcome by resolution and perseverance4 ,as regards merely the use of unpremeditated language1 it is far from being a difficult attainment4 ,a writer1 whose opportunities of observation give weight to his opinion1 says1 in speaking of the style of the younger ,pitt--,this profuse and interminable flow of words is not in itself either a rare or remarkable endowment4 ,it is wholly a thing of habit2 and is exercised by every village lawyer with various degrees of power and grace4#a ,if there be circumstances which render the habit more difficult to be acquired by the preacher1 they are still such as may be surmounted2 and it may be made plain1 ,i think1 that the advantages which he may thus ensure to himself are so many and so great1 as to offer the strongest inducement to make the attempt4 #a ,europe2 c4 by a ,citizen of the ,united ,states4 ,that these advantages are real and substantial1 may be safely inferred from the habit of public orators in other professions1 and from the effects they are known to produce4 ,there is more nature1 more warmth in the declamation1 more earnestness in the address1 greater animation in the manner1 more of the lighting up of the soul in the countenance and whole mien1 more freedom and meaning in the gesture2 the eye speaks1 and the fingers speak1 and when the orator is so excited as to forget every thing but the matter on which his mind and feelings are acting1 the whole body is affected1 and helps to propagate his emotions to the hearer4 ,amidst all the exaggerated colouring of ,patrick ,henry's biographer1 there is doubtless enough that is true1 to prove a power in the spontaneous energy of an excited speaker1 superior in its effects to any thing that can be produced by writing4 ,something of the same sort has been witnessed by every one who is in the habit of attending in the courts of justice1 or the chambers of legislation4 ,and this1 not only in the instances of the most highly eloquent2 but inferior men are found thus to excite attention and produce effects1 which they never could have done by their pens4 ,in deliberative assemblies1 in senates and parliaments1 the larger portion of the speaking is necessarily unpremeditated2 perhaps the most eloquent is always so2 for it is elicited by the growing heat of debate2 it is the spontaneous combustion of the mind in the conflict of opinion4 ,chatham's speeches were not written1 nor ,sheridan's1 nor that of ,ames on the ,british treaty4 ,they were1 so far as regards their language and ornaments1 the effusions of the moment1 and derived from their freshness a power1 which no study could impart4 ,among the orations of ,cicero1 which are said to have made the greatest impression1 and to have best accomplished the orator's design1 are those delivered on unexpected emergencies1 which precluded the possibility of previous preparation4 ,such were his first invective against ,catiline1 and the speech which stilled the disturbances at the theatre4 ,in all these cases1 there can be no question of the advantages which the orators enjoyed in their ability to make use of the excitement of the occasion1 unchilled by the formality of studied preparation4 ,although possibly guilty of many rhetorical and logical faults1 yet these would be unobserved in the fervent and impassioned torrent1 which bore away the minds of the delighted auditors4 ,it is doubtless very true1 that a man of study and reflection1 accustomed deliberately to weigh every expression and analyze every sentence1 and to be influenced by nothing which does not bear the test of the severest examination1 may be most impressed by the quiet1 unpretending reading of a well digested essay or dissertation4 ,to some men the concisest statement of a subject1 with nothing to adorn the naked skeleton of thought1 is most forcible4 ,they are even impatient of any attempt to assist its effect by fine writing1 by emphasis1 tone1 or gesture4 ,they are like the mathematician1 who read the ,paradise ,lost without pleasure1 because he could not see that it proved any thing4 ,but we are not to judge from the taste of such men1 of what is suitable to affect the majority4 ,the multitude are not mere thinkers or great readers4 ,from their necessary habits they are incapable of following a long discussion except it be made inviting by the circumstances attending it1 or the manner of conducting it4 ,their attention must be excited and maintained by some external application4 ,to them1 ,action is eloquence1 and the eyes of the ignorant ,more learned than their ears4 ,it is a great fault with intellectual men1 that they do not make sufficient allowance for the different modes of education and habits of mind in men of other pursuits4 ,it is one of the infelicities of a university education1 that a man is there trained in a fictitious scene1 where there are interests1 associations1 feelings1 exceedingly diverse from what prevail in the society of the world2 and where he becomes so far separated from the habits and sympathies of other men1 as to need to acquire a new knowledge of them1 before he knows how to address them4 ,when a young man leaves the seclusion of a student's life to preach to his fellow-men1 he is likely to speak to them as if they were scholars4 ,he imagines them to be capable of appreciating the niceties of method and style1 and of being affected by the same sort of sentiment1 illustration1 and cool remark1 which affects those who have been accustomed to be moved and guided by the dumb and lifeless pages of a book4 ,he therefore talks to them calmly1 is more anxious for correctness than impression1 fears to make more noise or to have more motion than the very letters on his manuscript2 addressing himself1 as he thinks1 to the intellectual part of man2 forgetting that the intellectual man is not very easy of access1 that it is barred up1 and must be approached through the senses and affections and imagination4 ,there was a class of rhetoricians and orators at ,rome in the time of ,cicero1 who were famous for having made the same mistake4 ,they would do every thing by a fixed and almost mechanical rule1 by calculation and measurement4 ,their sentences were measured1 their gestures were measured1 their tones were measured2 and they framed canons of judgment and taste1 by which it was pronounced an affront on the intellectual nature of man to assail him with epithets1 and exclamations1 and varied tones1 and emphatic gesture4 ,they censured the free and flowing manner of ,cicero as tumid and exuberant1 nec satis pressus1 supra modum exultans et superfluens4 ,they cultivated a more guarded and concise style1 which might indeed please the critic or the scholar1 but was wholly unfitted to instruct or move a promiscuous audience2 as was said of one of them1 oratio--doctis et attente audientibus erat illustris2 a multitudine autem et a foro1 cui nata eloquentia est1 devorabatur4 ,the taste of the multitude prevailed1 and ,cicero was the admiration of the people1 while those who pruned themselves by a more rigid and philosophical law1 coldly correct and critically dull1 were frequently deserted by the audience in the midst of their harangues4#b #b ,middleton's ,life of ,cicero1 ,,iii4 #cbd4 ,we may learn something from this4 ,there is one mode of address for books and for classical readers1 and another for the mass of men1 who judge by the eye and ear1 by the fancy and feelings1 and know little of rules of art or of an educated taste4 ,hence it is that many of those preachers who have become the classics of a country1 have been unattractive to the multitude1 who have deserted their polished and careful composition1 for the more unrestrained and rousing declamation of another class4 ,the singular success of ,chalmers1 seems to be in a considerable measure owing to his attention to this fact4 ,he has abandoned the pure and measured style1 and adopted a heterogeneous mixture of the gaudy1 pompous1 and colloquial1 offensive indeed to the ears of literary men1 but highly acceptable to those who are less biassed by the authority of a standard taste and established models4 ,we need not go to the extreme of ,chalmers1--for there is no necessity for inaccuracy1 bombast1 or false taste--but we should doubtless gain by adopting his principle4 ,the object is to address men according to their actual character1 and in that mode in which their habits of mind may render them most accessible4 ,as but few are thinkers or readers1 a congregation is not to be addressed as such2 but1 their modes of life being remembered1 constant regard must be had to their need of external attraction4 ,this is most easily done by the familiarity and directness of extemporaneous address2 for which reason this mode of preaching has peculiar advantages1 in its adaptation to their situation and wants4 ,the truth is1 indeed1 that it is not the weight of the thought1 the profoundness of the argument1 the exactness of the arrangement1 the choiceness of the language1 which interest and chain the attention of even those educated hearers1 who are able to appreciate them all4 ,they are as likely to sleep through the whole as others4 ,they can find all these qualities in much higher perfection in their libraries2 they do not seek these only at church4 ,and as to the large mass of the people1 they are to them hidden things1 of which they discern nothing4 ,it is not these1 so much as the attraction of an earnest manner1 which arrests the attention and makes instruction welcome4 ,every day's observation may show us1 that he who has this manner will retain the attention of even an intellectual man with common-place thoughts1 while with a different manner he would render tedious the most novel and ingenious disquisitions4 ,let an indifferent reader take into the pulpit a sermon of ,barrow or ,butler1 and all its excellence of argument and eloquence would not save it from being accounted tedious2 while an empty declaimer shall collect crowds to hang upon his lips in raptures4 ,and this manner1 which is so attractive1 is not the studied artificial enunciation of the rhetorician's school1 but the free1 flowing1 animated utterance1 which seems to come from the impulse of the subject2 which may be full of faults1 yet masters the attention by its nature and sincerity4 ,this is precisely the manner of the extemporaneous speaker--in whom the countenance reflects the emotions of the soul1 and the tone of voice is tuned to the feelings of the heart1 rising and falling with the subject1 as in conversation1 without the regular and harmonious modulation of the practised reader4 ,in making these and similar remarks1 it is true that ,i am thinking of the best extemporaneous speakers1 and that all cannot be such4 ,but it ought to be recollected at the same time1 that all cannot be excellent readers2 that those who speak ill1 would probably read still worse2 and that therefore those who can attain to no eminence as speakers1 do not on that account fail of the advantages of which ,i speak1 since they escape at least the unnatural monotony of bad reading2 than which nothing is more earnestly to be avoided4 ,every man utters himself with greater animation and truer emphasis in speaking1 than he does1 or perhaps can do1 in reading4 ,hence it happens that we can listen longer to a tolerable speaker1 than to a good reader4 ,there is an indescribable something in the natural tones of him who is expressing earnestly his present thoughts1 altogether foreign from the drowsy uniformity of the man that reads4 ,i once heard it well observed1 that the least animated mode of communicating thoughts to others1 is the reading from a book the composition of another2 the next in order is the reading one's own composition2 the next is delivering one's own composition memoriter2 and the most animated of all is the uttering one's own thoughts as they rise fresh in his mind4 ,very few can give the spirit to another's writings which they communicate to their own1 or can read their own with the spirit1 with which they spontaneously express their thoughts4 ,we have all witnessed this in conversation2 when we have listened with interest to long harangues from persons1 who tire us at once if they begin to read4 ,it is verified at the bar1 and in the legislature1 where orators maintain the unflagging attention of hearers for a long period1 when they could not have read the same speech without producing intolerable fatigue4 ,it is equally verified in the history of the pulpit2 for those who are accustomed to the reading of sermons1 are for the most part impatient even of able discourses1 when they extend beyond the half hour's length2 while very indifferent extemporaneous preachers are listened to with unabated attention for a full hour4 ,in the former case there is a certain uniformity of tone1 and a perpetual recurrence of the same cadences1 inseparable from the manner of a reader1 from which the speaker remains longer free4 ,this difference is perfectly well understood1 and was acted upon by ,cecil1 whose success as a preacher gives him a right to be heard1 when he advised young preachers to limit a written sermon to half an hour1 and one from notes to forty minutes4#c ,for the same reason1 those preachers whose reading comes nearest to speaking1 are universally more interesting than others4 #c ,cecil's ,remains--a delightful little book4 ,thus it is evident that there is an attractiveness in this mode of preaching1 which gives it peculiar advantages4 ,he imparts greater interest to what he says1 who is governed by the impulse of the moment1 than he who speaks by rule4 ,when he feels the subject1 his voice and gesture correspond to that feeling1 and communicate it to others as it can be done in no other way4 ,though he possess but indifferent talents1 yet if he utter himself with sincerity and feeling1 it is far pleasanter than to listen to his cold reading of what he wrote perhaps with little excitement1 and delivers with less4 ,in thus speaking of the interest which attends an extemporaneous delivery1 it is not necessary to pursue the subject into a general comparison of the advantages of this mode with those of reading and of reciting from memory4 ,each has prevailed in different places and at different periods1 and each undoubtedly has advantages and disadvantages peculiar to itself4 ,these are well though briefly stated in the excellent article on ,elocution in ,rees' ,cyclopdia1 to which it will be sufficient to refer1 as worthy attentive perusal4 ,the question at large ,i cannot undertake to discuss4 ,if ,i should1 ,i could hardly hope to satisfy either others or myself4 ,the almost universal custom of reading in this part of the world1 where recitation from memory is scarcely known1 and extempore speaking is practised by very few except the illiterate1 forbids any thing like a fair deduction from observation4 ,in order to institute a just comparison1 one should have had extensive opportunities of watching the success of each mode1 and of knowing the circumstances under which each was tried4 ,for in the inquiry1 which is to be preferred in the pulpit1--we must consider1 not which has most excellencies when it is found in perfection1 but which has excellencies attainable by the largest number of preachers2 not which is first in theory or most beautiful as an art1 but which has been and is likely to be most successful in practice4 ,these are questions not easily answered4 ,each mode has its advocates and its opponents4 ,in the ,english church there is nothing but reading1 and we hear from every quarter complaints of it4 ,in ,scotland the custom of recitation prevails1 but multitudes besides ,dr4 ,campbell#d condemn it4 ,in many parts of the continent of ,europe no method is known1 but that of a brief preparation and unpremeditated language2 but that it should be universally approved by those who use it1 is more than we can suppose4 #d ,see his fourth ,lecture on ,pulpit ,eloquence4 ,the truth is1 that either method may fail in the hands of incompetent or indolent men1 and either may be thought to succeed by those whose taste or prejudices are obstinate in its favor4 ,all that ,i contend for1 in advocating unwritten discourse1 is1 that this method claims a decided superiority over the others in some of the most important particulars4 ,that the others have their own advantages1 ,i do not deny1 nor that this is subject to disadvantages from which they are free4 ,but whatever these may be ,i hope to show that they are susceptible of a remedy2 that they are not greater than those which attend other modes2 that they are balanced by equal advantages1 and that therefore this art deserves to be cultivated by all who would do their utmost to render their ministry useful4 ,there can be no good reason why the preacher should confine himself to either mode4 ,it might be most beneficial to cultivate and practise all4 ,by this means he might impart something of the advantages of each to each1 and correct the faults of all by mingling them with the excellencies of all4 ,he would learn to read with more of the natural accent of the speaker1 and to speak with more of the precision of the writer4 ,the remarks already made have been designed to point out some of the general advantages attending the use of unprepared language4 ,some others remain to be noticed1 which have more particular reference to the preacher individually4 ,it is no unimportant consideration to a minister of the gospel1 that this is a talent held in high estimation among men1 and that it gives additional influence to him who possesses it4 ,it is thought to argue capacity and greatness of mind4 ,fluency of language passes with many1 and those not always the vulgar1 for affluence of thought2 and never to be at a loss for something to say1 is supposed to indicate inexhaustible knowledge4 ,it cannot have escaped the observation of any one accustomed to notice the judgments which are passed upon men1 how much reputation and consequent influence are acquired by the power of speaking readily and boldly1 without any other considerable talent1 and with very indifferent acquisitions2 and how a man of real talents1 learning1 and worth1 has frequently sunk below his proper level1 from a mere awkwardness and embarrassment in speaking without preparation4 ,so that it is not simply superstition which leads so many to refuse the name of preaching to any but extemporaneous harangues2 it is in part owing to the natural propensity there is to admire1 as something wonderful and extraordinary1 this facility of speech4 ,it is undoubtedly a very erroneous standard of judgment4 ,but a minister of the gospel1 whose success in his important calling depends so much on his personal influence1 and the estimation in which his gifts are held1 can hardly be justified in slighting the cultivation of a talent1 which may so innocently add to his means of influence4 ,it must be remembered also1 that occasions will sometimes occur1 when the want of this power may expose him to mortification1 and deprive him of an opportunity of usefulness4 ,for such emergencies one would choose to be prepared4 ,it may be of consequence that he should express his opinion in an ecclesiastical council1 and give reasons for the adoption or rejection of important measures4 ,possibly he may be only required to state facts1 which have come to his knowledge4 ,it is very desirable to be able to do this readily1 fluently1 without embarrassment to himself1 and pleasantly to those who hear2 and in order to this1 a habit of speaking is necessary4 ,in the course of his ministrations also amongst his own people1 occasions will arise when an exhortation or address would be seasonable and useful1 but when there is no time for written preparation4 ,if then he have cultivated the art of extemporaneous speaking1 and attained to any degree of facility and confidence in it1 he may avail himself of the opportunity to do good1 which he must otherwise have passed by unimproved4 ,funerals and baptisms afford suitable occasions of making good religious impressions4 ,a sudden providence1 also1 on the very day of the sabbath may suggest most valuable topics of reflection and exhortation1 lost to him who is confined to what he may have previously written1 but choice treasure to him who can venture to speak without writing4 ,if it were only to avail himself of a few opportunities like these in the course of his life1 or to save himself but once the mortification of being silent when he ought to speak1 is expected to speak1 and would do good by speaking1 it would be well worth all the time and pains it might cost to acquire it4 ,it is a further advantage1 not to be forgotten here1 that the excitement of speaking in public strikes out new views of a subject1 new illustrations1 and unthought of figures and arguments1 which perhaps never would have presented themselves to the mind in retirement4 ,the warmth which animates him1 says ,fenelon1 gives birth to expressions and figures1 which he never could have prepared in his study4 ,he who feels himself safe in flying off from the path he has prescribed to himself1 without any fear lest he should fail to find his way back1 will readily seize upon these1 and be astonished at the new light which breaks in upon him as he goes on1 and flashes all around him4 ,this is according to the experience of all extemporaneous speakers4 ,the degree in which1 says ,thomas ,scott1#e who practised this method constantly1 after the most careful preparation for the pulpit1 new thoughts1 new arguments1 animated addresses1 often flow into my mind1 while speaking to a congregation1 even on very common subjects1 makes me feel as if ,i was quite another man than when poring over them in my study4 ,there will be inaccuracies2 but generally the most striking things in my sermons were unpremeditated4 #e ,life1 p4 #bfh4 ,then again1 the presence of the audience gives a greater seeming reality to the work2 it is less like doing a task1 and more like speaking to men1 than when one sits coolly writing at his table4 ,consequently there is likely to be greater plainness and directness in his exhortations1 more closeness in his appeals1 more of the earnestness of genuine feeling in his expostulations4 ,he ventures1 in the warmth of the moment1 to urge considerations1 which perhaps in the study seemed too familiar1 and to employ modes of address1 which are allowable in personal communion with a friend1 but which one hesitates to commit to writing1 lest he should infringe the dignity of deliberate composition4 ,this forgetfulness of self1 this unconstrained following the impulse of the affections1 while he is hurried on by the presence and attention of those whom he hopes to benefit1 creates a sympathy between him and his hearers1 a direct passage from heart to heart1 a mutual understanding of each other1 which does more to effect the true object of religious discourse1 than any thing else can do4 ,the preacher will1 in this way1 have the boldness to say many things which ought to be said1 but about which1 in his study1 he would feel reluctant and timid4 ,and granting that he might be led to say some things improperly1 yet if his mind be well disciplined1 and well governed1 and his discretion habitual1 he will do it exceedingly seldom2 while no one1 who estimates the object of preaching as highly as he should1 will think an occasional false step any objection against that mode which ensures upon the whole the greatest boldness and earnestness4 ,he will think it a less fault than the tameness and abstractness1 which are the besetting sins of deliberate composition4 ,at any rate1 what method is secure from occasional false steps8 ,another consideration which recommends this method to the attention of preachers1 though at the same time it indicates one of its difficulties1 is this2 that all men1 from various causes1 constitutional or accidental1 are subject to great inequality in the operations of their minds--sometimes laboring with felicity and sometimes failing4 ,perhaps this fact is in no men so observable as in preachers1 because no others are so much compelled to labor1 and exhibit their labors1 at all seasons1 favorable and unfavorable4 ,there is a certain quantity of the severest mental toil to be performed every week2 and as the mind cannot be always in the same frame1 they are constantly presenting proofs of the variation of their powers4 ,now an extemporaneous speaker is of course exposed to all this inequality of spirits1 and must expect to be sometimes mortified by ill success4 ,when the moment of speaking arrives1 his mind may be slow and dull1 his thoughts sluggish and impeded2 he may be exhausted by labor1 or suffering from temporary indisposition4 ,he strives in vain to rally his powers1 and forces his way1 with thorough discomfort and chagrin1 to the end of an unprofitable talk4 ,but then how many men write under the same embarrassments1 and are equally dissatisfied2 with the additional mortification of having spent a longer time1 and of being unable to give their poor preparation the interest of a forcible manner1 which the very distress of an extemporaneous effort would have imparted4 ,but on the other hand1 when his mind is bright and clear1 and his animal spirits lively1 he will speak much better after merely a suitable premeditation1 than he can possibly write4 ,there will be more point and vigor and animation1 than he could ever throw into writing4 ,every man1 says ,bishop ,burnet1 may thus rise far above what he could ever have attained in any other way4 ,we see proof of this in conversation4 ,when engaged in unrestrained and animated conversation with familiar friends1 who is not conscious of having struck out brighter thoughts and happier sayings1 than he ever put upon paper in the deliberate composition of the closet8 ,it is a common remark concerning many men1 that they pray much better than they preach4 ,the reason is1 that their sermons are made leisurely and sluggishly1 without excitement2 but in their public devotions they are strongly engaged1 and the mind acts with more concentration and vivacity4 ,the same thing has been observed in the art of music4 ,there have been organists1 whose abilities in unstudied effusions on their instruments have almost amounted to inspiration1 such as ,sebastian ,bach1 ,handel1 ,marchand1 ,couperin1 ,kelway1 ,stanley1 ,worgan1 and ,keeble2 several of whom played better music extempore1 than they could write with meditation4#f #f ,rees' ,cyclopdia4 ,it is upon no different principle that we explain1 what all scholars have experienced1 that they write best when they write rapidly1 from a full and excited mind4 ,one of ,pope's precepts is1 to write with fury and correct with phlegm4 ,the author of ,waverley tells us1 that the works and passages in which he has succeeded1 have uniformly been written with the greatest rapidity4 ,fenelon's ,telemachus is said to have been composed in this way1 and sent to the press with one single erasure in the manuscript4 ,the celebrated ,rockingham ,memorial at the commencement of the late war1 is said to have been the hasty composition of a single evening4 ,and it will be found true1 ,i believe1 of many of the best sermon writers1 that they revolve the subject till their minds are filled and warmed1 and then put their discourse upon paper at a single sitting4 ,now what is all this but extemporaneous writing8 and what does it require but a mind equally collected and at ease1 equally disciplined by practice1 and interested in the subject1 to ensure equal success in extemporaneous speaking8 ,nay1 we might anticipate occasional superior success2 since the thoughts sometimes flow1 when at the highest and most passionate excitement1 too rapidly and profusely for any thing slower than the tongue to afford them vent4 ,there is one more consideration in favor of the habit ,i recommend1 which ,i think cannot fail to have weight with all who are solicitous to make progress in theological knowledge2 namely1 that it redeems time for study4 ,the labor of preparing and committing to paper a sermon or two every week1 is one which necessarily occupies the principal part of a minister's time and thoughts1 and withdraws him from the investigation of many subjects1 which1 if his mind were more at leisure1 it would be his duty and pleasure to pursue4 ,he who writes sermons1 is ready to consider this as the chief object1 or perhaps the sole business of his life4 ,when not actually engaged in writing1 yet the necessity of doing it presses upon his mind1 and so binds him as to make him feel as if he were wrong in being employed on any thing else4 ,i speak of the tendency1 which certainly is to prevent a man from pursuing1 very extensively1 any profitable study4 ,but if he have acquired that ready command of thought and language1 which will enable him to speak without written preparation1 the time and toil of writing are saved1 to be devoted to a different mode of study4 ,he may prepare his discourses at intervals of leisure1 while walking or riding2 and having once arranged the outlines of the subject1 and ascertained its principle bearings and applications1 the work of preparation is over4 ,the language remains to be suggested at the moment4 ,i do not mean by this1 that preparation for the pulpit should ever be made slightly1 or esteemed an object of small importance4 ,it doubtless demands1 and should receive the best of a man's talents and labors4 ,what ,i contend for is1 that a habit of mind may be acquired1 which shall enable one to make a better and more thorough preparation at less expense of labor and time4 ,he may acquire1 by discipline1 that ease and promptitude of looking into subjects and bringing out their prominent features1 which shall enable him at a glance1 as it were1 to seize the points on which he should enlarge4 ,some minds are so constituted as to look a subject into shape much more readily than others4 ,but the power of doing it is in a great measure mechanical1 and depends upon habit4 ,all may acquire it to a certain extent4 ,when the mind works with most concentration1 it works at once most quickly and most surely4 ,now the act of extempore speaking favors this concentration of the powers1 more than the slower process of leisurely writing--perhaps more than any other operation2 consequently1 it increases1 with practice1 the facility of dissecting subjects1 and of arranging materials for preaching4 ,in other words1 the completeness with which a subject is viewed and its parts arranged1 does not depend so much on the time spent upon it1 as on the vigor with which the attention is applied to it4 ,that course of study is the best1 which most favors this vigor of attention2 and the habit of extemporaneous speaking is more than any thing favorable to it1 from the necessity which it imposes of applying the mind with energy1 and thinking promptly4 ,the great danger in this case would be1 that of substituting an easy flow of words for good sense and sober reflection1 and becoming satisfied with very superficial thoughts4 ,but this danger is guarded against by the habit of study1 and of writing for other purposes4 ,if a man should neglect all mental exertion1 except so far as would be required in the meditation of a sermon1 it would be ruinous4 ,we witness its disastrous effects in the empty wordiness of many extemporaneous preachers4 ,it is wrong however to argue against the practice itself1 from their example2 for all other modes would be equally condemned1 if judged by the ill success of indolent and unfaithful men4 ,the minister must keep himself occupied1--reading1 thinking1 investigating2 thus having his mind always awake and active4 ,this is a far better preparation than the bare writing of sermons1 for it exercises the powers more1 and keeps them bright4 ,the great master of ,roman eloquence thought it essential to the true orator1 that he should be familiar with all sciences1 and have his mind filled with every variety of knowledge4 ,he therefore1 much as he studied his favorite art1 yet occupied more time in literature1 philosophy1 and politics1 than in the composition of his speeches4 ,his preparation was less particular than general4 ,so it has been with other eminent speakers4 ,when ,sir ,samuel ,romilly was in full practice in the ,high ,court of ,chancery1 and at the same time overwhelmed with the pressure of public political concerns2 his custom was to enter the court1 to receive there the history of the cause he was to plead1 thus to acquaint himself with the circumstances for the first time1 and forthwith proceed to argue it4 ,his general preparation and long practice enabled him to do this1 without failing in justice to his cause4 ,i do not know that in this he was singular4 ,the same sort of preparation would ensure success in the pulpit4 ,he who is always thinking1 may expend upon each individual effort less time1 because he can think at once fast and well4 ,but he who never thinks1 except when attempting to manufacture a sermon 7and it is to be feared there are such men71 must devote a great deal of time to this labor exclusively2 and after all1 he will not have that wide range of thought or copiousness of illustration1 which his office demands and which study only can give4 ,in fact1 what ,i have here insisted upon1 is exemplified in the case of the extemporaneous writers1 whom ,i have already named4 ,i would only carry their practice a step further1 and devote an hour to a discourse instead of a day4 ,not to all discourses1 for some ought to be written for the sake of writing1 and some demand a sort of investigation1 to which the use of the pen is essential4 ,but then a very large proportion of the topics on which a minister should preach1 have been subjects of his attention a thousand times4 ,he is thoroughly familiar with them2 and an hour to arrange his ideas and collect illustrations1 is abundantly sufficient4 ,the late ,thomas ,scott is said for years to have prepared his discourses entirely by meditation on the ,sunday1 and thus gained leisure for his extensive studies1 and great and various labors4 ,this is an extreme on which few have a right to venture1 and which should be recommended to none4 ,it shows1 however1 the power of habit1 and the ability of a mind to act promptly and effectually1 which is kept upon the alert by constant occupation4 ,he who is always engaged in thinking and studying1 will always have thoughts enough for a sermon1 and good ones too1 which will come at an hour's warning4 ,the objections which may be made to the practice ,i have sought to recommend1 ,i must leave to be considered in another place4 ,i am desirous1 in concluding this chapter1 to add the favorable testimony of a writer1 who expressly disapproves the practice in general1 but who allows its excellence when accompanied by that preparation which ,i would every where imply4 ,you are accustomed1 says ,dinouart1#g to the careful study and imitation of nature4 ,you have used yourself to writing and speaking with care on different subjects1 and have well stored your memory by reading4 ,you thus have provided resources for speaking1 which are always at hand4 ,the best authors and the best thoughts are familiar to you2 you can readily quote the scriptures1 you express yourself easily and gracefully1 you have a sound and correct judgment on which you can depend1 method and precision in the arrangement of proofs2 you can readily connect each part by natural transitions1 and are able to say all that belongs1 and precisely what belongs to the subject4 ,you may then take only a day1 or only an hour1 to reflect on your subject1 to arrange your topics1 to consult your memory1 to choose and to prepare your illustrations1--and then1 appear in public4 ,i am perfectly willing that you should4 ,the common expressions which go to make up the body of the discourse1 will present themselves spontaneously4 ,your periods1 perhaps1 will be less harmonious1 your transitions less ingenious1 an ill placed word will sometimes escape you2 but all this is pardonable4 ,the animation of your delivery will compensate for these blemishes1 and you will be master of your own feelings1 and those of your hearers4 ,there will1 perhaps1 be apparent throughout a certain disorder1 but it will not prevent your pleasing and affecting me2 your action as well as your words will appear to me the more natural4 #g ,sur l',eloquence du ,corps1 ou ,l',action du ,prdicateur4 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,against what has been advanced in the preceding pages1 many objections will be urged1 and the evils of the practice ,i recommend be declared more than sufficient to counterbalance its advantages4 ,of these it is necessary that ,i should now take notice1 and obviate them as well as ,i may4 ,it should be first of all remarked1 that the force of the objections commonly made1 lies against the exclusive use of extempore preaching1 and not against its partial and occasional use4 ,it is of consequence that this should be considered4 ,there can be no doubt1 that he would preach very wretchedly1 who should always be haranguing without the corrective discipline of writing4 ,the habit of writing is essential4 ,many of the objections which are currently made to this mode of address1 fall to the ground when this statement is made4 ,other objections have been founded on the idea1 that by extemporaneous is meant1 unpremeditated4 ,whereas there is a plain and important distinction between them1 the latter word being applied to the thoughts1 and the former to the language only4 ,to preach without premeditation1 is altogether unjustifiable2 although there is no doubt that a man of habitual readiness of mind1 may express himself to the greatest advantage on a subject with which he is familiar1 after very little meditation4 ,many writers on the art of preaching1 as well as on eloquence in general1 have given a decided judgment unfavorable to extempore speaking4 ,there can be no fairer way of answering their objections1 than by examining what they have advanced1 and opposing their authority by that of equal names on the other side4 ,gerard1 in his ,treatise on the ,pastoral ,charge1 has the following passage on this subject4 ,he will run into trite1 common-place topics2 his compositions will be loose and unconnected2 his language often coarse and confused2 and diffidence1 or care to recollect his subject1 will destroy the management of his voice4 ,at the same time1 however1 he admits that it is very proper that a man should be able to preach in this way1 when it is necessary2--but no man ought always to preach in this way4 ,to which decision ,i have certainly nothing to object4 ,mason1 in his ,student and ,pastor1 says to the same effect1 that the inaccuracy of diction1 the inelegance1 poverty1 and lowness of expression1 which is commonly observed in extempore discourses1 will not fail to offend every hearer of good taste4 ,dinouart1#h who is an advocate for recitation from memory1 says that experience decides against extemporaneous preaching1 though there are exceptions2 but these are very few2 and we must not be led astray by the success of a few first rate orators4 #h ,sur l',eloquence du ,corps1 ou l',action du ,prdicateur4 ,hume1 in his ,essay upon ,eloquence1 expresses an opinion that the modern deficiency in this art is to be attributed to that extreme affectation of extempore speaking1 which has led to extreme carelessness of method4 ,the writer of an article1 on the ,greek ,orators1 in the ,edinburgh ,review1#i observes1 that among the sources of the corruption of modern eloquence1 may clearly be distinguished as the most fruitful1 the habit of extempore speaking1 acquired rapidly by persons who frequent popular assemblies1 and1 beginning at the wrong end1 attempt to speak before they have studied the art of oratory1 or even duly stored their minds with the treasures of thought and language1 which can only be drawn from assiduous intercourse with the ancient and modern classics4 #i ,no4 ,,lxxi4 p4 #hb4 ,these are the prominent objections which have been made to the practice in question4 ,without denying that they have weight1 ,i think it may be made to appear that they have not the unquestionable preponderance1 which is assumed for them4 ,they will be found1 on examination1 to be the objections of a cultivated taste1 and to be drawn from the examples of undisciplined men1 who ought to be left entirely out of the question4 #a4 ,the objection most urged is that which relates to style4 ,it is said1 the expression will be poor1 inelegant1 inaccurate1 and offensive to hearers of taste4 ,to those who urge this it may be replied1 that the reason why style is an important consideration in the pulpit1 is1 not that the taste of the hearers may be gratified1 for but a small part of any congregation is capable of taking cognizance of this matter2--but solely for the purpose of presenting the speaker's thoughts1 reasonings1 and expostulations distinctly and forcibly to the minds of his hearers4 ,if this be effected1 it is all which can reasonably be demanded4 ,and ,i ask if it be not notorious1 that an earnest and appropriate elocution will give this effect to a poor style1 and that poor speaking will take it away from the most exact and emphatic style8 ,is it not also notorious that the peculiar earnestness of spontaneous speech1 is1 above all others1 suited to arrest the attention1 and engage the feelings of an audience8 and that the mere reading of a piece of fine composition1 under the notion that careful thought and finished diction are the only things needful1 leaves the majority uninterested in the discourse1 and free to think of any thing they please8 ,it is a poor compliment1 says ,blair1 that one is an accurate reasoner1 if he be not a persuasive speaker also4 ,it is a small matter that the style is poor1 so long as it answers the great purpose of instructing and affecting men4 ,so that1 as ,i have more fully shown in a former place1 the objection lies on an erroneous foundation4 ,besides1 if it were not so1 it will be found quite as strong against the writing of sermons4 ,for how large a proportion of sermon writers have these very same faults of style6 what a great want of force1 neatness1 compactness1 is there in the composition of most preachers6 what weakness1 inelegance1 and inconclusiveness2 and how small improvement do they make1 even after the practice of years6 ,how happens this8 ,it is because they do not make this an object of attention and study2 and some might be unable to attain it if they did4 ,but that watchfulness and care which secure a correct and neat style in writing1 would also secure it in speaking4 ,it does not naturally belong to the one1 more than to the other1 and may be as certainly attained in each by the proper pains4 ,indeed so far as my observation has extended1 ,i am not certain that there is not as large a proportion of extempore speakers1 whose diction is exact and unexceptionable1 as of writers--always taking into view their education1 which equally affects the one and the other4 ,and it is a consideration of great weight1 that the faults in question are far less offensive in speakers than in writers4 ,it is apparent that objectors of this sort are guilty of a double mistake2 first1 in laying too great stress upon mere defects of style1 and then in taking for granted1 that these are unavoidable4 ,they might as well insist that defects of written style are unavoidable4 ,whereas they are the consequence of the negligent mode in which the art has been studied1 and its having been given up1 for the most part1 to ignorant and fanatical pretenders4 ,let it be diligently cultivated by educated men1 and we shall find no more cause to expel it from the pulpit than from the forum or the parliament4 ,poverty1 inelegance1 and poorness of diction1 will be no longer so generally observed1 and even hearers of taste will cease to be offended4 #b4 ,a want of order1 a rambling1 unconnected1 desultory manner1 is commonly objected2 as ,hume styles it1 extreme carelessness of method2 and this is so often observed1 as to be justly an object of dread4 ,but this is occasioned by that indolence and want of discipline to which we have just alluded4 ,it is not a necessary evil4 ,if a man have never studied the art of speaking1 nor passed through a course of preparatory discipline2 if he have so rash and unjustifiable a confidence in himself1 that he will undertake to speak1 without having considered what he shall say1 what object he shall aim at1 or by what steps he shall attain it2 the inevitable consequence will be confusion1 inconclusiveness1 and wandering4 ,who recommends such a course8 ,but he who has first trained himself to the work1 and whenever he would speak1 has surveyed his ground1 and become familiar with the points to be dwelt upon1 and the course of reasoning and track of thought to be followed2 will go on from one step to another1 in an easy and natural order1 and give no occasion to the complaint of confusion or disarrangement4 ,some preachers1 says ,dinouart1 have the folly to think that they can make sermons impromptu4 ,and what a piece of work they make6 ,they bolt out every thing which comes into their head4 ,they take for granted1 what ought to be proved1 or perhaps they state half the argument1 and forget the rest4 ,their appearance corresponds to the state of their mind1 which is occupied in hunting after some way of finishing the sentence they have begun4 ,they repeat themselves2 they wander off in digression4 ,they stand stiff without moving2 or if they are of a lively temperament1 they are full of the most turbulent action2 their eyes and hands are flying about in every direction1 and their words choke in their throats4 ,they are like men swimming1 who have got frightened1 and throw about their hands and feet at random1 to save themselves from drowning4 ,there is doubtless great truth in this humorous description4 ,but what is the legitimate inference8 that extemporaneous speaking is altogether ridiculous and mischievous8 or only that it is an art which requires study and diligence1 and which no man should presume to practice1 until he has fitted himself for it8 #c4 ,in the same way ,i should dispose of the objection1 that this habit leads to barrenness in preaching1 and the everlasting repetition of the same sentiments and topics4 ,if a man make his facility of speech an excuse for the neglect of all study1 then doubtless this will be the result4 ,he who cannot resist his indolent propensities1 had best avoid this occasion of temptation4 ,he must be able to command himself to think1 and industriously prepare himself by meditation1 if he would be safe in this hazardous experiment4 ,he who does this1 and continues to learn and reflect while he preaches1 will be no more empty and monotonous than if he carefully wrote every word4 #d4 ,but this temptation to indolence in the preparation for the desk1 is urged as in itself a decisive objection4 ,a man finds1 that after a little practice1 it is an exceedingly easy thing to fill up his half-hour with declamation which shall pass off very well1 and hence he grows negligent in previous meditation2 and insensibly degenerates into an empty exhorter1 without choice of language1 or variety of ideas4 ,this is undoubtedly the great and alarming danger of this practice4 ,this must be triumphed over1 or it is ruinous4 ,we see examples of it wherever we look among those whose preaching is exclusively extempore4 ,in these cases1 the evil rises to its magnitude in consequence of their total neglect of the pen4 ,the habit of writing a certain proportion of the time would1 in some measure1 counteract this dangerous tendency4 ,but it is still insisted1 that man's natural love of ease is not to be trusted2 that he will not long continue the drudgery of writing in part2 that when he has once gained confidence to speak without study1 he will find it so flattering to his indolence1 that he will involuntarily give himself up to it1 and relinquish the pen altogether2 that consequently there is no security1 except in never beginning4 ,to this it may be replied1 that they who have not principle and self-government enough to keep them industrious1 will not be kept so by being compelled to write sermons4 ,i think we have abundant proof1 that a man may write with as little pains and thinking1 as he can speak4 ,it by no means follows1 that because it is on paper1 it is therefore the result of study4 ,and if it be not1 it will be greatly inferior1 in point of effect1 to an unpremeditated declamation2 for in the latter case1 there will probably be at least a temporary excitement of feeling1 and consequent vivacity of manner1 while in the former the indolence of the writer will be made doubly intolerable by his heaviness in reading4 ,it cannot be doubted1 however1 that if any one find his facility of extemporaneous invention1 likely to prove destructive to his habits of diligent and careful application2 it were advisable that he refrain from the practice4 ,it could not be worth while for him to lose his habits of study and thinking for the sake of an ability to speak1 which would avail him but little1 after his ability to think has been weakened or destroyed4 ,as for those whose indolence habitually prevails over principle1 and who make no preparation for duty excepting the mechanical one of covering over a certain number of pages1--they have no concern in the ministry1 and should be driven to seek some other employment1 where their mechanical labor may provide them a livelihood1 without injuring their own souls1 or those of other men4 ,if the objection in question be applied to conscientious men1 whose hearts are in their profession1 and who have a sincere desire to do good1 it certainly has very little weight4 ,the minds of such men are kept active with reflection1 and stored with knowledge1 and warm with religious feeling4 ,they are therefore always ready to speak to the purpose1 as well as write to the purpose2 and their habitual sense of the importance of their office1 and their anxiety to fulfil it in the best manner1 will forbid that indolence which is so disastrous4 ,the objection implies1 that the consequence pointed out is one which cannot be avoided4 ,experience teaches us the contrary4 ,it is the tendency--but a tendency which may be1 for it has been1 counteracted4 ,many have preached in this mode for years1 and yet have never relaxed their diligence in study1 nor declined in the variety1 vigor1 and interest of their discourses2--sometimes dull1 undoubtedly2 but this may be said with equal truth of the most faithful and laborious writers4 #e4 ,many suppose that there is a certain natural talent1 essential to success in extempore speaking1 no less than in poetry2 and that it is absurd to recommend the art to those who have not this peculiar talent1 and vain for them to attempt its practice4 ,in regard to that ready flow of words1 which seems to be the natural gift of some men1 it is of little consequence whether it be really such1 or be owing to the education and habits of early life1 and vain self-confidence4 ,it is certain that the want of habit1 and diffidence are great hindrances to fluency of speech2 and it is equally certain1 that this natural fluency is a very questionable advantage to him who would be an impressive speaker4 ,it is quite observable that those who at first talk easiest1 do not always talk best4 ,their very facility is a snare to them4 ,it serves to keep them content2 they make no effort to improve1 and are likely to fall into slovenly habits of elocution4 ,so that this unacquired fluency is so far from essential1 that it is not even a benefit1 and it may be an injury4 ,it keeps from final eminence by the very greatness of its early promise4 ,on the other hand1 he who possesses originally no remarkable command of language1 and whom an unfortunate bashfulness prevents from well using what he has2 is obliged to subject himself to severe discipline1 to submit to rules and tasks1 to go through a tedious process of training1 to acquire by much labor the needful sway over his thoughts and words1 so that they shall come at his bidding1 and not be driven away by his own diffidence1 or the presence of other men4 ,to do all this1 is a long and disheartening labor4 ,he is exposed to frequent mortifications1 and must endure many grievous failures1 before he attain that confidence which is indispensable to success4 ,but then in this discipline1 his powers1 mental and moral1 are strained up to the highest intenseness of action2 after persevering practice1 they become habitually subject to his control1 and work with a precision1 exactness1 and energy1 which can never be the possession of him1 who has depended on his native1 undisciplined gift4 ,of the truth of this1 examples are by no means wanting1 and ,i could name1 if it were proper1 more than one striking instance within my own observation4 ,it was probably this to which ,newton referred1 when he said1 that he never spoke well till he felt that he could not speak at all4 ,let no one therefore think it an obstacle in his way that he has no readiness of words4 ,if he have good sense and no deficiency of talent1 and is willing to labor for this as all great acquisitions must be labored for1 he needs not fear but that in time he will attain it4 ,we must be careful1 however1 not to mistake the object to be attained4 ,it is not a high rank in oratory1 consummate eloquence4 ,if it were1 then indeed a young man might pause till he had ascertained whether he possessed all those extraordinary endowments of intellect1 imagination1 sensibility1 countenance1 voice1 and person1 which belong to few men in a century1 and without which the great orator does not exist4 ,he is one of those splendid formations of nature1 which she exhibits but rarely2 and it is not necessary to the object of his pursuit that the minister be such4 ,the aim and purpose of his office are less ambitious1 to impart instruction and do good2 and it is by no means certain that the greatest eloquence is best adapted to these purposes in the pulpit4 ,but any man1 with powers which fit him for the ministry at all1--unless there be a few extraordinary exceptions--is capable of learning to express himself clearly1 correctly1 and with method2 and this is precisely what is wanted1 and no more than this4 ,i do not say eloquently2 for as it is not thought indispensable that every writer of sermons should be eloquent1 it cannot be thought essential that every speaker should be so4 ,but the same powers which have enabled him to write1 will1 with sufficient discipline1 enable him to speak2 with every probability that when he comes to speak with the same ease and collectedness1 he will do it with a nearer approach to eloquence4 ,without such discipline he has no right to hope for success2 let him not say that success is impossible1 until he has submitted to it4 ,i apprehend that these remarks will be found not only correct in theory1 but agreeable to experience4 ,with the exceeding little systematic cultivation of the art which there is amongst us1 and no actual instruction1 we find that a great majority of the lawyers in our courts1 and not a small portion of the members of our legislatures1 are able to argue and debate4 ,in some of the most popular and quite numerous religious sects1 we find preachers enough1 who are able to communicate their thoughts and harangue their congregations1 and exert very powerful and permanent influence over large bodies of the people4 ,some of these are men of as small natural talents and as limited education1 as any that enter the sacred office4 ,it should seem therefore that no one needs to despair4 ,in the ancient republics of ,greece and ,rome1 this accomplishment was a necessary branch of a finished education4 ,a much smaller proportion of the citizens were educated than amongst us2 but of these a much larger number became orators4 ,no man could hope for distinction or influence1 and yet slight this art4#aj ,the commanders of their armies were orators as well as soldiers1 and ruled as well by their rhetorical as by their military skill4 ,there was no trusting with them as with us1 to a natural facility1 or the acquisition of an accidental fluency by actual practice4 ,but they served an apprenticeship to the art4 ,they passed through a regular course of instruction in schools4 ,they submitted to long and laborious discipline4 ,they exercised themselves frequently1 both before equals and in the presence of teachers1 who criticised1 reproved1 rebuked1 excited emulation1 and left nothing undone which art and perseverance could accomplish4 ,the greatest orators of antiquity1 so far from being favored by natural tendencies1 except indeed in their high intellectual endowments1 had to struggle against natural obstacles2 and instead of growing up spontaneously to their unrivalled eminence1 they forced themselves forward by the most discouraging artificial process4 ,demosthenes combated an impediment in speech and ungainliness of gesture1 which at first drove him from the forum in disgrace4 ,cicero failed at first through weakness of lungs1 and an excessive vehemence of manner1 which wearied the hearers and defeated his own purpose4 ,these defects were conquered by study and discipline4 ,cicero exiled himself from home1 and during his absence in various lands passed not a day without a rhetorical exercise2 seeking the masters who were most severe in criticism1 as the surest means of leading him to the perfection at which he aimed4 ,such too was the education of their other great men4 ,they were all1 according to their ability and station1 orators2 orators1 not by nature or accident1 but by education2 formed in a strict process of rhetorical training2 admired and followed even while ,demosthenes and ,cicero were living1 and unknown now1 only because it is not possible that any but the first should survive the ordeal of ages4 #aj ,it is often said that extemporaneous speaking is the distinction of modern eloquence4 ,but the whole language of ,cicero's rhetorical works1 as well as particular terms in common use1 and anecdotes recorded of different speakers1 prove the contrary2 not to mention ,quinctilian's express instructions on the subject4 ,hume1 also1 tells us from ,suidas1 that the writing of speeches was unknown until the time of ,pericles4 ,the inference to be drawn from these observations1 is1 that if so many of those who received an accomplished education became accomplished orators1 because to become so was one purpose of their study2 then it is in the power of a much larger proportion amongst us1 to form themselves into creditable and accurate speakers4 ,the inference should not be denied until proved false by experiment4 ,let this art be made an object of attention1 and young men train themselves to it faithfully and long2 and if any of competent talents and tolerable science be found at last incapable of expressing themselves in continued and connected discourse1 so as to answer the ends of the christian ministry2 then1 and not till then1 let it be said that a peculiar talent or natural aptitude is requisite1 the want of which must render effort vain2 then1 and not till then1 let us acquiesce in this indolent and timorous notion1 which contradicts the whole testimony of antiquity1 and all the experience of the world4 ,doubtless1 after the most that can be done1 there will be found the greatest variety of attainment2 men will differ1 as ,burnet remarks1 quite as much as in their written compositions2 and some will do but poorly what others will do excellently4 ,but this is likewise true of every other art in which men engage1 and not least so of writing sermons2 concerning which no one will say1 that as poor are not written1 as it would be possible for any one to speak4 ,in truth1 men of small talents and great sluggishness1 of a feeble sense of duty and no zeal1 will of course make poor sermons1 by whatever process they may do it1 let them write or let them speak4 ,it is doubtful concerning some whether they would even steal good ones4 ,the survey we have now taken1 renders it evident1 that the evils1 which are principally objected against as attending this mode of preaching1 are not necessary evils1 but are owing to insufficient study and preparation before the practice is commenced1 and indolence afterward4 ,this is implied in the very expressions of the objectors themselves1 who attribute the evil to beginning at the wrong end1 attempting to speak before studying the art of oratory1 or even storing the mind with treasures of thought and language4 ,it is1 also1 implied in this language1 that study and preparation are capable of removing the objections4 ,i do not therefore advocate the art1 without insisting on the necessity of severe discipline and training4 ,no man should be encouraged or permitted to adopt it1 who will not take the necessary pains1 and proceed with the necessary perseverance4 ,this should be the more earnestly insisted upon1 because it is from our loose and lazy notions on the subject1 that eloquence in every department is suffering so much1 and that the pulpit especially has become so powerless1 where the most important things that receive utterance upon earth1 are read like schoolboys' tasks1 without even the poor pains to lay emphasis on the right words1 and to pause in the right places4 ,and this1 because we fancy that1 if nature have not designed us for orators1 it is vain to make effort1 and if she have1 we shall be such without effort4 ,true1 that the noble gifts of mind are from nature2 but not language1 or knowledge1 or accent1 or tone1 or gesture2 these are to be learned1 and it is with these that the speaker is concerned4 ,these are all matters of acquisition1 and of difficult acquisition2 possible to be attained1 and well worth the exertion that must be made4 ,the history of the world is full of testimony to prove how much depends upon industry2 not an eminent orator has lived1 but is an example of it4 ,yet in contradiction to all this1 the almost universal feeling appears to be1 that industry can effect nothing1 that eminence is the result of accident1 and that every one must be content to remain just what he may happen to be4 ,thus multitudes1 who come forward as teachers and guides1 suffer themselves to be satisfied with the most indifferent attainments1 and a miserable mediocrity1 without so much as inquiring how they might rise higher1 much less making any attempt to rise4 ,for any other art they would have served an apprenticeship1 and would be ashamed to practise it in public before they had learned it4 ,if any one would sing1 he attends a master1 and is drilled in the very elementary principles2 and only after the most laborious process dares to exercise his voice in public4 ,this he does1 though he has scarce any thing to learn but the mechanical execution of what lies in sensible forms before his eye4 ,but the extempore speaker1 who is to invent as well as to utter1 to carry on an operation of the mind as well as to produce sound1 enters upon the work without preparatory discipline1 and then wonders that he fails6 ,if he were learning to play on the flute for public exhibition1 what hours and days would he spend in giving facility to his fingers1 and attaining the power of the sweetest and most impressive execution4 ,if he were devoting himself to the organ1 what months and years would he labor1 that he might know its compass1 and be master of its keys1 and be able to draw out1 at will1 all its various combinations of harmonious sound1 and its full richness and delicacy of expression4 ,and yet he will fancy that the grandest1 the most various1 the most expressive of all instruments1 which the infinite ,creator has fashioned by the union of an intellectual soul with the powers of speech1 may be played upon without study or practice2 he comes to it1 a mere uninstructed tyro1 and thinks to manage all its stops1 and command the whole compass of its varied and comprehensive power6 ,he finds himself a bungler in the attempt1 is mortified at his failure1 and settles it in his mind forever that the attempt is vain4 ,success in every art1 whatever may be the natural talent1 is always the reward of industry and pains4 ,but the instances are many of men of the finest natural genius1 whose beginning has promised much1 but who have degenerated wretchedly as they advanced1 because they trusted to their gifts1 and made no effort to improve4 ,that there have never been other men of equal endowments with ,demosthenes and ,cicero1 none would venture to suppose2 but who have so devoted themselves to their art1 or become equal in excellence8 ,if those great men had been content1 like others1 to continue as they began1 and had never made their persevering efforts for improvement1 what would their countries have benefited from their genius1 or the world have known of their fame8 ,they would have been lost in the undistinguished crowd1 that sunk to oblivion around them4 ,of how many more will the same remark prove true6 ,what encouragement is thus given to the industrious6 ,with such encouragement1 how inexcusable is the negligence which suffers the most interesting and important truths1 to seem heavy and dull1 and fall ineffectual to the ground1 through mere sluggishness in their delivery6 ,how unworthy of one who performs the high function of a religious instructer1 upon whom depend1 in a great measure1 the religious knowledge and devotional sentiment and final character of many fellow beings1--to imagine that he can worthily discharge this great concern by occasionally talking for an hour1 he knows not how1 and in a manner which he has taken no pains to render correct1 impressive1 or attractive2 and which1 simply through want of that command over himself which study would give1 is immethodical1 verbose1 inaccurate1 feeble1 trifling4 ,it has been said of the good preacher1 that truths divine come mended from his tongue4 ,alas1 they come ruined and worthless from such a man as this4 ,they lose that holy energy by which they are to convert the soul and purify man for heaven1 and sink1 in interest and efficacy1 below the level of those principles which govern the ordinary affairs of this lower world4 ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,the observations contained in the preceding chapter make it sufficiently evident1 that the art of extemporaneous speaking1 however advantageous to the christian minister1 and however possible to be acquired1 is yet attended with embarrassments and difficulties1 which are to be removed only by long and arduous labor4 ,it is not enough1 however1 to insist upon the necessity of this discipline4 ,we must know in what it consists1 and how it is to be conducted4 ,in completing1 therefore1 the plan ,i have proposed to myself1 ,i am now to give a few hints respecting the mode in which the study is to be carried on1 and obstacles to be surmounted4 ,these hints1 gathered partly from experience and partly from observation and books1 will be necessarily incomplete2 but not1 it is hoped1 altogether useless to those who are asking some direction4 #a4 ,the first thing to be observed is1 that the student who would acquire facility in this art1 should bear it constantly in mind1 and have regard to it in all his studies1 and in his whole mode of study4 ,the reason is very obvious4 ,he that would become eminent in any pursuit1 must make it the primary and almost exclusive object of his attention4 ,it must never be long absent from his thoughts1 and he must be contriving how to promote it1 in every thing he undertakes4 ,it is thus that the miser accumulates1 by making the most trifling occurrences the occasions of gain2 and thus the ambitious man is on the alert to forward his purposes of advancement by little events which another would pass unobserved4 ,so too he1 the business of whose life is preaching1 should be on the watch to render every thing subservient to this end4 ,the inquiry should always be1 how he can turn the knowledge he is acquiring1 the subject he is studying1 this mode of reasoning1 this event1 this conversation1 and the conduct of this or that man1 to aid the purposes of religious instruction4 ,he may find an example in the manner in which ,pope pursued his favorite study4 ,from his attention to poetry1 says ,johnson1 he was never diverted4 ,if conversation offered any thing that could be improved1 he committed it to paper2 if a thought1 or perhaps an expression more happy than was common1 rose to his mind1 he was careful to write it2 an independent distich was preserved for an opportunity of insertion1 and some little fragments have been found containing lines1 or parts of lines1 to be wrought upon at some other time4 ,by a like habitual and vigilant attention1 the preacher will find scarce any thing but may be made to minister to his great design1 by either giving rise to some new train of thought1 or suggesting an argument1 or placing some truth in a new light1 or furnishing some useful illustration4 ,thus none of his reading will be lost2 every poem and play1 every treatise on science1 and speculation in philosophy1 and even every ephemeral tale may be made to give hints toward the better management of sermons and the more effectual proposing and communicating of truth4 ,he who proposes to himself the art of extemporaneous speaking should thus have constant regard to this particular object1 and make every thing co-operate to form those habits of mind which are essential to it4 ,this may be done not only without any hindrance to the progress of his other studies1 but even so as to promote them4 ,the most important requisites are rapid thinking1 and ready command of language4 ,by rapid thinking ,i mean1 what has already been spoken of1 the power of seizing at once upon the most prominent points of the subject to be discussed1 and tracing out1 in their proper order1 the subordinate thoughts which connect them together4 ,this power depends very much upon habit2 a habit more easily acquired by some minds than by others1 and by some with great difficulty4 ,but there are few who1 should they have a view to the formation of such a habit in all their studies1 might not attain it in a degree quite adequate to their purpose4 ,this is much more indisputably true in regard to fluency of language4 ,let it1 therefore1 be a part of his daily care to analyze the subjects which come before him1 and to frame sketches of sermons4 ,this will aid him to acquire a facility in laying open1 dividing1 and arranging topics1 and preparing those outlines which he is to take with him into the pulpit4 ,let him also investigate carefully the method of every author he reads1 marking the divisions of his arrangement1 and the connexion and train of his reasoning4 ,butler's preface to his ,sermons will afford him some fine hints on this way of study4 ,let this be his habitual mode of reading1 so that he shall as much do this1 as receive the meaning of separate sentences1 and shall be always able to give a better account of the progress of the argument and the relation of every part to the others and to the whole1 than of merely individual passages and separate illustrations4 ,this will infallibly beget a readiness in finding the divisions and boundaries of a subject1 which is one important requisite to an easy and successful speaker4 ,in a similar manner1 let him always bear in mind the value of a fluent and correct use of language4 ,let him not be negligent of this in his conversation2 but be careful ever to select the best words1 to avoid a slovenly style and drawling utterance1 and to aim at neatness1 force1 and brevity4 ,this may be done without formality1 or stiffness1 or pedantic affectation2 and when settled into a habit is invaluable4 #b4 ,in addition to this general cultivation1 there should be frequent exercise of the act of speaking4 ,practice is essential to perfection in any art1 and in none more so than in this4 ,no man reads well or writes well1 except by long practice2 and he cannot expect without it to speak well1 an operation which is equivalent to the other two united4 ,he may indeed get along1 as the phrase is2 but not so well as he might do and should do4 ,he may not always be able even to get along4 ,he may be as sadly discomfited as a friend of mine1 who said that he had made the attempt1 and was convinced that for him to speak extempore was impossible2 he had risen from his study table1 and tried to make a speech1 proving that virtue is better than vice2 but was obliged to sit down without completing it4 ,how could one hope to do better in a first attempt1 if he had not considered beforehand what he should say8 ,it were as rational to think he could play on the organ without having learned1 or translate from a language he had never studied4 ,it would not be too much to require of the student1 that he should exercise himself every day1 once at least1 if not oftener2 and this1 on a variety of subjects1 and in various ways1 that he may attain a facility in every mode4 ,it would be a pleasant interchange of employment to rise from the subject which occupies his thoughts1 or from the book he is reading1 and repeat to himself the substance of what he has just perused1 with such additions and variations1 or criticisms1 as may suggest themselves at the moment4 ,there could hardly be a more useful exercise1 even if there were no reference to this particular end4 ,how many excellent chapters of valuable authors1 how many fine views of important subjects1 would be thus impressed upon his mind1 and what rich treasures of thought and language would be thus laid up in store4 ,and according as he should be engaged in a work of reasoning1 or description1 or exhortation1 or narrative1 he would be attaining the power of expressing himself readily in each of these various styles4 ,by pursuing this course for two or three years1 a man may render himself such a master in this matter1 says ,burnet1 that he can never be surprised2 and he adds1 that he never knew a man faithfully to pursue the plan of study he proposed1 without being successful at last4 #c4 ,when by such a course of study and discipline he has attained a tolerable fluency of thoughts and words1 and a moderate confidence in his own powers2 there are several things to be observed in first exercising the gift in public1 in order to ensure comfort and success4 ,it is recommended by ,bishop ,burnet and others1 that the first attempts be made by short excursions from written discourses2 like the young bird that tries its wings by short flights1 till it gradually acquires strength and courage to sustain itself longer in the air4 ,this advice is undoubtedly judicious4 ,for he may safely trust himself in a few sentences1 who would be confounded in the attempt to frame a whole discourse4 ,for this purpose blanks may be left in writing1 where the sentiment is familiar1 or only a short illustration is to be introduced4 ,as success in these smaller attempts gives him confidence1 he may proceed to larger2 till at length1 when his mind is bright and his feelings engaged1 he may quit his manuscript altogether1 and present the substance of what he had written1 with greater fervor and effect1 than if he had confined himself to his paper4 ,it was once observed to me by an interesting preacher of the ,baptist denomination1 that he had found from experience this to be the most advisable and perfect mode2 since it combined the advantages of written and extemporaneous composition4 ,by preparing sermons in this way1 he said1 he had a shelter and security if his mind should be dull at the time of delivery2 and if it were active1 he was able to leave what he had written1 and obey the ardor of his feelings1 and go forth on the impulse of the moment1 wherever his spirit might lead him4 ,a similar remark ,i heard made by a distinguished scholar of the ,methodist connexion1 who urged1 what is universally asserted by those who have tried this method with any success1 that what has been written is found to be tame and spiritless1 in comparison with the animated glow of that which springs from the energy of the moment4 ,there are some persons1 however1 who would be embarrassed by an effort to change the operation of the mind from reading to inventing4 ,such persons may find it best to make their beginning with a whole discourse4 #d4 ,in this case1 there will be a great advantage in selecting for first efforts expository subjects4 ,to say nothing of the importance and utility of this mode of preaching1 which render it desirable that every minister should devote a considerable proportion of his labors to it2 it contains great facilities and reliefs for the inexperienced speaker4 ,the close study of a passage of scripture which is necessary to expounding it1 renders it familiar4 ,the exposition is inseparably connected with the text1 and necessarily suggested by it4 ,the inferences and practical reflections are in like manner naturally and indissolubly associated with the passage4 ,the train of remark is easily preserved1 and embarrassment in a great measure guarded against1 by the circumstance that the order of discourse is spread out in the open ,bible1 upon which the eyes may rest and by which the thoughts may rally4 #e4 ,a similar advantage is gained to the beginner1 in discourses of a different character1 by a very careful and minute division of the subject4 ,the division should not only be logical and clear1 but into parts as numerous as possible4 ,the great advantage here is1 that the partitions being many1 the speaker is compelled frequently to return to his minutes4 ,he is thus kept in the track1 and prevented from wandering far in needless digressions--that besetting infirmity of unrestrained extemporizers4 ,he also escapes the mortifying consequences of a momentary confusion and cloudiness of mind1 by having it in his power to leave an unsatisfactory train at once1 before the state of his mind is perceived by the audience1 and take up the next topic1 where he may recover his self-possession1 and proceed without impediment4 ,this is no unimportant consideration4 ,it relieves him from the horror of feeling obliged to go on1 while conscious that he is saying nothing to the purpose2 and at the same time secures the very essential requisite of right method4 #f4 ,the next rule is1 that the whole subject1 with the order and connexion of all its parts1 and the entire train of thought1 be made thoroughly familiar by previous meditation4 ,the speaker must have the discourse in his mind as one whole1 whose various parts are distinctly perceived as other wholes1 connected with each other and contributing to a common end4 ,there must be no uncertainty1 when he rises to speak1 as to what he is going to say2 no mist or darkness over the land he is about to travel2 but conscious of his acquaintance with the ground1 he must step forward confidently1 not doubting that he shall find the passes of its mountains1 and thread the intricacies of its forests1 by the paths which he has already trodden4 ,it is an imperfect and partial preparation in this respect1 which so often renders the manner awkward and embarrassed1 and the discourse obscure and perplexed4#aa ,but when the preparation is faithful1 the speaker feels at home2 being under no anxiety respecting the ideas or the order of their succession1 he has the more ready control of his person1 his eye1 and his hand1 and the more fearlessly gives up his mind to its own action and casts himself upon the current4 ,uneasiness and constraint are the inevitable attendants of unfaithful preparation1 and they are fatal to success4 ,it is true1 that no man can attain the power of self-possession so as to feel at all times equally and entirely at ease4 ,but he may guard against the sorest ills which attend its loss1 by always making sure of a train of thought1--being secure that he has ideas1 and that they lie in such order as to be found and brought forward in some sort of apparel1 even when he has in some measure lost the mastery of himself4 ,the richness or meanness of their dress will depend on the humor of the moment4 ,it will vary as much as health and spirits vary1 which is more in some men than in others4 ,but the thoughts themselves he may produce1 and be certain of saying what he intended to say1 even when he cannot say it as he intended4 ,it must often have been observed1 by those who are at all in the habit of observation of this kind1 that the mind operates in this particular like a machine1 which1 having been wound up1 runs on by its own spontaneous action1 until it has gone through its appointed course4 ,many men have thus continued speaking in the midst of an embarrassment of mind which rendered them almost unconscious of what they were saying1 and incapable of giving an account of it afterward2 while yet the unguided1 self-moving intellect wrought so well1 that the speech was not esteemed unwholesome or defective by the hearers4 ,the experience of this fact has doubtless helped many to believe that they spoke from inspiration4 ,it ought to teach all1 that there is no sufficient cause for that excessive apprehension1 which so often unmans them1 and which1 though it may not stop their mouths1 must deprive their address of all grace and beauty1 of all ease and force4 #aa ,nemo potest de e re1 quam non novit1 non turpissime dicere4 ,cic4 de ,or4 #g4 ,we may introduce in this place another rule1 the observance of which will aid in preventing the ill consequences resulting from the accidental loss of self-possession4 ,the rule is1 utter yourself very slowly and deliberately1 with careful pauses4 ,this is at all times a great aid to a clear and perspicuous statement4 ,it is essential to the speaker1 who would keep the command of himself and consequently of his hearers4 ,one is very likely1 when1 in the course of speaking1 he has stumbled on an unfortunate expression1 or said what he would prefer not to say1 or for a moment lost sight of the precise point at which he was aiming1 to hurry on with increasing rapidity1 as if to get as far as possible from his misfortune1 or cause it to be forgotten in the crowd of new words4 ,but instead of thus escaping the evil1 he increases it2 he entangles himself more and more2 and augments the difficulty of recovering his route4 ,the true mode of recovering himself is by increased deliberation4 ,he must pause1 and give himself time to think2--ut tamen deliberare non hsitare videatur4 ,he need not be alarmed lest his hearers suspect the difficulty4 ,most of them are likely to attribute the slowness of his step to any cause rather than the true one4 ,they take it for granted1 that he says and does precisely as he intended and wished4 ,they suppose that he is pausing to gather up his strength4 ,it excites their attention4 ,the change of manner is a relief to them4 ,and the probability is1 that the speaker not only recovers himself1 but that the effort to do it gives a spring to the action of his powers1 which enables him to proceed afterward with greater energy4 #h4 ,in regard to language1 the best rule is1 that no preparation be made4 ,there is no convenient and profitable medium between speaking from memory and from immediate suggestion4 ,to mix the two is no aid1 but a great hindrance1 because it perplexes the mind between the very different operations of memory and invention4 ,to prepare sentences and parts of sentences1 which are to be introduced here and there1 and the intervals between them to be filled up in the delivery1 is the surest of all ways to produce constraint4 ,it is like the embarrassment of framing verses to prescribed rhymes2 as vexatious1 and as absurd4 ,to be compelled to shape the course of remark so as to suit a sentence which is by and by to come1 or to introduce certain expressions which are waiting for their place1 is a check to the natural current of thought4 ,the inevitable consequence is constraint and labor1 the loss of every thing like easy and flowing utterance1 and perhaps that worst of confusion which results from a jumble of ill assorted1 disjointed periods4 ,it is unavoidable that the subject should present itself in a little different form and complexion in speaking1 from that which it took in meditation2 so that the sentences and modes of expression1 which agreed very well with the train of remark as it came up in the study1 may be wholly unsuited to that which it assumes in the pronunciation4 ,the extemporaneous speaker should therefore trust himself to the moment for all his language4 ,this is the safe way for his comfort1 and the only sure way to make all of a uniform piece4 ,the general rule is certain1 though there may be some exceptions4 ,it may be well for example1 to consider what synonymous terms may be employed in recurring to the chief topic1 in order to avoid the too frequent reiteration of the same word4 ,this will occasion no embarrassment4 ,he may also prepare texts of scripture to be introduced in certain parts of the discourse4 ,these1 if perfectly committed to memory1 and he be not too anxious to make a place for them1 will be no encumbrance4 ,when a suitable juncture occurs1 they will suggest themselves1 just as a suitable epithet suggests itself4 ,but if he be very solicitous about them1 and continually on the watch for an opportunity to introduce them1 he will be likely to confuse himself4 ,and it is better to lose the choicest quotation1 than suffer constraint and awkwardness from the effort to bring it in4 ,under the same restrictions he may have ready1 pithy remarks1 striking and laconic expressions1 pointed sayings and aphorisms1 the force of which depends on the precise form of the phrase4 ,let the same rule be observed in regard to such4 ,if they suggest themselves 7which they will do1 if there be a proper place for them71 let them be welcome4 ,but never let him run the risk of spoiling a whole paragraph in trying to make a place for them4 ,many distinguished speakers are said to do more than this1--to write out with care and repeat from memory their more important and persuasive parts2 like the de bene esse's of ,curran1 and the splendid passages of many others4 ,this may undoubtedly be done to advantage by one who has the command of himself which practice gives1 and has learned to pass from memory to invention without tripping4 ,it is a different case from that mixture of the two operations1 which is condemned above1 and is in fact only an extended example of the exceptions made in the last paragraph4 ,with these exceptions1 when he undertakes1 bon fide1 an extemporaneous address1 he should make no preparation of language4 ,language is the last thing he should be anxious about4 ,if he have ideas1 and be awake1 it will come of itself1 unbidden and unsought for4 ,the best language flashes upon the speaker as unexpectedly as upon the hearer4 ,it is the spontaneous gift of the mind1 not the extorted boon of a special search4 ,no man who has thoughts1 and is interested in them1 is at a loss for words--not the most uneducated man2 and the words he uses will be according to his education and general habits1 not according to the labour of the moment4 ,if he truly feel1 and wish to communicate his feelings to those around him1 the last thing that will fail will be language2 the less he thinks of it and cares for it1 the more copiously and richly will it flow from him2 and when he has forgotten every thing but his desire to give vent to his emotions and do good1 then will the unconscious torrent pour1 as it does at no other season4 ,this entire surrender to the spirit which stirs within1 is indeed the real secret of all eloquence4 ,true eloquence1 says ,milton1 ,i find to be none but the serious and hearty love of truth2 and that whose mind soever is fully possessed with a fervent desire to know good things1 and with the dearest charity to infuse the knowledge of them into others1--when such a man would speak1 his words1 like so many nimble and airy servitors1 trip about him at command and in well ordered files1 as he would wish1 fall aptly into their own places4 ,rerum enim copia 7says the great ,roman teacher and example7 verborum copiam gignit2 et1 si est honestas in rebus ipsis de quibus dicitur1 existit ex rei natur quidam splendor in verbis4 ,sit modo is1 qui dicet aut scribet1 institutus liberaliter educatione doctrinque puerili1 et flagret studio1 et a natur adjuvetur1 et in universorum generum infinitis disceptationibus exercitatus2 ornatissimos scriptores oratoresque ad cognoscendum imitandumque legerit2--n ille haud sane1 quemadmodum verba struat et illuminet1 a magistris istis requiret4 ,ita facile in rerum abundanti ad orationis ornamenta1 sine duce1 natur ips1 si modo est exercitata1 labetur4#ab #ab ,de ,or4 iii4 #ca4 #i4 ,these remarks lead to another suggestion which deserves the student's consideration4 ,he should select for this exercise those subjects in which he feels an interest at the time1 and in regard to which he desires to engage the interest of others4 ,in order to the best success1 extemporaneous efforts should be made in an excited state1 when the mind is burning and glowing1 and longs to find vent4 ,there are some topics which do not admit of this excitement4 ,such should be treated by the pen4 ,when he would speak1 he should choose topics on which his own mind is kindling with a feeling which he is earnest to communicate2 and the higher the degree to which he has elevated his feelings1 the more readily1 happily1 and powerfully will he pour forth whatever the occasion may demand4 ,there is no style suited to the pulpit1 which he will not more effectually command in this state of mind4 ,he will reason more directly1 pointedly1 and convincingly2 he will describe more vividly from the living conceptions of the moment2 he will be more earnest in persuasion1 more animated in declamation1 more urgent in appeals1 more terrible in denunciation4 ,every thing will vanish from before him1 but the subject of his attention1 and upon this his powers will be concentrated in keen and vigorous action4 ,if a man would do his best1 it must be upon topics which are at the moment interesting to him4 ,we see it in conversation1 where every one is eloquent upon his favorite subjects4 ,we see it in deliberative assemblies2 where it is those grand questions1 which excite an intense interest1 and absorb and agitate the mind1 that call forth those bursts of eloquence by which men are remembered as powerful orators1 and that give a voice to men who can speak on no other occasions4 ,cicero tells us of himself1 that the instances in which he was most successful1 were those in which he most entirely abandoned himself to the impulses of feeling4 ,every speaker's experience will bear testimony to the same thing2 and thus the saying of ,goldsmith proves true1 that1 to feel one's subject thoroughly1 and to speak without fear1 are the only rules of eloquence4 ,let him who would preach successfully1 remember this4 ,in the choice of subjects for extemporaneous efforts1 let him have regard to it1 and never encumber himself nor distress his hearers1 with the attempt to interest them in a subject1 which excites at the moment only a feeble interest in his own mind4 ,this rule excludes many topics1 which it is necessary to introduce into the pulpit1 subjects in themselves interesting and important1 but which few men can be trusted to treat in unpremeditated language2 because they require an exactness of definition1 and nice discrimination of phrase1 which may be better commanded in the cool leisure of writing1 than in the prompt and declamatory style of the speaker4 ,the rule also forbids the attempt to speak when ill health1 or lowness of spirits1 or any accidental cause1 renders him incapable of that excitement which is requisite to success4 ,it requires of him to watch over the state of his body--the partial derangement of whose functions so often confuses the mind--that1 by preserving a vigorous and animated condition of the corporeal system1 he may secure vigour and vivacity of mind4 ,it requires of him1 finally1 whenever he is about entering upon the work1 to use every means1 by careful meditation1 by calling up the strong motives of his office1 by realizing the nature and responsibility of his undertaking1 and by earnestly invoking the blessing of ,god--to attain that frame of devout engagedness1 which will dispose him to speak zealously and fearlessly4 #aj4 ,another important item in the discipline to be passed through1 consists in attaining the habit of self-command4 ,i have already adverted to this point1 and noticed the power which the mind possesses of carrying on the premeditated operation1 even while the speaker is considerably embarrassed4 ,this is1 however1 only a reason for not being too much distressed by the feeling when only occasional2 it does not imply that it is no evil4 ,it is a most serious evil2 of little comparative moment1 it may be1 when only occasional and transitory1 but highly injurious if habitual4 ,it renders the speaker unhappy1 and his address ineffective4 ,if perfectly at ease1 he would have every thing at command1 and be able to pour out his thoughts in lucid order1 and with every desirable variety of manner and expression4 ,but when thrown from his self-possession1 he can do nothing better than mechanically string together words1 while there is no soul in them1 because his mental powers are spell-bound and imbecile4 ,he stammers1 hesitates1 and stumbles2 or1 at best1 talks on without object or aim1 as mechanically and unconsciously as an automaton4 ,he has learned little effectually1 till he has learned to be collected4 ,this therefore must be a leading object of attention4 ,it will not be attained by men of delicacy and sensibility1 except by long and trying practice4 ,it will be the result of much rough attrition with the world1 and many mortifying failures4 ,and after all1 occasions may occur1 when the most experienced will be put off their guard4 ,still1 however1 much may be done by the control which a vigorous mind has over itself1 by resolute and persevering determination1 by refusing to shrink or give way1 and by preferring always the mortification of ill success1 to the increased weakness which would grow out of retreating4 ,there are many considerations1 also1 which if kept before the mind would operate not a little to strengthen its confidence in itself4 ,let the speaker be sensible that1 if self-possessed1 he is not likely to fail2 that after faithful study and preparation1 there is nothing to stand in his way1 but his own want of self-command4 ,let him heat his mind with his subject1 endeavour to feel nothing1 and care for nothing1 but that4 ,let him consider1 that his audience takes for granted that he says nothing but what he designed1 and does not notice those slight errors which annoy and mortify him2 that in truth such errors are of no moment2 that he is not speaking for reputation and display1 nor for the gratification of others1 by the exhibition of a rhetorical model1 or for the satisfaction of a cultivated taste3 but that he is a teacher of virtue1 a messenger of ,jesus ,christ1 a speaker in the name of ,god2 whose chosen object it is to lead men above all secondary considerations and worldly attainments1 and to create in them a fixed and lasting interest in spiritual and religious concerns2--that he himself therefore ought to regard other things as of comparatively little consequence while he executes this high function2 that the true way to effect the object of his ministry1 is to be filled with that object1 and to be conscious of no other desire but to promote it4 ,let him1 in a word1 be zealous to do good1 to promote religion1 to save souls1 and little anxious to make what might be called a fine sermon--let him learn to sink every thing in his subject and the purpose it should accomplish--ambitious rather to do good1 than to do well2--and he will be in a great measure secure from the loss of self-command and its attendant distress4 ,not always--for this feeble vessel of the mind seems to be sometimes tost to and fro1 as it were1 upon the waves of circumstances1 unmanageable by the helm and disobedient to the wind4 ,sometimes ,god seems designedly to show us our weakness1 by taking from us the control of our powers1 and causing us to be drifted along whither we would not4 ,but under all ordinary occurrences1 habitual piety and ministerial zeal will be an ample security4 ,from the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak4 ,the most diffident man in the society of men is known to converse freely and fearlessly when his heart is full1 and his passions engaged2 and no man is at a loss for words1 or confounded by another's presence1 who thinks neither of the language1 nor the company1 but only of the matter which fills him4 ,let the preacher consider this1 and be persuaded of it1--and it will do much to relieve him from the distress which attends the loss of self-possession1 which distorts every feature with agony1 and distils in sweat from his forehead4 ,it will do much to destroy that incubus1 which sits upon every faculty of the soul1 and palsies every power1 and fastens down the helpless sufferer to the very evil from which he strives to flee4 ,after all1 therefore1 which can be said1 the great essential requisite to effective preaching in this method 7or indeed in any method7 is a devoted heart4 ,a strong religious sentiment1 leading to a fervent zeal for the good of other men1 is better than all rules of art2 it will give him courage1 which no science or practice could impart1 and open his lips boldly1 when the fear of man would keep them closed4 ,art may fail him1 and all his treasures of knowledge desert him2 but if his heart be warm with love1 he will speak right on1 aiming at the heart1 and reaching the heart1 and satisfied to accomplish the great purpose1 whether he be thought to do it tastefully or not4 ,this is the true spirit of his office1 to be cherished and cultivated above all things else1 and capable of rendering all its labors comparatively easy4 ,it reminds him that his purpose is not to make profound discussions of theological doctrines1 or disquisitions on moral and metaphysical science2 but to present such views of the great and acknowledged truths of revelation1 with such applications of them to the understanding and conscience1 as may affect and reform his hearers4 ,now it is not study only1 in divinity or in rhetoric1 which will enable him to do this4 ,he may reason ingeniously1 but not convincingly2 he may declaim eloquently1 but not persuasively4 ,there is an immense1 though indescribable difference between the same arguments and truths1 as presented by him who earnestly feels and desires to persuade1 and by him who designs only a display of intellectual strength1 or an exercise of rhetorical skill4 ,in the latter case1 the declamation may be splendid1 but it will be cold and without expression2 lulling the ear1 and diverting the fancy1 but leaving the feelings untouched4 ,in the other1 there is an air of reality and sincerity1 which words cannot describe1 but which the heart feels1 that finds its way to the recesses of the soul1 and overcomes it by a powerful sympathy4 ,this is a difference which all perceive and all can account for4 ,the truths of religion are not matters of philosophical speculation1 but of experience4 ,the heart and all the spiritual man1 and all the interests and feelings of the immortal being1 have an intimate concern in them4 ,it is perceived at once whether they are stated by one who has felt them himself1 is personally acquainted with their power1 is subject to their influence1 and speaks from actual experience2 or whether they come from one who knows them only in speculation1 has gathered them from books1 and thought them out by his own reason1 but without any sense of their spiritual operation4 ,but who does not know how much easier it is to declare what has come to our knowledge from our own experience1 than what we have gathered coldly at second hand from that of others2--how much easier it is to describe feelings we have ourselves had1 and pleasures we have ourselves enjoyed1 than to fashion a description of what others have told us2--how much more freely and convincingly we can speak of happiness we have known1 than of that to which we are strangers4 ,we see1 then1 how much is lost to the speaker by coldness or ignorance in the exercises of personal religion4 ,how can he effectually represent the joys of a religious mind1 who has never known what it is to feel them8 ,how can he effectually aid the contrite1 the desponding1 the distrustful1 the tempted1 who has never himself passed through the same fears and sorrows8 or how can he paint1 in the warm colors of truth1 religious exercises and spiritual desires1 who is personally a stranger to them8 ,alas1 he cannot at all come in contact with those souls1 which stand most in need of his sympathy and aid4 ,but if he have cherished in himself1 fondly and habitually1 the affections he would excite in others1 if he have combated temptation1 and practised self-denial1 and been instant in prayer1 and tasted the joy and peace of a tried faith and hope2--then he may communicate directly with the hearts of his fellow men1 and win them over to that which he so feelingly describes4 ,if his spirit be always warm and stirring with these pure and kind emotions1 and anxious to impart the means of his own felicity to others--how easily and freely will he pour himself forth6 and how little will he think of the embarrassments of the presence of mortal man1 while he is conscious only of laboring for the glory of the ever present ,god4 ,this then is the one thing essential to be attained and cherished by the ,christian preacher4 ,with this he must begin1 and with this he must go on to the end4 ,then he never can greatly fail2 for he will ,,feel ,,his ,,subject ,,thoroughly1 ,,and ,,speak ,,without ,,fear4