For some time I have been besieged with requests to open a “Speakers’ Class” or “A School of Oratory,” or, as one ingenious correspondent puts it, a “Forensic Club.” With these requests it is impossible to comply for sheer lack of time.

I have decided, however, to embody in these pages the results of my own experience, and the best I have learned from the experience of others.

There are some things required in a good lecturer which cannot be imparted to a pupil by any teacher, and we may as well dispose of these.

One is a good voice. Modern methods, however, have done much to make the improvement of the voice possible. While it is probably impossible in the great majority of cases to make a very fine voice out of a very poor one, no one, with an average voice, need be afraid of the platform, for time and training will greatly increase its range and resonance. It is said that the great Greek orator, Demosthenes, developed his magnificent voice by shouting above the roar of the sea near which he lived, but it is probable that he had a better voice to begin with than the tradition represents. In the absence of sea waves, one’s voice may be tested and strengthened by trying to drown the noise of the electric cars at a street meeting. Most poor voices are produced in the upper part of the throat or, still worse, in the roof of the mouth, while deep and thrilling tones can only be obtained from further down. The transition from the upper throat or palate to the deeper tones is not nearly so difficult as might be supposed. Placing the hand across the chest during practice will help to locate the origin of the sounds produced.

The one thing, however, which no training seems to create, but which is wholly indispensable in a good speaker, is that elusive, but potential something which has been named personal magnetism. This is probably only another way of saying that the great orator must also be a great man. His imagination and sympathy must be great enough to take possession of him and make him the mere instrument of their outpouring.

If nature has omitted these great qualities, no amount of training will create them. This is why, among the great number who wish to be speakers, only a few scale the heights.

But men with small personal magnetism and good training have done quite well, while others with large personal magnetism and no methods, have made a complete failure, and herein lies the justification for this volume.