The speaker should have a
well-furnished mind. You have had the experience of listening to a
public speaker who commanded your closest attention not only because of
what he said, but also because of what he was. He inspired confidence in
you because of his personality and reserve power.
It is often what a man has within himself, rather than what he actually
expresses, that carries greatest conviction to your mind. As you listen
to such a man speak, you feel that he is worthy of your confidence
because he draws upon broad experience and knowledge. He speaks out of
the fulness of a well-furnished mind.
It is important, therefore, that there should be mental culture in a
broad way,--sound judgment, a sense of proportion and perspective, a
fund of useful ideas, facts, arguments, and illustrations, and a large
stock of common sense.
Every man who essays to speak in public should cultivate a judicial
mind, or the habit of weighing and estimating facts and arguments. Such
a mind is supposedly free from prejudice and seeks the truth at any
cost. Such a mind does not want this or that to be necessarily true, but
wants to recognize as true only that which is true.
In these days of multiplied publications and books of all kinds, when
printed matter of every description is soliciting our time and
attention, it is particularly desirable that we should cultivate a
discriminating taste in our choice of books. The highest purpose of
reading is for the acquisition of useful knowledge and personal culture,
and we should keep these two aims constantly before us.
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