SUGGESTIONS ON BIOGRAPHICAL SPEECHES 7 Second, the effective speech must gather about one truth, one great, central thought. Formal address has no place for "strings of glittering generalities"The spoken message must be strictly a unity. Every illustration used or fact cited, every sentence, indeed, must relate clearly to the one big idea to be enforced. A single and immediate purpose on the part of the speaker must be manifest throughout his message. Psychic qualities peculiar to the audience impose this second limitation. Third, public speech must at the same time be simple in thought: it "moves among common thoughts, motives, and principles."[1] Speculative, or abstract, or involved ideas are exceedingly difficult to treat through public speech. To ap- peal to the hearer's "tendency toward perfection" in duty fulfilled, in virtue practiced, and in happiness attained, is the object of the oration according to Professor Robinson. These ideas, he shows, are old and universal ; but the primary aim of public speech is not the impartation of new ideas : it is rather the enforcement of ideas, often very old ones, with a view to getting the hearer to act upon them.
These three limitations, then, demand: first, that some means be found for interpreting the facts of a life into thought and action for the hearer ; second, that there be set forth and enforced throughout the production, one great unifying truth or principle : and third, that this truth or principle be not ab- stract nor involved but vitally human through appeal to per- sonal duty, virtue, or happiness.
Now as a means of meeting the demand of these three limitations upon oral address, we employ what we call the THEME. For illustration, a student 4. The Theme desires to interpret the life of Brutus. He does not recite facts about that hero, but begins his address with a statement of his theme in this thought: The first task of life is service: service is through sacrifice. He attempts to show that this idea always
- ↑ Forensic Oratory, by William C. Robinson, LL. D. (Little, Brown & Company, Boston, 1893). In Chapter III especialy, the author seta forth very clearly this matter.
