velously expressive, sweet, clear, and yet with a burr indicative of power."

The lecture platform offers a field for the grandest flights of eloquence. Wendell Phillips, Henry Ward

Beecher ard John B. Gough have shown how wide a field the lecture platform offers to eloquence. The lecture may be a plain unadorned talk, like a professor's lecture in a recitation room, or it may be full of the most stirring appeals to the emotions and pas

sions. The requisites for a successful platform orator of the highest rank are a rare combination of natural gifts and acquired talents. A man may be successful as a pulpit or forensic orator and yet fail as a popular lecturer. The orator who speaks from the lecture platform, if he wishes to reach the most eminent position in that department of oratory, must possess a vigorous developement of the mind, a commanding stature, and a good voice. The voice must be thoroughly trained. A poor voice may be tolerated in the pulpit and at the bar, but never on the public platform.

Wendell Phillips had a voice of remarkable power, flexibility and expressiveness. It was full, clear and silvery sweet. His expression of the mental states was calm rather than violent, oratorical rather than dramatic, but in every word there was an undercurrent of feeling which held the attention and incited his hearers to action. His language was truly eloquent. His graceful periods and strong, pointed sentences arranged in rhythmical cadence, penetrated the heart with overwhelming persuasiveness. He had the oratorical temperament and all the mental gifts necessary to elevated eloquence well adopted. His keen intellect stored with knowledge, classical and practical, reasoned logically and intuitively. His knowledge of human nature was excellent. The faculties which when excited produce the transcendental emotions were very marked, hence we find in all his actions a steady adherence to principle and conscientious scruples. The aggressive and Resistive group were fully developed which made his style of elocution manly and independent. All his sympathies were with the down-trodden, and in advocating their cause he spoke with an eloquence unsurpassed. His

oratory was bold, sarcastic and impassioned. He never stood in dread of his audience, but courageously attacked fraud, humbug and tyranny wherever found, though practiced by the most powerful men

in the country. No man could declare such disagreeable truths to a rebellious audience with more candor and vigor. Although born with all the talents necessary for public speaking, a sensitive temperament and

a good voice, yet he had been a diligent student of oratory, and had striven after elegance and vigor of diction, and a forcible yet chaste style of elocution.

An opposite style of eloquence is that of the great temperance lecturer, John B. Gough. His style is intensely fervid and dramatic. He makes a hundred gestures for every one that Wendell Phillips would make in the process of delivering a discourse. His gestures often indicate nothing but restlessness of disposition, but they generally have great dramatic power and pictorial illustration. He has the oratorical temperment, the theatrical faculties, imitation, sublimity and wit are largely developed; and æsthetic and imitative emotions which spring from them characterize his style of oratory. He can hold an audience for hours, and is always in demand. No Lyceum committee ever loses anything in hiring Gough to lecture, he always draws a full house.

Henry Ward Beecher is a successful platform orator. He has much of the calmness and self-possession peculiar to Wendell Phillips, with the fire and occasionally the dramatic power of Gough, but he is seldom guilty of the extravagance of gesture which often mars the elocution of the latter.

Law Courts.-The Lawyer who intends to sway the hearts and minds of a jury cannot afford to neglect the study of oratory. He should spare no pains in acquiring a good articulation and expressive delivery. It will be his aim to persuade the jury, which is composed of human beings possessed with human emotions. The cultivation of the mental states and the power to awaken a responsive echo in the hearts of the jurymen is all important. If the lawyer has studied human nature; if he understands what eelings are likely to sway the judgment of each

juryman, and has studied the language of these feelings, he can persuade the jury to give whatever verdict he wishes. The study of Physiognomy and Phrenology are therefore essential to a successful lawyer. All successful pleaders have been skillful readers of character. Although the voice is the most essential requisite in forsenic eloquence, gestures may also be effectively employed. There is danger, however, that the novice may use too many gestures, or those not suitable for the place or the occasion. Forensic eloquence is not stage eloquence; gestures which would be appropriate for the stage. would only excite the mirth of the judge and jury if employed in making a plea. In the expression of the contrition, or remorse, or scorn, of a prisoner it would not be prudent to place the hands upon the head or face and assume a forlorn attitude, such gestures are entirely in keeping with tragic representation, but are not in harmony with the prosaic surroundings of a court of justice. On the other hand, a pleader may use gestures to emphasize his thoughts, provided these actions are in keeping with the sentiments he utters and the strict decorum of the court house. The eloquence of the bar differs very much from the eloquence of the stage or pulpit. Logical argument, keen analysis and legal learning, should be thrust home with sarcasm, humor, wit, and pathos. Grandiloquent epithets and cmpty expletives are out of place in the eloquence of the forum. And it is only upon rare occasions that the higher flights of oratory are demanded. Pleading at the bar should be characterized by perspicuity of statement and simplicity of delivery. Any effort after a coup d'etat of oratory will prejudice the client in the minds of the jury, Let the lawyer cultivate a clear and impressive style of oratory, both as regards