his education. From the debates between Randolph, Clay and Calhoun on the tariff, Webster and Hayne on the domestic relations of the States, and Lincoln and Douglas on the status of the negro. discussions which for keenness of logic, elevation of sentiment, fertility of expression, and all the graces of elocution, will compare with any efforts in ancient or modern times from these contests the American student will readily perceive that no more interesting themes for the display of his art can be found than in his own country.

A few words may be said as to the study of the Latin and Greek languages. Is a knowledge of them necessary to the orator? Much argument may be advanced on both side of the question. One thing we know, and that is, they contain the very best models of the art. The time and labor it requires to obtain a knowledge of them cannot but be of great advantage to the student. It demands great care to acquire it, and it affords excellent practice to be able to translate them into good English. Nothing can be more beneficial, and hence their study must be commended. Orators there have been who knew but little of the ancient classics, but they are exceptions. There are also other fine specimens which may be adopted in their place. If time will permit, however, the classics should be studied; if not, the next best thing should be done, and that is to spend much time in careful composition.

Among the things which should enter into and form a part of the education of the orator no subject is of greater importance than literature. We will have much to say of this under the head of language. In its literature a nation lives and transmits its image from one generation to another. In it is embodied the motives, the passions, the inspirations, the feelings, the hopes, the lights and shades of mankind in their progress through the ages. What we know of Greec and Rome we obtain from their literature.

The Bible stands pre-eminent as a book to be carefully studied. Aside from its theological value, it has a wealth of rhetorical lore that enables one to illustrate every phase of life, every movement of the intellect, every aspiration of the soul. No work, either, is generally so well known. As we listen to its teachings from our childhood, we learn by heart its great lessons, and the illustrations of allegory, metaphor, and parable, by which those lessons are taught. A noted example of its value as an adjunct to public speaking is found in the debate between Lincoln and Douglas. In the leading speech of the former, he quoted that portion of Sacred Writ which says that a house divided against itself cannot stand (Mark 3: 25). The orator alluded to the condition of the United States, divided into half slave and half free States. The advantage of the quotation consisted in its being well known and readily understood by those to whom it was ad

dressed, and it presented the idea of the orator in less words than it would have taken to express it in his own language. Another example will be found in a speech of Thomas Erskine in the celebrated case of Markham vs. Fawcett, an action for damages for the seduction of the plaintiff's wife by defendant. The seducer was the friend of the plaintiff, and as such had been a welcome guest to the house which he had dishonored. The orator, after endeavoring in eloquent terms to show the enormity of the offense on account of its being perpetrated by a friend instead of an enemy or a stranger, quoted with fine effect the scriptural language, as follows:

"It is not an enemy that hath done me this dishonor, for then I could have borne it. Neither was it mine adversary that did magnify himself against me; for then, peradventure, I would have hid myself from him. But it was thou, even thou, my companion, my guide, mine own familiar friend." Ps. 55:12, 13.

We might multiply examples to the same effect. Too frequent allusions to Scripture, of course, should not be made; one reason of which is that the sacred volume is daily expounded by the ministers of religion, and a too steady reference to its great texts would transform a speech into a sermon, two classes of oratory which are quite distinct.

Next to the Bible in range of thought, general adaptability to the expression of the various and varying interests and passions of mankind, are the

works of Shakespeare. No writer, ancient or modern, has shown such a complete mastery of human thought and feeling. He has sounded every phase of life from the king who lays his head on a sleepless pillow to the slumbering sea-boy on the rude, tempestuous surge. There is no thought either of vaulting ambition, far-seeing statecraft, vanished hopes, disappointed desires, impassioned love, down to the vaporings of the harlequin, which do not receive the touch of his master hand. The statesman, lover, lawyer, poet, philosopher, and orator can take counsel from his luminous pages. As the last has occasion probably more than any of the others to give a thought a good, appropriate dressing, he can nowhere find a better pattern than in Shakespeare, and in the multitudinous occasions that arise for just this necessity he will never turn to him in vain. A great many examples might be given where quotations from Shakespeare have been used with effect, and others might be cited where they proved disastrous. For instance, in the debate between Daniel Webster and Robert Hayne, hereafter given, the latter made an allusion to Shakespeare which the former took up and used to great advantage.

It is not altogther for the purpose of quotation however, that this and other great literary works are needed. As a general thing, it is much better for the speaker to mould his own thoughts in his, own language. The appropriate sphere of a knowl

edge of literature in its highest forms in the makeup of an orator is to enlarge his vocabulary and extend his range of thought, and in addition to be able to retort on an adversary when he makes unhappy allusions. The works of all our great poets, dramatists, and novelists, no less than Shakespeare, should be studied for the same purpose. They are the language makers of the race, as well as the photographers of the ages in which they lived.

To the study of history and literature should be added, as above intimated, that of every department of knowledge, keeping in view, of course, that there are some subjects more closely related to the speaker's vocation than others. To the lawyer, a knowledge of jurisprudence is particularly essential, that is, jurisprudence in its higher and broader forms, beyond mere citations and decisions. The debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas turned very largely upon a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court decided that negroes could not be prohibited by Congress from being taken as slaves into United States territory. Judge Douglas declared he was willing to bow to that decision. Mr. Lincoln declared he was willing to accept it as conclusive in the trial of one case, but would not submit to it as a rule of political action. Great skill and ingenuity are therefore displayed by these orators over the proposition: How far is a person bound in his political action by a decision of the