The test of a successful speaker is the effect he produces upon his audience. He may exhaust all the arts of elocution, rhetoric, and logic; he may be a master of English style, but unless he persuade his hearers to act he is not in the highest sense an orator. The speaker can best be in earnest by aiming at the motives which produce earnestness. He must himself be moved before he attempts to move others. The purpose of his speaking should be clearly denned in his own mind, and unlike those who "aim at nothing and hit it," he, on the contrary, will advance toward distinct and definite ends. There must be no acting, no pretense, no bombast, no empty and boisterous declamation, but a persistent and sincere application of his best powers, both of thought and feeling, to the effective delivery of his message.

The value of personal character in the speaker is emphasized in the phrase, "What you are prevents me from hearing what you say." What an audience may know about a man goes to determine the mental image they have of him when he stands before them to speak, and in a very large degree does this affect the importance they attach to his utterance. A sneak need not try to be an orator, for he can not be. His real character will shortly betray him, if his reputation does not, and he will be appraised at his true value. His soul's emphasis will unconsciously disclose the soul itself.

There is a wide difference between having something to say and having to say something. Thought is a necessary part of successful speech, and if a man really has nothing to say it is dangerous for him to pretend otherwise. The mind must be cultivated as a field, and from judiciously planted seeds of knowledge to yield a harvest of fresh, original ideas. Man is a thinking animal, and his mind thinks whether he wills or not. He can learn to control his thoughts, to determine the kind of ideas he will harbor in his mind, and, moreover, he can concentrate upon definite subjects and direct his mental powers in the pursuit of clear and definite objects.

To become a great speaker a man must assiduously cultivate the positive side of his character. He should avoid, especially before an audience, such negative expressions as "I may be wrong," "I am half-inclined to think," "I do not wish to be too positive," "I am ready to be corrected if I am wrong,'' and similar phrases. He must equip himself so thoroughly for his work that he will be able truthfully to say, "I speak authoritatively," "I know this to be true," "There is not the shadow of a doubt," or "I stake my reputation on it." A positive nature is essential to leadership. Men are unwilling to entrust themselves to uncertainty and inexperience. The man whom they follow must be one who knows, and knows that he knows.

Sensitiveness is fatal in a public man, because it indicates a lack of one of the most fundamental qualities of success -- self-confidence. Unless a man have the courage of his convictions he can not hope to win recognition as a teacher and leader of men. An inestimable benefit may be derived from studying some of the great and self-reliant speakers of England and America.

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