How Physical Preparation
Improves Your Speech

1. Health. Health and bodily vigor are prerequisite conditions to success in public speaking. The distinguished orators of the world have almost invariably been men of strong vitality and commanding appearance. Burke, Brougham, Clay, Webster, Pinkney, Choate, Everett , Lincoln , Sumner, Hal l, Spurgeon, Beecher , Gladstone , Brooks, and many others were men of this type. Robust health has a cheering influence and is a sweetener of work. To maintain this condition daily attention must be given to physical exercise, deep breathing, bathing, sleep, diet, and recreation.

Doctor Storrs names among specific conditions to success in preaching: Physical vigor, kept at its highest attainable point. He adds: '' The general and harmonious intellectual vigor, whereby one conceives subjects clearly and fully, analyzes them rapidly, sets them forth with exactness in an orderly presentation, and urges them powerfully on those who listen-this requires opulence of health; a sustained and abounding physical vigor."

Doctor Watson's advice to preachers is equally applicable to other classes of speakers: 'l The working minister should have his study recharged with oxygen every hour, to sleep with his bedroom window open, to walk four miles a day, to play an outdoor game once a week, to have six weeks' holiday a year and once in seven years three months-all that his thought and teaching may be oxygenated and the fresh air of Christianity fill the souls of his people.''

2. Elocution. A public speaker must have a thorough practical knowledge of the art of elocution. The voice, face, arms, and body should be trained to respond with ease and accuracy. The voice and delivery can be highly developed even where the natural conditions seem unpromising. The great orators of the world have been untiring workers in this art. Demosthenes and Cicero subjected themselves for years to a rigorous course of vocal training. Chatham disciplined himself before a looking-glass. Curran, who stuttered in his speech, through diligent practice became one of the most eloquent forensic advocates the world has ever seen. Henry Clay, from young manhood, read and spoke daily upon the contents of some historical or scientific book. "These off-hand efforts," he says, "were made sometimes in a cornfield, at others in the forest, and not infrequently in some distant barn, with the horse and ox for my auditors. It is to this early practice in the great art of all arts that I am indebted for the primary and leading impulses that stimulated me forward, and shaped and molded my entire subsequent destiny."

Beecher tells of having been drilled incessantly for three years in posturing, gesture, and voice-culture. He was accustomed to practice in the open air, exploding all the vowels throughout the various pitches; and to this drill he attributes his possession of a flexible instrument that accommodated itself readily to all kinds of thought and feeling.

3. Appearance. An attractive personal appearance is of undoubted advantage to a speaker, as even the first impression made by him may determine his subsequent success or failure. Prejudices and preferences are formed by an audience quickly and unconsciously. The speaker who wishes to make the best impression, therefore, should make the most of himself. His clothes should be plain and in good style. Flashy jewellery should not be worn. He should remember that immaculate linen and scrupulous care of the nails, teeth and hair, are unmistakable signs of culture and refinement.