An Overview of Simplicity in Speech

Simplicity is characteristic of all great art. In oratory it has taken the place of the bombast and artificial method of former times, while in dramatic art it has superseded the "old school" style of ranting and wild gesticulation.

Charles Wagner acknowledges the difficulty in adequately describing this quality and despairs of ever doing so in any worthy fashion. "All the strength of the world and all its beauty," he says, "all true joy, everything that consoles, that feeds hope, or throws a ray of light along our dark paths, everything that makes us see across our poor lives a splendid goal and a boundless future, comes to us from people of simplicity, those who have made another object of their desires than the passing satisfaction of selfishness and vanity; and have understood that the art of living is to know how to give one's life."

Simplicity does not mean repression, but the intelligent use of all the forces of expression in sincere, direct, and spontaneous effort. If the student earnestly seeks the truth and his thinking is genuine, the expression will be free from affectation and unnaturalness.

The following examples are selected for this quality of simplicity:

EXAMPLES

1. A certain nobleman had a spacious garden which he left to the care of a faithful servant, whose delight it was to trail the creepers along the trellis, to water the seeds in time of drought, to support the stalks of the tender plants, and to do every work which could render the garden a paradise of flowers. One morning the servant rose with joy, expecting to tend his beloved flowers, and hoping to find his favorites increased in beauty. To his surprise, he found one of his choicest beauties rent from the stem. Full of grief and anger, he hurried to his fellow servants and demanded who had robbed him of his treasure. They had not done it, and he did not charge them with it, but he found no solace for his grief till one of them remarked, "My lord was walking in the garden this morning, and I saw him pluck the flower and carry it away." Then, truly, the gardener found he had no cause for his trouble. He felt that it was well his master had been pleased to take his own; and he went away smiling at his loss, because his lord had taken delight in the flowers.
"Funeral Sermon." SPURGEON.

2. A spindle of hazelwood had I;
Into the mill-stream it fell one day- The water has brought it me back no more.
As he lay a-dying, the soldier spake:
"I am content! Let my mother be told in the village there, And my bride in the hut be told, That they must pray with folded hands,
With folded hands for me/' The soldier is dead-and with folded hands,
His bride and his mother pray. On the field of battle they dug his grave, And red with his life-blood the earth was dyed,
The earth they laid him in. The sun looked down on him there and spake: "I am content."
And flowers bloomed thickly upon his grave,
And were glad they blossomed there. And when the wind in the tree-tops roared, The soldier asked from the deep, dark grave:
"Did the banner flutter then?" "Not so, my hero," the wind replied, "The fight is done, but the banner won, Thy comrades of old have borne it hence,
Have borne it in triumph hence." Then the soldier spake from the deep, dark grave 5 "I am content."
And again he heard the shepherds pass
And the flocks go wand'ring by, And the soldier asked: "Is the sound I hear,
The sound of the battle's roar?" And they all replied: "My hero, nay! Thou art dead and the fight is o'er, Our country joyful and free." Then the soldier spake from the deep, dark grave: "I am content."
Then he heareth the lovers, laughing, pass,
And the soldier asks once more: "Are these not the voices of them that love,
That love-and remember me?" "Not so, my hero," the lovers say, "We are those that remember not; For the spring has come and the earth has smiled,
And the dead must be forgot." Then the soldier spake from the deep, dark grave: "I am content."
A spindle of hazelwood had I;
Into the mill-stream it fell one day-
The water has brought it me back no more.
"Bard of Dimbovitza." Translated by CARMEN SYLVA.

3. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into the mountain:
and when he had sat down, his disciples came unto him:
and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you.
"St. Matthew, 5." THE BIBLE.