1. In Itself.—­Speech is the most wonderful gift of the Creator.  Through speech man occupies the first rank in the scale of being.  It is the language of the reason, and reason lifts man above every creature.  Man through speech incarnates his mind to unite himself with his fellow-men, as the Son of God was incarnated to unite with human nature; like the Son of God who nourishes humanity with his body in the eucharist, so man makes his speech understood by multitudes who receive it entire, without division or diminution.

Eternal thanks to God for this ineffable gift, so great in itself, of such value in the art of oratory!

2.  What is the oratorical value of speech?  In oratorical art, speech plays a subordinate but indispensable role.

Let us examine separately the two members of this proposition.

A.—­In the hierarchy of oratorical powers, speech comes only in the third order.  In fact, the child begins to utter cries and to gesticulate before he speaks.

The text is only a label.  The sense lies not in speech, but in inflection and gesture.  Nature institutes a movement, speech names the movement.  Writing is a dead letter.

Speech is only the title of that which gesture has announced; speech comes only to confirm what is already understood by the auditors.

We are moved in reading, not so much by what is said, as by the manner of reading.  It is not what we hear that affects us, but that which we ourselves imagine.

An author cannot fully express his ideas in writing; hence the interpretation of the hearer is often false, because he does not know the writer.

It is remarkable, the way in which we refer everything to ourselves.  We must needs create a semblance of it.  We are affected by a discourse because we place the personage in a situation our fancy has created.  Hence it happens that we may be wrong in our interpretation, and that the author might say:  “This is not my meaning.”

In hearing a symphony we at once imagine a scene, we give it an aspect; this is why it affects us.

A written discourse requires many illustrative epithets; in a spoken discourse, the adjectives may be replaced by gesture and inflection.

Imitation is the melody of the eye, inflection is the melody of the ear.  All that strikes the eye has a sound; this is why the sight of the stars produces an enchanting melody in our souls.

Hence in a discourse, speech is the letter, and it is inflection and gesture which give it life.  Nevertheless:—­

B.—­The role of speech, although subordinate, is not only important, but necessary.  In fact, human language, as we have said, is composed of inflection, gesture and speech.

Language would not be complete without speech.  Speech has nothing to do with sentiment, it is true, but a discourse is not all sentiment; there is a place for reason, for demonstration, and upon this ground gesture has nothing to do; the entire work here falls back upon speech.