and environment have instilled into him, and—­that other rich source of preparedness for speech—­the friendship of wise companions.  When Schiller returned home after a visit with Goethe a friend remarked:  “I am amazed by the progress Schiller can make within a single fortnight.”  It was the progressive influence of a new friendship.  Proper friendships form one of the best means for the formation of ideas and ideals, for they enable one to practise in giving expression to thought.  The speaker who would speak fluently before an audience should learn to speak fluently and entertainingly with a friend.  Clarify your ideas by putting them in words; the talker gains as much from his conversation as the listener.  You sometimes begin to converse on a subject thinking you have very little to say, but one idea gives birth to another, and you are surprised to learn that the more you give the more you have to give.  This give-and-take of friendly conversation develops mentality, and fluency in expression.  Longfellow said:  “A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years’ study of books,” and Holmes whimsically yet none the less truthfully declared that half the time he talked to find out what he thought.  But that method must not be applied on the platform!

After all this enrichment of life by storage, must come the special preparation for the particular speech.  This is of so definite a sort that it warrants separate chapter-treatment later.

Practise

But preparation must also be of another sort than the gathering, organizing, and shaping of materials—­it must include practise, which, like mental preparation, must be both general and special.

Do not feel surprised or discouraged if practise on the principles of delivery herein laid down seems to retard your fluency.  For a time, this will be inevitable.  While you are working for proper inflection, for instance, inflection will be demanding your first thoughts, and the flow of your speech, for the time being, will be secondary.  This warning, however, is strictly for the closet, for your practise at home.  Do not carry any thoughts of inflection with you to the platform.  There you must think only of your subject.  There is an absolute telepathy between the audience and the speaker.  If your thought goes to your gesture, their thought will too.  If your interest goes to the quality of your voice, they will be regarding that instead of what your voice is uttering.

You have doubtless been adjured to “forget everything but your subject.”  This advice says either too much or too little.  The truth is that while on the platform you must not forget a great many things that are not in your subject, but you must not think of them.  Your attention must consciously go only to your message, but subconsciously you will be attending to the points of technique which have become more or less habitual by practise.