ce in this place another rule, the observance of which
will aid in preventing the ill consequences resulting from the
accidental loss of self-possession. The rule is, utter yourself very
slowly and deliberately, with careful pauses. This is at all times a
great aid to a clear and perspicuous statement. It is essential to the
speaker, who would keep the command of himself and consequently of his
hearers.

One is very likely, when, in the course of speaking, he has stumbled on
an unfortunate expression, or said what he would prefer not to say, or
for a moment lost sight of the precise point at which he was aiming, to
hurry on with increasing rapidity, as if to get as far as possible from
his misfortune, or cause it to be forgotten in the crowd of new words.
But instead of thus escaping the evil, he increases it; he entangles
himself more and more; and augments the difficulty of recovering his
route. The true mode of recovering himself is by increased deliberation.
He must pause, and give himself time to think;--"ut tamen deliberare non
haesitare videatur." He need not be alarmed lest his hearers suspect the
difficulty. Most of them are likely to attribute the slowness of his
step to any cause rather than the true one. They take it for granted,
that he says and does precisely as he intended and wished. They suppose
that he is pausing to gather up his strength. It excites their
attention. The change of manner is a relief to them. And the probability
is, that the speaker not only recovers himself, but that the effort to
do it gives a spring to the action of his powers, which enables him to
proceed afterward with greater energy.

8. In regard to language, the best rule is, that no preparation be made.
There is no convenient and profitable medium between speaking from
memory and from immediate suggestion. To mix the two is no aid, but a
great hindrance, because it perplexes the mind between the very
different operations of memory and invention. To prepare sentences and
parts of sentences, which are to be introduced here and there, and the
intervals between them to be filled up in the delivery, is the surest of
all ways to produce constraint. It is like the embarrassment of framing
verses to prescribed rhymes; as vexatious, and as absurd. To be
compelled to shape the course of remark so as to suit a sentence which
is by and by to come, or to introduce certain expressions which are
waiting for their place, is a check to the nat