t is how I got my training
in oratory, and all the secret there is in whatever power of expression
I may have.

In reading the history of slavery I studied the character of John Brown
and he became my hero. I read the speeches of Wendell Phillips and was
profoundly stirred by his marvelous powers. Once I heard him and was
enthralled by his indescribable eloquence. He was far advanced in years,
but I could see in his commanding presence and mellow and subdued tones
how he must have blazed and flashed in the meridian of his powers.

At about the same time I first heard Robert G. Ingersoll. He was in my
opinion the perfect master of the art of human speech. He combined all
the graces, gifts and powers of expression, and stood upon the highest
pinnacle of oratorical achievement.

Robert G. Ingersoll and Wendell Phillips were the two greatest orators
of their time, and probably of all time. Their power sprang from their
passion for freedom, for truth, for justice, for a world filled with
light and with happy human beings. But for this divine passion neither
would have scaled the sublime heights of immortal achievement. The
sacred fire burned within them and when they were aroused it flashed
from their eyes and rolled from their inspired lips in torrents of
eloquence.

No man ever made a great speech on a mean subject. Slavery never
inspired an immortal thought or utterance. Selfishness is dead to every
art. The love of truth and the passion to serve it light every torch of
real eloquence.

Had Ingersoll and Phillips devoted their lives to the practice of law
for pay the divine fire within them would have burned to ashes and they
would have died in mediocrity.

The highest there is in oratory is the highest there is in truth, in
honesty, in morality. All the virtues combine in expressing themselves
in beautiful words, poetic phrases, glowing periods, and moving
eloquence.

The loftiest peaks rise from the lowest depths and their shining
summits glorify their hidden foundations.

The highest eloquence springs from the lowliest sources and pleads
trumpet-tongued for the children of the abyss.

Wendell Phillips was inspired by the scarred back, the pleading eyes,
and the mute lips of chattel slavery and his tongue, eloquent with the
lightning of Jehovah's wrath, became an avenging flame to scourge the
horror of slavery from the earth.

Denial of one's better self seals the lips or pollutes them. Fidelity to
convict