"cultivate the pause."

One of the lecturer's most valuable assets is variety of pace, and this
is almost entirely lost by the speaker whose speed is always high.
Observe two men arguing in conversation where there is no thought of art
or oratory. Where the remarks are of an explanatory nature the words
come slowly and carefully. When persuasion becomes the object,
deliberation is thrown aside and words begin to flow like a mountain
freshet, and if the speaker has natural capacity he concludes his point
with a grand rush that carries everything before it.

When a speaker carefully selects his words and it is clear to the
audience that he is deliberately weighing and measuring his sentences,
his listeners are unconsciously impressed with a sense of their
importance.

Of course, deliberation may be overdone, and if the audience once gets
the impression that the speaker is slow and does not move along more
quickly because he cannot, the effect is disastrous.

Deliberation is closely akin to seriousness and the lecturer who has no
great and serious question to present should retire from the platform
and try vaudeville.

It is just here that the Socialist has a great advantage, for his theme
is the most serious and tremendous that ever occupied the mind of man.

CHAPTER V

PERORATION

The close of a lecture is called the peroration--the word oration
prefixed by the Latin preposition "per." "Per" has several meanings, one
of them being "to the utmost extent" as in peroxide--a substance
oxidized to the utmost degree.

This is probably the sense in which it is used in peroration, for the
close of a lecture should be oratory at its utmost.

The speaker who has failed to observe the previous rules about
"beginning easy," and "speaking deliberately" will pay the penalty here.
If he has spoken rapidly, he will be unable to increase the pace--at
least, sufficiently to get the best results.

If he has spoken too loudly and kept nothing in reserve, his voice will
refuse to "rise to the occasion."

The manner of the peroration has two essentials, an increase of speed,
and a raising of the voice. These two things go naturally together; as
the words come more quickly the voice tends to rise apparently
automatically, and this is as it should be.

The peroration has the nature of a triumph. The question has been fought
out in the main body of the lecture, the opposing positions have been
overthrown, and now the mai