have hope and faith in the future. I believe that we shall see, and at
no very distant time, sound economic principles spreading much more
widely among the people; a sense of justice growing up in a soil which
hitherto has been deemed unfruitful; and, which will be better than
all--the churches of the United Kingdom--the churches of Britain
awaking, as it were, from their slumbers, and girding up their loins to
more glorious work, when they shall not only accept and believe in the
prophecy, but labor earnestly for its fulfilment, that there shall come
a time--a blessed time--a time which shall last forever--when "nation
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any
more."--_Peace:_ JOHN BRIGHT.
_A Study in Common Sense and Exalted Thought_
14. My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole
subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an
object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never
take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no
good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied
still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and on the sensitive point,
the laws of your own framing under it; while the new administration will
have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were
admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in this
dispute there is still no single good reason for precipitate action.
Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who
has never yet forsaken this favored land are still competent to adjust
in the best way all our present difficulty. In your hands, my
dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, are the momentous
issues of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no
conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath
registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the
most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend" it.--_The First
Inaugural Address:_ ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
HOW TO SPEAK IN PUBLIC[1]
BY GRENVILLE KLEISER
[Footnote 1: A talk given before The Public Speaking Club of America.]
The art of public speaking is so simple that it is difficult. There is
an erroneous impression that in order to make a successful speech a man
must have unusual natural talent in addition to long and arduous study.
Consequently, many a person, when asked
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