been published in extenso. This has been the rule followed in giving
the great orations. In dealing with minor orators, the selections
made are considerable enough to show the style, method, and spirit.
Where it has been necessary to choose between two orations of equal
merit, the one having the greater historical significance has been
selected. Of course it would not be possible, keeping within
reasonable limits, to give every speech of every one worthy to be
called an orator. Indeed, the greatest of orators sometimes failed.
So we have carefully selected only those speeches which manifest the
power of eloquence; and this selection, we take pleasure in assuring
our readers, has been made by the most competent critics of the
country.

We have not confined ourselves to any one profession or field of
eloquence. The pulpit, the bar, the halls of legislation, and the
popular assembly have each and all been called upon for their best
contributions. The single test has been, is it oratory? the single
question, is there eloquence? The reader and student of every class
will therefore find within these pages that which will satisfy his
particular taste and desire in the matter of oratory.

As this work is designed especially for the American reader, we have
deemed it proper to give prominence to Anglo-Saxon orators; and yet
this prominence has not been carried so far as to make the work a
one-sided collection. It is not a mere presentation of American or
even of English-speaking orators. We submit the work to the American
public in the belief that all will find pleasure, interest, and
instruction in its pages, and in the hope that it will prove an
Inspiration to the growing generation to see to it that oratory be
not classed among the "lost arts," but that it shall remain an