CHAPTER SIXTH

THE ART OF ELOCUTION

The subject of preaching would be incomplete without a chapter on
the important and graceful art of elocution.

[Side note: What books should we read?]

If asked what works would a student read on the subject, the
wisest answer would be, every book he can lay hold of. The number
of works dealing with rhetoric are few, but if a man can get
half-a-dozen new ideas from any one of them his labour is more
than repaid. Even should he meet the same thought repeated, the
fact that it is clothed in different language and set in a new
light invests it with a freshness that is sure to fix it
permanently in his mind.

If, however, the question be narrowed down to which are the three
best books on this subject? without pretending to give a decisive
answer to this difficult question we have no hesitation in saying
that, for the ecclesiastical student, "Potter's Sacred
Eloquence," "The Making of an Orator," by Mr. John O'Connor
Power, and Mr. McHardy Flint's little work, "Natural Elocution,"
will be found most useful.

Some of the thoughts in this chapter are borrowed from the last
two authors.