always pressed and entreated, most winningly, that I would
venture, but I could never command sufficient resolution.
When the occasion was over I went home and wept bitter tears
of mortification."

Results of Training. The significance of all these illustrations is
that no great speaker has come by his ability without careful and
persistent training. No molder of the world's destinies springs fully
equipped from the welter of promiscuous events. He has been training
for a long time. On the other hand the much more practical lesson to
be derived from these biographical excerpts is that these men started
from ordinary conditions to make themselves into forceful thinkers
with powers of convincing expression. They overcame handicaps. They
strengthened their voices. They learned how to prepare and arrange
material. They made themselves able to explain topics to others. They
knew so well the reasons for their own belief that they could convince
others.

In a smaller way, to a lesser degree, any person can do the same
thing, and by the same or similar methods. Barring some people who
have physical defects or nervous diseases, any person who has enough
brains to grasp an idea, to form an opinion, or to produce a thought,
can be made to speak well. The preceding sentence says "barring some
people who have physical defects" because not all so handicapped at
the beginning need despair of learning to improve in speaking ability.
By systems in which the results appear almost miraculous the dumb are
now taught to speak. Stutterers and stammerers become excellent
deliverers of speeches in public. Weak voices are strengthened.
Hesitant expressions are made coherent. Such marvels of modern science
belong, however, to special classes and institutions. They are cited