This does not mean, however, that he must confine himself to plain
statement of fact, with no manifestation of feeling or earnestness. Men
are still influenced and persuaded by impassioned speech. There is
nothing incompatible between deep feeling and clear-cut speech. A man
having profound convictions upon any subject of importance will always
speak on it with fervor and sincerity.

The widespread interest in the subject of public speaking has suggested
this adaptation of Quintilian's celebrated work on the education of the
orator. This work has long been regarded as one of the most valuable
treatises ever written on oratory, but in its original form it is
ponderous and inaccessible to the average reader. In the present
abridged and modernized form it may be read and studied with benefit by
earnest students of the art of public speaking.

A brief account of Quintilian says: "Quintilianus, M. Fabius, was born
at Calagurris, in Spain, A. D. 40. He completed his education at Rome,
and began to practise at the bar about 68. But he was chiefly
distinguished as a teacher of eloquence, bearing away the palm in his
department from all his rivals, and associating his name, even to a
proverb, with preeminence in the art. By Domitian he was invested with
the insignia and title of consul, and is, moreover, celebrated as the
first public instructor who, in virtue of the endowment by Vespasian,
received a regular salary from the imperial exchequer. He is supposed to
have died about 118. The great work of Quintilian is a complete system
of rhetoric, in twelve books, entitled _De Institutione Oratoria Libre
XII_, or sometimes _Institutiones Oratoriæ_, dedicated to his friend
Marcellus Victorius, himself a celebrated orator, and a favorite at
Court. This production bears throughout the impress of a clear, sound