The rules of every science, as far as they are just and useful, are founded
in nature, or in good usage; hence their adoption and application tend to
free us from our artificial defects, all of which may be regarded as
departures from the simplicity of nature. Let the student, therefore, ever
bear in mind that whatever is artificial is unnatural, and that whatever is
unnatural is opposed to genuine eloquence.

Good reading is exactly like good talking--one, therefore, who would read
well or who would speak well, who would interest, rivet the attention,
convince the understanding, and excite the feelings of his hearers--need
not expect to do it by any extraordinary exertion or desperate effort; for
genuine eloquence is not to be wooed and won by any such boisterous course
of courtship, but by more gentle means. But, the pupil must not be tied
down to a too slavish attention to rules, for one flash of genuine emotion,
one touch of real nature, will produce a greater effect than the
application of all the studied rules of rhetorical art.

"He who in earnest studies o'er his part,
Will find true nature cling around his heart,
The modes of grief are not included all
In the white handkerchief and mournful drawl."

Before attempting to give a piece in public the pupil must practice it well
in private, until the words and ideas are perfectly familiar, and it must
be repeated o'er and o'er again, with perfect distinctness and clear
articulation,--for more declaimers break down in consequence of forgetting
the words of their piece, than from any other cause, and the pupil must
practice assiduously until there is no danger of failure from this source.

Do not be discouraged if your early attempts are not very successful ones,