Spears of Spyinghow (The Three), in the troop of Fitzurse.--Sir W. Scott, Ivanhoe (time, Richard I.).
Speech ascribed to Dumb Animals. Al Borak, the animal which conveyed Mahomet to the seventh heaven; Arīon, the wonderful horse which Herculês gave to Adrastos; Balaam’s ass (Numb. xxii. 28-30); the black pigeons of Dodōna; Comrade, Fortunio’s horse; Katmîr, the dog of the Seven Sleepers; Sâleh’s camel; Temliha, king of the serpents; Xanthos, the horse of Achillês. Frithjof’s ship, Ellīda, could not speak, but it understood what was said to it.
Speech given to Conceal Thought. La parole a été donnée a l’homme pour déguiser la pensée or pour l’aider à cacher sa pensée. Talleyrand is usually credited with this sentence, but Captain Gronow, in his Recollections and Anecdotes, asserts that the words were those of Count Montrond, a wit and poet, called “the most agreeable scoundrel and most pleasant reprobate in the court of Marie Antoinette.”
Voltaire, in Le Chapon et la Poularde, says: “Ils n’employent les paroles que pour déguiser leurs pensées.”[pensées.”]
Goldsmith, in The Bee, iii. (October 20, 1759), has borrowed the same thought: “the true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.”
Speech-Makers (Bad).
Addison could not make a speech. He attempted one in the House of Commons, and said, “Mr. Speaker, I conceive--I conceive, sir--sir, I conceive----” Whereupon a member exclaimed, “The right honorable secretary of state has conceived thrice, and brought forth nothing.”
Campbell (Thomas), once tried to make a speech, but so stuttered and stammered, that the whole table was convulsed with laughter.
Cicero, the great orator, never got over his nervous terror till he warmed to his subject.
Irving (Washington), even with a speech written out, and laid before him, could not deliver it without a breakdown. In fact, he could hardly utter a word in public without trembling.