No kind of language is so generally understood, or has such force and weight, as the language of feeling. The advocate must be in downright earnest before he can impress his hearers.
It only remains for us to add, that the student of oratory must exercise himself continually in both writing and speaking. Writing is said by Cicero to be "the best and most excellent modeler and teacher of oratory"; "for," he continues, "if what is meditated and considered easily surpasses sudden and extemporaneous speech, a constant and diligent habit of writing will surely be of more effect than meditation and consideration itself." Write with as much pains as possible, and write as much as possible. It is even as Quintilian said: "It is not writing rapidly that you come to write well, but by writing well you come to write rapidly." In mental culture, as in the culture of the earth, the seed sown in the deepest furrows finds a more fruitful soil, is more securely cherished and springs up in its time to more exuberant and healthful harvest. Without this discipline, the power and practise of extemporaneous speech will yield only an empty loquacity—only words born on the lips. In this discipline, deep down there are the roots, there the foundations; thence must the harvest shoot, thence the structure ascend; there is garnered up, as in a more sacred treasury, wealth for the supply of even unanticipated exactions. Thus, first of all, we must accumulate resources sufficient for the contests to which we are summoned. In writing, seek for the best; do not eagerly and gladly lay hold on that which first offers itself; apply judgment to the crowd of thoughts and words which fill your mind and retain those only of which your judgment deliberately approves. Nor should every word be allowed to occupy the exact spot where the order of time in which it occurs would place it. Seek rather by a variety of experiments and arrangements to attain to the utmost power and eloquence of style. There is nothing like the pen to correct vagueness of thought and looseness of expression. Every argument, every speech should, so far as possible, be carefully written out. It is not necessary, nor is it even advisable, to commit it to memory, save in rare instances. The mind should be left untrammeled by any set speech to take advantage of the inspiration of the moment. But the simple act of carefully composing and writing down an argument will fix in the mind the general order and sequence of facts and illustrations, and will greatly aid in a clear and forcible arrangement. The night before Alexander Hamilton delivered his celebrated speech, which more than anything else led to the establishment of a liberal and more just law regarding libel and slander in the State of New York, he wrote the argument all out and then deliberately tore it up.
Besides frequent practise in writing, the student must have constant practise in speaking, which is of more real value than all the precepts of the masters.
It is sometimes said that men by speaking succeed in becoming speakers, but it is just as true that men by speaking badly succeed in becoming bad speakers. It is frequently the case, that students do nothing more in practise than to exercise their voice, and not even that skilfully—and try their strength of lungs and volubility of tongue. Such practise is but a waste of breath. The student should make it a cardinal rule always to do his best even while practising in his room; to speak on subjects that he has deliberately considered, and in such a style as he would adopt were an audience before him. Of course, that kind of speaking will be most advantageous to the advocate which is most in accordance with the business of his life. Prominent advocates in every age have, while developing their powers, made it a practise to propose a case similar to those brought in the courts, and to make arguments thereon as nearly as possible as they would were it an actual case in court. Cicero followed this plan two thousand years ago, as he himself has told us, and Curran and Choate were both indefatigable in this practise.
Such are the means, such the labors by which the student may make himself an advocate. It is not the work of an hour or a day or a year, but of years—years of application and of industry—of patient plodding and painful study. It is not by starts of application and intermittent labor that anything valuable can be achieved. It is the outgrowth of well-directed and persistent effort. In nothing more than oratory are the lines of the poet true:
"The Father of our race Himself decrees
That culture shall be hard."
It has been the glory of the great masters of the art to confront and to overcome; and all the wisdom of these latter days has discovered no other road to success. These suggestions apply not only to the lawyer, but to every man who would become an efficient public speaker and a leader of men.