"If it be objected that in the case under consideration art is useless, because nature teaches what is needful, we reply, with Quintilian:—Nihil licet esse perfcctum, nisi ubi natura curâ juvatur. All talents are rude and unformed until the precepts of art refine and impart to them that polish which makes them valuable. Demosthenes had few natural gifts for public speaking; but exercise and experience gave what nature had denied him.
"If it be objected, further, that the Apostles never learnt the rules of action, we reply that they received the power of miracles—a more than adequate compensation for human eloquence. That, moreover, they received the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which enabled them to proclaim the Gospel worthily. That, inspired by that Divine Spirit, they were eloquent in action as well as in speech; and that St. Paul would not have been listened to on the Areopagus unless he had been able to captivate the eloquent people whom he addressed, as well by external action as by the sublimity of his language.
"Saint Charles directed that the candidates for holy orders in his seminary should be exercised several times a week in public speaking; and the Church has always followed the same practice. The Fathers also bestowed much attention on the formation of speech. Deprive me of every thing else, says Saint Gregory of Nazianzen, but leave me eloquence, and I shall never regret the voyages which I have made in order to study it." [Footnote 20]
[Footnote 20: Traité de la Prédication. By M. Hamon, Curé de Saint-Sulpice.]
What we are most deficient in is articulation—that powerful articulation which isolates, engraves, and chisels a thought … which fills the ear with harmony and the soul with truth; which gives the orator an extraordinary power of animation, by bringing into play the whole nervous system. We have already remarked that the force of a word is entirely in the consonant, whereas it is often laid on the vowel. The emission of the vowel is the rude block; the consonant is the artist's chisel, which works it into a masterpiece. … It appears to be frequently imagined that it requires as much effort to discharge waves of air as to hurl a heavy club into space; but it is not so in the least. What is needed is that the air should be compressed and triturated, and reduced into expressive and harmonious sounds. It is from misapprehension on this score that so many preachers fume and tire themselves and others, and that some appear like men who disgorge words which they have swallowed by mistake. A little practice would prevent them from falling into these and similar aberrations.
At the same time, we should not practise, as is often done, upon every sermon which we preach, for by so doing we shall be apt to deliver them very badly. It is scarcely in nature to prepare sentiments beforehand. As M. de Cormenin satirically puts it:—"Be impassioned, thunder, rage, weep, up to the fifth word, of the third sentence, of the tenth paragraph, of the tenth leaf. How easy that would be! above all, how very natural!"
The course to be pursued is this:—we should practise ourselves in the delivery of the several parts of a discourse, such as the expository, the demonstrative, and especially those which give expression to the different passions. That done, and when once in the pulpit, such studies should cease to occupy the mind.
The exercise thus insisted on is practised in other professions. Men who devote themselves to the theatre, cultivate their voices and their limbs. Young law students and advocates have their conferences, where they train themselves to plead at the bar; and yet those who are called to save souls neglect to cultivate the talents which God has given them!