regards German, into which language even Shakespeare has
been so admirably rendered as to have lost comparatively
little of his original glory. Of course a knowledge of
German is of great use both to the scientific and the
theological student and to the literary critic, for a great
deal of the original thinking of the present day is done
by Germans ; but, on the other hand, almost every first-rate
book that is written in German is pretty sure within a
very short space of time to be translated into English.
I should therefore say that to the ordinary student who
has not the faculty for acquiring foreign languages, which
is a talent of its own, or who has not some special prospect
of being connected during his future career with German
interests, it would be good economy to pretermit the
German and to be content with French. If, however,
his tastes and his natural aptitudes lie in the direction
of languages, he might with advantage apply himself not
only to German but also to Italian. With regard, however,
to the latter, I would observe that it is a great mistake
to suppose that it is an easy language either to learn to
MARQUESS OF DUFFERIN AND A VA 345
speak or to learn to read. In this respect it is the most
deceptive of all languages, for to any one with a knowledge
of French and of Latin it appears at first sight extremely
easy. Nor, indeed, is there very much difficulty in acquiring
a sufficient smattering of it to run through the Italian
newspapers or to enable you to make known all your
needs as a traveller; but when you come to converse in
it with educated people, or to read Dante and the great
Italian classics, the case is very different. Still, it is a
lovely tongue, and its medieval literature is equally rich
and interesting.
And now I wonder whether I could be of any use to
you in giving any hints as to how a modern language is
to be learnt. Sticking to the principle which I have
already submitted in reference to Latin and Greek, it seems
to me that the first thing to do is to acquire some knowledge
of its vocabulary. There are various ways of doing this.
The late Dr. Schliemann, who was undoubtedly a very apt
linguist, used, I believe, to take some good book written in
the tongue he wished to acquire, and learn off a certain
number of pages by heart; but this is a process which it
requires a peculiar capacity to accomplish. The great
Duke of Wellington learnt Spanish out of a Spanish prayer-
book once given him by the famous old ladies of Llangollen.
What I would recommend is this, to inquire for some
work in the language which is both easy and entertaining,
and then to get a Frenchman or a German, as the case
may be, to read it out to you aloud, and to tell you viva
voce every word that you do not know, while you mark
the unknown word on your own copy as you go on. If
this living dictionary is not within your reach, then I
would say though I tremble as I utter the words provide
yourselves with a good crib. Of course these markings
would occur under almost every word in the first chapter
perhaps in every other word in the second, and in two-
thirds of the words in the third, fourth, and fifth ; but
before you got half through the book, the interruptions
would gradually diminish for every author has a vocabu-
346 RECTORIAL ADDRESSES
lary of his own, outside of which he does not travel ; and
probably by the time you had got through two-thirds of
the work, you would find yourselves able to finish the
volume without any assistance. In a novel, say of two
volumes or of six hundred pages, there will probably be
three thousand words about which you have had to inquire,
and which you will have marked. Of these you should
make a list, either in writing, or, what perhaps is better
still, through the medium of a type-writer, after which you
should learn them by heart. A person with a fair memory
should be able, without sacrificing much time to the
business, to master forty words a-day, so that three thousand
words could be acquired in about three months. When
this process has been accomplished, you will find that you
will be able to take up any ordinary book in the language
in question and read it, I will not say with fluency, but
at all events without that sense of intolerable irksomeness
which oppresses us when we have to puzzle through each
successive sentence with] the aid of a dictionary. If going
through the first book has not been found sufficient to
enable us to read the succeeding book with ease, the
original process can be again repeated until our vocabulary
has become so enlarged as to render it altogether unneces-
sary. Of course I do not mean to imply that in the course
of the foregoing operation we are to neglect the grammar ;
but my own experience has taught me that, although it
may be desirable as a preliminary step to run lightly
through some elementary grammar of the language, the
task of acquiring a comprehensive, intimate, and intelligent
knowledge of its rules will be much more rapidly and
thoroughly accomplished after we are able to embrace at
a glance the meaning of a sentence and the relation to
each other of the various words which compose it ; for,
at this stage, those grammatical rules which at first it
seemed very difficult for the memory to retain, soon impress
themselves instinctively upon one's attention.
Another advantage accruing from this method of writing-
down as you go along a list of the words you do not readily
MARQUESS OF DUFFERIN AND A VA 347
remember is that, if through disuse for a few years, absence
from the country, or other accidental circumstance, you in
a great measure forget a language which you have once
learned, a very slight re-study of your vocabularies will
enable you to recover it.
Before I quit the subject of modern languages, however,
there is another point to which I may refer for a moment,
namely, the acquisition of a good accent. Here again
certain persons are endowed with greater aptitudes than
others, for it will be generally, though not always, found
that those who have a good ear for music have also a happy
knack of acquiring a right pronunciation ; but even those
who cannot whistle a tune need not be discouraged on this
account, for, with a little care and attention, they also will
be able to attain the desired object. Of course the only
way to do this is by constantly listening to the language in
question spoken around them. I would therefore strongly
advise the student, even should he have learnt to read or
write French or German readily, to avoid every attempt at
pronouncing it in his own uninstructed manner, for it is
almost impossible to get rid of the wrong pronunciation of
a word or of a bad accent when once one has acquired it.
If, however, there is a French or a German instructor handy,
the best plan would be to make him either talk to you or
read to you out loud, and then, when you have in a certain
degree accustomed your ear to his pronunciation, to read
out aloud to him. But this latter process will have to be
pursued very diligently and for a great length of time, and
the words you cannot pronounce should be written down,
and you should be constantly repeating them to yourself;
for in this way you will find your mouth and your vocal
organs gradually mould themselves to the nasal and gut-
tural accents of your French and German friends.
But far more important than the acquisition of any
foreign tongue is the art of skilfully handling your own.
Already Providence has issued its decree that English should
be the predominant language of the globe. In other words,
the man who writes a good book or makes a good speech in
348 RECTORIAL ADDRESSES
English will command for all time what is already the
greatest audience known to history, and which eventually
will cover the better part of three of the five continents of
the world. Consequently, if any of you should have any-
thing worth saying, and you can only learn how to say it
properly, you will be able to ensure a vast amount of
sympathy and attention. But it is not only to the writers
of books and sermons and addresses that the power of
expressing our thoughts in clear, persuasive, and enchanting
language is useful. The pen of a ready writer is an in-
estimable advantage in our daily avocations and our social
and domestic relations. How, then, is this to be acquired ?
this simple but divine gift by which a string of the
most commonplace monosyllables can be arrayed in such a
connection with one another as to caress our ears like the
music of the spheres, at the same time that they melt our
heart or convince our understanding. That is a secret
which I do not myself possess, and therefore which I cannot
disclose ; but many admirable books have been written,
especially in Scotland, on the rhetorical art, on literary
style, and other cognate subjects. Personally, I do not be-
lieve that any of these books are of much practical benefit.
But there is one golden rule which I would venture to insist
upon namely, that in the first place, before putting pen to
paper, you should compel your own mind to hammer out an
absolutely clear and distinct conception of the thought you
wish to express, and that then you should put it into the
simplest and least Latinised words that come to hand,
without giving a thought to what is called style, and con-
fining your attention to the attainment of only two objects
conciseness and lucidity. If these two points are secured,
the rhythm, cadence, harmony, and music will come of their
own accord. In fact, let the first sentence in Caesar's
Commentaries be your model, for simplicity is as great a
grace in style as it is in character and conduct. But do
not imagine that either clearness or conciseness can be
attained without a great deal of labour. In the hurry and
fervour of composition we are too apt to become obscure
MARQUESS OF DUFFERIN AND AVA 349
and, above all, redundant. Indeed, until we have been
shown how to boil down our paragraphs by some person
acquainted with the secret, it is difficult to believe the
extent to which compression may be advantageously carried,
not merely by the suppression of adjectives, adverbs, parti-
ciples, and expletives, but by a change in the construction of
the sentences. Of course there are a few simple mechanical
rules which are easily followed, such as the breaking up
both of your paragraphs and of your sentences into unequal
lengths ; the introduction of a synonym in the place of a
too frequently recurring vocable ; the rounding of the periods
with a word of a certain weight and substance ; and the
preventing your sentences, especially at their commencement,
being cast in the same grammatical mould. These, however,
are trifling precautions in which you will soon acquire a
mechanical aptitude. But there is one great danger to
which a young writer is exposed, and that is a love of
ornament, metaphor, and allusion. I do not say that they
are not permissible in the hands of a master of literature,
but then a master has an unerring instinct and an ex-
quisiteness of taste which never betray him ; but in nine
cases out of ten the neophyte will do well ruthlessly to tear
out from his composition all its choicest flowers, even though
they should shriek like mandrakes at the operation. I
confess the rule is a very difficult one to observe, and that,
after the severest and most searching excision, symptoms of
this noxious efflorescence may still lurk in one's manuscript.
If they do, you may be certain that an adequate retribution
will overtake you. Some years ago I had to write a report
on the best way of reorganising the Government of Egypt.
It was a subject upon which I had spent a great deal of
pains and labour, and my one thought in drawing up the
paper was to make it a clear, practical, and business-like
statement of the actual condition of the country, and of the
measures it would be desirable to introduce for its improve-
ment. Unfortunately, however, in one of the earlier para-
graphs I was tempted in the fervour of composition, as there
rose to my mind's eye a regenerated Egypt and the beneficial
350 RECTORIAL ADDRESSES
consequences of the reforms I was suggesting, and which
have been so happily applied, expanded, and improved upon
by Sir Evelyn Baring, to make some allusion to Memnon
and the rising sun. It was a perfectly spontaneous image,
which sprung unbidden from the innocence of my heart ;
but, in spite of the general indulgence with which the report
was received, those who, for one reason or another, were
opposed to the policy of the Government I was representing,
at once seized upon this unfortunate simile, and denounced
what I had written, which, in all its other parts, was as
bald as well could be, as a literary exercitation ; and no
doubt they were perfectly justified in considering that
neither Memnon nor the rising sun had any business in a
blue-book.
There is one other useful rule which I would also re-
commend to all young writers, no matter what may be
the nature of their composition whether books, speeches,
sermons, lectures, or addresses namely, that after they have
written them they should cut them down by about a third.
Probably there are few books, still fewer sermons, and cer-
tainly no speeches that have ever been produced or delivered,
which would not have been very much improved by being
considerably curtailed.
But, talking of speeches, perhaps it may interest you to
know what I have occasionally heard from various authorities
in their regard. Undoubtedly, the gift of speaking is a
totally different thing from the gift of writing ; nor does it
by any means follow that he who excels in the one is
equally perfect in the other. Indeed, next to the gift of
poetic inspiration, the gift of true oratory is the rarest of any
accorded to man, and yet it is the one which, in England at
all events, leads more readily than any other to distinction,
to fame, to power, and to what are called substantial public
rewards. Whether it is beneficial that this should be the
case may be a question ; for it does not always follow that
great eloquence is the handmaid of perfect wisdom. On
the other hand, it is seldom dissociated from eminent ability
of some kind or another. Xow it is probable that the great
MARQUESS OF DUFFERIN AND A VA 351
majority of those whom I am addressing will be called upon
to speak in public, either as ministers of the Gospel, as
lawyers, as members of Parliament, or as exponents of opinion
in some form or another. It is therefore of the utmost im-
portance to you to know how the art of public speaking can
be best attained.
I am not now alluding to that almost preter-human elo-
quence which is the endowment of genius, and of genius
alone, and which flows from the lips of a great orator, im-
passioned and uninvoked, clothing his ideas in words of fire
which burn into the hearts of his audience, and leave them
spell-bound beneath the wand of the enchanter. It is only
to few, to very few, amongst men that this power is intrusted ;
but there is a secondary order of eloquence which, though in
no sense artificial, can provided there exist a certain natural
aptitude be successfully cultivated and rendered of com-
manding utility as an instrument of pleasure and persuasion.
The first essential principle is undoubtedly practice. I have
often heard experienced members of the House of Commons
remark on the extraordinary improvement which practice has
produced in those whom necessary circumstances or their
own courage and ambition have induced to persevere in
imposing themselves upon a long-suffering audience. The
reason of this is not far to seek. What is required' before
a man can think effectively upon his legs is the perfect con-
centration of his attention upon what he has to say ; but
this is almost impossible to those who are new to the effort.
A multitude of thoughts utterly foreign to their speech and
its subject are dividing their minds, while sheer physical
nervousness imports a further element of confusion. The
fear of failure and its consequences ; the dazzling spectacle
of so many hundred attentive faces swimming before their
eyes ; the careless gestures and whisperings of the indifferent
members of their audiences ; the knowledge that their notes
have got hopelessly mixed, combine to create a situation of
mental torture which shakes the limbs, dries the mouth, and
twists the tongue inextricably round the teeth. Indeed, so
terrible is the ordeal that, as we all know, only a minority
352 RECTORIAL ADDRESSES
are capable of surviving it ; but in the case of those who
have courage to persevere, these unpleasant accidents and
symptoms will eventually vanish, the train of their thoughts
will gradually flow forth clearly and calmly, and the necessary
words will suggest themselves with less and less difficulty
and effort. But still I am inclined to believe that no good
speech is ever made, unless by the most practised of our public
men, without a great deal of careful preparation. Indeed, it
is almost an insult to his audience for any ordinary person
to demand their attention unless he has well considered
beforehand what he is going to say. But of course both the
kinds and the degrees of possible preparation are very various.
Some persons and this we know was the practice of
Demosthenes, of Cicero, and of the ancients write out every
word of their speeches from beginning to end beforehand ;
and this practice, I imagine, has been followed by many
eminent orators of our own time by Macaulay, for instance,
by the late Lord Ellenborough, and by others. Some per-
sons only compose and write out beforehand portions of what
they intend to say, but these portions generally include the
exordium and the peroration. Mr. Bright, I believe, made
no secret of this being his practice ; and we have Lord
Brougham's own statement for the fact that he wrote out the
last paragraphs of his speech in defence of Queen Caroline
nine times. But I do not recommend any one who would
really desire to become a good speaker to accustom himself,
unless on exceptional occasions, even though he should write
out his speech beforehand, to learn it by heart. Such a prac-
tice is like swimming with corks. In the first place, to most
people, both the labour of such a process and the time oc-
cupied in executing it would be found excessive ; and in the
next, if through any lapse of memory you get into difficulties,
your breakdown is sure to be instantaneous and complete.
Moreover, under such conditions you would never become a
debater, or capable of replying to the arguments of an op-
ponent, which is even a more useful and necessary aptitude
in public life than the art of delivering a set speech. At
the same time there are occasions when it would be prudent
MARQUESS OF DUFFERIN AND A VA 353
to follow such a course. For instance, I remember, many
many years ago, I was intrusted by the late Lord Palmerston
with the duty of moving the Address in the House of Lords
on the assembling of Parliament after the death of Prince
Albert. The occasion was a most sad and solemn one, for
the principal subject of my discourse was the national loss
we had so recently sustained. I felt that were I to trust to
the inspiration of the moment, or even to such perfunctory
methods of preparation as are generally adopted, it might
very well happen not only that I should fail to give adequate
expression to my own feelings, and to the feelings of the
august assembly of whose grief I had been appointed the
interpreter, but that there might fall from my lips some un-
happy and incongruous phrase which would jar disagreeably
on the ears of every one present, and expose me to well-
merited censure and reproach. Accordingly, I at once sat
down and wrote out every word of my speech, and learnt it
so carefully by heart that I knew that no untoward accident
or interruption could interfere with its delivery ; and in this
way, though it lasted an hour and a half, I was able, without
once looking at a note, to go through it without accident to
the end. But if you do learn your speech by heart, do not
embellish it with unnecessary apostrophes, like a member
of the French Chamber, who, in the midst of the most profound
silence, said, " In vain does your clamour try to stifle my voice ;
your rude howls do not intimidate me ; " or, like Quintilian's
orator pleading against Cassius Severus, who, suddenly
stopping short, cried out to his opponent, "Why do you fix
on me that angry scowl ? " " I ! " said Cassius, surprised, " I
was not even thinking of you, but since you have it written so,
I am ready to oblige ; " at the same time making a hideous
grimace, which threw the audience into fits of laughter.
There are also one or two other occasions when the writing-
out at least of a speech beforehand may be advisable
namely, where the audience you have in view is rather the
general public you hope to reach through the newspapers
than the few score persons by whom alone your observations
are actually heard ; for, strange to say, it frequently happens
23
354 RECTORIAL ADDRESSES
that an extempore speech which sounds excellent to those
who hear it, does not read nearly so well in a report, whereas
a prepared one, which sounds artificial and tiresome to the
listener, will prove a moving and powerful exposition of a
theme when perused by the public. There are also occa-
sions when a responsible Minister, in making a statement,
especially if relating to foreign affairs, is bound to consider
not only the turn of every sentence, but carefully to weigh
every word he utters, as an ill-chosen phrase might give rise
to the most serious consequences.
Indeed, there are numerous instances where even
practised orators have come to grief through what we
may call a slip of the tongue in the course of an extempore
speech nay, it was only the other day that the choice of
an ill-considered epithet caused the fall of a powerful
Minister in Italy. Still it is undoubtedly a fact that all
audiences prefer an extempore or semi- extempore effort to
the finest specimens of prepared, self-conscious, and thea-
trical oratory. I am even inclined to think that they are
more attentive to a somewhat hesitating than to a glib and
fluent speaker, as they certainly are ready to show far
more indulgence to bashfulness than to a too confident
demeanour.
If, however, you write out your speech beforehand,
there are one or two precautions to which you had better
attend. In the first place, do not have it sent to the
reporters interlarded with cheers before it has been delivered,
as once was done by an acquaintance of mine, who, after
all, never got an opportunity of speaking ; in the next, do
not repeat as a speech a couple of pages from some well-
known author, as Lord Beaconsfield most unaccountably
did when passing an eulogium on the Duke of Wellington,
for only a very great man could afford to take such a
liberty ; and, lastly, do not let the manuscript fall out of
your pocket, for there may be practised upon you a trick
which was played once in the House of Commons by Sir
Thomas Wyse upon an honourable member. Sir Thomas
Wyse told me the story himself. The gentleman in
MARQUESS OF DUFFERIN AND A VA 355
question had come down primed with a great oration, but
unfortunately he dropped his manuscript. A mischiev-
ous colleague picked it up and brought it to Sir Thomas,
who had an extraordinary faculty of learning by heart.
Some other business being on hand enabled Sir Thomas
Wyse to retire to a committee -room and duly prepare
himself. When the discussion came on, he watched his
chance, and contrived to catch the Speaker's eye at the
opportune moment. A great number of people had been
let into the secret, and were watching the effect produced
by the stolen thunder upon its rightful proprietor. At
first he showed signs of being pleased with support from so
unexpected a quarter, but when gradually he recognised his
own well-polished periods flowing forth from alien lips, the
look of surprise, indignation, and confusion which passed
over his countenance was extremely comical.
What, however, I should recommend to beginners, but
only to beginners, is a suggestion made to me in the
hunting-field by an eminent Privy Councillor, who was
undoubtedly a very powerful speaker, and was able to
hold the attention of the House of Commons for long
periods at a time. The plan he told me he pursued was
the following : He first, of course, saturated himself with
a thorough knowledge of his subject. This, I need not say,