The achievement of the first end calls for bluster and perhaps a
grim, barbaric strength; you must do as Johnson did according to
Goldsmith's famous dictum--if your pistol misses fire, you must knock your
adversary down with the butt end of it. This procedure, though inartistic
to be sure, is in some contingencies the only kind that will serve. But
you should cultivate procedure of a type more urbane. Let your very
reasonableness be the most potent weapon you wield. To this end you should
form the habit of looking for good points on both sides of a question. As
a still further precaution against contentiousness you should uphold the
two sides successively.
In narrating you should, as a rule, stick to simple occurrences, though
you may occasionally vary your work by summarizing the plot of a novel or
giving the gist and drift of big historical events. You should confine
yourself, in large part, to incidents in which you have been personally
involved, or which you yourself have witnessed, as mishaps, unexpected
encounters, bickerings, even rescues or riots. You should omit
non-essentials and make the happening itself live for your hearer; if you
can so interest him in it that he will not notice your manner of telling
it, your success is but the greater.
Pages:
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81