PRIVATE SPEAKING PRACTICE
A most valuable part of early speaking experience is to give the address aloud alone, or in the presence of a very select audience. Simply reading out the manuscript is an important piece of self-criticism, for there are very few purple patches which will not show themselves for what they are when the text is read out; there is not much melodrama which does not sound as ridiculous as it really is before the cold gaze of the clock on the mantelpiece, or the knowledgeable wink of the flames flickering in the grate. It requires some courage to do this, or to go further, and present the lecture to the fictitious audience as it is meant to be delivered. Why, is difficult to say. Possibly it is because one seems so ridiculous when the door suddenly opens, and his wife enters with, " Whatever are you doing, Charles? "

But this cannot arise if the wife has been told before. Indeed, those at home may contribute vastly to the success of our lectures by their criticism, which is likely to be altogether more ruthless than any speakers' class dare inflict. Petty mannerisms, favourite turns of speech which need a change, statements whose sincerity intimate knowledge calls in question-all these may be refined by this discipline.

Early adventures in emancipation from manuscript, abbreviation of notes and the like, can be made with much more security if they are so rehearsed. It would be fair to say that our early lectures have not been properly prepared unless their presentation has been the subject of practice. Experience will find it possible to dispense with this, and the way of speaking its thoughts will come instinctively, but many early addresses-Speakers' and M.I. Classes prompt this reflection-would have been vastly improved by the exercise.