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Episode 29: Right Thinking and Personality - Art of Public Speaking · The Art of Public Speaking

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  Chapter twenty nine. Right thinking and personality. Quote Whatever crushes individuality is despotism,
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  by whatever name it may be called. Unquote John Stuart Mill on liberty.
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  Quote. Right thinking fits for complete living by developing the power to appreciate
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  the beautiful in nature and art, power to think the true and to will
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  the good, power to live the life of thought and faith and hope and
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  love. Unquote NC. Schaffer, thinking and learning to think. The speaker's
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  most valuable possession is personality, That indefinable, imponderable, something which sums up
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  what we are and makes us different from others, That distinctive force of self,
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  which operates appreciably on those whose lives we touch. It is personality alone
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  that makes us long for higher things, rob us of our sense of individual
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  life, with its gains and losses, its duties and joys, and we
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  grovel. Quote. Few human creatures, said John Stuart Mill, will consent
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  to be changed into any of the lower animals for a promise of the fullest
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  allowance of a beast's pleasures. No intelligent human being would consent to be a
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  fool. No instructed person would be an ignoramus, No person of feeling and
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  conscience would be selfish and base, even though he should be persuaded that the
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  fall, or the dunce or the rascal is better satisfied with his lot than
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  they were theirs. It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a
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  pig satisfied, better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And
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  if the fall or the pig is of a different opinion, it is only
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  because they know only their own side of the question. The other party to
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  the comparison knows both sides unquote. Now it is precisely because the Socrates type
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  of person lives on the plan of right thinking and restrain, feeling and willing,
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  as he prefers his state to that of the animal. All that a
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  man is, all his happiness, his sorrow, his achievements, his failures,
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  his magnetism, his weakness, all are in an amazingly large measure,
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  the direct results of his thinking, thought, and heart combine to produce right
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  thinking. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he as he
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  does not think in his heart, so he can never become. Since this
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  is true, personality can be developed and its latent powers brought out by careful
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  cultivation. We have long since ceased to believe that we're living in a realm
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  of chance, so clear and exact a nature's laws that we forecast scores of
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  years in advance the appearance of a certain comet, and foretell to the minute
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  an eclipse of the sun. And we understand this law of cause and effect
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  in all our material realms. We do not plant potatoes and expect to pluck
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  hyacinths. The law is universal. It applies to our mental powers, to
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  morality, to personality, quite as much as to the heavenly bodies and the
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  grain of the fields. Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap,
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  and nothing else. Character has always been regarded as one of the chief factors
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  of the speaker's power. Cato defined the orator as were bonus stichendi peritus,
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  a good man skilled in speaking. Phillips Brooks says, quote, nobody can
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  truly stand as an utterer before the world unless he be profoundly living and earnestly
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  thinking une quote. Character, says Emerson, is a natural power, like
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  light and heat, and all nature cooperates with it. The reason why we
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  feel one man's presence and do not feel another's is as simple as gravity.
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  Truth is the summit of being, justice as the application of it to affairs.
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  All individual natures stand in a scale according to the purity of this element
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  in them. The will of the pure runs down into other natures as water
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  runs down from the higher into a lower vessel. This natural force is no
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  more to be withstood than any other natural force. Character is nature in the
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  highest form. Unquote, it is absolutely impossible for impure, bestial, and
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  selfish thoughts to blossom into loving and altruistic habits. Thistle seeds bring forth only
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  the thistle. Contrariwise, it is entirely impossible for continual, altruistic, sympathetic,
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  and serviceful thoughts to bring forth a low and vicious character. Either thoughts
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  or feelings proceed and determine all our actions. Actions develop into habits. Habits
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  constitute character, and character determines destiny. Therefore, to guard our thoughts and
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  control our feelings is to shape our destinies. The syllogism is complete and old.
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  As it is, it is still true. Since character is nature in
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  the highest form, the development of character must proceed on natural lines. The
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  garden left to itself will bring forth weeds and scrawny plants, but the flower
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  beds, nurtured carefully will blossom into fragrance and beauty. As the student enter
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  in college largely determines his vacation by choosing from the different courses of the curriculum,
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  so do we choose our characters by choosing our thoughts, with deadly going
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  up toward that which we most wish for, or steadily sinking to the level
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  of our low desires. What we secretly cherish in our hearts is a symbol
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  of what we shall receive. Our trains of thoughts are hurrying us on to
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  our destiny. When you see the flag fluttering to the south, you know
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  the wind is coming from the north. Or when you see the straws and
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  papers being carried to the northward, you realize the wind is blowing out of
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  the south. It is just as easy to ascertain a man's thoughts by observing
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  the tendency of his character. Let it not be suspected for one moment that
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  all this is merely a preachment on the question of morals. It is that,
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  but much more, for it touches the whole man, his imaginative nature,
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  his ability to control his feelings, the mastery of his thinking faculties,
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  and perhaps most largely, his power to will and to carry his volition into
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  effective action. Right thinking constantly assumes that the will sits enthroned to execute the
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  dictates of mind, conscience, and heart. Never tolerate for an instant suggestion
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  that your will is not absolutely efficient. The way of will is to will.
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  And the very first time you attempted to break a worthy resolution, and
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  you will be You may be certain of that. Make your fight then and
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  there. You cannot afford to lose that fight. You must win it.
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  Don't swerve for an instant, but keep that resolution. If it kills you,
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  it will not. But you must fight, just as though life depended
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  on the victory. And indeed your personality may actually lie in the balances.
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  Your success or failure as a speaker will be determined very largely by your thoughts
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  and your mental attitude. The present writer had a student of limited education enter
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  one of his classes in public speaking. He proved to be a very poor
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  speaker, and the instructor could conscientiously do little but point out faults. However,
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  the young man was warned not to be discouraged with sorrow in his voice,
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  and the essence of earnestness beaming from his eyes. He replied, I
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  will not be discouraged. I want so badly to know how to speak.
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  It was warm, human and from the very heart, and he did keep
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  on trying and developed into a creditable speaker. There is no power under the
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  stars that can defeat a man with that attitude. He who down in the
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  deeps of his heart earnestly longs to get facility in speaking, and is willing
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  to make the sacrifices necessary, will reach his goal. Ask and ye shall
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  receive, Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto
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  you is indeed applicable to those who would acquire speech power. You will not
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  realize the prize that you wish for languidly, but the goal that you start
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  out to attain, with the spirit of the old guard that dies but never
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  surrenders, you will surely reach. Your belief in your ability and your willingness
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  to make sacrifices for that belief are the double index to your future achievements.
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  Lincoln had a dream of his possibilities as a speaker. He transmuted that dream
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  into life solely because he walked many miles to borrow books, which he read
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  by the log fire glow at night. He sacrificed much to realize his vision.
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  Livingstone had a great faith in his ability to serve the benighted races of
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  Africa. To actualize that faith, he gave up all, leaving England for
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  the interior of the dark continent. He struck the death blows to Europe's prophet
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  from the slave trade, Joan of Arc had great self confidence, glorified by
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  an infinite pacity to sacrifice. She drove the English beyond the Loire and stood
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  beside Charles while he was crowned. These all realize their strongest desires. The
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  law is universal. Desire greatly, and you shall achieve sacrifice much, and
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  you shall obtain Stanton Davis Kirkham has beautifully expressed this thought quote. You may
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  be keeping accounts, and presently you shall walk out of the door that has
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  so long seemed to you the barrier of your ideals, and shall find yourself
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  before an audience, the pens still behind your ear, the ink stains on
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  your fingers, And then and there shall pour out the torrent of your inspiration.
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  You may be driving sheep, and you shall wander to the city,
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  bucolic and open mouthed, shall wander under the intrepid guidance of the spirit,
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  into the studio of the Master. And after a time he shall say,
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  I have nothing more to teach you, And now you have become the master
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  who did so recently dream of great things while driving sheep. You shall lay
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  down the sore and the plane to take upon yourself the regeneration of the world.
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  Unquote. Questions and exercises. One, what, in your own words
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  is personality? Two? How does personality and a speaker affect you as a
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  listener? Three? In what ways does personality show itself in a speaker?
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  Four? Deliver a short speech on the power of will in the public speaker.
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  Five Deliver a short address based on any sentence you choose from this chapter.
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  End of section twenty nine.