After securing an orderly arrangement of his material, the debater should talk over the whole subject by himself or to a friend so many times that there shall be no hesitation for words when he appears in public. He is not to commit a speech to memory, but rather to deliver so many speeches before the debate that he can speak readily on any phase of the question. As soon as his turn comes he will be eager to make the most of the time allowed him, as his object is to speak so earnestly, and in such a straightforward way, that he shall at once win the attention of his hearers and hold it till he has compelled them to agree with him.

1 Nation, LII, 134.

2 Fortnightly Review, XXXVIII, 425 (October, 1882).

3 Definite references should accompany each of these subdivisions.

If we would carry our point, it may be a good plan to appear not to argue. As long as the listener takes our conversation to be merely explanation, he will follow. If we can make the hearer think he is drawing his own conclusions, we are much more likely to convince him than we should be by giving him the impression that we are doing all his thinking for him.

In Webster's closing paragraph of his "Defense of the Kennistons," he does not tell the jury what they ought to do, what he expects them to do, or what all right-thinking men would do; he appeals to them as men who are to decide for themselves:

If the jury are satisfied that there is the highest improbability that these persons could have had any previous knowledge of Good-ridge, or been concerned in any previous concert to rob him; if their conduct that evening and the next day was marked by no circumstances of suspicion; if from that moment until their arrest nothing appeared against them; if they neither passed money, nor are found to have had money; if the manner of the search of their house, and the circumstances attending it, excite strong suspicions of unfair and fraudulent practices; if, in the hour of their utmost peril, no promises of safety could draw from the defendants any confession affecting themselves or others, it will be for the jury to say whether they can pronounce them guilty.

Probably the wisest of us can learn something from Franklin's method of expressing himself:

I . . . [retained] the habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence; never using, when I advanced anything that may possibly be disputed, the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any others that give the air of positiveness to an opinion; but rather say, I conceive or apprehend a thing to be so and so; it appears to me, or / should think it so and so, for such and such reasons; or I imagine it to be so; or it is so, if I am not mistaken. This habit, I believe, has been of great advantage to me when I have had occasion to inculcate my opinions, and persuade men into measures that I have been from time to time engaged in promoting; and, as the chief ends of conversation are to inform or to be informed, to please or to persuade, I wish well-meaning, sensible men would not lessen their power of doing good by a positive, assuming manner, that seldom fails to disgust, tends to create opposition, and to defeat every one of those purposes for which speech was given us, to wit, giving or receiving information or pleasure. For, if you would inform, a positive and dogmatical manner in advancing your sentiments may provoke contradiction and prevent a candid attention. If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time express yourself as firmly fixed in your present opinions, modest, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your error. And by such a manner, you can seldom hope to recommend yourself in pleasing your hearers, or to persuade those whose concurrence you desire. - "Autobiography."