There is a great compensation, though, for this preliminary
nervous suffering, that comes to me after I have been speaking for
about ten minutes, and have come to feel that I have really mastered
my audience, and that we have gotten into full and complete sympathy
with each other. It seems to me that there is rarely such a
combination of mental and physical delight in any effort as that which
comes to a public speaker when he feels that he has a great audience
completely within his control. There is a thread of sympathy and
oneness that connects a public speaker with his audience, that is just
as strong as though it was something tangible and visible. If in an
audience of a thousand people there is one person who is not in
sympathy with my views, or is inclined to be doubtful, cold, or
critical, I can pick him out. When I have found him I usually go
straight at him, and it is a great satisfaction to watch the process
of his thawing out. I find that the most effective medicine for such
individuals is administered at first in the form of a story, although
I never tell an anecdote simply for the sake of telling one. That
kind of thing, I think, is empty and hollow, and an audience soon
finds it out.
I believe that one always does himself and his audience an
injustice when he speaks merely for the sake of speaking.
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