1. _In Itself._--Speech is the most wonderful gift of the Creator.
Through speech man occupies the first rank in the scale of being. It is
the language of the reason, and reason lifts man above every creature.
Man through speech incarnates his mind to unite himself with his
fellow-men, as the Son of God was incarnated to unite with human nature;
like the Son of God who nourishes humanity with his body in the
eucharist, so man makes his speech understood by multitudes who receive
it entire, without division or diminution.
Eternal thanks to God for this ineffable gift, so great in itself, of
such value in the art of oratory!
2. What is the oratorical value of speech? In oratorical art, speech
plays a subordinate but indispensable role.
Let us examine separately the two members of this proposition.
A.--In the hierarchy of oratorical powers, speech comes only in the
third order. In fact, the child begins to utter cries and to
gesticulate before he speaks.
The text is only a label. The sense lies not in speech, but in
inflection and gesture. Nature institutes a movement, speech names the
movement. Writing is a dead letter.
Speech is only the title of that which gesture has announced; speech
comes only to confirm what is already understood by the auditors.
We are moved in reading, not so much by what is said, as by the manner
of reading. It is not what we hear that affects us, but that which we
ourselves imagine.
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