Page:Modern Eloquence - Volume 1.djvu/27

xviii the cities and manners of many men in times of peace. Entertained at many festive boards he listens to the song of bards, and the speech that follows is of the narrative order. He himself holds princely companies attentive by a recital of his adventures on land and sea. The long relation in the house of Alcinous, extending through four books, is the sequence to a feast in which the raconteur sat on a throne near the king "dividing portions of flesh and drinking mixed wine." So Telemachus, in Menelaus' palace, had already related the state of affairs in Ithaca, but not until the host had commanded him and his companions to "taste food and rejoice, setting before them the fat back of an ox and all kinds of flesh, with bread and many dainties, and near them golden cups." And so on through all the poem; and it might be added through all the literatures of the ancients the feasting and the speaking go together in the social and often in the business assemblies of men. Enough, however, has been cited from the principal author of remote antiquity and the inspirer and model of later writers to establish the general prevalence of the custom. He had often witnessed it, as he had seen shields and spears, chariots and ships. He portrayed what he had seen with an accuracy which was unquestioned, giving to the banquet-speech the dignity of an antiquity equal to that which belongs to any other form of public address, and the importance which pertains to great crises and interesting episodes in human affairs.

There is little need of tracing the custom through historic centuries. It was rife in primeval times; it obtains now; and as the elemental habits of social life have continued without much change in the intervening ages, it may be safely concluded that these two customs of feasting and speaking for a purpose have gone together. It will be of greater consequence to observe some of the conditions and qualities which distinguish the after-dinner speech from other forms of address, and to note some factors which contribute to its efficiency.

Of the two quantities which are to be reckoned with in the practical worth of any speech, namely, the speaker and the audience, the latter is the lesser on festive occasions. At least it is reduced to its lowest critical power, and is