Page:Modern Eloquence - Volume 1.djvu/29

xx beyond good cheer, as most festal occasions nowadays have. Such inquiries are preliminary and pre-requisite to any preparation he may wish to make; and few will be so rash as to make no preparation, since it is not a speech merely, but a timely speech, that tells.

Another snare that an unwary guest may easily fall into is the delusion that the inspiration of the place and the hour will put words into his mouth. It is just as likely to take them out of his mouth and ideas out of his head. There are accompaniments of a feast which are not intellectually stimulating. Things which make an audience well-conditioned do not favor the speaker in like manner. Bacon says: "Reading maketh a full man, writing an exact man, conference a ready man;" but a dinner never served the last two ends, admirable as it may be for the first. Nor is the full man at his best for speaking. Let the appeal be to those who find it necessary to toy with course after course, preferring to sacrifice appetite to intellect, choosing to spoil a dinner, rather than a speech. There are doubtless those who have no apprehensions of this kind, nor of the consequences of antagonism between flesh and spirit, but they are as rare as Homeric orators and belong to a heroic age. In these degenerate days the ordinary man will not attempt feats of eating and speaking, especially in the close conjunction which distinguished the mighty in war and eloquence on the Dardan shore.

Neither does the foresighted guest hope for suggestive inspiration from other speakers to put him on the right track or to stir opposing sentiments. Debate has its own place and time, but not at a public dinner, unless the discussion of a disputed question has been made the purpose of assembling, as it seldom is made. Opposing sentiments and their defence are contrary to the spirit of a festive company. Even on one of the most unfortunate occasions of which there is an ancient record it is said, that "the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play"—not to argue and dispute. And in more seemly gatherings, the spirit of contention and debate should not prevail nor any speaker hope to strike fire from opinions and sentiments opposed to his own.

Besides there is the risk that all commonplaces will be