That speaking has for some time tended to become more practical few would dispute. But there may be quite as much art in practical Speaking as in any other. An argument may be put in an almost infinite variety of ways, and yet there must always be a way which is best suited to a particular audience at a given time and place. Now that the habit of public speaking is more widely diffused than it ever was before, it is natural that variety Of methods Should also multiply. Comparison will Show how different are the modes of explana tion and illustration, of attack and defence, to which modern orators have recourse. One thing, however, is clearly dis cernible in most modern speeches, and that is what may be called their comparative concentration. Speaking is far less discursive than it was in times of ampler leisure and fewer subjects of dispute. Facts and reasons play a much larger part than rhetoric and eloquence in modern addresses, what ever the general purport of the remarks may be. SO much depends upon the temperament of the individual speaker that it is impossible to describe the character of modern oratory in a phrase or a formula. One may Observe, however, that the mental habit of assuming agreement rather than opposition, of stimulating friends rather than answering opponents, has become familiar to the contemporary politician.
