Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory: Delivered to the Classes of Senior and Junior Sophisters in Harvard University, Volume 1Before becoming President of the United States, John Quincy Adams was a Harvard professor of language, rhetoric and oratory, with this book comprising his lectures. Published in 1810 when Quincy Adams was in his forties, this work is a collection which demonstrates the breadth of knowledge which he passed to students eager to learn about the arts of speaking. The early lectures cover the basic principles of oratory and eloquence in the context of public speaking, and the origins of rhetoric as a celebrated art form in ancient Greece and Rome. It is clear that the author possesses an intense knowledge of the subject and its professional application. Later on in the text are more specific lectures, such as the importance of perfecting oratory for the courtroom, and the personal qualities a good speaker should cultivate. Keeping tight control of one's emotions when speaking or debating with others, and delivering compelling lectures from the church pulpit, are also discussed at length. Although this material is well over 200 years old with much of the language archaic by modern standards, the ideas and principles espoused by Quincy Adams remain both relevant and important to students and those working in fields where speech is vital. |
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... question of property between individual citizens could scarcely be litigated , without occupying the attention , and engaging the studies of the remotest nations and the most distant posterity . There is always a certain correspondence ...
... questions of magnitude to the interest of nations are all told , long before the questions themselves are submitted to discussion . Hence those na- tions , which for ages have gloried in the devotion to literature , science , and the ...
... question however , which has been agitated in all ages , and will perhaps never be placed altogether beyond the reach of controversy , is , whether ora- tory can be numbered among the useful arts ? Whether its tendencies are not as ...
... question is to you , my friends , of so much importance , that in justice to you , to myself , and to the institution , under which I address you , I think a more ample consideration of its merits proper and necessary . Your time and ...
... question , whether it be proper for his cultivation . It is more than proper ; it is one of his most solemn and indispensable duties . If Nature never lends The smallest scruple of her excellence , But like a thrifty goddess , she ...