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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... topic , those great and essential principles , on which the true dignity and beauty of the human character depend , will be found , on every fit occasion , to be forcibly incul- cated . Like his admired Milton , it was his con- stant ...
... Topics 207 LECT . X. Arguments and demonstrative oratory 229 LECT . XI . Deliberative oratory 253 LECT . XII . Judicial oratory 277 LECT . XIII . Judicial oratory 297 LECT . XIV . Eloquence of the pulpit 321 LECT . XV . Intellectual and ...
... topics , concerning which your hearts were already with me . That I have been over anxious in de- monstrating what was to you before sufficiently proved . That , under the blaze of a meridian sun , I have been sweating with the toil of ...
... topic whatsoever ; and yet , when required by Socrates , unable to speak with common sense upon the first elements of his art . In the hands of Plato Gorgi- as is a driveller so despicable , that Socrates appears disgraced by a victory ...
... topics , or common places , of oratorical numbers , and of a general plan for extemporane- ous declamation upon every subject , he must be considered , as one of the principal improvers of eloquence . These things are peculiarly liable ...