The Art of Public Speaking Dale Carnagey 58

The Art of Public Speaking VICTOR HUGO HONORE DE BALZAC Delivered at the Funeral of Balzac, August 20, 1850. Gentlemen: The man who now goes down into this tomb is one of those to whom public grief pays homage. In one day all fictions have vanished. The e

VICTOR HUGO

HONORE DE BALZAC

Delivered at the Funeral of Balzac, August 20, 1850

Gentlemen: The man who now goes down into this tomb is one of those to whom public grief pays homage

In one day all fictions have vanished The eye is fixed not only on the heads that reign, but on heads that think, and the whole country is moved when one of those heads disappears To—day we have a people in black because of the death of the man of talent; a nation in mourning for a man of genius

Gentlemen, the name of Balzac will be mingled in the luminous trace our epoch will leave across the future

Balzac was one of that powerful generation of writers of the nineteenth century who came after Napoleon, as the illustrious Pleiad of the seventeenth century came after Richelieu,——as if in the development of civilization there were a law which gives conquerors by the intellect as successors to conquerors by the sword Balzac was one of the first among the greatest, one of the highest among the best This is not the place to tell all that constituted this splendid and sovereign intelligence All his books form but one book,——a book living, luminous, profound, where one sees coming and going and marching and moving, with I know not what of the

formidable and terrible, mixed with the real, all our contemporary civilization;-—a marvelous book which the

poet entitled "a comedy" and which he could have called history; which takes all forms and all style, which

surpasses Tacitus and Suetonius; which traverses Beaumarchais and reaches Rabelais;——a book which realizes observation and imagination, which lavishes the true, the esoteric, the commonplace, the trivial, the

material, and which at times through all realities, swiftly and grandly rent away, allows us all at once a glimpse of a most sombre and tragic ideal Unknown to himself, whether he wished it or not, whether he consented or not, the author of this immense and strange work is one of the strong race of Revolutionist writers Balzac goes straight to the goal

Body to body he seizes modern society; from all he wrests something, from these an illusion, from those a

hope; from one a catch—word, from another a mask He ransacked vice, he dissected passion He searched out and sounded man, soul, heart, entrails, brain,-—the abyss that each one has within himself And by grace of

his free and vigorous nature; by a privilege of the intellect of our time, which, having seen revolutions face to face, can see more clearly the destiny of humanity and comprehend Providence better,-—Balzac redeemed himself smiling and severe from those formidable studies which produced melancholy in Moliere and misanthropy in Rousseau

This is what he has accomplished among us, this is the work which he has left us,-—a work lofty and solid,-—a monument robustly piled in layers of granite, from the height of which hereafter his renown shall shine in splendor Great men make their own pedestal, the future will be answerable for the statue

His death stupefied Paris! Only a few months ago he had come back to France Feeling that he was dying, he wished to see his country again, as one who would embrace his mother on the eve of a distant voyage His life

was short, but full, more filled with deeds than days

Alas! this powerful worker, never fatigued, this philosopher, this thinker, this poet, this genius, has lived among us that life of storm, of strife, of quarrels and combats, common in all times to all great men To—day

he is at peace He escapes contention and hatred On the same day he enters into glory and the tomb Thereafter beyond the clouds, which are above our heads, he will shine among the stars of his country All you who are here, are you not tempted to envy him?

Whatever may be our grief in presence of such a loss, let us accept these catastrophes with resignation! Let us accept in it whatever is distressing and severe; it is good perhaps, it is necessary perhaps, in an epoch like ours, that from time to time the great dead shall communicate to spirits devoured with skepticism and doubt, a religious fervor Providence knows what it does when it puts the people face to face with the supreme mystery and when it gives them death to reflect on,-—death which is supreme equality, as it is also supreme liberty Providence knows what it does, since it is the greatest of all instructors

There can be but austere and serious thoughts in all hearts when a sublime spirit makes its majestic entrance into another life, when one of those beings who have long soared above the crowd on the visible wings of genius, spreading all at once other wings which we did not see, plunges swiftly into the unknown

No, it is not the unknown; no, I have said it on another sad occasion and I shall repeat it to-day, it is not night,

itis light It is not the end, it is the beginning! It is not extinction, it is eternity! Is it not true, my hearers, such tombs as this demonstrate immortality? In presence of the illustrious dead, we feel more distinctly the divine destiny of that intelligence which traverses the earth to suffer and to purify itself,—-which we call man

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 37: Saguntum was a city of Iberia (Spain) in alliance with Rome Hannibal, in spite of Rome's warnings in 219 B.C., laid siege to and captured it This became the immediate cause of the war which Rome declared against Carthage ]

[Footnote 38: From his speech in Washington on March 13, 1905, before the National Congress of Mothers Printed from a copy furnished by the president for this collection, in response to a request ]

[Footnote 39: Used by permission ]

[Footnote 40: Reported by A Russell Smith and Harry E Greager Used by permission

On May 21, 1914, when Dr Conwell delivered this lecture for the five thousandth time, Mr John Wanamaker

said that if the proceeds had been put out at compound interest the sum would aggregate eight millions of dollars Dr Conwell has uniformly devoted his lecturing income to works of benevolence.]

GENERAL INDEX

Names of speakers and writers referred to are set in CAPITALS Other references are printed in "lower case,"

or "small," type Because of the large number of fragmentary quotations made from speeches and books, no

titles are indexed, but all such material will be found indexed under the name of its author

A

Accentuation, 150

ADDISON, JOSEPH, 134

ADE, GEORGE, 252

After—Dinner Speaking, 362-370

Analogy, 223

Analysis, 225

Anecdote, 251-255; 364

Anglo-Saxon words, 338

Antithesis, 222

Applause, 317

Argument, 280-294

ARISTOTLE, 344

Articulation, 148-149

Association of ideas, 347, 348

Attention, 346, 347

Auditory images, 324, 348, 349

B

BACON, FRANCIS, 225, 226, 362

BAGEHOT, WALTER, 249

BAKER, GEORGE P., 281

BALDWIN, C.S., 16, 92

BARRIE, JAMES M., 339-341

BATES, ARLO, 222-223

BEECHER, HENRY WARD, 3, 6, 31, 76-78;

113, 139, 186, 188, 223, 265, 275, 343, 346, 351-352

BERNHARDT, SARA, 105

BEROL, FELIX, 344

BEVERIDGE, ALBERT, J., 22, 35, 46, 67, 107, 470—483

BIRRELL, AUGUSTINE, 97

BLAINE, JAMES G., 368

BONCI, SIGNOR, 124

Books, 191-197; 207-210

Breathing, 129-131

Briefs, 177, 210-214, 290-294

BRISBANE, ARTHUR, 19

BROOKS, PHILLIPS, 356

BROUGHAM, LORD, 338

BRYAN, WILLIAM JENNINGS, 32, 60, 116, 157, 269, 273-277, 302, 448-464

BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN, 366-367

BURNS, ROBERT, 39

BURROUGHS, JOHN, 116

BYRON, LORD, 64, 87, 145, 188, 189, 199

C

CAESAR, JULIUS, 175

CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 121

CARLETON, WILL, 334

CARLYLE, THOMAS, 42, 57, 105, 109, 194, 218, 249, 277-278

CATO, 356, 372

CHAMBERS, ROBERT, 19

Change of pace, 39-49

Character, 357-358

CHANNING, WILLIAM ELLERY, 177

Charm, 134-144

CHILD, RICHARD WASHBURN, 376

CHOATE, RUFUS, 464-469

CHURCHILL, WINSTON SPENCER, 89

CICERO, 115

Classification, 224

CLEVELAND, GROVER, 367-368

COHAN, GEORGE, 376

COLERIDGE, S.T., 373

COLLINS, WILKIE, 60

COMFORT, W.L., 235

Comparison, 19

Conceit, 4

Concentration, 3, 57, 80-84; 346-347; 374

Confidence, 1-8; 184, 263—275; 350, 358-360

Contrast, 19, 222

Conversation, 372-377

CONWELL, RUSSELL, 200, 483-503

CORNWALL, BARRY, 138, 184

COWPER, WILLIAM, 69, 121

CRANCH, CHRISTOPHER P., 72

CROMWELL, OLIVER, 95, 105

Crowd, Influencing the, 262—278; 308-320

Ctesiphon, 116

CURTIS, GEORGE WILLIAM, 258-260

D

DANA, CHARLES, 18, 200

DANIEL, JOHN WARWICK, 369-370

DANTE, 106

DE AMICIS, EDMONDO, 238

Debate, Questions for, 290, 379-382