If, in reviewing the trial you have made, you are
satisfied that you had no other defects than such as
proceeded from the agitation natural to your posi-
tion, — if you had thoughts, but only were unable

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THE ART OF SPEAKING. 199

to produce them in proper order and clothe them in
becoming words; if words came to your lips, only
you were too disturbed to cull them ; — if your
breath did not forsake you, but only was impeded
by the beating of your heart ; — ^if your voice endured
to the end, and your lungs were not exhausted when
you sat down ; — ^you may be satisfied that the defects
of your first appearance were but the accidents of
the occasion, which time, patience, and practice,
will subdue, and that you may anticipate with con-
fidence a reasonable success in the career upon which
you have entered. Go on, then, with cheerfulness
and hope, and prosper !

But if, in very truth, it was that you did not frame
a consecutive discourse because your mind was a
vacuum ; — ^if it was not that your thoughts were
confused, but that you had none; — if you were
unable to forge a chain of argument ; — if your ideas
arose, isolated one from another, with no visible
link between them ; — ^if words would not come at
all, or but so slowly as to produce the hesitations
and pauses with which you vexed your audience ;
— if your voice failed from inherent feebleness, or
your lungs were exhausted by the exercise, — then,
in either of these cases, you will consult your future
happiness by at once manfully turning from a pro-
fession in which you cannot prosper, and dedicating
yourself to some other pursuit, which, if less attrac-
tive to your ambition, will be more conducive to
your substantial welfare. "Whatever poets may
sing, wisdom teaches that it is better to flourish in
a humble calling than to fail in a lofty one. "\i\Tio

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200 TUE ADVOCATE.
