Gru. Why, then the mustard without the beef.
Kath. Go, get thee gone, thou false deluding slave,

That feed'st me with the very name of meat;
Sorrow on thee, and all the pack of you,
That triumph thus upon my misery!
Go, get thee gone, I say.'

(Beats him.)

We might have multiplied examples, but we have done enough to show that in the drama, and especially in that of Shakespeare, there is a vast store of valuable and entertaining knowledge regarding our common humanity.

E are a free people. We govern ourselves,

WE

or rather, we tell our rulers how they are to govern us. In order to do this, we must meet in public assembly, and discuss those questions that affect the commonwealth, and ascertain what is the opinion of the majority. Public speaking, or oratory, or (as Carlyle somewhat irreverently calls it) wind and tongue,' has become a necessity. It is learned and practised as an art. Have we not numberless debating societies, where sagacious and solemn politicians of some fifteen or sixteen winters discuss such new questions as: Was Mary Queen of Scots guilty of the murder of her husband?' and,' Was Cromwell justified in beheading Charles the First?' Nay, have we not in most of our large towns a mimic House of Commons, where embryo statesmen

practise those oratorical arts which they hope to display on the floor of St. Stephen's-a mimic House of Commons, where the Speaker is dignified and serious, as if the fate of empires depended upon his nod, where the Government is wary and provokingly uncommunicative, and where the Opposition is patriotic, indignant, and denunciatory? And when a parliamentary election is to take place, what a storm of eloquence is let loose throughout the country! There are just two sets of opinions, those of the Government and those of the Opposition; and these have been so clearly and so frequently stated in the newspapers, that there is no necessity for any repetition of them. But in every town-hall and village schoolroom, the candidates and the upholders of the candidates think it necessary to retail the same vapid commonplaces. It is what their country expects. Long ago a British patriot was bound either to do or die. Now he is bound to perform a much simpler thing. He is only bound to speak in public.

Instead, therefore, like Carlyle, of railing against all public speaking whatever, we must accept it as a necessity, and try to make the most of it. Let us ascertain, then, in the first place, what is true

speaking as dis