I am proposing to learn to speak, fired to that
adventure by an admirable pamphlet on the subject by Mr. S. H. Wood, late of the Ministry of Education, written for, and published by, the National Association of Girls' and Mixed Clubs. On how to prepare a speech, how to use notes, what postures to adopt, what pockets you may have your hands in and what not (this applies only to masculine attire; so, I take it, does the reference to grasping lapels); how to be concise; how to manage the voice and govern gestures—on all these points Mr. Wood has really sound advice to give. I am glad, incidentally, that he denounces the silly trick which many speakers favour of taking spectacles on and off while they orate, without any reference to the purpose for which those appliances were devised. I have only noted one omission. Mr. Wood does not, so far as I can see, mention that it is as well to have something to say. I add that on my own account.
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