“Never to all men were all graces granted.” (Étienne de la Boétie)
Some have the ease and promptness that comes with the gift of eloquence. They can deliver speeches so comfortably that they are ready at a moment’s notice. For others, words come more deliberately. They never speak anything that has not been carefully thought out.
We give ladies rules for physical exercise to accentuate their most beautiful and appealing features. Likewise, if I had to advise in the same way about oratory, given the two distinct styles, I would suggest the eloquent type to become a lawyer, the hesitant to be a preacher. The demands of a preacher afford him as much time as necessary to prepare himself, and then his career proceeds in a continuous thread, without interruption, whereas the lawyer’s conveniences urge him at all hours to conjure new arguments, and the assertions of his opposing party throw him off his stride, where he must immediately call up new words.
At the meeting between Pope Clement and King François in Marseille, the surprising opposite happened. Monsieur Poyet, a career barrister with a sterling reputation, was assigned to address the Pope. He thought out his remarks well in advance, they say they traveled with him from Paris, but on the day they were to be delivered, the Pope, fearing the subject of the speech might offend other nations’ ambassadors, rearranged the topic of discussion to something quite different that M. Poyet’s prepared remarks. His speech now useless, he had to create a new one impromptu. He felt incapable of meeting the challenge, so it fell to the Cardinal du Bellay to take charge.
The role of the lawyer is more difficult than that of the preacher, and yet we find, in my opinion, more passable lawyers than preachers, at least in France. It seems that it is more the nature of a sharp mind to have speech operate promptly and suddenly, and more the nature of good judgment to have it arrive slowly and deliberately.
But those who remain completely silent, if they do not have the time to prepare, and those who do not have the advantage of leisure to express themselves better, are equally strange. It is said of Severus Cassius that he spoke better without preparation or thought, that he owed his eloquence to good fortune, not diligence. In fact, it worked to his advantage to be disturbed when speaking, and knowing this, his opponents feared to provoke him, for fear that anger would double his eloquence.
I know from experience this condition of nature, which cannot sustain a vehement, laborious premeditation. If it does not go smoothly and freely, it does not go at all. We say of some labors that they reek of the oil and the lamp, due to a certain harshness and roughness that excessive study imprints on the works. But, in addition to this, performance anxiety can bandage the soul and make it too tense. It puts the mind in a spin, breaks its reason, and prevents it the same way that overflowing water cannot find an outlet in an open bottleneck.
There is another temperament where the soul asks not to be shaken and pricked by strong passions, like the anger of Cassius, for this emotion would be overwhelming. It wishes to be calmly roused, warmed up and awakened by strange, present and fortuitous stimuli. Without these stimulants, it drags and languishes. Agitation is its life and grace.
As for me, I have no great control over my disposition and moods. Chance owns my temperament more than I. The occasion, the company, even the inflection of my voice, draw more from my spirit in the moment than I discover when I probe it and employ it apart from myself. Thus, spoken words are better than writing, if I am allowed to choose between them.
This also happens to me, that I do not find myself anywhere that I look. I discover myself more often by chance than by inquiring about my judgment, such as though some subtle note that slips into my writing. (Perhaps those lines are pure drudgery for others, but sharp for me. But let’s leave all these niceties, each according to his abilities) I have lost my train of thought so often that I don’t know what I meant to say, and at other times strangers discovered my meaning before me. If I crossed out every line where it happens to me, I would destroy myself completely. And from time to time, I will have an encounter where my thoughts are as apparent as midday, making me marvel at my moment of hesitation.