Excerpt from The Speech for Special Occasions This volume has been prepared primarily because the editors have felt in their own teaching the need of a convenient collection of such speeches are here presented. Models of formal oratory and debate are abundant; but these are not enough. The old-fashioned college oration, the glory of contests and commencements, has survived a change of taste, and is becoming less useful as a college exercise. Debating, though valuable as discipline and attractive on account of its frank and direct competition, appeals after all to a limited number of students. Moreover, the masterpieces of eloquence to which the student is commonly directed for reading and study sprang from occasions which have no parallels in his experience. He may come to the end of his days without knowing in the smallest measure the feeling that inspired the memorable passages in Demosthenes, Cicero, Stafford, Chatham, Fox, Grattan, Patrick Henry, or Webster. But the birthday of an esteemed person, the centenary anniversary of the renowned dead, the departure or arrival of a friend, or hunger to meet one's fellows in the bonds of equality and friendship - these are the occasions that have called forth the greater part of public speech from Homer's day to ours. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.