Word: speakered
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...Cambridge needed rousing up to serious religious thought, or they would be in danger of lapsing into rationalism and infidelity. Living in a country in which man is allowed to embrace such views as his conscience approves, it appeared ill-judged and not a little surprising, that a public speaker, having a strongly marked religious bias of his own, should thus express himself in regard to students at Harvard, who, as individuals, possess diversified ideas of faith and doctrine, either adopted by themselves or received by parental transmission...
...There is deeply implanted in the human heart a feeling that to speak, to write, is a sign of weakness, of lack of self-reliance. It shows that one's own approbation is not sufficient unless that of others be superadded. And there is a dim belief that the speaker, as Socrates says, is moved by a certain divine inspiration and enthusiasm, or, to describe his condition in plain English, he is mad, and, although possessing a certain method in his madness, nevertheless he is destitute of true wisdom. His mind is not finely balanced, he is not sufficient unto...
...ready for every interruption and questioning, innuendo and repartee, and send back the quick and witty response : if he hesitates, he is conquered. The wise man often becomes disconcerted and loses his sagacity in consequence of a keen repartee which may even live longer than the speech itself. That speaker contends at great odds - if, indeed, he is not effectually silenced - whose voice is drowned by uproarious laughter. All undergraduates know that roughing creates the habit of giving a ready reply; in fact, I can think of no method by which it is more successfully cultivated. Upon this ground, then...