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Cornell University Library 
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 3 1924 027 198 468 
 
VOICE 
 
 AND 
 
 ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
' THE FATHER OP OHATOKY. 
 
VOICE 
 
 AND 
 
 ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 BY 
 
 HERBERT JENNINGS 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 "the PKKVENTIVE and REMEniAL TREATMENT OP STAMMERING" 
 "the art of facial EXPRESSION AND DRAMATIC GESTURE," ETC. 
 
 FULLY ILLUSTRATED BY PHOTOGRAPHS, 
 AND DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR 
 
 LONDON 
 
 GEORGE ALLEN & COMPANY, LTD. 
 
 NEW YORK: THE MAOMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1911 
 
PRINTED BT 
 
 HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD,, 
 
 LONDON AND AYLESBURY. 
 
DebicateD 
 
 TO 
 
 MRS. JOSEF CONN 
 
 THE WELL-KNOWN LECTURER UPON PHYSICAL 
 
 EDUCATION 
 
 TO 
 
 WHOM HE IS NOT ONLY GREATLY INDEBTED 
 
 BUT WITHOUT WHOSE ADVICE AND ENCOURAGEMENT 
 
 THIS BOOK 
 
 WOULD DOUBTLESS NEVER HAVE BEEN WRITTEN 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In an age like the present, when earnest men and 
 women are often debarred from pubUc speaking 
 or the advocacy of a great cause through lack 
 of vocal power, through huskiness and other 
 troubles that handicap a speaker from being 
 convincing, it is believed that this handbook 
 will form a valuable guide and help to a public 
 speaker or singer, not only in assisting him to 
 overcome physical defects that hamper his 
 utterances, but in the management and control 
 of the breath, without which the study of the 
 Singing Art is futile. 
 
 The book is not written for the student who 
 desires to build up his voice and imbue it with 
 all those qualities so necessary to finished vocal 
 development, nor for the teacher of elocution. 
 It is not the author's intention to touch at all 
 deeply upon the physiology or anatomy of the 
 vocal organs, nor the moulding of the voice 
 from its earliest stages to perfection. The 
 cultivation of the voice through its various 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 stages of development and the correction of 
 defects, including the Art of Singing, comes 
 within the province of a larger book, now being 
 written, which deals exhaustively with the 
 whole of this great and important subject. 
 The present volume is compiled expressly for 
 the busy man and woman who have httle leisure 
 time to bestow in rudimentary and arduous 
 study, and so, in consequence, it deals, briefly, 
 with a few commonsense laws to be observed, 
 and gives a few directions and simple exercises 
 to be followed, touching only those points in 
 training the voice for pubhc speaking and singing 
 that are absolutely essential in order to obtain 
 clear enunciation and to protect the vocal organ 
 from fatigue and overstrain, thus enabhng it with 
 the minimum amount of cultivation to perform 
 its office satisfactorily to its owner and hsteners 
 alike. 
 
 There have been many books written upon 
 voice culture from medical and physiological 
 standpoints, but although these works are ex- 
 tremely useful to the teacher or professional 
 singer, the reading matter is, in the majority 
 of cases, too technical and profound for the 
 comprehension of the general pubhc. It is 
 beheved, therefore, that there has been pub- 
 
PREFACE xi 
 
 lished no treatise until now that contains such 
 important information, or that describes in 
 such concise and simple language those principles 
 in relation to the training of the voice for speech 
 and song that are so essential and yet have — 
 either through ignorance or indifference as to 
 their value — been overlooked. 
 
 Owing, no doubt, to faulty voice training and\ 
 a disregard of the anatomical laws governing 
 its production, there are noticeably few people 
 who possess good " speaking " as well as " sing- 
 ing " voices, and it is this undeniable fact that 
 has given rise to the common behef that in 
 regulating the vocal apparatus for " speech " 
 you are interfering with its mechanism for 
 song, and vice versa. This statement is just as 
 fooHsh as an argument that a first-rate walker 
 must necessarily make a poor sprinter. 
 
 There are pubhshed few elocution books that 
 deal in a practical manner with vocal develop- 
 ment, nor is much information given that would 
 be useful to enable one effectively to render 
 those pieces selected and adapted for reciting 
 that fill most of their pages. The books that 
 at their commencement devote a hmited space 
 to hints upon rhetoric and gesture belong, in 
 the main, to the old obsolete declamatory school. 
 
xii PREFACE 
 
 in which every physical action is tabulated by 
 which to emphasise certain emotions, to the 
 entire disregard of indiAddual temperament. 
 This practice no doubt accounts, in a great 
 measure, for the " sing-song " method of de- 
 livery, so conspicuous amongst school-children, 
 and even in the case of many performers upon 
 the stage and public platform. In describing 
 the gesture and deportment exercises given in 
 these books, there are few reasons advanced for 
 the actions speakers, reciters, or singers are 
 advised to employ, nor is the origin of emotion, 
 sensation and facial expression described ; the 
 gesture being but the outward and natural 
 spontaneous manifestation of a psychological 
 impulse. 
 
 The writer is well aware of the difficulties in 
 the path of the pen that can but feebly describe 
 the intricacies of the voice, and he is full of 
 admiration and gratitude toward those great 
 scientists in musical research who have given to 
 the world the basic laws that control the art 
 of song. 
 
 It is no part of the scheme of this book, how- 
 ever, to enter at all deeply into musical statics, 
 but to shew clearly how the voice can only be 
 benefited by these laws when the whole mechan- 
 
Preface xiii 
 
 ism of the human instrument that produces and 
 controls speech and song is made healthy and 
 is perfectly adjusted, and thus rendered natural 
 and effective. 
 
 The great disadvantage in possessing no 
 skilled teacher to aid the student in phonation 
 is fully recognised by the author, as the ear', 
 has an office of the first importance in vocal 
 training ; but it is contended that unless the 
 teacher faithfully follows the primary principles 
 of vocal development, it is better for the reader 
 to be guided by his own intelligence. 
 
 Purity of diction is the birthright of every 
 EngUsh man and woman, and it is largely due 
 to the indifference shown in educational ad- 
 ministration at home and at school that our 
 mother-tongue has been robbed of its grandeur 
 and beauty of tone. If only justice were done 
 to the English language, it would not only hold 
 its own in sweetness and musical distinction, 
 but, if we accept the verdict of a celebrated 
 German philologist, it also possesses " a veritable 
 power of expression and comprehension unsur- 
 passed by any language on earth — whether 
 ancient or modern." 
 
 An intelhgent and careful study of the follow- 
 ing pages, and the strict observance of the 
 
xiv PREFACE 
 
 simple principles advocated, with persistent 
 practice of the exercises given, will do more 
 than merely benefit the voice, for it will estabhsh 
 a healthy and active relationship between mind 
 and body, and enable the speaker to address 
 an audience for any length of time without 
 fatigue. If its perusal proves of such interest 
 and value to the reader that it entices him to 
 seek a further acquaintanceship with voice 
 culture in its other branches, and to obtain the 
 advantages of personal instruction, the writer 
 will consider that his laboiu's have not been 
 in vain. 
 
 H. J. 
 
 105, Cromwell Road, 
 South Kensington, 
 London, S.W. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface ........ vii 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Dealing with the Various Systems of 
 
 Voice Production and why they Fail 1 
 
 chapter ii 
 
 The Foundation of Vocal Development and 
 
 the Preliminary Exercises . . .17 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 How to increase the Power of the Voice 41 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Defective Utterance and its Cure — Exer- 
 cises FOR OBTAINING FACIAL FLEXIBILITY 
 
 AND Breath Control .... 61 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Tone and its Cultivation — " Phonation " 
 
 Exercises 77 
 
xvi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 " Natural Pitch, "and how to Determine Tt 95 
 
 CHAPTER VII ' 
 
 Natural Articulation, and how to Culti- 
 vate IT with Exercises . ... 107 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Imperfections in Speech — Some Words 
 
 commonly Mispronounced . . . 127 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Some Hints on Public Speaking — .Vocal 
 
 Inflection, etc. . . . . .133 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 Rhythm, Accent, and Emphasis . . .149 
 
 chapter xi 
 
 Deportment, Gesture, Facial Expression, 
 
 AND General Advice to Speakers . 163 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Public Speaking : How to Prepare and 
 
 Deliver a Speech . . . .191 
 
 INDEX 215 
 
VOICE 
 
 AND 
 
 ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 DEALING WITH THE VARIOUS SYSTEMS OF VOICE 
 PRODUCTION AND WHY THEY FAIL 
 
 "For, what'9 a sermon, good or bad, 
 If a man reads it like a lad ? 
 To hear some people, when they preach. 
 How they run o'er all parts of speech. 
 And neither raise a word, nor sink ; 
 Our learned clergy, one would think. 
 Had taken schoolboys from the rod. 
 To make Ambassadors of God. 
 
 They manage, with disjointed skill. 
 The matter well, the manner ill ; 
 And, what seems paradox at first. 
 They make the best, and preach the worst." 
 
 Db. Bbyam. 
 
 I DO not intend, at the outset, to attack the 
 various and popular systems of " Voice Develop- 
 ment," for they are all working toward a common 
 1 
 
2 VOICE: ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 end, and where they differ is that while some 
 are taught with no logical basis to commend 
 them, other teachers endeavour to secure a certain 
 limited (and often artificial) result in vocal culture 
 at the expense of general qualities. But this I 
 can assert, that if even the majority of fashion- 
 able systems were worthy of recommendation, 
 we should soon perceive a marked improvement 
 in the calibre and power of voice in song and 
 speech by the public in general, because "voice 
 production" has become such a fashionable 
 study that few families are exempt from'its in- 
 fluence. Far from this desired result, however, 
 and in spite of the rapid strides in education, 
 the average EngHshman's delivery is generally 
 loose, mufHed, and indistinct, and has been truth- 
 fully described as "fluffy." "Hence that un- 
 musical and expressionless gabble which so often 
 pains and wearies our ears in the pulpit and on 
 the stage and public platform, and which has 
 brought upon our glorious English tongue the 
 reproach of being ' harsh and rugged.' " 
 
 It is no exaggeration to state that there are 
 few speakers upon public platforms or in the 
 pulpit who do full justice to our mother-tongue, 
 if clearness of articulation and purity of tone 
 are both taken into consideration, and, with 
 
SYSTEMS OF VOICE PRODUCTION 3 
 
 the exception of a few notable artists, stage 
 folk afford but a sorry hearing and grossly abuse 
 the trust reposed in them. So careless have 
 many of the heads of the profession apparently 
 become, that it is often impossible to follow 
 their dialogue comprehendingly. It is no unusual 
 sight to perceive people in the stalls putting their 
 hands behind their ears in order to catch a 
 sentence, or seeking explanation from a com- 
 panion. Actors, in their zeal to excel in charac- 
 terisation, often sacrifice clear articulation, and 
 it is then only due to their powers of facial 
 expression, gesticulation, or dramatic emphasis 
 that the scene is comprehended ; and yet the 
 stage should provide an example of cultured, 
 skilled, and effective elocution. 
 
 Only by due attention to vowels and by givingl 
 them their true value can speech be rendered; 
 musical, and so, owing to our gradual disregard 
 in this important respect, our language has 
 degenerated into a speech of consonants, and 
 our vocal tones suffer in consequence. 
 
 The English tongue is often heard to the 
 greatest advantage from the lips of educated 
 foreigners, despite the accent that accompanies it, 
 for they instil into it a richness of cadence. The 
 vowels as spoken by them assist to enrich the 
 
i VOICE: ITS NATURAL DEVELOPIMENT 
 
 language and enable the consonants to be pro- 
 nounced without harshness. The musical utter- 
 ance of which our speech is capable has been 
 so long neglected that we are, at last, unconscious 
 of the unpolished diction so habitual, just as we 
 are becoming unfamiliar with the music in the 
 language that inspired our English poets, and 
 which, no doubt, in some measure accounts 
 for our neglect of their works. 
 
 So rare, indeed, is it to hear our language 
 spoken by a voice that combines purity of 
 enunciation with richness of "timbre," that, 
 if we are fortunate enough to do so, our attention 
 is at once arrested : we feel grateful to the 
 speaker ; the sound refreshes us. 
 
 Upon the opera stage and concert platform 
 the same indistinct articulation is conspicuous, 
 the performers evidently considering that their 
 efforts to produce " la bella voce " the only 
 accomplishment worth achieving. 
 
 It is difficult, therefore, to realise that voice 
 training in England is so popular, considering 
 the apparent indifference displayed toward per- 
 fection in clear enunciation, elocution, and 
 pitch of voice. 
 
 Now, if a man were engaged in some com- 
 mercial enterprise, he would not consider his 
 
SYSTEMS OF VOICE PRODUCTION 5 
 
 investments successful if lie only realised one 
 per cent, of gain to ninety-nine of loss ; and 
 yet in the general scheme of voice development 
 we cannot even claim this unit of success. The 
 business man would rightly contend that the 
 methods he employed were either obsolete or 
 ineffective, and he would, if he were sensible, 
 seek a safer outlet for his capital and energies. 
 It was following this natural line of argument 
 which convinced me that "voice trainers" 
 were, in the great majority of cases, without a 
 sound working foundation upon ^\hich to build 
 up the voice committed to their care, and that 
 those who sought instruct ion were therefore placing 
 the training of their voices into incompetent 
 hands, and stood little chance of securing benefit. 
 The " maestros " or elocutionists who were 
 instrumental in introducing into the arena of 
 song and speech the voices that have become 
 world-renowned owed their successes quite as 
 much to the excellent and unspoiled material 
 they had to mould as to the careful system 
 of training they gave. Many of them, I believe, 
 would not hesitate to admit that they stood 
 the greatest chance of success with the voice 
 that had never been tampered with by incom- 
 petent teachers. 
 
6 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 There is usually little flaw to be discovered 
 in the quality and production of a healthy child's 
 voice, as the various parts of the vocal organ 
 are naturally balanced and adjusted. It is 
 during school-hfe, when mimetic Instincts are 
 the strongest, that the voice is liable to acquire 
 tricks and habits which are detrimental and 
 discordant, and, owing either to ignorance or to 
 indifference, these remain unchecked by teachers 
 and others who should have striven to preserve 
 purity of pronunciation and tone. 
 
 Vocal defects can be classed in the same 
 category as writer's cramp or many other physical 
 defects that have arisen through neglect and the 
 cultivation of bad habits, instead of the observ- 
 ance of natural laws and maintaining a healthy 
 physical condition. 
 
 WTien children grow older, a further disaster 
 often overtakes them, and the tones of their 
 speaking voices become stiU more objectionable 
 and unpleasant through unskilled instruction 
 in singing. This fact has given rise to the 
 general impression that the speaking and singing 
 voices are not akin, and that the development 
 of the one is sometimes injurious to the other. 
 Quite the contrary, however, is the case, and I 
 have found but httle difficulty in overcoming 
 
SYSTEMS OF VOICE PRODUCTION 7 
 
 defects in the speaking voices of those people 
 who have been trained to sing by natural means, 
 whilst singers whose grating speech has afforded 
 the greatest difficulty in rectifying have generally 
 been the victims of a faulty system of voice 
 development. 
 
 Students' voices are often strained owing to 
 the forced method of producing their voices 
 and of attempting to acquire notes beyond their 
 natural compass, i.e. too far removed from the 
 pitch of their normal speaking voices. 
 
 The faults found in so many cases of vocal 
 training, therefore, when not due merely to 
 careless articulation, are because those who 
 have schooled the voice have done so unscientific- 
 ally and ignorantly. The whole secret of success 
 lies, primarily, in the "physical training of the 
 student, and in a strict observance of, and per- 
 severance in, breath control, and this necessitates 
 a full development of chest, which contains our 
 vocal bellows. 
 
 Now, this information may not appear at first 
 sight to be fresh or even useful, as every teacher 
 of singing advocates breathing exercises and 
 voice control ; but, as you will readily discover 
 if you follow this little work further, there is a 
 vast difference between the usual systems 
 
s VOTC'E : ITS XATFRAL DEVELOP:\IENT 
 
 oiniiloyi'cl wliieli ^tiJAe tci flevelo]i lung power 
 by inhalatiun. and Nature's sini])le niethod of 
 increasing the capacity of the chest by muscular 
 tlexil)ility, and by the same means controlling 
 and regulating the breath supjDly for the voice. 
 
 PLATE I 
 
 ^ CHEST EXPAXSIOX. 
 
 AVitliout inilLiring the liiug?. 
 
 By '■ muscular flexibility "' I do not mean the 
 enlargement and hardening of the muscles 
 which surround the ribs — that process so popular 
 in gymnastic circles (and advocated bv the 
 strong man), tends to retard the mobility of 
 the chest rather than to render it plastic, as 
 
SYSTEMS OF VOICE PRODUCTION 9 
 
 I will prove later. Deep (so-called) " abdom- 
 inal " breathing, which so many instructors 
 advocate, is injurious, causing giddiness and 
 strain to many, besides being ineffective in 
 achieving the desired result. 
 
 If I were to ask my readers how many singers 
 or speakers they knew who had undergone 
 voice training and practised breathing exercises, 
 and who never suffer from huskiness, voice 
 fatigue, or throat complaints, and who can 
 expose their throats to any weather, however in- 
 clement, after many continuous hours of speaking 
 in public, and even in the open air, they will 
 have, perhaps, some difficulty in finding them ; 
 and yet I have had, for years, practical proof 
 of this possibility. One of the most notable 
 examples proving the truth of this statement 
 is a well-known lecturer upon- Physical Educa- 
 tion with whom I am closely associated in her 
 splendid work of Health Reform. She rightly 
 maintains that a voice, if naturally produced, 
 should never tire, but should retain its clearness 
 and vigour for an indefinite time, however 
 arduous the demands made upon it. She, 
 herseK, possesses a voice, rich, strong and flexible, 
 and capable of undergoing the greatest strain 
 placed upon it without in the slightest measure 
 
10 VOJCK: f'lS XA JURAL DK\ KLOPMKM 
 
 \tii]>h.\rifti! it; and \*-}iat a M-oman of tb<e fr»f/st 
 Uh.i£\\fi phy,-i'jrj<; ran do with her voir,*;, iirij' 
 other fjftfron who follows out the princ-iplesf of 
 voio<; cultivation can a)-o achieve. 
 
 How many Kpeaket» or ritiuar: are there who 
 jK/rt-^,---; XiTj d':U:':X of •.])':<t<:h , OT u'ho do not rU^et 
 from hii-kiri»r-— </ftcn known nr. " cAnrayfdHUr. 
 e^fti: throat " — which <•», in W:sxr\y (rvary ca-/;, 
 dij'- m/;rcly to faulty vocal developrr^ent * It 
 •should create no furyrihc. therefor^;, that tonics, 
 Anii^h, and throat rp<;cifie« fail to cure, and only 
 at their >,»ert but partially relie^t the sufferer. 
 
 The tt^r'tfi why few oratyjrs! or actons are 
 exempt from tired or rfAsuxed thrc-at?- i* hecaa-'r 
 their organ of ftf^^re-rh ha% been allowed to a*-urf-e 
 ba^l habits, far hA- been iroperfeeth' trained, 
 
 Anv.f.i-t many exampk^ r>f tho*e who have 
 Bj'stematically followed out rrjy directiofir in 
 the method of treat iri^ the voice, I rr^ay rr.errti'Wi 
 that of a clerg^jman in a bu,vy London ssoburb, 
 w'h</se r]i'-.(:<:\i \)h',i)^xtJk ro htJ-rky arid indistinct 
 that at last he was onty able to rj,*ak In a hoar^; 
 whi-fA-r v,jth much painful effort. He wa* 
 ',\A\'i'A to vacate his j>cst terr.porarily, but 
 hoped that a complete rest and change <rf air 
 wf/nM prove beneficial. For jfom/.- rr.onths he 
 per«e*'ered with varioo* nostnjn^s, arjd under- 
 
SYSTEMS OP VOICE PRODUCTION 11 
 
 went surgical treatment, all to no purpose. He 
 was in the position at last of losing his incum- 
 bency unless he effected a speedy restoration, 
 which, however, he fortunately succeeded in 
 doing, for in less than two months after he 
 commenced his course of vocal development, he 
 was enabled to speak for any length of time 
 without fatigue, and his voice assumed tones 
 of strong baritone quality. This success was 
 owing, to a great extent, to his tireless energy 
 and perseverance, for he was at the advanced 
 age of seventy. 
 
 It is a common occurrence for singers to suffer 
 from relaxed or congested throats and laryngitis, 
 which often result in partial or complete loss 
 of voice. Chorus men and women in their 
 arduous nightly tasks particularly suffer in this 
 respect, often resorting to drugs to stimulate 
 their voices, and although sometimes a momen- 
 tary clearness is obtained, it can only be transient, 
 and a chronic hoarseness frequently follows.* 
 When we consider that the majority of Enghsh 
 voices in men and women are of a baritone or 
 mezzo-soprano quality, and that they are gener- 
 
 * It may be a surprise to many, but laryngitis and con- 
 sumption of the throat and lungs amongst these people are 
 authoritatively stated to be very prevalent. 
 
12 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 ally tuned up or down to reach a pitch only to 
 be naturally sustained by basses or high sopranos, 
 the prevalence of throat troubles should not 
 be marvelled at, especially when, through lack 
 of proper training, the strain is borne upon 
 one particular part of the vocal machinery 
 instead of being distributed. 
 
 Now, if we examined the instrument employed 
 in wireless telegraphy, we should doubtless 
 admire its marvellous ingenuity, note the careful 
 adjustment of all its parts, and comprehend 
 how each section, though distinct, relied im- 
 plicitly upon the other, and that the failure of 
 the tiniest portion of it to perform its office 
 would interfere very disastrously with the T\'ork- 
 ing of the system, and so prevent a message 
 from being despatched. The clear record of a 
 phonograph in its production does not rely alone 
 upon the diaphragm and stylus connection, for 
 if any one part of the machine were damaged 
 or out of place, we could not expect to obtain 
 a successful result from it ; and yet we, as en- 
 gineers of that most comphcated and deHcate 
 instrument which produces the human voice, 
 seldom take into consideration the health and 
 symmetry of the human structure entrusted to 
 us, nor notify the derangement of any integral 
 
SYSTEMS OF VOICE PRODUCTION 13 
 
 part of it, for the production of tone relies just 
 as much upon our physical condition and the 
 adjustment, balance, and poise of body as a 
 mechanical contrivance does, but we consider 
 that all that is necessary is to blow up our 
 bellows, direct our note, adjust our mouths, 
 and rely upon chance and the excellence of the 
 material upon which we work to produce success. 
 But to give one more simile in order to illus- 
 trate the risk we run and how failure more often 
 meets us than success, what is the secret of 
 yacht racing ? If it were simply in the amount 
 of sail that can be carried, why is it that the 
 boat's hull is constructed in some hidden locaUty 
 away from prying eyes ? And why is it that, 
 despite the careful manipulation of the steers- 
 man, the skilful seamanship of the captain, the 
 other vessel, with no more stretch of canvas, 
 steals away from it easily and wins the race ? 
 It proves that it is not merely the sail (or lung) 
 capacity, nor the steering of the voice during 
 its passage, nor even the skilful rendering and 
 manipulation of the vocal apparatus that ensures 
 success, but the ability of the student to hold 
 his body in a correctly balanced position, in 
 which all his organs are placed in the precise 
 locality nature intended them to repose : such 
 
U V'OICK: ITK SATVHAL UKVKLORMKNT 
 
 a hyrnrnetrica) attitude that will in no way 
 hinder thf; natural action </f tb« diaphragm, and 
 allows the hjngh to liave full, ijnre-trict<j<^J play, 
 Jf by a '.-erlain simple exerci-e huch a pohture 
 ';oij)d be- ea-ily arhurned, there would he little 
 or no effort expended in orde-r to retain it in 
 that porition for any length frf time,, and eon-,e- 
 qnently any expenditure of energy eould he 
 devotftd to voice control. 
 
 Jt is by following thi- -ound line frf rea^^ning 
 that J wish to imprerh yoti with the importance 
 of giving a hufficient time to put your body 
 into ah good a working order a» |X/h-ible, Thin 
 hhould be the first htep in vfx;al development, 
 for if it i« not done I cannot guarantee a rati~ 
 factory rchult. 'J'he next chapter will be devt/ted 
 to a dcfcription of the meth'xln to be emplosed,* 
 
 When a better ph^ricaJ condition bafc been 
 acquired — and no very arduous ta«k>, will be 
 
 * In {'AUftrinv, >Mt t)»c '.'xercise* «?t fttrtit, unUfr^. " c^yji- 
 cmtrati'm ol fu'itui ' i* ';z':rl':<l, all ttic rri/nemrmto will tja'.<; 
 b':!';ri in vain, ffyr a ^AtynlijiS a/A\'ni cxeeuted Uffniy auV/- 
 ntHlieally a hnttAfi^l tiiiuM trill r>'/t {jirodtic; tl«- s?'/<«l I'nmlt 
 tJiat «»< ';r'-f',-i«e '/rily twelve tjirj** r'-jAratz/i will, if dur; 
 t^i'/'Jt')j' t»a« fA>-fi \ir'i'ij:Ut f/ Sumr upon it. Jt i« 'mly a(t'-r 
 » Hull-, ■'■\n:n tl<c " Will " h;i», nia<ii>.- an nit\t-Vt\>Si: \n>\m^>'iit 
 upon tfi'r " Kji'r'-'juv'; yiHit^' t>iat a '^irfjxiy haiiuteed 
 y/f.\ jr<: is 'Jti':'jTtSi'n'niiAy aw.umed, ar/'J a Ijeneficf/t rfi'yvo- 
 njent brncyyTrfs* <!etabli»bed 8« a habit. 
 
SYSTEMS OF VOICE PRODUCTION 15 
 
 imposed in its accomplishment — the student 
 will have at his disposal a force that will need 
 little replenishing, and that will enable him to 
 acquire a voice of great strength, flexibihty, and, 
 above all, endurance. 
 
 By close attention to these preUminary exer- 
 cises a satisfactory result can be procured in 
 a surprisingly short space of time, for with 
 the correct development of chest an added 
 resonance is secured which gives a fullness of 
 tone and volume to the voice unobtainable by 
 any other means. 
 
 Further chapters will deal with the art of 
 vocal production and with, general advice of 
 value and interest to the pubhc speaker. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE FOUNDATION OF VOCAL DEVELOPMENT AND 
 THE PRELIMINARY EXERCISES 
 
 " The best man," observed Socrates, " is he who 
 most tries to perfect himself ; and the happiest man 
 is he who most feels that he is perfecting himself." 
 
 We read in classic history that the Greeks 
 made a study of leisure quite as much as they 
 did of labour, and the same can be truly said 
 of the average city man to-day, who assiduously 
 devotes his spare hours during the week to 
 golf or some other equally energetic pastime, 
 which takes his mind off the worries of business. 
 Whatever game it is he plays, he makes it a 
 labour, and in golf he studies its preliminaries 
 long before he considers himself proficient to 
 play with any source of satisfaction to himseM. 
 In both billiards and golf the player diligently 
 studies his stroke, and, as regards the latter, 
 carries his enthusiasm so far as to obtain a 
 2 17 
 
18 VOICE :.ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 captive ball and make frantic drives in his bed- 
 room, to the risk of life and property. 
 
 , He perhaps intuitively reaHses that it is not 
 merely strength of muscle that is required for 
 a skilful stroke at billiards or a long drive at 
 golf — ^it is dexterity ; and in order to attain it, 
 and to give force to the drive, he must so balance 
 his body that no effort need be expended to 
 support it, and so by this means he conserves 
 all his energy for the stroke itseK. The player 
 knows full well that until he secures this scien- 
 tific poise of body, his game will be full of im- 
 perfections and disasters, much to the amuse- 
 ment of his friends, and he cannot experience 
 in his present state of clumsiness the intense 
 relish that finished strokes afford to an expert 
 golfer. 
 
 Unfortunately, we are not so considerate for 
 the feelings of others, nor do we seem to possess 
 the ambition to distinguish ourselves; in the culti- 
 vation of our voices, perhaps for two reasons — 
 that through lack of ear we are unaware of our 
 shortcomings, or are sufficiently indifferent to 
 them. But if we desire to become expert orators, 
 we must pay just as much attention to our 
 preliminary training as the zealous goKer does 
 to his drive, and it is some satisfaction to knpw 
 
PLATK JI 
 
 BTANLiiNO roajTlON. 
 
20 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 that such preparation will only take up a similar 
 amount of time. 
 
 As determined by anatomists and demonstrated 
 by sculptors from antiquity, a bodj' correctly 
 balanced should permit a plumb-line to be 
 dropped from the centre of the ear, that should 
 cut just behind the hip-joint, and through the 
 centre of the arched instep of the foot, ^^hich 
 supports the weight of the body. But it would 
 be difficult, nowadays, o^Wng to our lack of 
 scientific physical education, for the majority 
 of human kind to assume that position, as bad 
 habits of standing and sitting have altered the 
 symmetry of our bony structures, and the modem 
 figure has a forward tendency of the head, and 
 a development in the region of the waist which 
 does not improve its appearance, and is an 
 embelhshment that most people would very 
 much like to dispense with. In order to support 
 this contortion and balance our bodies as ^\■e 
 stand, we have habitually to assume an un- 
 graceful attitude, and upon the leg muscles the 
 unnatural burden is placed. 
 
 This acquired habit of ill-balanced poise and 
 incorrect standing position tends to change the 
 forms of the bones and of the joints if the wrong 
 attitude be constantly adopted. This deformity 
 
PLATE III 
 
 THE CHARACTEBISTIC ATTITrUE OF THE BCSIXESS MAX. 
 
22 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 is of common occurrence in women, and it is 
 a noticeable fact that few of them can stand 
 upright for any length of time without great 
 fatigue. 
 
 Young girls frequently complain of a pain — 
 hkened to that of a toothache — in the lumbar 
 curve of their backs, which is due to the faulty 
 attitude in standing, intensified of course by 
 the wearing of high heels. In order to balance 
 the body when the foot is in that forced position, 
 the back has to arch in considerably, and conse- 
 quently the spine has undue pressure and friction 
 exerted upon it at that point. 
 
 The task every person should set himself 
 (or herseK) is to try to adopt as symmetrical an 
 attitude as possible, and by " rebuildii^ the 
 skeleton" not only to acquire this physical 
 condition, but to maintain it with no strain or 
 muscular effort. 
 
 If you criticise the majoritj" of figures, you 
 w-m observe that the chest is prominent at the 
 back instead of in the front, and this is o^ving 
 to the non-use (and therefore weakness) of the 
 two important sets of muscles intended for 
 holding up and maintaining the chest in its 
 proper position. 
 
 If an infant is left to his own resources, he 
 
VOCAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 23 
 
 will soon crawl along upon his hands and knees 
 as a means of locomotion, which is the natural 
 process of strengthening and hardening those 
 muscles he will require for body balance when 
 on his feet. If the reader will assume that 
 undignified position, he will discover an intuitive 
 desire to 
 contract 
 (by pulhng 
 up) his 
 abdominal 
 muscles, 
 and like- 
 wise con- 
 tract and 
 stiffen those 
 poster i or 
 muscles at 
 the base of 
 the neck in 
 
 order to support his head and prevent it from 
 dropping. These muscles in an animal are kept 
 in a plastic and hardy condition owing to the 
 horizontal position it habitually occupies, and 
 you will notice its prominent chest, contracted 
 abdomen, and strong neck muscles ; and it is 
 owing much to this fact, that its organs are 
 
 PLATE IV 
 
 
 A. 
 
 
 ^g^lg 
 
 ^,-. 
 
 ^^^^ 
 
 1© 
 
 g 
 
 IK, 
 
 '£■■■ 
 
 M 
 
 GREYHOUND, 
 
 Showing contraction of abdominal muscles. 
 
lU voice : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 lying in their natural position, that it maintains 
 its health and vitahtv. If the chest is developed 
 natuiallv. the abdomen must contract; and if 
 the head is properly poised, the knees vriW un- 
 consciously stiffen, and, in standing, the weight 
 of the body is borne upon the leg bones, for the 
 knee joint is so constructed that Mhen it is 
 stiffened, the upper ^nd lower bones of the leg 
 act as one. 
 
 The expansion of the chest, then, is the object 
 aimed at in our preUminary stage of vocal 
 development, and many voice culturists resort 
 to the gymnastic principles of furnishing the 
 outer walls of their chests with thick muscular 
 tissue in the vain hope that, by this means, their 
 chest capacity may be increased. Many students, 
 whose aim is a fine physique, are induced by 
 their instructors to undergo a series of athletic 
 movements, and the attitude they are taught 
 to assume produces merely an inwardly arched 
 spine (lumbar curve) and a bulged-out waist. 
 The most common practice is, no doubt, that 
 of systematic breathing, and the diversity of 
 opinion regarding the correct method is so 
 ^^-ell known that it is scarcely necessary to 
 enumerate the arguments, especially as the reader 
 ^\ill be able to compare the system he has been 
 
VOCAL DEVELOPMENT :>5 
 
 in the habit of practising A^ith that prompted 
 bj' nature, and which it is the aim of this chapter 
 to teach. 
 
 In considering one method, however, which 
 seems the most uniTersal, that of " abdominal " 
 breathing, it is difficult to understand how it 
 could possibly have recommended itself to edu- 
 cated people, and wherein its value hes, when 
 we all know that the respiratory apparatus 
 is not placed in the abdomen at all, and the 
 only possible result that can be obtained by 
 following this erroneous principle is a develop- 
 ment of adipose tissue where it should be avoided. 
 
 The abdominal muscles that are situated in the 
 central position of our physical structucre are of 
 the most importance, for when they are rightly 
 trained they help to support the chest, hold the 
 abdominal viscera in their rightfiil places, and 
 assist to maintain a correct body-balance and 
 a dignity of carriage which, without their in- 
 fluence, it would be impossible to assume. The 
 old Itahan masters of singing reahsed the neces- 
 sity of abdominal support, and wore waist-belts 
 for that purpose. This procedure has been 
 opposed by many other vocal exponents, and 
 what has been known as "" abdominal breathing " 
 came into vogue for many years (and has not 
 
26 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 yet ceased to exist), the practice of which is not 
 only opposed to all physical laws, but in many 
 cases it has caused incalculable internal injury 
 to the student. A celebrated doctor remarked 
 that such a system of development, instead 
 of being named "abdominal," should be styled 
 " abominable." 
 
 As the name implies, "rectus abdominis" 
 suggests a flattened or straight surface, and if 
 this is obtained by physical exercise, it will be 
 found that the initial effort toward chest develop- 
 ment has been accomphshed, and a natural 
 muscular " waist belt " formed. An instance of 
 the importance the ancient Greeks attached to 
 this particular in their physical training may 
 be gathered from contemplating the splendid 
 development of the abdominal muscles upon 
 the statue of Venus of Milo. 
 
 No singer or reciter should wear anything 
 that retards mobility of chest, for no voice can 
 be fully developed in power and beauty of tone 
 when the lungs are constricted in their action 
 by corsets — no matter how scientifically these 
 are made. Take as one example — out of many 
 amongst notable oral performers who dispensed 
 with any chest support — that of Madame Bern- 
 hardt. Her public recognition has mainly been 
 
VOCAL DEVELOPMENT 27 
 
 due to her wonderful richness and power of 
 voice, and it should be the aim of every woman 
 who desires vocal excellence to obtain by physical 
 exercise the formation of a "natural corset." 
 This acquisition allows a graceful bearing and 
 freedom of movement that are unobtainable 
 by the wearing of the artificial corset. 
 
 To illustrate Nature's simple law of chest 
 expansion, we must follow a practical expedient 
 which would be resorted to by a mother unable 
 to afford her rapidly growing child a new frock. 
 She would not be so foolish as to adorn it with 
 useless frills and furbelows — Hke the " muscle- 
 builders " do their chests — but she would " let 
 the seams out " in order to give her daughter's 
 figure room for development. 
 
 In a similar way we must act if we desire to 
 give our lungs free play within their bony cage. 
 Our ribs form the walls, and are so constructed 
 that their interspaces can be likened to " the 
 seams that must be let out," and this, of course, 
 in the human " bodice," can only be accompHshed 
 by the muscular act of pulHng the ribs further 
 apart from each other. Pushing the rib wall 
 out by the usual method of inflating the lungs is 
 not nature's intention for expanding the chest, 
 neither is that way satisfactory or even effectual. 
 
28 VOICE: ITS NATURAL DKVELOPiMENT 
 
 I do not mean to say fn^t the lungs cannot 
 become enlarged by bieatliing efforts, bcoaiisc 
 it is MoU known that glan.s-blowcrs and others 
 who arc daily using their luugs to an abnormal 
 degree often develop them in such a way as to 
 produce emphysema. For a normal person, 
 however, such a process of development not 
 only takes an unconscionable time, but may end 
 in an injury to the lungs, for the result of chest 
 expansion is not permanently to fix the ribs, 
 but to render their action plastic. 
 
 Our ribs are fitted out with their own ropes, 
 pulleys, and levers, which render their action 
 quite independent of the lungs they encase. 
 
 The most effectual means of parting the ribs, 
 therefore, is to utilise their muscular ropes, 
 wliich arc attached to both the top and the 
 bottom ends — namely, the muscles at the back 
 of the neck (including the upper trapezius) and 
 those of the abdomen. 
 
 It is a remarkable feature of modern physical 
 training that these sets of muscles arc rarely 
 exercised in their natural pull, although strong 
 men adorn their own bodies and those of their 
 pupils with a surfeit of muscle developed in an 
 incorrect manner and consequently of little 
 practical utility — lather an incumbrance ; and 
 
VOCAL DEVELOPMENT 29 
 
 yet, if these muscles are cultivated in a direct 
 manner, they form the chief medium in chest 
 expansion. Of course there are other sets of 
 muscles controlling the chest and back, which 
 assist in the general leverage, but their develop- 
 ment alone — despite the teaching of gymnastic 
 instructors — is quite inadequate ; whilst, if the 
 muscles of the neck and abdomen are strength- 
 ened in the right way, all the accessory muscles 
 of the trunk of the body Mke\\"ise become 
 developed and plastic* 
 
 Fig. 1 (see p. 30) represents the skeleton in the 
 attitude the generaUty of men habitually assume, 
 with rounded back and flat chest ; and the majority 
 of women would also present the same weakness 
 of carriage if it were not for the protruding 
 formation of their breasts, and the artificial 
 
 * The author's experience has proved that gymnastics 
 and physical " culture " generally retard vocal development, 
 owing to the hardening of the muscles that control the eiction 
 of the ribs, thereby rendering the chest " muscle-bound." 
 Although in some of these cases the chest wall can — by in- 
 halation — be expanded, to relax it (by which process the ribs 
 are drawn closer together) is, in nearly every case, an im- 
 possibility, and often what is known as a, " box^ chest " 
 is the result — amongst singers especially. Under these 
 conditions (as a complete depression of the ribs is as important 
 as their expansion) it is necessary for the student to perform 
 certain exercises that loosen the hardness of the muscles 
 before " toning them up " to their natural plasticity. 
 
30 voir ■]•: : ITS XA'JURAL JJEVELOPMEXT 
 
 support given them by tlieir corsets. The 
 skeleton is -hown because it is the bony struc- 
 
 PLATE \ 
 
 FIC I 
 
 DiA I 
 
 riG 2 
 
 DiA 2 
 
 ture tliat determines a good la ]iad figure, and 
 Jiot the muscles and fleshy covering adorning it. 
 Tlie ribs in thi> figure are de^jressed, o^^'ing 
 
VOCAL DEVELOPMENT 31 
 
 to the unused and quiescent condition of their 
 leverage muscles ; a similar " poking forward " 
 attitude applies to many athletes, who, proud 
 in the possession of huge deltoids and swoUen 
 pectorals (which the forward stoop accentuates), 
 fondly imagine that they have reached the 
 acme of chest development, although no actual 
 expansion has, of course, taken place. The 
 " strong man " and gymnastic woman have, as 
 a rule, just as much enlargement of waist as 
 the untrained person, which proves the incom- 
 patibihty of the exercises they teach. In the 
 larger book upon this subject I shall expose the 
 fallacy of a gymnast's method of training. 
 
 Fig. 1, therefore, represents the leverage muscles 
 of the neck and abdomen, either undeveloped 
 and flaccid or incorrectly hardened, and Fig. 2 
 illustrates the skeleton of a man standing in the 
 position Nature intended him to maintain, with 
 those important sets of muscles directly and 
 plastically developed (and therefore shortened). 
 The reader will readily perceive, as shown by 
 Diagrams 1 and 2, what a direct influence 
 these muscular ropes have upon the ribs in 
 pulling them further apart, and so expanding 
 the chest. Particular attention paid to the 
 direct development of these habitually neglected 
 
1 
 
VOCAL DEVELOPMENT 33 
 
 pairs of muscles will also powerfully affect the 
 health of the whole organism. 
 
 In order to emphasise the virtues attached to 
 these important muscles, I may repeat that it 
 is due to the exercising of the rectus and obliqus 
 abdominis that the ugly protruding paunch — 
 in that locality — disappears ; the intestines are 
 packed back into their proper place, and the 
 enlarged sluggish liver, being constantly squeezed 
 back, has its circulation marvellously improved 
 with consequent benefit. The ugly pull forward 
 of the cervical and two or three upper dorsal 
 vertebrae shown by Fig. 1, seen in nine out of 
 ten people, with the head bobbing at the end, 
 is quickly changed by the exercise of the upper 
 trapezius, bringing the neck back and the head 
 on top, giving a clear run for the air-passages, 
 and a graceful carriage — like an Egyptian carry- 
 ing water on her head. The lower part of the 
 trapezius and the underlying rhomboids are made 
 to pull the shoulders back out of the way of the 
 rising ribs, making the round back flat and the 
 hollow chest expand beyond belief, with plenty of 
 residual air and healthy mobility, as well as natural 
 beauty and grace from the more natural position 
 of the parts, due to strengthening the unusually 
 neglected muscles intended to do the work, 
 3 
 
34 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 I think that I have proved to the student 
 sufficiently the importance of spending the 
 first portion of his voice-training in making 
 his figure as symmetrical as possible, and 
 although proficiency in any branch of art 
 requires personal instruction, I hope that, by 
 defining certain rules and observances, the 
 reader will be able to achieve by himself a satis- 
 factory result, if he follows out the prescribed 
 exercises conscientiously. (The exercises given 
 are intended, of course, for adults, and not for 
 youthful students, whose training would include 
 more prehminary instruction, consequently his 
 course would follow a slower and fuller develop- 
 ment.) 
 
 If you lie with your back upon the floor, your 
 face horizontal so that your eyes are directed 
 straight to the ceihng (vide Plate II., p. 19, 
 turning the picture round so that the figure 
 lies in a horizontal position), and tuck your 
 shoulders back until the wide surface of the 
 scapula (shoulder-blade) is flat (and your collar- 
 bone in consequence will just disappear from 
 prominence), then firmly place your hands upon 
 your abdominal wall and press upon it, at 
 the same time gently inhale, your figure will be 
 approaching the symmetrical outline ?ind position 
 
VOCAL DEVELOPMENT 35 
 
 that should be maintained when standing. You 
 will discover that the lower the abdominal wall 
 is contracted, while in this horizontal position, 
 the higher the chest will be forced. When, by- 
 subsequent practice, the arch of the chest pro- 
 trudes 3 inches beyond the chin (vide Plate I., 
 p. 8), and your abdomen flattened accord- 
 ingly, your body will have assumed very 
 nearly a correct and normal attitude. If the 
 floor upon which you lay were raised at the 
 head {vide Plate IL) until your body assumed 
 an upright position, it would be the same as if 
 you stood with your back to the wall, with 
 your heels, pelvis, scapula, and back of head 
 touching it ; and if your abdominal wall were 
 pressed in, the proportions of your figure would 
 be adjusted perpendicularly as they had been 
 when you were Stretched upon the floor, except 
 that this position would necessitate a greater 
 physical effort on account of the alteration 
 your upright attitude made in gravitation. In 
 assuming this posture you will experience a 
 peculiar sensation, either one of bending too 
 far forwards from the hips, or too far back- 
 wards, according to the poise your body has 
 habitually adopted. You will readily under- 
 stand, however, that in a correct perpendicular 
 
I'LATI'] VII 
 
 sTANDiNii rnish: I'ok wd^tI'.n. 
 
VOCAL DEVELOPMEHT 37 
 
 position the weight of your body will be 
 supported easily as the burden is placed upon 
 those bones and muscles shaped for receiving 
 it, and your body will present the strongest 
 attitude for resisting gravitation. 
 
 It should be specially noted, however, that 
 this normal position of a man's figure cannot be 
 comfortably assumed by the majority of women, as 
 the symmetry of form, length of waist, and 
 physical proportions differ considerably ; and the 
 pupil, therefore, who feels the slightest strain 
 or discomfort in standing against the wall, 
 should move the trunk of her body from the 
 hips slightly forward, as shown in Plate VII., but 
 great care should be observed that no stoop 
 or forward bend be assumed. 
 
 Exercise I. — (o) Place a book upon your head 
 and stand with your back to the wall, and adopt 
 as correct an attitude as possible. With your 
 hands upon your hips, the fingers in front and 
 thumbs behind, and your elbows in a straight 
 line with the body, take one step forwards. 
 Raise yourself slowly upon your toes, maintaining 
 a well-balanced attitude, and down again, with 
 your toes turned out at an angle of 30 degrees 
 and heels together, stiffening your knees with 
 force. : 
 
3S VOICE : ITS XATURAl. DEVELOPMENT 
 
 (h) Interlace your fingors in front t\nd place 
 the liaiuls Hatly upon the alnloniinal wall, and 
 slowly (hraw it imvai*d, at the same time draw 
 the ohin slightly back, stitToning the muscles 
 at the uapc of the neck. 
 
 (c) Sustain this position whilst you count ;">. 
 and then slowly relax, and repeat the movement 
 12 times. 
 
 E.vti-cn<t II. — In oixier to maintain and place 
 in position the uuisclcs that command the 
 shoulders, place the hands at back of head, 
 and, assuming a correct body-balaiuc. raise 
 yourself slowly upon the tecs and down again. 
 Then slowly press back the elbows I'J tin.cs, 
 strongly resisting with the head. This exeix-ise 
 and the next require to be cxcctitcd daily at 
 certain intervals. 
 
 E.vcrcii't III- Stand in position, clasp the 
 hands together at the back, and strongly 
 revolve shoulders, making the scapulae meet 
 as near as possible, but great care must be 
 taken in this movement to avoid iht .•<lii)htt\it 
 strain. 
 
 E.vercisc IV. — For the neck uuisclcs and head 
 poise, place a hook upon the head to citsure 
 poise, pull back the abdominal wall slowly ; 
 (a) raise arms laterally and clasp the hands at 
 
VOCAL DEVELOPMENT 39 
 
 the nape of the neck, keeping the elbows in 
 straight Une each side of head. 
 
 (6) Push back the head slowly, resisting with 
 hands, 3 times ; then raise the hands, stretch 
 them out laterally, and let them slowly fall to 
 sides. 
 
 Repeat this movement 12 times very slowly, 
 and great care must be taken that the poise of 
 the body is maintained the whole time. 
 
 This exercise is a difficult one to many, but it 
 is very useful if it can be performed, as it he'ps 
 the poise of the body, strengthening those 
 important sets of muscles so necessary to correct 
 balance. 
 
 Another very useful plan is, when executing 
 your toilet morning and evening, brush your 
 hair on the top of your head back from the 
 forehead vigorously with a brush in either hand, 
 maintaining an upright carriage all the time. 
 If you do this regularly, counting one hundred 
 at each practice, you will not only be strengthen- 
 ing the neck muscles, which act as resisters to 
 your action, but be invigorating the roots of 
 the hair. This acts as a massage, and very 
 materially assists the growth of the hair. 
 
 In both these exercises great care must be 
 taken that the correct balance cf body is assumed. 
 
40 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 and in order to test it, a position against the 
 wall should be taken, follo^^■ed by a forward 
 step, in which attitude the abdominal wall 
 should always be drawn back ; for one great 
 tendency of exercise is to accentuate and exag- 
 gerate an upright attitude by flinging the shoulders 
 too far back and arching the spine. 
 
 The longer time in days or ■\^'eeks devoted, to 
 these simple preliminary physical exercises, the 
 greater ultimate success \\'ill be achieved, and I 
 am taking for granted that a conscionable period 
 has passed in striving to attain bodily fitness, 
 before proceeding to the next stage in the training 
 for vocal development, which is " breath control." 
 
 But just in the same way as the methodical 
 engineer, whilst his furnaces are heating and his 
 motive power is generating, looks to his machinery 
 in order to test each part and see that it is in 
 good working condition, so should the cultivator 
 of voice direct his attention to his tongue, palate, 
 and lips — which collect, modify, and mould the 
 sound-impulses — during this probationary period, 
 mute exercises for which will be found on pp. 65 
 and 67. 
 
 The great advantages in these exercises are 
 that they can be practised at any moment of 
 the day and at any place without observation. 
 
CHAPTER 111 
 
 HOW TO IXCEEASE THE POWER OF THE VOICE 
 
 " There is an art in breatliing properly, and it con- 
 sists in inlialing always tlirough the nostrils — ^never 
 tlrrough the mouth." 
 
 If an example of the graphic arts were criti- 
 cised, three essentials would be noted — beauty, 
 skill, and likeness : and an architectui"al work 
 must possess beauty of design, skill in con- 
 struction, and usefulness : and, as Ruskin 
 says. '■ You must have the three in each group 
 balanced and co-ordinated ; and all the chief 
 errors in art consist in losing or exaggerating 
 one of these three essentials." 
 
 The same truism apphes to a musical tone, 
 and the three characteristics that comprise it 
 are power, pitch, and '' timbre," and in a speaking 
 voice the same constituents should embody it 
 (although, for convenience, caUed by other 
 names), those of fullness, cadence, and sweet- 
 ness. 
 
 41 
 
42 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Now, for each of these necessary vocal ele- 
 ments, that comprise the complementary whole, 
 there in a special and separate sphere of action, 
 for power generates in the lungs, or "air-chest " 
 (although conserved as well in the glottic ven- 
 tricles) ; pitch, or cadence, is produced in the 
 larynx, or "sound-box"; and "timbre," or 
 beauty of tone, is moulded — if the other two 
 conditions support it — in the resonating chambers 
 behind the nose and pharynx. It is readily 
 perceived, therefore, that although the mechanism 
 that produces voice may be complicated and in- 
 tricate, the control of it is simplified because 
 divided into three factors. 
 
 But " power " does not imply merely the 
 distinction of " loudness," but signifies pouer 
 over the voice, embodying " endurance " as well. 
 A bicyclist who possesses the most control or 
 power over his machine is he who can ride the 
 slowest ; and following the same line of reasoning, 
 a speaker or singer who can so. economise his 
 energy and control his breath, firstly, by his 
 intercostal and abdominal muscles, and, secondly, 
 his false vocal chords — compressing the air in 
 the ventricles of the larynx — that he can produce 
 a clear note very softly, has the greater chance 
 of emitting a strong, pure musical tone. If a 
 
VOCAL POWER 43 
 
 person possesses a harsh voice, it is more than 
 probable that he will be unable to utter soft 
 tones at all. A voice should be so controlled 
 that from the softest " hum " a note should 
 swell in volume and die away smoothly and 
 without a break. An ill-formed chest or half- 
 filled lungs can produce "loudness" of voice, 
 the speaker or singer relying only upon the 
 glottic ventricle compression, often emitting 
 harshness of voice, or, by muscularly constricting 
 the opening of the throat, thereby producing 
 " throaty " tones. 
 
 As I have before stated, faulty voice production 
 generally proves that the energy is not evenly 
 distributed, and consequently that an undue 
 constriction is taking place in a locality which 
 often disastrously injures the throat. In order 
 to make my meaning clearer, let me take as a 
 practical illustration an india-rubber bladder 
 with a distension tube attached. If the bladder 
 be inflated and no constriction placed upon the 
 tube, the air will quickly become exhausted 
 and the ball flattened on account of the outward 
 atmospheric pressure. If the tube be squeezed, 
 however, the bladder will of course remain 
 inflated, or by lessening the pressure of the 
 thumb and finger the escape of air can be regu- 
 
44 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 lated. But there is also another manner of 
 controlhng the escape, and that is by glueing 
 inside the fingers of both hands to the outside 
 walls of the bladder, circumscribing it, so that 
 the ball can be kept from collapsing by the 
 expansion of the hands resisting the atmospheric 
 pressure. The former method, in which the 
 stem is squeezed, tends to illustrate the usual 
 method resorted to by both singers and speakers, 
 who rely only upon this inadequate measure for 
 controlhng the breath. This simile helps to 
 prove how the muscular pulleys controlhng the 
 rib wall and the abdominal muscles can help 
 to keep the ribs out, and thus to regulate the 
 breath control, the glottic valves taking the 
 place of the elastic vibratory box at the end 
 of the bladder tube. This method is a true 
 economy of force. 
 
 The church organ, which has exercised such a 
 powerful influence on the development of musical 
 art, is constructed very much upon the same 
 principle as the human vocal organ — ^viz. a chest 
 of compressed air ; a set of pipes producing 
 musical sound; and a keyboard, or "clavier," 
 which determines the pitch of pipe to be used. 
 The object of the bellows is to keep the wind- 
 chest always inflated, so as to insure an even 
 
PLATE VIII 
 
46 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 pressure of air supply. If the chest were not full, 
 squeaky spasmodic sounds would be the result. 
 
 Air compression in the chest-box is the secret 
 of breath control, for this rule applies equally 
 well in the production of a vocal tone, and the 
 sides of the chest at the lower ribs should be 
 muscularly expanded, and so, with practice, 
 the lungs are able to remain distended, fed at 
 short intervals by little intakes of air through 
 the nose. 
 
 As in the church organ wind-chest, all air 
 below the glottic valve in the larynx is com- 
 pressed, and the greater the density of the breath 
 beneath it, the tighter become the " chordae 
 vocales " ; for the peculiar characteristic of a 
 muscle is, that the stronger the pressure exerted 
 upon it the greater tendency it has to contract 
 and tighten, and this is what occurs with those 
 muscles controlling the vocal lips of the glottis, 
 assisted by the false chords above them.* 
 
 The last exercises have paved the way for 
 breath control by strengthening those leverage 
 muscles that expand the chest, but the object 
 of this chapter is to show how this expansion 
 
 * The false vocal chords, in their position abo^e the true 
 vocal chords, help — by their peculiar convexity — to stem too 
 great a force of upward air, and so assist the true vocal 
 ligaments to remain approximated. 
 
VOCAL POWER 47 
 
 of the wind-chest can be maintained for an 
 indefinite period while speaking or singing. 
 
 The prehminary to be comphed with in respect 
 to respiratory exercises is of so commonplace 
 a nature that, despite its essential value, it is 
 rarely observed, and that is, to discover whether 
 your " air-shaft " is clear, by the simple ex- 
 pedient of "blowing your nose" — not violently 
 like a trumpet-call, but gently and easily blow 
 down one nasal passage and then the other, 
 separately, in order to clear them. That silly 
 habit of pinching the nostrils together and 
 blowing by forced expulsion not only tends to 
 inflame the delicate lining of the nose, but 
 often affects the ear-drum, and in children this 
 action is fraught with grave danger. 
 
 At the back of the nose lie vocal resonating 
 chambers, and so the importance of keeping its 
 passages clear can be readily understood ; but 
 the resonating exercises cannot be dealt with 
 in this curtailed work, but come within the 
 scope of the larger book. 
 
 Another point to be noted in relation to 
 normal breathing is, that "inhalation" should 
 always be through the nose and never through 
 the mouth, and the nostrils should never be 
 stiffened nor contracted, because in this manner 
 
48 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 the air-passage is lessened, and the air should 
 be drawn in freely and silently. Many throat 
 troubles arise through this habit of mouth- 
 breathing, as the interior passages of the nose 
 are specially constructed with their filtering 
 and warming apparatus, and every person 
 should cultivate nose-breathing when speaking 
 and during sleep. 
 
 It is only in singing that this golden rule 
 cannot be adhered to, as the breath inhaled 
 through the nostrils has a tendency, of course, 
 to drop the uvula, which would interfere with 
 a sharp vowel attack. In speech, however, its 
 observance should be enforced, as the benefits 
 that result from nasal inspiration as regards 
 the throat and pharynx are inestimable, and its 
 practice in no way hinders purity of tone, and, 
 in fact, helps to prevent fatigue. 
 
 Exercise V. — (a) Stand in correct position, 
 and with hands on hips raise voluntarily the 
 chest without inhaling, but you must check the 
 slightest inclination to arch the back by stiffen- 
 ing the lumbar muscles. 
 
 (b) Slowly inhale by the nostrils in 5 short, 
 separate, silent nasal inhalations, until the 
 lungs are inflated to their fullest — but avoid 
 the slightest strain. 
 
VOCAL POWER 49 
 
 (c) Pause for 3 mental counts, and then slowly 
 exhale, whilst mentally counting 8. 
 
 (d) Take another breath in the same way, and 
 increase the number of counts during exhalation 
 by 2, making 10 in all. By subsequent practice 
 these can be increased until 20 to 30 counts are 
 reached. 
 
 The whole exercise must be executed without 
 the slightest strain or fatigue, as no benefit is 
 to be gained by over-exertion, but rather the 
 reverse, for it often retards progress. When 
 instructors tell you to expand the chest power- 
 fully at the start, they do wrong, for you mast 
 never force your chest outwards nor contract 
 too strenuously your abdominal muscles. As con- 
 stitutions vary, and as no two physical structures 
 are alike, a consideration must be made for the 
 natural " drawing power " of the lungs (which 
 differ so much in individuals), and the student 
 must use his own judgement as to the precise 
 number of inhalatory counts in order that his 
 breathing may feel natural and without undue 
 effort. 
 
 This exercise should be repeated for a few 
 moments several times daily before the next 
 exercise is followed. 
 
 Exercise VI. — Stand in correct position ; ex- 
 4 
 
50 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 pand air-chest and slowly fill it with air, and 
 when inflated count in seconds 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., 
 up to as many numbers as your breath will 
 conveniently — and without effort — allow you, 
 pressing out by voluntary effort the lower rib 
 wall at each count. After this strong move- 
 ment, take one normal respiration as a rest, 
 and then repeat the expansion exercise, for a 
 period of several minutes, but cease before you 
 feel fatigued. After an interval, execute this 
 exercise by increasing gradually the number 
 of counts as you feel your intercostals strengthen- 
 ing, and you are able to stand the outward 
 pressure without the slightest strain. It is far 
 better to do an exercise of this description for 
 three minutes, ten times a day, than for one 
 half-hour's continuous practice. 
 
 After this exercise has been diligently com- 
 plied with for a few days, and you feel no effort 
 in sustaining your chest expansion whilst 30 or 
 40 seconds have been counted, proceed to the 
 next. 
 
 Exercise VII. — Take the same position as 
 before, chest-box expanded, lungs inflated, etc., 
 and repeat the last exercise with this difference, 
 that after every fourth count take in a little 
 silent inhalation in order to replace breath 
 
VOCAL POWER 51 
 
 expended, and maintain this attitude arid extend 
 your counts as long as you feel no fatigue, and 
 at every count exert a slight forward pressure 
 at the most prominent and lower parts of the 
 rib wall. 
 
 The student must be careful in these pre- 
 liminary muscular exercises not to practise for 
 too long a period at one time or with any strain, 
 or the probable consequences would be that on 
 awaking next morning the unusual exercise 
 given to the intercostal muscles may cause a 
 stiffness and soreness, and perhaps, when you 
 rise, a slight " stitch." If this happens, bend 
 down the body forwards from the hips and 
 up again, and rehef will be experienced. The 
 soreness, however, may last for a few days, 
 until these muscles have reached the stage of 
 plasticity. 
 
 In the following exercises it is so necessary 
 that you maintain an upright position that you 
 must place the book (from which you read) upon 
 a stand level with your eyes, and this will not 
 necessitate stooping or poking the head forward. 
 
 Exercise VIII. — Stand with your back to wall, 
 in a correct position, and after taking a good 
 breath recite the following lines, inhaling where 
 marked : 
 
52 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Ye who are strong in early years, husband your 
 strength for the day of need, even as ye gather 
 knowledge and store money in yonr purse,* that 
 so ye may not be impoverished by untimely love, 
 and in manhood bankrupt body and soul.* 
 
 (Take a quick inspiration and exhalation after 
 every second star before inflating the lungs 
 for next lines.) 
 
 Beware of the enticement of drunkards, that ye 
 may not be led away to partake of their drunken- 
 ness ; * for they are even as men distempered with 
 fevers, infecting all who join in their company.* 
 
 Beware of those men who will secretly defame 
 your master and workfellows, to sow discontent in 
 your bosom ; * esteem not their friendship, but 
 distrust all their words, for they who speak against 
 others will easily speak against you.* 
 
 Beware of those wretches «lio will bribe you to 
 defraud your master and lavish his goods ; * recoil 
 from their gifts with horror as from an assassin's 
 dirk, and esteem all their favours as poison.* 
 
 The foolish artisan believeth that his craft was 
 perfect from the beginning, even as the building of 
 birds ; * he hath no regard for that which is written 
 in books, he esteemeth no teaching but that which 
 eometh straight from the tongue.* 
 
 But every wise artisan readeth the history of his 
 
VOCAL POWER 53 
 
 art from remote time, and followeth its growth 
 through many inventions.* 
 
 And thenceforth he standeth among his fellows 
 on vantage-ground as a giant of many years ; * and 
 knowing how much hath been done before, he be- 
 ginneth to devise further improvements.* 
 
 When ye have ^nded the labour of the week and 
 put all things in order, go not into the company of 
 night -prowlers ; * but retire to rest early, that ye 
 may rise up sober and cheerful on the day of rest.* 
 
 Consider what is due to your parents, and make 
 no rash adventures ; * for though they be not able 
 to advise you in all things, be sure that their counsel 
 is worth hearing, because it is given with good will.* 
 
 A foolish son often craveth money from his parents, 
 and will not receive counsel and instruction ; * but 
 a wise son only desireth that they will add to his 
 wisdom, and all other things he is able to command. 
 
 These lines should be carefully and slowly 
 recited until the breath can be maintained whilst 
 speaking with comfort and ease, and with plenty 
 of breath to spare, the lungs being refilled slowly 
 through the nostrils at each *. 
 
 N.B. — This method of breathing is merely 
 included as a lung exercise, and is not to be 
 
54 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 taken as an usual principle to be followed ; but 
 if the student feels that the lengthy sustaining 
 of the breath is taxing him in the slightest, he 
 is advised to inhale at shorter intervals. 
 
 Exercise IX. — The following exercise should 
 be practised after the preceding one has been 
 executed with no effort. 
 
 Recite the following various verses, taking 
 in more air through the nostrils at each place 
 marked by an asterisk (*), but in executing this 
 do not relax the chest, but merely add a fresh 
 supply to make up for the breath expended. 
 You are by this method following the example 
 set you by the " wind-chest " of the church 
 organ, which keeps fully expanded all through 
 the selection. There is no need to close the 
 mouth during the nasal inspiration, as the tip of 
 the tongue should be pressed against the hard 
 palate (or the back of tongue against soft palate), 
 and exclude the air from entering the mouth. 
 
 It must be borne in mind, however, that if 
 during this exercise the slightest fatigue is felt, 
 the student must consider that he has not spent 
 enough time in practising the preceding exercises, 
 which lead up to this one. For this exercise, 
 stand out from the wall, but maintain a good 
 position. 
 
VOCAL POWER 55 
 
 'Twas about the time of Christmas, a-many years 
 
 ago,* 
 When the sky was black with wrath and rack, and 
 
 the earth was white with snow,* 
 When loudly rang the tumult of the winds and 
 
 waves at strife,* 
 In her home by the sea, with her babe on her knee, 
 
 sat Harry Conquest's wife.* 
 And he was on the waters, she knew not, knew not 
 
 where,* 
 For never a lip could tell of the ship, to lighten her 
 
 heart's despair ; * 
 And her babe was dying, dying,* the pulse in the 
 
 tiny wrist 
 Was all but still,* and the brow was chill, and pale 
 
 as the white sea mist.* 
 Jane Conquest's heart was hopeless,* she could only 
 
 weep and pray 
 That the Shepherd mild would take the child pain- 
 lessly away.* 
 
 Relax chest between each verse, and take in 
 full inspiration, which must be maintained 
 during the next verse : — 
 
 11 
 
 Up rose the aged Provost — a brave old man was he,* 
 Of ancient name, and knightly fame, and chivalrous 
 degree ; * 
 
56 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 He ruled our city like a lord who brook'd no equal 
 
 here,* 
 And ever for the townsman's rights stood up 'gainst 
 
 prince and peer : * 
 But yet, a dearer thought had he ; for with a father's 
 
 pride,* 
 He saw his last remaining son go forth by Randolph's 
 
 side : * 
 With casque on head, and spur on heel, all keen to 
 
 do or dare,* 
 And proudly did his gallant boy that royal banner 
 
 bear.* 
 Oh ! woeful now was the old man's look, and he 
 
 spake right heavily,* 
 " Now, Randolph, tell thy tidings, however sharp 
 
 they be ! * 
 Woe is written on thy visage — death is looking 
 
 from thy face,* 
 Speak ! Though it be of overthrow, it cannot be 
 
 disgrace ! " * 
 
 III 
 
 I told her of the knight that wore upon his shield a 
 
 burning brand,* 
 And that for ten long years he wooed the lady of 
 
 the land.* 
 I told her how he pined ; and ah ! the deep, the low, 
 
 the pleading tone,* 
 With which I sang another's love, interpreted my 
 
 own.* 
 
VOCAL POWER 57 
 
 She listened with a flitting blush, with downcast 
 
 eyes and modest grace ; * 
 And she forgave me that I gazed too fondly on her 
 
 face.* 
 But when I told the cruel scorn, that crazed the bold 
 
 and lovely knight,* 
 And that he crossed the mountain woods, nor rested 
 
 day nor night ; * 
 That sometimes from the savage den, and sometimes 
 
 from the darksome shades,* 
 And sometimes starting up at once in green and 
 
 sunny glade,* 
 There came and looked him in the face an Angel 
 
 beautiful and bright,* 
 And that he knew it was a Fiend, this miserable 
 
 knight.* 
 
 IV 
 
 Now all those things are o'er — yes, all thy pre'tty 
 
 ways — * 
 Thy needlework, thy prattle, thy snatches of old 
 
 lays ; * 
 And none will grieve when I go forth, or smile when 
 
 I return,* 
 Or watch beside the old man's bed, or weep upon 
 
 his urn.* 
 — The time has come ! See, how he points his eager 
 
 hand this way ! * 
 See, how his eyes gloat on thy grief, like a kite's 
 
 upon the prey.* 
 
58 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 With all his wit, he little deems, that, spurned, be- 
 trayed, bereft,* 
 
 Thy father hath, in his despair, one fearful refuge 
 left.* 
 
 He little deems, that, in this hand, I clutch what 
 still can save 
 
 Thy gentle youth from taunts and blows,* the 
 portion of the slave ; * 
 
 Yea, and from nameless evil, that passeth taunt 
 and blow — * 
 
 Foul outrage, which thou knowest not, which thou 
 shalt never know.* 
 
 Though virtue sink, and reason fail, and social ties 
 
 dissever,* 
 I'll be your friend in hour of need, and find you 
 
 homes for ever ; * 
 For I have built three mansions high, three strong 
 
 and goodly houses,* 
 To lodge at last each jolly soul who all his life 
 
 carouses — * 
 The first, it is a spacious house, to all but sots 
 
 appalling,* 
 Where, by the parish bounty fed, vile, in the sun- 
 shine crawling,* 
 The worn-out drunkard ends his days, and eats 
 
 the dole of others, — * 
 A plague and burden to himself, an eyesore to his 
 
 brothers.* 
 
VOCAL POWER 59 
 
 The third and last is black and high, the abode of 
 
 guilt and anguish,* 
 And full of dungeons deep and fast, where death- 
 
 doom'd felons languish.* 
 So drain the cup, and drain again.* One of thy 
 
 goodly hodses 
 Shall lodge at last each jolly soul who to the dregs 
 
 carouses ! * 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 DEFECTIVE UTTERANCE AND ITS CURE EXERCISES 
 
 FOR OBTAINING FACIAL FLEXIBILITY AND 
 BREATH CONTROL 
 
 " Speak the speech, I pray ybu, as I pronounced it 
 to you, trippingly on the tongue : but if you mouth it, 
 as many of our players do, I had as Hef the town-crier 
 spoke my hnes." — Shakespeare. 
 
 There are many people in the world who are 
 more or less " tone-deaf," and who cannot, 
 therefore, distinguish accurately, or even tell 
 at all, one tune from another. The celebrated 
 lexicographer Dr. Johnson can be classed 
 among the unfortunates, as all music, however 
 beautiful, appeared to him as mere noise. We 
 must from this surmise that his speech would 
 be heavy, prosy, and monotonous, lacking the 
 slightest cadence. 
 
 Although the number of people who are 
 9,bsolutely " tone-deaf " is not very considerable, 
 
 91 
 
62 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 it is surprising to discover so many of both 
 sexes whose " musical ear " is quite undeveloped, 
 and it is partly this deficient sense that accounts 
 for many harsh and unpleasant voices. In 
 order to rid speech of impurities and produce a 
 pleasing "tone," it is necessary to cultivate a 
 sense of vocal harmony. If children underwent 
 voice tests and were taught a sensible system 
 of vocal development as an important part of 
 their education, our colloquial speech would be 
 greatly improved. 
 
 Defects in voice and speech have the same 
 tendency to grow worse through constant mis- 
 use as bad habits in deportment estabMsh and 
 aggravate spinal curvature. 
 
 The impurities in a voice often remain un- 
 noticed, except in moments of excitement, or 
 when the speaker engages in a pubhc career, 
 and the severe trial his voice undergoes soon 
 brings to light any discordant element in it, 
 which rapidly becomes intensified. 
 
 When we realise that the larynx only generates 
 silent vibratory impulses, and that until these 
 emissions — after being moulded in the mouth — 
 are collected by the ear, there can be no " sound," 
 our aural organ becomes of the first magnitude 
 in importance. But although " ear " plays such 
 
DEFECTIVE UTTERANCE 63 
 
 a prominent part in voice culture, I cannot in 
 this condensed edition dwell upon the method 
 — in the necessary detail — of promoting the 
 perceptive sense in relation to " pitch " and 
 " tone," but I should point out that an im- 
 perfect "ear" in distinguishing diatonic or 
 chromatic intervals greatly retards purity cf 
 speech. It is not a difficult matter to cultivate 
 a good "ear" for music, but such development 
 can only be attained by personal instruction. 
 
 There are many voices possessing similar 
 characteristics and peculiarities, but no two 
 absolutely alike in every particular, and in 
 defects of utterance we must look for the cause 
 in one of the several factors that determine it. 
 In every instance the quality of voice, or its 
 feebleness, is due to the methods of its produc- 
 tion ; and if the development of chest and breath 
 control be good, the cause of a faulty delivery 
 is more likely to be discovered in the resonating 
 chambers of the pharynx and nose and the 
 articulating apparatus of the mouth than in the 
 imperfections of the laryngeal machinery. How- 
 ever steady the voice control is, if the soft palate 
 and uvula are flaccid and the tongue uncontrol- 
 lable, no pure sound can be produced. If, on 
 the other hand, the jaw and hps lack flexibility, 
 
64 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 no precise and clear articulation can result. 
 In order to give sonorousness to the voice, the 
 mouth cavity must be made as large as possible, 
 therefore the pharynx as well as the tongue 
 must be under control. For instance, if the 
 larynx is raised, the cavity of the pharynx is 
 diminished in area, and the voice becomes sharp 
 and metallic, whilst by the loMering of the 
 " Adam's apple " more space is made and " chest " 
 tones become deeper and richer, and the chief 
 object of the speaker is to make the throat 
 opening for the voice to pass through as large 
 as possible. One of the greatest impediments 
 to perfect delivery is the unruliness of the tongue, 
 for unless such command over it is secured 
 that it can be made to lie flat at the bottom of 
 the mouth at will, but with no effort, its tip 
 touching the bottom of the lower teeth, so that 
 when the mouth is opened a clear cavity is seen, 
 little improvement in vowel sounds can be made, 
 for pure resonant tones must have an unimpeded 
 passage from the larynx to the hard palate at 
 the roof of the mouth behind the front teeth, 
 upon which they strike before emission. 
 
 Purity of vowel sounds relies also upon the 
 flexibility of the soft palate and the little uvula 
 at the end of it, for this latter appendage must 
 
DEFECTIVE UTTERANCE 6S 
 
 be made at will to rise high, and so powerfully 
 press upwards against the top of the arch of the 
 pharynx that its size considerably diminishes. 
 The sides of this arch, where the tonsils lie 
 PLATE IX 
 
 APPEARA>fCE OF AND EXERCISES FOB 
 THE FAUOAL ARCH. 
 
 1. At Rest — Healthy Condition. 3. Lateral Stretch. 
 
 2. Upward Stretch. 4. At Re^t — Unhealthy and Relaxed 
 
 Condition. 
 (See p. 7ii.) 
 
 concealed in their membranous folds, should 
 also be made firm and contracted at will. 
 
 Living in crowded cities, fetid atmosphere, 
 and close companionship with our fellow-men 
 5 
 
66 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 have had much to do with our lack of chest 
 girth, the inelasticity of the ventricles of the 
 larynx and the resonating chambers, the unplastic 
 condition of the pharyngeal fauces, the lack 
 of control over the tongue, and the want of lip 
 spontaneity. For before the congested con- 
 dition of the population, when men and boys 
 had to call from a distance to one another in 
 order to converse, all those parts which are 
 necessary to voice resonance were exercised, and 
 in consequence developed.* Even our dietary 
 impairs the vocal mechanism mth its indigestible, 
 rich,and non-nutritious compounds, and spirituous 
 and hot liquids which inflame the deHcate tissue 
 of the gums and pharynx. This is an age of 
 surgical operations, when indiscriminate on- 
 slaughts are often made upon the faucal and 
 pharyngeal tonsils. These incisions and ex- 
 tractions appear to have a paralysing effect 
 upon vocal tone, often robbing the voice — in 
 its middle and upper registers — of " timbre " or 
 nasal resonance. Advice is now generally given by 
 all medical men — except perhaps extreme rhino- 
 logists — that the knife should only be used as a 
 
 * Infants and children should not be too strictly repri- 
 manded for shouting, laughing, or even crying, as these 
 outbursts are natural exercises for vocal development. 
 
DEFECTIVE UTTERANCE 67 
 
 last resource, and they are urging patients to 
 undergo palliative treatment, which is more 
 permanent in its good effects. 
 
 It comes within the province of a progressive 
 teacher of vocal development to examine the 
 state of each pupil's throat, etc., and — except 
 under extreme conditions, when surgical treat- 
 ment is imperative — he should advise certain 
 remedial measures, for it is to obviate these hind- 
 rances to vocal excellence that special exercises 
 must be resorted to. 
 
 The three essentials for clear articulation are : 
 control of tongue ; voluntary contraction of the 
 soft palate ; and flexibihty of lips. 
 
 Tongue exercises are many and varied, some 
 for strengthening, others for flexibility and 
 control ; but the majority of them require a 
 teacher or a very lengthy description. The 
 strong movements are likely to cause at first 
 slight congestion and soreness, until a counter- 
 active exercise is given. In this little summary 
 I will content myself in giving only two exercises — 
 one for getting the tongue flat, and the other 
 to induce flexibility. 
 
 Exercise X. — The lingual muscles attached to 
 the hyoid bone, and which act as leverages for 
 the tongue, must be acted upon and hardened. 
 
68 VOICE : IT8 NATURAL DEVELOPMEKT 
 
 By keeping the lips closed and tiying to utter 
 the words "gali" and " gaw,'' the larynx is 
 forced downward, and the lower part of the 
 pharynx is stretched, which affects the root 
 
 PLATE X 
 
 
 VOICE BOX 
 
 TONGCTE MUSCLES. 
 
 of the tongue. Then repeat the "gah" by 
 opening the mouth, but at the same time keeping 
 the tip of the tongue pressed against the bottom 
 of lower teeth, and raising the uvula as high 
 as possible in a "3'awn" action. 
 
DEFECTIVE UTTERANCE 69 
 
 Exercise XI. — Roll tongue round in closed 
 mouth, making the tip describe a circle, firmly, 
 touching all sides of mouth each way behind 
 the teeth. Say emphatically the words " Bell, 
 pell, mell, nell, tell, thell, sell, shell, well, rell, 
 kell, dell " ; and press the tongue against hard 
 palate. 
 
 Exercise XII. — Practise the following well- 
 known lines slowly in order to give the tongue 
 flexibility, and be very careful to emphasise the 
 beginning and end of each word, however small. 
 Let the tongue have full play. 
 
 Firstly, stand in correct position; take in a 
 full breath after extending chest wall. At every 
 asterisk (*) distend the nostrils and make a gentle 
 (and silent) nasal inhalation in order to keep your 
 " air-chest " fully inflated all the way through. In 
 taking breaths through the nose I must again re- 
 mind the reader that there is no need to close the 
 mouth — that would be waste of time ; but by 
 placing the tip of the tongue against the roof of 
 the mouth {or by keeping the tip down, but raising 
 the centre of the tongue up against the palate, 
 as in saying the word "gag"), the passage of 
 air through the mouth is blocked. This should 
 be well practised. 
 
 If, in the attitude you are maintaining, you 
 
70 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 have any tendency to lean back, do the exercise 
 against the wall. Allow yourself three minutes 
 for these lines from start to finish, so that they 
 can be rendered moderately slow and very clearly 
 articulated. 
 
 Rising and leaping,* Sinking and creeping,* 
 Swelling and flinging,* Showering and springing,* 
 Eddying and whisking,* Spouting and frisking,* 
 Twining and twisting,* Around and around,* 
 Collecting, disjecting,* With endless rebound,* 
 Smiling and fighting,* A sight to delight in,* 
 Confounding, astounding,* Dizzing and deafening the 
 ear with its sound.* 
 
 Reading and speeding,* 
 
 And shocking and rocking,* 
 
 And darting and parting,* 
 
 And threading and spreading,* 
 
 And whizzing and hissing,* 
 
 And skipping and dripping,* 
 
 And whitening and brightening,* 
 
 And quivering and shivering,* 
 
 And hitting and spitting,* 
 
 And shining and twining,* 
 
 And rattling and battling,* 
 
 And skating and quaking,* 
 
 And pouring and roaring,* 
 
 And waving and raving,* 
 
 And tossing and crossing,* 
 
 And flowing and growing,* 
 
 And running and stunning,* 
 
DEFECTIVE UTTERANCE 71 
 
 And hurrying and skurrying,* 
 
 And glittering and frittering,* 
 
 And gathering and feathering,* 
 
 And dinning and spinning,* 
 
 And framing and roaming,* 
 
 And dropping and hopping,* 
 
 And working and jerking,* 
 
 And heaving and cleaving,* 
 
 And thundering and floundering,* 
 And falling and crawling and sprawling,* 
 And driving and riving and striving,* 
 And sprinkling and twinkling and wrinkling,* 
 And sounding and bounding and rounding,* 
 And bubbling and troubling and doubling,* 
 Dividing and gliding and sliding,* 
 And grumbling and rumbling and tumbling,* 
 And clattering and battering and shattering,* 
 And gleaining and steaming and streaming and 
 
 beaming,* 
 And rushing and flushing and brushing and gushing,* 
 And flapping and rapping and clapping and slapping,* 
 And curling and whirling and purling and twirling,* 
 Retreating and meeting and beating and skeeting,* 
 Delaying and spraying and playing and splaying,* 
 Advancing and prancing and glancing and dancing,* 
 Recoiling, turmoiling and toiling and boiling,* 
 And thumping and plumping and bumping and 
 
 jumping,* 
 And dashing and flashing and splashing and clashing,* 
 And so never ending, but always descending,* 
 Sounds and motions for ever and ever are blending,* 
 
72 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 All at once; and all o'er, with a mighty uproar — * 
 And in this way the water comes down at Lahore.* 
 
 After practising these lines slowly and de- 
 liberately for some time, increase your speed 
 until you can read it with clear articulation in 
 two minutes, in which event, for the first thirty- 
 four lines, take a nasal breath after every second 
 asterisk*, and for the remaining lines take a 
 breath after every single asterisk *, as before. 
 
 Another tongue-exercise which may be prac- 
 tised, and learnt by heart, so that the tongue 
 could be exercised at any time during the day, 
 because these lines need simply be dumbly 
 articulated : 
 
 The-ineligibility-of-the-preliminaries-is-unparaUeled. 
 
 Such-individual-irregularities-are -generally -irremedi- 
 able. 
 
 He-acted-contrarily-to-the-peremptory -injunctions. 
 
 We-alienate-many-by - requiting-a - few -with - supernu- 
 merary-gratuities. 
 
 An-inalienable-eligibility-of-election-A\hich-was-of-an- 
 authority-which-could-not-be-disputed-rendered- 
 the-interposition-of-his-friends -altogether-super- 
 erogatory. 
 
 For the second preliminary measure for ensuring 
 distinct utterance — viz. the "voluntary con- 
 traction of the soft palate," Nature has given 
 us art e:!?^rcise, which we have always bepn 
 
DEFECTIVE UTTERANCE 
 
 taught to consider as unmannerly, and that is 
 " yawning." You must practise this until you 
 can command a yawn at will, and in doing so 
 hold a little mirror in front of you, so that you are 
 able to watch the little uvula stretching upwards. 
 Exercise XIII. — Start with the mouth closed 
 and utter "gah" to ^^^^^ ^^ 
 
 get the tongue 
 down at back, and 
 then as you slowly 
 an d " tensely " 
 open the jaws, 
 glide the tip of 
 the tongue forward 
 until it reaches the 
 bottom of the 
 lower teeth, and 
 keep the tongue 
 flat and grooved 
 in the centre. No 
 yawn is effective unless the uvula is pressed 
 hard and firmly (almost out of sight) against 
 the roof of the j)harynx. This movement 
 requires to be practised at intervals 12 times 
 in succession, and care must be taken that 
 the back of the tongvie is well pressed down, 
 exposing the throat orifice, 
 
 1. MOUTH-STRETL'HINO EXERCISES. 
 
74 VOICE : ITS NATURAL IJEVELOPMENT 
 
 For tlie third essential in articulation, the 
 lips must perform their share of exercise by 
 stretching movements. 
 
 During this last exercise it is good practice to 
 think (but not to utter) the vo-wel " ah," so that 
 the " raising of the uvula " A\ill unconsciously 
 
 PLATE XII 
 
 a c company the 
 voxels A\hcn pro- 
 no u n c i n g t h e m 
 aloud. 
 
 iV . i? . — T h c s e 
 m o u t h - 1 o r m a t i o n s 
 are not to be con- 
 fused with phona- 
 tion, whicli is given 
 on p. SO. 
 
 Exercise XIY . — 
 An cxay(jerated "Ah, 
 ee, 00," must be 
 practised, silently. 
 and the mouth shaped according to the illus- 
 trations. In describing " oo," push the lips as 
 far forward as possible, like a pig's snout. 
 After practising these separately, glide from 
 one to the other, and then reverse the letters, 
 starting with "oo." 
 
 Exercise XV. — Follow this exercise by giving 
 
 MOUTH-STRETCHING EXERCISES. 
 
DEFECTIVE UTTERANCE 
 
 utterance very quietly to these vowels by a 
 preceding labial consonant, the lips firmly pressed 
 together and then opening to their fullest stretch : 
 
 (a) Bah, Pah, Mah ; Bee, Pee, Mee ; Boh, Poh, 
 Moh ; Boo, Poo, Moo. 
 
 (6) Bah, Bee, Boh, Boo ; Pah, Pee, Poh, Poo ; 
 Mah, Mee, Moh, Moo ; Wah, Wee, Woh, Woo. 
 
 (c) Bah, Pee, Moh, Woo ; Pah, Mee, Woh, Boo ; 
 Mah, Wee, Boh, Poo ; 
 Wah, Bee, Poh, Moo ; 
 Bah, Mee, Woh, Poo. 
 
 PLATE XIIT 
 
 3. MOUTH-STRETCHING 
 EXERCISES. 
 
 Exercise XVI. — 
 Very softly, making 
 no vocal effort, but 
 sitting or standing in 
 correct position, say 
 the following phrases, 
 keeping chest ex- 
 panded the whole time, and take cpiick gentle 
 breaths through the distended nostrils at each 
 comma, or *. 
 
 Each word must be exaggerated in tongue and 
 lip movement. 
 
 In promulgating your esoteric cogitations, or 
 articulating your superficial sentimentalities, and 
 amicable philosophical or psychological observations, 
 beware of platitudinous ponderosity. 
 
76 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Let your conversational communications possess 
 a clarified conciseness, a compacted comprehensi- 
 bility, coalescent consistency, and a concatenated 
 cogency. 
 
 Eschew all conglomerations of flatulent garrulity, 
 jejune babblement, and asinine affectations. 
 
 Let your extemporaneous descantings * and un- 
 premeditated expatiations have intelligibility and 
 veracious vivacity * without rhodomontade or thra- 
 sonical bombast. Sedulously avoid all polysyllabic 
 profundity, pompous prolixity, psittaceous vacuity, 
 ventriloquial verbosity, and vaniloquent vapidity. 
 
 In other words, talk plainly, briefly, naturally, 
 sensibly, truthfully.* Keep from slang ; don't put 
 on airs ; * say what you mean, mean what you say ; * 
 and don't use big words. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 TONE AND ITS CULTIVATION — PHONATION 
 EXERCISES 
 
 " Language, as the plastic symbol of ideas of un- 
 limited range and complexity, marks the impassable 
 gulf between the mental capacity of man and every 
 other animal." — Clodd. 
 
 It is a common fault of public speakers that 
 when any unusual vocal effort is required, or 
 the voice has to be made to reach a great distance, 
 the pitch of it is raised until it becomes shrill, 
 unpleasant, and often broken, whilst the orator 
 suffers from the great additional strain involved. 
 In many cases injury is done, not only to the vocal 
 chords, but to the mucous membrane lining the 
 passage of the throat, and inflammation is the 
 result. An idea many people have that the 
 more they scream on the highest pitch of their 
 voices, the further they can be heard, is quite 
 fallacious. The deep tones of a church organ 
 travel, in reality, further than the high notes, 
 
 77 
 
78 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 if our ears were sufficiently trained to distinguish 
 the low tones from the rumble and hum of daily 
 commotion. 
 
 The reasons for speakers resorting to this 
 high-pitched, straining voice, and the cause of 
 inaudibility, are : 
 
 1. That the speakers commence their utter- 
 ances above their " tonic " (or normal pitch), 
 and then, as their speech increases in intensity, 
 the voice rises higher and becomes quite out of 
 control. For it should be borne in mind that 
 the " key " tone in which the voice is pitched at 
 the commencement never lowers throughout the 
 speech, but generally rises. 
 
 2. That no consideration is made for the size 
 of auditorium, and the voice, not being produced 
 in the right way, the speaker has no abiUty to 
 " place " it. 
 
 3. That the vocal effort is not sustained by 
 the natural muscles. 
 
 4. That the breath is not properly economised, 
 and consequently the speaker expends much 
 more than he needs, which not only exhausts 
 him physically, but so enshrouds his voice that 
 his utterances become obscure and indistinct. 
 
 5. That imperfect articulation and phonation 
 prevent clearness and precision to tones. 
 
TONE AND ITS CULTIVATION 79 
 
 6. That the lower register is seldom exercised, 
 and it is by this that power, resonance, and 
 pathos can be given to the voice, as well as 
 extended range and flexibility. 
 
 Exercise XVII. — In order to bring the tone 
 forward in the mouth, so that it shall not sound 
 " throaty " or muffled, close the lips ; take in 
 an inhalation through the nostrils, and produce 
 a "hum," sustaining it upon the most dominant 
 and central note in your voice, one you would 
 strike mostly and naturally in a careless observa- 
 tion or upon greeting an acquaintance {vide 
 next chapter for method of determining this 
 note). The vibration of the " hum " must be felt 
 against the closed lips, and between the teeth 
 which are slightly parted. Whilst the note is 
 being sounded, slowly open the lips until " mah '■ 
 is emitted. In uttering this syllable the tongue 
 must be quite flat and grooved in the centre at 
 bottom of mouth with tip touching the bottom 
 teeth, and the larynx must be lowered in order 
 to form as large a mouth cavity as possible.* 
 
 * It should be noted that the " hum " is merely advocated 
 to test whether the larynx is sufficiently lowered and the throat 
 opened to allow an unimpeded passage of sound, the vibra- 
 tions of which should be felt against the closed lips. This 
 experiment does not assist the quality of voice, but rather 
 tends to hinder purity of tone. 
 
80 VOICE ; ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 After " mall " has been uttered, close the lips 
 and change the consonant to " bah," dehvering 
 the note in precisely the same manner. In these 
 initial vocal exercises the mind is directed toward 
 keeping a clear space in the pharynx for the 
 PLATE Xiy emission of voice, 
 
 but in subsequent 
 practice, when words 
 take the place of 
 single vowels, the 
 mouth must be 
 opened and the voice 
 emitted and sus- 
 tained tcitliout the 
 slightest effort, and no 
 conscious regard for 
 muscular adjust- 
 ment . The voice 
 should never be forced 
 out, but allowed to 
 be freed from its imprisonment with ease. This 
 is a very important point to he observed in vocal 
 emission . 
 
 OIn the vowel A, as pronounced in the 
 ■word ■■ father," the " timbre " or 
 resonance of the human voice can be deter- 
 mined. A, I, U (pronounced as in Itahan) are 
 
 VOWEL FORMATIOX. 
 
 "AH!" 
 
 COBRKCT SHAPE OF MOUTH. 
 
TONE AND ITS CULTIVATION 
 
 n 
 
 the triple .source of all vowel sounds, and every 
 other phonation is but an exaggerated or modi- 
 fied form of one of these primaries. This first 
 letter of the alphabet is the initial utterance 
 of the infant, which is soon propelled by its 
 
 PLATE XV 
 
 next consonant B. 
 The lips most 
 readily form this 
 syllable, although 
 " bub " is sounded 
 when the lips are 
 not sufficiently 
 parted and out of 
 the way of the 
 teeth, through the 
 edges of which the 
 true A note should 
 pass. 
 
 (a) The open A, 
 then, should be the 
 first vowel as- 
 siduously practised upon, and in order to 
 obtain it in its purity, the teeth should be parted 
 so as to allow two fingers (the middle finger 
 placed upon the top of the forefinger) to be 
 inserted. As, however, no two mouth cavities 
 are alike in size and shape, the aperture must 
 6 
 
 VOWEL MALFORMATION. 
 
 " AH ! " 
 
 INCORKECT SHAFE OF MOUTH 
 (Very usual). 
 
82 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 PLATE X\'r 
 
 vary in individuals, and it is the master's province 
 to determine the correct stretch and shape that 
 forms the purest tone. The tongue must be 
 hollowed, with tip touching the bottom of lower 
 teeth and larynx lowered. If the teelh are too 
 
 near together, the 
 tone will lack re- 
 sonance; and if lips 
 are not drawn away 
 from the teeth (as 
 in a smile), 
 "purity " cannot 
 be obtained.* 
 
 Great car e 
 should be taken 
 with regard to 
 the correct forma- 
 tion of the mouth 
 and organs of 
 articulation in 
 order to obtain the utmost purity and resonance. 
 Let A be practised upon, and if the note is 
 inclined to become throaty, it is because these 
 careful directions have not been folloAved, and 
 
 VOWEL FOKMATION. 
 "OH! " 
 
 * The mouth must not be stretclied open in an exapoerated 
 manner (as shown in tlie lip-stretcliing exercise ilhistrations) 
 in \'ocal emissiLtn, as this lessens the canity of the pharynx. 
 
TONE AND ITS CULTIVATION 83 
 
 PLATE XVII 
 
 the speaker should commence again witli the 
 "hum," followed by "mail" and "bah," to 
 obtain the right formation again. 
 
 {b) ^-V The vowel (a modified Ah) 
 V J should next be practised, because 
 the larynx is still 
 depressed, although 
 the tongue is vei'y 
 slightly drawn 
 back, which raises 
 the centre of it on 
 a level witli the 
 top of the bottom 
 teeth and remains 
 in a stiff central 
 position, whilst 
 the opening is a 
 little less than in 
 Ah and the forma- 
 tion more elliptical. 
 The edges of the 
 teeth must just be visible to prevent the soft 
 substance of the lips from absorbing the sound. 
 
 Be careful that the same directions are fol- 
 lowed as in A, and let there be an uninterrupted 
 flow through the vocal passage to the forward 
 part of the mouth cavity. This vowel 0, 
 
 VUWEL FORMATION. 
 
 "00* 
 
 * The author id indebted to a lady 
 singer of iiournemouth, iliss Marie 
 L'oopcT, for tiiese illustrations. 
 
84 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 sounded as in "bode," should possess great 
 resonance. 
 
 (c) /^r\ In the fundamental 00 (as in 
 
 \Oy "boot") the teeth are kept well 
 
 apart and the lips rounded and hardened (as for 
 
 PLATE XVm ^ ^^^^*^^)' '^' 
 
 tongue more drawn 
 
 back and stiffened, 
 
 and the "hyoid" 
 
 muscle kept down. 
 
 id) ^^ The 
 
 long primary E (as 
 
 in "bee") is the 
 
 most difficult of 
 
 the long vowels, 
 
 and care should be 
 
 taken that the 
 
 corners of the hps 
 
 are extended ; that 
 
 the opening of the 
 
 teeth will just permit the thickness of a wooden 
 
 .match to be inserted between them, and the 
 
 lower teeth should be immediately beneath — 
 
 and not further back than— the upper row; 
 
 and the tongue should touch and remain on a 
 
 level Nvith the lower teeth (but not above), 
 
 leaving a clear channel for the voice. If the 
 
 VOWEL FORMATION. 
 EE* 
 
TONE AND ITS CULTIVATION 85 
 
 tongue is too low and the jaw more open, the 
 E will converge into the long >««-^ (diphthong) 
 A (as in "fate"). The ^•*— ^ "hyoid" 
 muscle should be likewise drawn slightly down 
 during the production of " ee " : this prevents 
 thinness of tone. 
 
 (e) Practise the 
 long E and join it 
 to the OO. 
 
 (/) Now very 
 carefully stand or 
 sit in position, and 
 inflate air-chest, 
 etc. ; hold a little 
 mirror in front so 
 as to watch care- 
 fully the mouth 
 formation, and 
 sound Ah, gliding 
 thence to 0, E, and 
 00, extending the note as long as possible. 
 
 Exercise XVIII. — The wrong phonation of the 
 long English vowel I is generally the cause of 
 acce7it being so conspicuous. Instead of the lips 
 forming as if to pronounce the Itahan a they 
 take the shape of Aw, a, a, or e. The long i is 
 formed by the sound which joins the a (as in 
 
 VOWEL FORMATION. 
 A* 
 
86 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 "father") and 6 (as in "met") together — an in- 
 termediate phonetic — so that great care should 
 be taken in regard to the initial formation of 
 the mouth, and neither of these two vowels, which 
 correspond with each other, should be dwelt upon, 
 and in order to practise this effect the following 
 exercise is given in which the reader is requested 
 not to pronounce the a (which is given in itahcs), 
 as it is intended for lip formation only, but the i 
 should be attacked immediately the mouth takes 
 the correct shape. 
 
 Bd-ite (bite), ma-ind (mind), hd-eight (height), 
 bd-uy (buy), chd-ina (china), d-island, Bd-ible 
 (Bible), alld-y (ally), mankd-ind (mankind), 
 scd-ythe (scythe). 
 
 The short i (as in " bit ") is merely the long e 
 shortened. 
 
 The English U is merely the long e with oo 
 joined together, as in me-oozic (music). Owing 
 to carelessness, the u when preceded by the 
 consonant "1" is usually mispronounced, oo 
 being used instead of u (e — do), as in lucifer, 
 lubricate, ludicrous, Mke-warm, luminous, lunatic, 
 lunar, lupine, liire, lute. 
 
 In the other two " intermediate " vowels, Ow 
 and Oi, the former phonation is obtained during 
 the act of joining a and oo together, as in noiv; 
 
TONE AND ITS CULTIVATION 87 
 
 and Oi is formed by attaching aw to i (as 
 in "toy"). It is peculiar that whilst in the 
 dialects of some districts oi is pronounced 
 like the long i (bye instead of boy), in others 
 the reverse happens and like is pronounced 
 hike. 
 
 The careful practice of these phonations will 
 at this juncture be all that is necessary to produce 
 the resonance required upon the middle register 
 of the voice, and for the short vowels a slight 
 change in the vocal appointments can be made, 
 the clearness and purity determined by the ear. 
 
 \J th 
 
 formation; \^ the long a (as in "fate") being 
 an open modification of long e. 
 
 Daw, paw, law, saw, war ; Day, pay, may, 
 way, lay, nay, say, bay. 
 
 Repeat the following verse many times during 
 the day, accentuating strongly the vowels : 
 
 The shades of night were faUing fast, 
 As throMgr^ an .41pine village passed 
 
 A yowth, who bore 'midst snow and ice 
 A banner with a strange device. 
 
 Exercise XIX. — After these vowels have been 
 practised upon the predominating note of the 
 
 Aw, which is a narrower ah, being prac- 
 tised; ('^ E (as in "her") — a squarer 
 tion; \^ 
 
88 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 voice (vide Chap. VI. at .'. *), drop the tone one 
 note lower, and finally : 
 
 (a) Two notes still lower. Practise Ah upon 
 these four low tones, giving emphasis as each 
 note is struck ; 
 
 (b) After which, sound each of the long vowels 
 in turn with the prefix B, D. and L, and if possible 
 take lower notes still, if they can be dehvered 
 without effort or altering the position of the head. 
 
 (c) Each sustained note then should be started 
 /, and decreased in power until pp be reached, and 
 then a gradual increase in volume, leaving off the 
 note sharply, great care to be taken that the 
 note is brought well forward, that the throat is in 
 no way affected, and that the volume of sound 
 passes up through the vocal passage without 
 being felt in the throat at all. 
 
 (d) Practise each tone on the word " bell," 
 making the tongue strike the hard palate as 
 firmly as possible. 
 
 (e) On the word " bell " strike the predominat- 
 ing (tonic) note first and then the 4th below it ; 
 up to the 3rd ; down to the 5th ; and finish at 
 " tonic," dwelling upon the last note as long as 
 
 * The student should read Chapter VI. commencing at 
 paragraph .■., which describes the method to be employed 
 for obtaining the central and lo-vrer tones of the voice. 
 
TONE AND ITS CULTIVATION 89 
 
 the rib wall can be comfortably extended, but 
 there should always remain plenty of breath to 
 spare. 
 
 Exercise XX. — Recite the following verses, 
 utilising these loiver tones of the voice, and where 
 the words are in italics give great emphasis to 
 them, and at \ drop the voice very low, and at 
 / raise the tones slightly. 
 
 And have-these-rebels-rfare(i complain, smd-murmur- 
 
 to-their-king ? 
 Swift retribution-on - their - heads - their - foolish - deed 
 
 V 
 
 shall-bring. 
 Perchance-they-thought by-some-strange-fate their- 
 
 /reec?om-thus-to-gain, 
 Freedom, which-ever-must be-bought with-woes-and 
 
 V 
 
 bitter-pain. 
 
 I'll-teach-them-'tis-no-easy-thing to-wrest-their-na- 
 
 tive-land, 
 The-price of-many-a-A«rd wow-fight, from-the-proud 
 
 conqueror's-hand ; 
 
 Subjection-they-shall-(i!oM6Z2/-feel, and, to-their-bitter- 
 cost, 
 
 Learn-how-completely-Zj6eri«/-for a?/e-to-them-ig-lost. 
 
90 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 II 
 
 V 
 
 We are not born to sue, but to command, 
 Which since we cannot to make you friends. 
 Be ready, as your lives shall answer it, 
 
 V V 
 
 At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's Day. 
 There shall your swords and lances arbitrate 
 
 V 
 
 The swelling difference of your settled hate. 
 Since we cannot atone you, you shall see 
 
 V 
 
 Justice decide the victor's chivalry. 
 
 ^ y ^ 
 
 Lord Marshal, bid our officers-at-arms 
 
 Be ready to direct these home alarms. 
 
 ni 
 
 Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom. 
 Which I with some unwillingness pronounce. 
 The fly-slow hours shall not determinate 
 The dateless limit of thy dear exile : 
 The hopeless word of ntv&r to return, 
 Breathe I against thee upon pain of life. 
 
 IV 
 
 While we waited for his words 
 
 Another voice from the deep shade that gleam 'd 
 
 Beyond the death-bed came ; and 'midst it stood 
 
 The squalid figure of a woman, ■wrought 
 
 Beyond the natural stature as she stretched 
 
 Her withered finger towards the youth and spoke — 
 
 " Halbert, obey. The hour which sees thee vale 
 
 O'er the Macdonalds of Glencoe, shall bring 
 
 Terror and death." 
 
TONE AND ITS CULTIVATION 91 
 
 V 
 
 You will not, boy ! You dare to answer thus ! 
 But in my time a father's word was law, 
 
 And so it shall be now for me. Look to it ; 
 Consider, William : take a month to think, 
 And let me have an answer to my wish ; 
 
 Or by the Lord that made me, you shall fack, 
 
 V 
 
 And never more darken my doors again. 
 
 VI 
 
 'Tis well for thee, tyrant ! that I have not needed 
 this. 
 
 Think not that if with my own hand I had laid low 
 
 my son. 
 That thon, the cause of all my woe, would still unhurt 
 
 have gone ! 
 'No; by my faith, if I had killed my child, this 
 
 arrow then 
 
 Had pierced thy heart, and slain one of the cruellest 
 
 V 
 
 of men. 
 
 The verses v. and vi. should be very much 
 emphasised, and a good scope given to the lower 
 register of the voice. 
 
 Exercise XXI. — If the low tones of the voice 
 have been assiduously practised, the middle 
 register should be exercised, utilising the first 
 
92 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 four notes above your keynote. (The method of 
 determining these is described in Chapter VI. 
 at .'.). Use the same directions given for this 
 in Exercise XIX., but reversing the order — viz. 
 ascend the scale instead of descending in each 
 case. 
 
 Instead of, however, practising the voice upon 
 the verses given in Exercise XX., use the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 The quality of mercy is not strained : 
 
 It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
 
 Upon the place beneath. It is twice bless'd ; 
 
 It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes ; 
 
 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest ; it becomes 
 
 The throned monarch better than his crown ; 
 
 His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, 
 
 The attribute to awe and majesty. 
 
 Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings ; 
 
 But mercy is above this sceptred sway ; 
 
 It is an attribute to God Himself ; 
 
 And earthly power doth then show likest God's, 
 
 When mercy seasons justice. 
 
 II 
 
 In the following exercise it is important that 
 the vowels should be not only dwelt upon, but 
 rendered as pure as possible. These hnes from 
 
TONE AND ITS CULTIVATION 93 
 
 " Hiawatha " should be slowly recited first in the 
 lowest key, and subsequently in a higher voice, 
 but great attention should be paid to inflection. 
 
 Oh the long and dreary winter ! 
 
 Oh the cold and cruel winter ! 
 
 Ever thicker, thicker, thicker froze the ice on lake 
 
 and river, 
 Ever deeper, deeper, deeper fell the snow 
 O'er all the landscape, fell the covering snow 
 And drifted through the forest round the village. 
 
 Oh the famine and the fever ! 
 
 Oh the blasting of the fever ! 
 
 Oh the wailing of the children ! 
 
 Oh the anguish of the mothers ! 
 
 All the earth was sick and famished ! 
 
 Hungry was the air around them ; 
 
 Hungry was the sky above them ; 
 
 Until the hungry stars in heaven 
 
 Like the eyes of wolves glared at them ! 
 
 Use the high register of the speaking voice 
 in the following lines from " King John " with 
 the necessary inflection : 
 
 Gone to be married ! Gone to swear a peace ! 
 
 False blood to false blood join'd ! Gone to be 
 friends ! 
 
 Shall Lewis have Blanch ? and Blanch those pro- 
 vinces ? 
 
94 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 A wicked day, and not a holyday ! — 
 
 What hath this day deserv'd ? what hath it done, 
 
 That it in golden letters should be set, 
 
 Among the high tides, in the kalendar ? 
 
 Nay, rather, turn this day out of the week ; 
 
 This day of shame, oppression, perjury. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 " NATURAL PITCH," AND HOW TO DETERMINE IT 
 
 " Both warbling of one song, both in one key." 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Has the reader been so observant as to notice 
 the freshness, roundness, and " timbre " of the 
 voices of those people who live an outdoor life, 
 especially of those dwellers upon the high moun- 
 tains or extensive plains, in contrast to those 
 who reside in towns ? One may also discover 
 that the " tenor " or characteristics of the voices 
 often indicate the locality or country in which 
 they have settled since babyhood. A country- 
 man's voice is rarely of the deep bass quahty. 
 Lowness of pitch used to be the peculiar feature 
 in that of the city man whose sedentary 
 occupation limited his chief sphere of action 
 to within four walls, but now the deafening 
 roar of traffic during the last decade has tended 
 to raise the voice to a higher pitch. There is 
 
 95 
 
96 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 no occasion, however, for the latter in his office 
 to raise his voice, except in moments of anxiety 
 or excitement; whilst in the street the forced, 
 shrill tones are kept at a high level, consequently 
 there is little inflection. With the barrister, 
 clergyman, auctioneer, or those whose vocal elo- 
 quence is necessary to their profession, no such 
 distinction can, of course, be maintained. 
 
 Not only, then, do surroundings affect the 
 " pitch " or compass of a voice, but, in animal 
 as well as in mankind, occupation, temper, 
 habits, and general health may alter or impair 
 a voice considerably, and it is owing to this 
 reason that many speakers never use their normal 
 voice at all. 
 
 It is only a natural consequence that the older 
 the speaker the more pronounced the voice be- 
 comes in regard to defects, especially when it 
 is.used upon public occasionsbeforevast audiences. 
 The vocal tones often become hard, shrill, and 
 metallic, harsh and grating, or coarse, mouthy, 
 and hoarse. To ensure musical " timbre " the 
 vocal education of a speaker should commence 
 before maturity, for the longer the voice has 
 been allowed to assume bad habits, the more 
 difficult and persistent the effort will be to correct 
 them. In fact, after the age of forty-five little 
 
"NATURAL PITCH" Ql 
 
 can be done so far as " tone " is concerned ; but 
 the voice can be altered in pitch and increased 
 in volume, and the speaker still be taught to use 
 his vocal instrument with clearness, ease, en- 
 durance, and without further injurious effects. 
 
 The normal " tonic " (or middle tone) of the 
 voice should be, in its natural state, in the low 
 (usually called the " chest ") register, but when 
 persons over thirty years of age have for many 
 years spoken, and formed the custom of reading 
 aloud, without using their " chest " tones at all — 
 which is generally the case— it is often inadvisable 
 to alter this fixed habit so far as the register, 
 in which this central tone lies, is concerned. 
 The vocal muscles have, in these cases, become 
 hardened and the cartilages ossified, and to 
 brace up or down the instrument of voice may 
 not only be injurious, but may have the effect 
 of producing throaty or guttural tones. Lower 
 or higher notes, however, may be gradually 
 developed beyond this habitual register with 
 pleasing effect. 
 
 On the other hand, the development of the 
 voice in youth does not always keep pace with 
 a girl's physical, growth, and under these circum- 
 stances it requires all the acoustic skill of a 
 " maestro " to discover the correct natural 
 7 
 
98 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 " pitch " of voice in his pupil. Many methods 
 have to be resorted to and bad habits rectified 
 before he can be satisfied that he has at last 
 struck the right vocal " tonic." 
 
 It is very necessary to determine this " middle 
 string " of the vocal instrument from which all 
 the others have to be tuned. Aristotle thought 
 it so important that he compared this one note 
 in the voice to the sun, and all the others to the 
 stars encircling it. The songs of ancient Greece 
 used to commence upon this " tonic," and end 
 with the " dominant " — that tone so often dwelt 
 upon by the priests in the church liturgy, and 
 which is the fifth above, or fourth note below, 
 the fundamental and normal pitch. In modern 
 times it is popular to start and end our songs 
 upon this keynote. 
 
 Now, it is just as unpleasant for us to listen, 
 even for a short length of time, to a high-pitched 
 voice as it is to a voice " down in one's boots," the 
 latter resembling a mumble of incoherent utter- 
 ances, devoid of cadence. Both these " pitches " 
 possess no musical " timbre." It is, however, the 
 business of a master to listen very attentively to 
 each vocal utterance and note whether there are 
 any euphonic possibilities left in the voice, and 
 to extricate all such evidences of pure tones from 
 
"NATURAL PITCH" 99 
 
 unmusical enwrapments. He may, indeed, dis- 
 cover that a voice which lacks all the qualities 
 essential to purity may be so changed and im- 
 proved by subsequent study and practice in 
 the right manner that it would be unrecog- 
 nisable. 
 
 Without the aid and experience of such an 
 instructor, however, the student who desires 
 to improve his " diction " must experiment upon 
 his own voice. He may soon ascertain that he 
 has been habitually speaking in too high or too 
 low a key, and so will have to alter the pitch 
 of his voice in future conversation, and in order 
 to do so readily, he must " tune " his voice up 
 or down — as a violinist does his instrument — 
 by training and exercising those tones that 
 mostly require it. 
 
 Many people whose vocal compass in low tones 
 is very extensive are pronounced by some 
 teachers to possess " bass " or " contralto " 
 voices, and those who, can shriek top " C's " 
 consider this feat to be sufficient to label their 
 voices " tenor " or " soprano." But range of 
 voice by no means classifies it. It is the peculiar 
 quality of the tones that registers the voice as 
 contralto, mezzo, or soprano ; the thickness, 
 vibrating power, and characteristics of the vocal 
 
VOICE 
 
 CHART 
 
 z 
 o 
 
 (as in) 
 
 »0 
 
 (ermine) e [^ 
 
 
 
 (all) 
 
 (food) 
 
 fmote) 
 f?nect) 
 
 ffatherj 
 
 da (o)«>5 DOMINANT 
 
 6 r~j<>4siib-dom: 
 
 8 octave Ionic ' 
 
 7subbnicocl- 
 
 6supercbm;od 
 
 , .3 medianl 
 
 a (O"'2super-lonic ^ 
 Q^>lTONIC 
 
 •2iSubt:onic u 
 
 z 
 o 
 
 I- 
 
 3i super Horn-. V 
 u 
 
 X 
 
 .4, DOMINANT, " 
 ■ .5i sub-dom 
 
"NATURAL PITCH" 101 
 
 chords must be taken into consideration as well 
 as their length. 
 
 The " speaking " voice, if normal, should de- 
 termine the " singing " voice. A man who 
 possesses a baritone-speaking voice may sing, 
 with no discomfort, tenor songs, but his voice, 
 in essence, is " baritone." If the tones of a voice 
 sound lower than they really are, it is often an 
 indication of a " bass " or " contralto " quality, 
 and the same peculiarity applies to high-toned 
 voices in respect to " tenors " and " sopranos." 
 " Baritones," however, by excessive training can 
 thicken and deepen the tones of their voices to 
 those of a " bass " quality, but a " throbbing 
 raucousness " will result unless great care is 
 taken during the process. 
 
 .". Every man (and woman) should naturally 
 possess a compass in the speaking register of 
 at least five full tones below his normal key- 
 note, and also be able to execute, with no effort, 
 an octave above this point (whilst in singing the 
 compass is greatly extended). This fact gives 
 the student a certain limited vocal area in which 
 to ascertain the natural " keynote " of his voice. 
 He should commence operations by uttering 
 the words " i^ather " ; " Good morning, " ; " How 
 do you do V or other commonplace habitual 
 
102 VOICE : ITS NATUEAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 observances in a natural manner, and he will 
 discover that the syllabic words he mostly em- 
 phasises tally in pitch with each other. When, 
 he has fixed this pitch, he should dwell upon it 
 until it assumes a definite tone. This may prove 
 at first to be no easy task, as the speaking voice 
 during its " portamento " flight rarely aUghts 
 for a sufficient period of time upon one note to 
 be defined by the ear. By perseverance and 
 practice, however, the note can be discovered, 
 and its pitch should be found upon the piano 
 or tuning-fork. This " tonic," however, "will 
 slightly vary if these customary vocal exclama- 
 tions be made in a small room, in the open air, 
 or if the speaker has a cold. Under the first 
 and last conditions the voice will be lower ; but 
 the voice trial must, of course, take place when 
 the student is in a good state of health. It 
 is advisable, however, that he should discover 
 the " pitch " of his speech out of doors as well 
 as in, by producing his voice- — not shouting — in 
 a louder and more emphatic manner than he 
 has been accustomed to use it. He wiU then 
 consider, for the moment, that the " mean " 
 between these two trials is his keynote. The 
 key of the normal voice ranges from A up to F. 
 Exercise XXII, — After clearly defining this 
 
"NATURAL PITCH" lo:{ 
 
 note, he must practise his low tones (as described 
 in Exercise XIX.) in order to discover his range. 
 If his voice can produce with no effort, and 
 clearly more than, the allotted five notes, he should 
 try the upward octave, starting from the as- 
 sumed keynote, and it may tax him to do so. 
 If this is the case, the probability is that the 
 predominating note he had determined as the 
 natural keynote was too high, and that his 
 general speaking voice needed lowering. 
 
 Unless the natural " gamut " of the voice be 
 ascertained, the student cannot expect such good 
 results as would otherwise be assured, for a 
 keynote too high or too low would restrict in- 
 flection, as it would limit the upward or lower 
 scope of his voice. 
 
 If it be necessary to alter the pitch of your 
 voice, practise the following passage taken from 
 " Dombey & Son," using the new register you 
 desire to establish first in a monotone, and then 
 with inflection, and deliver it in a very emphatic 
 manner : — 
 
 (a) " Do you think to frighten me ? you ? Do 
 you think to turn me from any purpose that I have, 
 or any course I am resolved upon, by reminding me 
 of the solitude of this place, and there being no help 
 near ? M&, who am here alone designedly ? If I 
 
104 VOICE : ITS NATUEAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 had jeared you, should I not have avoided you ? If 
 I feared you, should I be here in the dead of 
 night, telling you to your face what I am going to 
 tell ? But I tell you nothing until you go back to 
 that chair — except this once again. Do you dare 
 to come near me — not a step nearer. I have some- 
 thing long here that is no love-trinket ; and sooner 
 than endure your touch once more, I would use it 
 on you — and you know it while I speak — ^with less 
 reluctance than I would on any other creeping thing 
 that lives." 
 
 After which read the following in the altered 
 pitch of voice, taken from Aristotle's " Ethics." 
 
 (6) " Now, every action of which ignorance is the 
 cause is Jiow-voluntary, but that only is wvolimtary 
 which is attended with pain and remorse : for clearly 
 theman who has done anything byreason of ignorance, 
 but is not annoyed at his own action, cannot be said 
 to have done it with his will, because he did not 
 know he was doing it, nor again against his will 
 because he is not sorry for it. So then of the class 
 ' acting by reason of ignorance,' he who feels regret 
 afterwards is thought to be an involuntary agent, 
 and he that has no such feeling, since he certainly 
 is different from the other, we will call a nom-volun- 
 tary agent : for as there is a real difference it is 
 better to have a proper name. 
 
 " Again, there seems to be a difference between 
 acting because of ignorance and acting in ignorance : 
 
"NATUEAL PITCH" 105 
 
 for instance, we do not usually assign ignorance as 
 the cause of the actions of the drunken or angry 
 man, but either the drunkenness or the anger, yet 
 they act not knowingly but in ignorance. 
 
 " Again, every bad man is ignorant what he ought 
 to do and what to leave undone, and by reason of 
 such error men become unjust and wholly evil." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 NATURAL ARTICULATION, AND HOW TO CULTIVATE 
 IT WITH EXERCISES 
 
 " Too little care is taken to improve men in their 
 own language so that they may be masters of it." 
 
 Locke. 
 
 Although this is an age of progressive educa- 
 tion, we are rapidly retrogressing in the practical 
 application of our own language. The reason 
 is obvious, for the vehicle of learning is our 
 literature, and speech is not so " silvern " as 
 in the days of Cicero. In that period there was 
 no tranquil perusal of newspapers, containing 
 accounts of affairs of State or of daily occur- 
 rences, in a comfortable armchair at the break- 
 fast table, nor were history and languages taught 
 through the medium of print ; only the favoured 
 few had the opportunity of reading manuscripts 
 penned by great men of learning. Oratory was 
 the power that swayed the hearts and convinced 
 107 
 
108 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 the intelligence of men. If signs and gesture 
 were the primitive language, " speech " was the 
 apotheosis of education in the classic days. 
 In the academy of learning the students had to 
 listen to the orations of their masters, and style 
 of delivery, gesture, and articulation were made 
 the special features at their studies. The con- 
 sequence was that the populace were accustomed 
 to listen to fluent speakers who possessed beauti- 
 ful voices and cultured utterances ; their ears 
 were trained to distinguish the good from the 
 indifferent and bad, and many a public speaker 
 who failed to exhibit high quahties of eloquence 
 and logic was hissed, roughly handled, and even 
 pelted with stones by his critical and indignant 
 audience. 
 
 Although Cicero and Quintihan in those days 
 of eloquence were each in their day pre-eminent, 
 Demosthenes must be regarded as the " father 
 of oratory," not because he lived in an earlier 
 period, but owing to the fact that he laboured 
 under great difficulties, and successfully conquered 
 them all. For this reason he forms a splendid ex- 
 ample of patience, determination, untiring energy, 
 and perseverance, for at the commencement 
 of his public career he was not only afflicted 
 with a very weak voice, but his figure was un- 
 
NATURAL ARTICULATION 109 
 
 couth and his speech defective. His greatest 
 diiificulty was the management of his tongue, 
 especially in the rolling of the "r," and it has 
 been chronicled that he stammered as well ; 
 yet, despite these impediments, he vigorously 
 set himself, and executed during several years, 
 a course of physical and rhetorical training, in 
 which lung development and breath control 
 played a large part. This great man, who had 
 been gibed and laughed at for his poor delivery^ 
 has been described in history as " swaying the 
 minds of the people by the brilliancy of speech 
 and power of his voice " in important matters 
 relating to the well-being of the State. He must 
 also be admired for the fact that his whole efforts 
 were directed toward the good of his fellow- 
 countrymen, and not for personal glory or gain. 
 As in every other branch of art, vocal educa- 
 tion amongst the ancient Greeks commenced at 
 the cradle, and was made, as it should be, the 
 greatest study during childhood ; and later, for 
 the perfection of speech the highest rewards were 
 offered. In our modern scheme of general edu- 
 cation, however, this branch of learning and 
 accomplishment is entirely overlooked or dis- 
 regarded as non-important. Children are taught 
 grammar^ etymology, and syntax, yet the 
 
no VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 practical application of these linguistic sciences 
 in speech is omitted from the school curriculum. 
 They are certainly taught to read indifferently, 
 and sometimes to " declaim " in a monotonous 
 manner ; but the science of speech, with its " surd" 
 (hard) and " sonant " consonants, phonation 
 of vowels, cadences, its inflection and phrasing, 
 is not made a study of, in the same manner as 
 dancing is taught, with its various types of 
 motion, trunk flexions, poise, and articulations. 
 Consequently, this fact explains the paradox 
 that the greater the science of learning is ad- 
 vocated, the less study is made of the science 
 of speech. 
 
 In fact, every possible barrier is placed before 
 " speech culture " to hinder its progress, for 
 from the cradle the child is relegated to the 
 nursery, at the most mimetic period of his exis- 
 tence, when all his imitative faculties are keenly 
 alert, and he is left to the guardianship of maids 
 uneducated in their own language. Not only is 
 the child absorbing and storing up in his memory 
 impure vowel sounds, which form the basis of 
 musical diction, but his articulation must of 
 necessity be corrupt, defective, and unintelligible, 
 and his utterances ungrammatical. If purity 
 of diction were made compulsory as regards the 
 
NATURAL ARTICULAIION 111 
 
 election of teachers in our board schools, our 
 nursery-maids would not so handicap our children 
 in their speech. 
 
 Advice has often been given to the effect that 
 if " the consonants are taken care of, the vowels 
 will take care of themselves." This is not alto- 
 gether a good precept to follow, because however 
 careful and precise we may be in regard to the 
 articulation of our consonants, if our vowel 
 phonation is imperfectly rendered our voices may 
 sound harsh and our speech impure. Brogue 
 or accent is not necessarily a defect of articula- 
 tion, but of vowel sounds ; but after all, if con- 
 sonants are but " barriers " or " stops," they are 
 necessary to mould the musical tones we utter 
 and give them life, so rendering them intelligible 
 to our ears. 
 
 In the study of articulation there is no differ- 
 ence made, as a rule, between " surd " (hard) 
 and " sonant " (voiced) consonants, consequently 
 the distinction between the soft B, D, G (gay) 
 and V (vay), and the hard explosive sounds of 
 P, T, K, and F (fay) is not clearly defined, 
 which helps to make our speech " fluffy " and 
 often unintelligible. 
 
 The " surd " consonants should be rendered 
 in a sharp, explosive manner, the lips, the tongue 
 
112 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 and teeth, or the tongue and palate (as in P, 
 
 T, and K) tightly pressed together, whilst the 
 
 soft palate is raised (which in K is assisted by 
 
 the centre of the tongue), so that no breath or 
 
 sound can issue from either the nose or mouth. 
 
 Exercise XXIII. — Say the words pap, pip, 
 
 pop, pup, poop, peep ; peel, pane, pool, pepper, 
 
 penny, pell-mell, puffing ; rasp, loop, romp, 
 
 naphtha, shepherd, swamp, and it will be noticed 
 
 that in these explosive " labial " characters the 
 
 breath is quite held. Now compare this to 
 
 the soft B consonant, in which articulation less 
 
 restraint is placed upon the soft palate, and the 
 
 lips allow you to emit a sound (although closed), 
 
 which is why it is called " voiced." 
 
 Bubble, bib, booby, bumblebee, bibby, bobby, 
 babble, baby, embark, embroil, fabulous, disburse, 
 Abraham, hubbub. 
 
 1. Slowly pronounce, and notice the contrast 
 between, the words bubble and pepper, cupid 
 and cubit, cup and cub, patter and butter, rip 
 and rub, bibulous and populace, piper and Bible. 
 
 After-moving-equably-for-some-time-it - was -made- 
 to-stop-with-a-sudden-sna^. 
 
 Pufifs-^JOwders-^Jat-ches, £i61es-WlIets-doux. 
 
 2. The letter T is another " surd " conson- 
 
NATURAL ARTICULATION 113 
 
 ant, in which the breath is tightly checked in 
 contrast to the " sonant " or relaxed d. These 
 two " lingua-dental " consonants are formed 
 in precisely the same way by the tongue's tip 
 pressing against the hard palate just behind 
 the top teeth, except that in t the uplifting 
 of the soft palate prevents any escape of breath 
 through the nasal passage, and it is rendered 
 " sharp " and " explosive " ; whilst in pronounc- 
 ing d an obscure murmur is heard, which, as 
 well as in 6 and g (gay), should be practised 
 as prolonged and audible as possible. 
 
 Contrast teat with deed ; tub, dub ; toll, 
 dole ; Ted, dead ; let, led ; team, deem ; fret, 
 Fred ; frittle, fiddle ; tome, dome ; utter, udder ; 
 at, add ; tangle, dangle ; dado, potato ; mate, 
 made ; and practise the words testator, destitute, 
 intestate, tantamount, attainment, pendant, 
 fatigued. 
 
 A-tell-tale-tattling termagant that-troubled all- 
 the-town. 
 
 Tom-tipped the-tops-of-the-tilted table-together- 
 tightly. 
 
 Slowly articulate the following lines from Tom 
 Hood's " Greed of Gold," and afterwards repeat 
 them quicker after a stage of ease and fluency 
 is reached. 
 8 
 
114 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMEXT 
 
 Gold ! Gold ! Gold I Gold ! 
 Bright / and / yellow, hard / and / cold : 
 Molten, graven, hammer d / and / roU'd, 
 Hea\-A- to get, and / light / to hold : 
 Hoarded, bartered, bought / and / sold. 
 Stolen, borrow'd, squander'd, doled ; 
 Spurned / by the young, hugg'd / by the old 
 To the very verge of the churchyard / mould. 
 
 3. The surd consonant K should be practised 
 by the centre of the tongue pressed tightly against 
 the palate, and pronounced as an " explosive " 
 in cake, coke, cock, kick, cook, cackle, calico, 
 colic, crick. 
 
 " The kitten clung closely caught by the 
 prickly kite," and contrast this with the softly 
 voiced g (in gay), gag, agog, gig, cragg, clogg, 
 goggle, brogue, plague. 
 
 A giddy-giggUng-girl-goaded-and-plagued, again 
 and again, a guinea-pig with a jagged gimlet. 
 
 4. The " labio-dentals," F and V — ^the one 
 '■ whispered " and the other " voiced " — are 
 formed by the under lip pressing upon the upper 
 teeth. In the former the inner part of the under 
 lip is placed tightly against the outer edge of 
 the top teeth, allowing a silent "hiss" to be 
 emitted ; and the latter consonant is emphasised 
 
NATURAL ARTICULATION 115 
 
 by placing the upper teeth lightly upon the 
 outer surface of the lower lip, and "voiced." 
 
 The surd F and the sonant V should there- 
 fore be practised together, in order to make the 
 under lip respond readily. Fail, vale ; feel, veal ; 
 fain, vain ; file, vile ; folly, volley ; tough, dove ; 
 laugh, love ; staff, starve ; heifer, ever ; proof, 
 proven ; fifth, vivid. 
 
 He-swiftly-filled the-freezing-draught and freely- 
 quaffed. 
 
 In -the -vale -the -virgin -leaves -of - the - fragrantly- 
 fumed-vale waved vividly-over-his-frightened and 
 very virtuous family, who-followed foolishly-waving 
 their violet-fans, violently and forlornly. 
 
 5. M, N, Ng, are nasal adaptations of the con- 
 sonants b, d, g, for if in joining the lips for the b 
 sound, placing the tongue behind the top teeth 
 for the d, or the middle of the tongue against 
 the palate for g, the voice sound is allowed a 
 free passage through the nose, these consonants 
 are changed to m, n, and ng respectively. 
 
 I am giving the following examples in order 
 that the student may realise that the difference 
 between these " voiced " consonants and their 
 nasal equivalents is the contraction or relaxa- 
 tion of the soft palate only, and the other arti- 
 culating organs are in no way altered. If the 
 
116 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 reader's soft palate is flaccid and inert, the follow- 
 ing syllables should be diligently exercised : 
 
 Ebb, em ; bah, mah ; bee, mee ; butter, mutter ; 
 bode, mode ; bill, mill. Add, Ann ; Dan, nan ; 
 dun, nun ; dale, nail ; dip, nip ; deed, need. 
 Hag, hang ; gang, Ingram ; gong, angle ; gag, 
 gang; log, long; rig, ring. 
 
 These nasal consonants should be practised, 
 as their production helps to bring the voice for- 
 ward and clears the nasal passages, so neces- 
 sary in voice production. 
 
 In the following exercise the " nasal " con- 
 sonants should be dwelt upon : 
 
 Hummumming ; nimininny ; anganginging ; 
 ginganginny ; nonenonsense ; moment, mammon, 
 matrimony, murmur ; memorandum ; mum- 
 mer, mingle, charm, emptiness, realm, comb, 
 phlegm, blame. 
 
 Nonentity, nomenclature, nominate, numbing, 
 unanimous, stolen {not stol'n), lessen, swollen, 
 hyphen, mittens, kitchen, sudden, oxen, token. 
 
 When -lightning - and - dread -thunder - rend - stubborn- 
 rocks -asunder 
 
 And monarchs -die-with-wonder — What -should -we- 
 do? 
 
 6. Whilst the majority of English people have 
 
NATURAL ARTICULATION 117 
 
 great difficulty in pronouncing foreign vowels 
 such as 6 and ii, our th forms a stumbling- 
 block to many foreigners ; and yet there 
 seems little difficulty for us in placing the 
 tip of the tongue between the teeth and 
 forcing the breath through them for the mute 
 th, and the voice for the heavy th, as breath and 
 breathe. In s, z ; sh, zh, the same rule applies 
 as regards the one being " hissed " and its cor- 
 responding consonant being " vocalised." In 
 many words the plural changes the breath 
 th into the voiced, such as path, paths ; lath, 
 laths ; mouth, mouths. 
 
 The following tongue exercise should be prac- 
 tised, each word with its " voiced " duplicate 
 repeated twenty times, at first slowly and then 
 rapidly, and the tongue should be placed well 
 beneath the teeth : 
 
 Lath, lathe ; bath, bathe ; wreath, wreathe ; 
 breath, breathe ; theme, them ; than, though ; 
 thank, than ; thin, then ; ether, either ; heath, 
 heathen ; wrath, loathe ; frith, froth ; hither, 
 thither. 
 
 Sh and Zh are formed by curling back the 
 tongue in such a manner that a free space is 
 left at the top and sides for the air or sound 
 passage. 
 
118 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 A short-shrill-shriek-shot-sharply-on-the-slielving- 
 
 shingle. 
 
 She shunned the sea-shells in-the-shade-on-the 
 
 sea-shore. 
 
 In the words leisure, measure, azure, confusion, 
 explosion, persuasion, adhesion, etc., the zh should 
 be used in pronunciation ; but roseate, verdure, 
 individual, immediate, grandeur (dure) should be 
 pronounced as they are spelt. 
 
 The consonants S and Z (primarily styled haK- 
 vowels) follow upon the same principle in regard 
 to breath and voice in their deliverance. The 
 tip of the tongue is placed against the upper 
 gums, not too firmly, so as to aUow an escape 
 of breath in the form of a " hiss " or " buzz." 
 The final s preceded by a vowel is always 
 " voiced." In order to realise the distinction, 
 the reader should start the " hiss," and gradually 
 introduce the voice, and finish upon the whis- 
 pered s. 
 
 Repeat each two words twenty times : 
 Mace, maze ; place, blaize ; race, raise ; rice, 
 
 rise ; faces, phases ; bus, buzz ; cease, seas ; 
 
 thesis, these ; base, baize ; decease, disease ; 
 
 price, prices, prizes ; lace, laces, lazy ; whistle, 
 
 weasel. 
 
NATURAL AETICULATION 119 
 
 He-gives-his hiss-in-an -astonishing-assent as-he- 
 saw-the-hazy-flaccld teasing face of-his son-resume- 
 its-complaisant ease. 
 
 Missive, hissing, facing, lassoing, kisses, dance, 
 dupes, scimitar, psyche, seam — seams ; sche- 
 dule, dissuade, obesity, dyspepsia. 
 
 Guessing - the -design -was -perceived -he -suddenly- 
 desisted. 
 
 He gives / as / is / his / usage-a-series of-sermons- 
 for-this / season. 
 
 In pronouncing the plurals, as in roses, faces, 
 leases, etc., great care should be taken so that 
 the words shall not sound rozis, faziz, leaziz, but 
 the e should be clearly defined. 
 
 7. The similarity between the W and Y is, 
 that the former is derived from the repetition of 
 the Roman vowel U (V), and the latter (deriving 
 its form from the Greek T) is a consonant at the 
 beginning of words or syllables, and a vowel 
 on the middle or end of words when no other 
 vocalised vowel is attached to it. 
 
 W is formed by an explosive oo, and the con- 
 sonant Y by the sides of the tongue touching 
 the palate, allowing a small chink in the centre 
 to form a passage for the voice to pass through. 
 The vowel y is generally pronounced — as in 
 
120 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 the English vowel i — by the binding together 
 of the Italian a and e, as in sty, but it has also 
 the phonetic sound of the short i, as in bicycle, 
 truly ; and e as in youth. 
 
 He-would -not woo-the-woman-when-we-wanted- 
 him-to-wed. 
 
 Once-or-twice-she-swooned swiftly away. 
 A-wight well-versed in-waggery. 
 
 Wry, scythe, style ; poniard, roseate ; beauty, 
 truly ; yearly, yawn, yell, yew-tree. 
 
 8. The consonant H, which is merely a forcible 
 expulsion of breath, is often aspirated after the 
 W — and care should be taken that it should not 
 be emphasised before or with the W, which is a 
 very common fault. In the following examples 
 the letters marked in italics are mute. 
 
 Whilst angling-he-haggled the-whole-time-which- 
 was-much -worse - than - whimpering - or - being -humor- 
 ous-perhaps. 
 
 Be tonest, humble-and humane. 
 
 Hair, hour ; haunt, honour ; wholesale, which ; 
 cohort, apprehend ; whig, heir, vehement. 
 
 The-huntsman-on-his-horse-heardthe-huntinghorn 
 over-the-high-hill-of-the-heath-and / earth. 
 
 His / aunt / heard / the / Aonest / hostler / hustling / 
 about overhead. 
 
NATURAL ARTICULATION 121 
 
 9. The consonants L and R, are styled liquids, 
 because the tongue is placed in such a position 
 that the sound can pass by very freely, yet 
 characteristically. In I the tongue touches the 
 upper gum, and the breath-sound passes out on 
 both sides. It is a bad habit with many people 
 who carelessly place the tongue toward one 
 side of the mouth, so that the breath can only 
 pass through one channel instead of two. 
 
 With the exception of a few words, such as 
 weasel (weezl), hazel, shovel, swivel, drivel, snivel, 
 shekel, shrivel, and navel, when the e is suppressed, 
 in nearly every other case the full pronuncia- 
 tion is given ; and yet it is common practice 
 to omit them. Such words as enravel, gravel, 
 grovel, chapel, parcel, novel, should be practised, 
 giving them their full value. 
 
 Lulling, lolling, liquid, royally, folly, title, 
 cripple, ladle, tassel, fondle, liquid, linger, isle, 
 loins, language, fellow, fillip, lily. 
 
 Lily's long, lingering glance was lost on the little 
 lonely old lady. 
 
 10. The R is produced also by the tongue 
 curled slightly and lightly back towards the hard 
 palate, so that the forced expulsion of breath- 
 sound vibrates its tip. Many people find a 
 
122 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 great difficulty in the roll of the r, and these 
 should practise assiduously the exercises given 
 for the tongue on p. 68. Another tongue exer- 
 cise for this consonant is to sound the vowel 
 a (ah) followed quickly by the consonant I, so 
 that the tip of the tongue is exercised verticaUy, 
 after which the breath should be expelled sud- 
 denly and smartly after pronouncing a as the 
 tongue is in the act of rising, but the student 
 must not wait until it has reached the palate. 
 The " tongue value " should be given to the r 
 at the end of words or syllables or before a 
 consonant without the " roll," as in air, tear, 
 fearsome, turkey, in which the tongue is slightly 
 raised but not vibrated. It is the general habit 
 to let the tongue lie idle and merely pronounce 
 the vowel — as "ma" instead of mar, "waw" 
 instead of war. 
 
 Roaring, rearing, nearly, murky, brazen, hered- 
 ity, eradicate, irritable, tarry, merry, sherry, 
 wear, weir, lair, dare, wondrously fair, murmur, 
 murderous, miracle, mirror, terrible. 
 
 An-embarrassed pedlar perceived his harassed 
 f ri end the - cobbler - acting-as - a-supernumerary-in-a- 
 lady's seminary trying-to-instruct the-pupils-in-ir- 
 rational-arithmetic-and irregular-verbs-with -unparal- 
 leled -effrontery -and-terrible-daring. 
 
NATURAL ARTICULATION 123 
 
 Exercise XXIV. — The following lines supply 
 an excellent exercise, not only for articulation 
 and phonation but for the voice as well. Read 
 each line through very carefully several times, 
 giving full value to each word. When good 
 flexibility is attained, stand in position, inflate 
 lungs, and take little nasal inhalations at short 
 intervals in order to keep the " wind-chest " 
 full, and use the upper register of the speaking 
 voice for the first verse, and deliver the theme 
 in a light, buoyant manner. In this first verse 
 retain a light style of delivery, and imitate the 
 joyous sound of the wedding bells. In the second 
 verse use the middle — and occasionally the 
 upper — voice, and a loud and powerful mode of 
 delivery ; but great care must be taken that the 
 voice is pitched well forward in the mouth, and 
 that not the slightest tingle is felt in the throat, 
 even in the loudest passages. The third verse 
 is excellent practice for the lowest register of the 
 voice, and it should be given slowly and solemnly. 
 
 1. Hear the mellow wedding bells — Golden bells ! 
 What a world of happiness their harmony foretells ! 
 Through the balmy air of night how they ring out 
 their delight ! From the molten-golden notes, and 
 all in tune, what a liquid ditty floats to the turtle 
 dove that listens, while she gloats on the moon ! 
 
124 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Oh, from out the sounding cells, what a gush of 
 euphony voluminously wells ! How it swells !■ — how 
 it dwells on the Future ! — how it tells of the rapture 
 that impels to the swinging and the ringing of the 
 balls, balls, bells, of the bells, bells, bells, bells, to 
 the rhyming and the chiming of the bells ! 
 
 2. Hear the loud alarum bells — Brazen bells ! 
 What a tale of terror now their turbulency tells ! 
 In the startled ear of night how they scream 
 out their affright : too much horrified to speak, 
 they can only shriek out of tune in a clamorous 
 appealing to the mercy of the fire ! in a mad ex- 
 postulation with the deaf and frantic fire, leaping 
 higher, higher, higher, with a desperate desire, and 
 a resolute endeavour now to sit by the side of the 
 pale-faced moon. Oh, the bells, bells, bells ! what 
 a tale their terror tells of Despair ! How they 
 clang, and clash, and roar ! What a horror they 
 outpour on the bosom of the palpitating air ! Yet 
 the ear it fully knows, by the twanging and the 
 clanging, how the danger ebbs and flows ; ay ! the 
 ear distinctly tells, in the jangling and the wrangling, 
 how the danger sinks and swells, by the sinking or 
 the swelling in the anger of the bells — of the bells-^ 
 of the bells, bells, bells, bells — in the clamour and 
 the clangour of the bells ! 
 
 3. Hear the tolling of the bells !- — Iron bells ! 
 What a world of solemn thought their monody com- 
 pels ! In the silence of the night, how we shiver with 
 affright at the melancholy menace of their tone ! 
 For every sound that floats from the rust within their 
 
NATURAL ARTICULATION 125 
 
 throats is a groan. And the people — ah ! the people 
 — they that dwell up in the steeple all alone ; and 
 who, tolling, tolling, tolling, in that muffled monotone, 
 feel a glory in so rolling on the human heart a stone ; 
 — they are neither man nor woman — they are neither 
 brute nor human — they are Ghouls ! and their king 
 it is who tolls ! and he rolls, rolls, rolls, rolls, a paean 
 from the bells ! and his merry bosom swells with the 
 psean of the bells ! and he dances and he yells ! 
 keeping time, time, time, in a sort of Runic rhyme, 
 to the psean of the bells — of the bells ! — keeping 
 time, time, time, in a sort of Runic rhyme, to the 
 throbbing of the bells — of the bells, bells, bells ; to 
 the sobbing of the bells ; keeping time, time, time, 
 as he knells, knells, knells, in a happy Runic rhj^me ; 
 to the rolling of the bells — of the bells, bells, bells ; 
 to the tolling of the bells — of the bells, bells, bells, 
 bells — bells, bells, bells — to the moaning and the 
 groaning of the bells ! — From " The Bells," by Edgar 
 A. POE. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 IMPERFECTIONS IN SPEECH SOME WORDS COM- 
 MONLY MISPEONOTJNCED 
 
 " Uniformity in. pronunciation is preferred to 
 diversity." 
 
 We are told by lexicographers that the " ulti- 
 mate standard of pronunciation for the English 
 language is the usage that prevails amongst 
 the best-educated portion of the people to whom 
 the language is vernacular, or, at least, the 
 usage that will be the most generally approved 
 by them," and from this it can be gathered that 
 the task of compiling a standard rule is not an 
 easy one nor can stereotyped measures be alto- 
 gether enforced under these circumstances. 
 
 During the last two decades, however, with 
 the influx of transatlantic inaccuracies, " slang " 
 has become fashionable, and owing to the care- 
 lessness displayed by even those whose calling 
 should have preserved its pronunciative chastity, 
 127 
 
128 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 our language has greatly suffered and is now fast 
 losing the euphonious diction it once possessed. 
 
 If indifference is shown by cultured people, 
 how can it be expected that the speech of the 
 uneducated and of children will be without defect. 
 It is more than probable that the inaccuracies 
 of pronunciation will be increased and rendered 
 less intelligible as years go by. 
 
 Below is attached a small and incomplete list 
 of common words that are frequently maltreated 
 by the careless and imitated by the ignorant 
 speaker, and which with a little heed could be 
 so easily rectified. 
 
 
 
 Symbols 
 
 
 a as in father 
 
 e 
 
 as in meet o as in 
 
 mote 00 as in foot 
 
 a „ „ rat 
 
 e 
 
 „ „ met o „ „ 
 
 odd ii „ „ mute 
 
 a „ „ senate 
 
 e 
 
 „ „ her 6 „ „ 
 
 orb u „ „ rut 
 
 a „ „ rate 
 
 i 
 
 „ „ mite oo „ „ 
 
 food ii „ „ full 
 
 a „ „ all 
 
 i 
 
 „ „ knit 
 
 
 The acute 
 
 accent denotes 
 
 the emphasised 
 
 syllable. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Correct 
 
 Horn it ii 
 
 Word. 
 
 
 pronnnriation. 
 
 carelessly pronounced. 
 
 abhor 
 
 
 ab-hor' 
 
 ab-baw' 
 
 access 
 
 
 ak-ses' 
 
 ak'-ses 
 
 aerated 
 
 
 a'-er-ated 
 
 air'-eated 
 
 aeronaut 
 
 
 a'-er-o-naut 
 
 ear'inaut 
 
 aeroplane 
 
 
 a'-er-oplane 
 
 ear'-o-plane 
 
 advertisement 
 
 
 ad-ver'-tizment 
 
 adver-tiz'-ment 
 
 and, any 
 
 
 
 en, inny 
 
IMPERFECTIONS IN SPEECH 129 
 
 
 Correct 
 
 Hotc it ii of en 
 
 Word. 
 
 pronunciation. 
 
 caretcssly pronounced. 
 
 alienate 
 
 al'-yen-ate 
 
 al'-e-anate 
 
 asphalt 
 
 as'-falt 
 
 ash '-felt 
 
 average 
 
 av'-er-aj 
 
 av'-ridge 
 
 aye 
 
 i 
 
 a 
 
 caprice 
 
 ka-pres' 
 
 cap'-prls 
 
 chastisement 
 
 chas'-tiznient 
 
 chas-tiz'-ment 
 
 chauffeur 
 
 shaf'-fer 
 
 cho'-fer 
 
 comparable 
 
 kom'-parabl 
 
 kom-par'-ebl 
 
 courage 
 
 kui-'-aj 
 
 kur'ridge 
 
 courteous 
 
 kur'-te-iis 
 
 kor'-chus 
 
 cruel 
 
 kroo-el 
 
 krool 
 
 decade 
 
 dek'-ad 
 
 de-kad' 
 
 decadence 
 
 de-ka'-dens 
 
 dek'-a-dens 
 
 desuetude 
 
 des'-we-tud 
 
 des-u'e-tud 
 
 disputable 
 
 dis'-piit-abl 
 
 dis-pii'-tabl 
 
 dissemble 
 
 dis-sem'-bl 
 
 diz-zem'-bl 
 
 ear 
 
 e-ar 
 
 year 
 
 Elizabethan 
 
 e-liz'-a-beth'n 
 
 el-llza-beth'ien 
 
 engine 
 
 en'-jin 
 
 injen 
 
 enough 
 
 enuff' 
 
 inuf 
 
 ermine 
 
 er'-min 
 
 er'-min 
 
 fellow 
 
 fel'-16 
 
 fel'-ler 
 
 formidable 
 
 for'-mi-dabl 
 
 for-mid'-abl 
 
 girl 
 
 girl 
 
 gal, gel, gurl 
 
 gist 
 
 jist 
 
 gist 
 
 God 
 
 God 
 
 Gawd 
 
 gross 
 
 gros 
 
 gros 
 
 height 
 
 hite 
 
 hit-th 
 
 hospitable 
 
 hos'-pi-ta-bl 
 
 hos-pit'-abl 
 
 idol 
 
 i'-dol 
 
 idl 
 
 idyll 
 
 i'-dil 
 
 idil, Idl 
 
130 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 
 Correct 
 
 How it is often 
 
 ll'ord. 
 
 pronunciation. 
 
 carelessly pronounced. 
 
 incomparable 
 
 in-kom'-parabl 
 
 in-com-par'-abl 
 
 indisputable 
 
 in-dis'-pu-tabl 
 
 in-dis-piit'-abl 
 
 irrevocable 
 
 ir-rev'-o-kabl 
 
 ir-re-vok'-abl 
 
 jewel 
 
 joo'-el 
 
 jool 
 
 knowledge 
 
 nol'-edj 
 
 nolij 
 
 language 
 
 lan'-gwaj 
 
 lang'-wij 
 
 manage 
 
 man '-a j 
 
 man'-nij 
 
 master 
 
 master 
 
 master 
 
 mattress 
 
 mat'-res 
 
 mat'-tris 
 
 menace 
 
 men '-as 
 
 men-as' 
 
 merchant 
 
 mer'-chant 
 
 mar'-chint 
 
 miscellany 
 
 rais'-sel-anny 
 
 mis-sel'l-inny 
 
 mobile 
 
 mo'-bil 
 
 mo'bil 
 
 nature 
 
 na'-tiir 
 
 na'-cher 
 
 natural 
 
 nat'ii-ral 
 
 na'-chiir-al 
 
 oust 
 
 owst 
 
 obst 
 
 officer 
 
 of'-iser 
 
 orf'-iser 
 
 oppress 
 
 6p-pres' 
 
 6-pres' 
 
 ordinary 
 
 6rd'-i-nary 
 
 ord'-nary 
 
 perhaps 
 
 per-haps' 
 
 praps 
 
 picture 
 
 pik'-tiir 
 
 pik'ohur 
 
 portraiture 
 
 por'-tra-tiir 
 
 por'-tri-chur 
 
 precedence 
 
 pre-sed'-ens 
 
 pres'-e-dens 
 
 premature 
 
 pre'-ma-tur 
 
 prem'-a-chur 
 
 presume 
 
 pre-siim' 
 
 pres-oom' 
 
 process 
 
 pros'es 
 
 pro'-ses 
 
 profile 
 
 pro'-fil 
 
 pr6£'-ile 
 
 pursue 
 
 per-su' 
 
 per-soo' 
 
 really 
 
 re '-a ly 
 
 re'ly 
 
 remonstrate 
 
 re-m6n'-strat 
 
 rem'-ou-stret 
 
 reputable 
 
 rep'-u-tabl 
 
 re-piit'-abl 
 
 respite 
 
 res'-pit 
 
 res-pit' 
 
IMPERFECTIONS IN SPEECH 131 
 
 
 Correct 
 
 How it is often 
 
 Word. 
 
 prormnciatiort. 
 
 carelessly pronounced. 
 
 revokable 
 
 rev'-o-kabl 
 
 re-v6k'-abl 
 
 scourge 
 
 skurj 
 
 skorj 
 
 seventeen 
 
 sev-en-ten' 
 
 sebn-ten' 
 
 seventh 
 
 sev'-enth 
 
 sebnth 
 
 solace 
 
 sSl'-as 
 
 so'-las 
 
 sleeping 
 
 
 slepin 
 
 superfluous 
 
 sii-per'-floous 
 
 sooper-floo'-us 
 
 tremendous 
 
 tre-men'-diis 
 
 tre-men'-jiis 
 
 towards 
 
 to'-erdz 
 
 too-ward'z 
 
 troth 
 
 troth 
 
 troth 
 
 true 
 
 troo 
 
 trew 
 
 violet 
 
 
 vilit or vierlit 
 
 violent 
 
 
 vier-lint 
 
 widow 
 
 
 widder 
 
 window 
 
 
 winder 
 
 women 
 
 wim-men 
 
 woomin 
 
 wont 
 
 wiint 
 
 wont 
 
 won't 
 
 wont 
 
 wiint 
 
 wroth 
 
 roth 
 
 rawth 
 
 yellow 
 
 yel'-lo 
 
 yeller 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 SOME HINTS ON PUBLIC SPEAKING — VOCAL 
 INFLECTION, ETC. 
 
 ■' Of piercing wit and pregnant thought. 
 Endowed by nature, and by learning taught 
 To move assembhes." 
 
 DRYDENi 
 
 Many men are gifted with the power of oratory, 
 but owing to nervousness, self-consciousness, 
 lack of education or the non-cultivation of ideas, 
 vocal impediments and want of perseverance to 
 overcome them, this dormant talent remains 
 undeveloped. 
 
 The difference between studied eloquence and 
 mere facility of speech is, that whilst the latter 
 orator often lacks inflection and possesses no 
 discrimination in regard to emphasis, the trained 
 speaker is versed in the " thesis " and " arsis " 
 of his phrases in the same way as the dancer has 
 learnt his steps, poise of body, and action. In 
 133 
 
134 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 classic times the Greeks and Romans possessed 
 a profound contempt for a monotonous delivery, 
 and the audiences then did not hesitate to exhibit 
 signs of dissatisfaction. Cicero maintained that 
 " No man is an orator who has not learned 
 to be so," and Quintillian gives us a good idea 
 of the importance that studied rhetoric held in 
 those days, for he writes that : 
 
 " The second observation on the true manage- 
 ment of the voice relates to variety, which alone 
 constitutes an eloquent delivery. And let it not 
 be imagined that the equability of the voice 
 already recommended is inconsistent with variety ; 
 for unevenness is the fault opposite to equabihty, 
 and the opposite to variety is that monotony 
 which consists in one unvaried form or tone of 
 expression. The art of varying the tones of the 
 voice not only aflfords pleasure and relief to the 
 hearer, but by the alteration of exercise reheves 
 the speaker, as changes of posture and motions 
 of standing, walking, sitting, and lying are grate- 
 ful, and we cannot for a long time submit to any 
 one of them. The voice is to be adapted to the 
 subject and the feelings of the mind so as not to 
 be at variance with the expression : this is the 
 great art. We should, therefore, guard against 
 that uniformity of expression called by the Greeks 
 
SOME HINTS ON PUBLIC SPEAKING 135 
 
 monotony (fiovoeiBr'i<;). . . . Even in the same 
 passages, and in the expression of the same feel- 
 ings, there must be in the voice certain nice 
 changes, according as the dignity of the language, 
 the nature of the sentiments, the beginning, the 
 conclusion, or the transitions require. For painters 
 who confine themselves only to one colour never- 
 theless bring out some parts more strongly and 
 touch others more faintly ; and this they are 
 obliged to do, in order to preserve the just forms 
 and lines of their figures." 
 
 It has often been stated that matter is of the 
 first importance, and manner of the second; 
 but these two qualities are so allied that one 
 cannot be separated from the other, and unless 
 the speaker possesses the gifts of pleasant delivery, 
 manner, and address, "the subject" of the oration 
 sinks to insignificance, and the great lack of 
 rhetorical power amongst our modern clergy 
 no doubt accounts in some measure for the 
 dwindling congregations in many of the churches. 
 
 Oratory is no doubt due, in a great degree, to 
 a " natural gift," and 
 
 Eloquence must exist in the man, 
 
 for his hearing must not be defective, and his 
 sense of harmony and rhythm must be sensitive 
 
136 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 and acute, as without vocal inflection no passion, 
 pathos, or oral effects can be conveyed to the 
 audience, and this power of " inflection " is due 
 to the peculiarity of the speaker's aesthetic 
 temperament, and his ability audibly and visibly 
 to pourtray emotion. We realise how in- 
 flection, modulation, and pitch of voice are 
 natural and innate characteristics, intended to 
 convey desires or sensations of pleasure, grief, or 
 pain, as illustrated by the neighing of a horse, 
 the " purr " or " meow " of a cat, the whine 
 or joyous bark of a dog. It is not a difficult 
 task for us to interpret the wishes of an infant 
 before it can articulate, and the rise and fall 
 of the voice convey nearly all that is required 
 to be understood — if sufficient facial expression 
 is given — ^without any intelligent word being 
 used. If words are uttered, however, there is 
 no need for the speaker to be seen, for the pitch 
 of voice, inflection, and emphasis will not only 
 convey the desired meaning, but often the char- 
 acter of the speaker as well can be judged lay the 
 utterance of the simplest of sentences : " Let 
 me do this ! " A plaintive tone of supplication 
 will possess high tones and a rising inflection ; 
 the middle register of voice and a slightly falling 
 inflection will be used if some merely polite 
 
SOME HINTS ON PUBLIC SPEAKING 137 
 
 request is intended ; whilst if the words are 
 spoken in an authoritative tone — one of deter- 
 mination to do it, whether the request be granted 
 or not — the lower register and falling inflection 
 will convey that impression. 
 
 But as no two human temperaments are alike, 
 nor are any two voices the same (" Quot 
 homines tot voces "), the peculiar characteristics 
 of each individual are — and should be — shewn 
 when the same emotion is to be expressed, and 
 when the sensation springs from the same cause. 
 If a trained speaker be not by nature endowed 
 with the necessary "gifts" for oratory, it will soon 
 become evident to his audience, as his delivery 
 will sound artificial. Training is intended to 
 bring to light hidden talent, enrich it, and refir.e 
 it, until 
 
 Art, matur'd by habit, is akin to nature. 
 
 The inflections of the voice are classed under 
 three heads : rising, falling, and compound, and 
 may be denoted by the acute (^) accent — "He 
 acutes his rising inflection too much " (Walker) — 
 and as the voice descends it may be registered 
 as grave (v), for, as Moore writes, "the thicker 
 the cord or string, the graver is the note or tone " ; 
 
138 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 whilst the circumfle.r (— ) denotes the inter- 
 mingling of the two. For example : 
 
 ■' Is she going to sing >. " " I fhink she is." " Tell 
 
 her to do so, then." 
 
 The first is a question, and if the accent is 
 placed upon the initial word, the voice rises 
 gradually and uninterruptedly ; the second sen- 
 tence expresses a doubt, and the circumflex 
 accent is used ; and the third, a command, is 
 denoted by the falling tones of the voice. 
 
 A good example of the higher vocal register 
 and the rising inflection, which the reader should 
 practise, is " Prince Arthur's Supplication to 
 Hubert " : 
 
 Exercise XXV. — 
 
 1. 0, save me, Hubert, save me ! my eyes are out, 
 
 Even with the fierce looks of these bloody men. . . . 
 
 For heaven sake, Hubert, let me not be bound ! 
 
 Nay, hear me, Hubert ! drive these men aw ay, 
 
 And I will sit as quiet as a lamb ; . . . 
 
 Let me not hold my tongue ; let me not, Hubert ! 
 
 spare mine eyes ; 
 
 Though to no use, but still to look on you ! 
 
 2. And in the normal voice : 
 
 My Lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise ? 
 Is this the fashion in court of England 1 
 
SOME HINTS ON PUBLIC SPEAKING 139 
 
 Is this the Government of Britain's Isle ? 
 And this the Royalty of Albion's King 1 
 Am I a Queen in title and in style, 
 And must be made a subject to a Dw^e ? 
 
 In a simple question as " Do you like London ? " 
 the rising inflection is used ; but when the sen- 
 tence is incomplete and it is desired to compare 
 
 the town with the country, and " or the country " 
 is added, the falling inflection becomes prominent. 
 
 3. When a passage denotes conviction, or an 
 emphatic declaration, the falling inflection is 
 used, as : 
 
 One adequate support 
 For the calamities of mortal life 
 
 Exists — one only ; an assur'd belief 
 That the procession of our fate, howe'er 
 Sad or disturb'd, is order'd by a Being 
 
 Of infinite benevolence and power ; 
 Whose everlasting purposes embrace 
 
 V 
 
 All accidents, converting them to good. 
 
 4. It is not always that simple questions 
 denote arising inflection, for a passage taken from 
 " A Winter's Tale " illustrates the downward 
 trend of the voice, when the speaker is seeking 
 an explanation : 
 
UO VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 V V 
 
 In what have 1 offended yoii i What cau^o 
 Hath uiy behaviour given to your displeasure 
 That thtis you should proceed to put me off 
 
 And take your good grace from me ? 
 
 Wlien was the hour 
 
 I ever oontradioteti your desire. 
 
 Or made it not mine too l \Miich of your friends 
 Have I not strove to love, although I knew 
 
 V 
 
 He w as mine enemy i What friend of mine 
 That had to him deriv'd your anger, did I 
 
 V 
 
 Contintie in my liking I 
 
 5. Grattans speech in Parliament gives an 
 example of how the passage of the voice has a 
 (//■(lit, or downwai-d, flight when a forcible in- 
 dictment is delivered. 
 
 The right honoiu-able gentleman has called me 
 an '■ imimpeached traitor." 1 ask. why not "tnii- 
 
 V 
 
 tor,'" unqualified by any epithet? 1 will tell him; 
 
 V V 
 
 it was because he thind twt. It was the act of a 
 cowai-d, who raises his arm to strike, but has not the 
 
 V 
 
 courage to give the blow, I will not call him villain, 
 because it would be unparliamentary, and he is a 
 
 privy councillor. I will not call him fooi, because 
 
 he happens to be Oliancellor of the Excheqtier. 
 But 1 say he is one wlio has abusetl the privilege 
 of Parliament and fi-eedomof debate, to the uttering 
 
SOME HINTS ON PUBLIC SPEAKING 141 
 
 language which, if spoken out of the House, I should 
 
 answer only with a blow. I care not how high his 
 situation, how low his character, how contemptible 
 
 his speech, whether a pr^vy councillor or a parasite, 
 
 my answer would be a blow. 
 
 The fight honourable member has told me I de- 
 serted a profession where wealth and station were 
 
 the reward of industry and talent. If I mistake not, 
 that gentleman endeavoured to obtain those rewards 
 by the same means ; but he soon deserted the occu- 
 pation of a barrister for that of a parasite and a 
 
 pander. He jfled from the labour of study to flatter 
 
 V 
 
 at the table of the great. He found the lord's par- 
 lour a better sphere for his exertions than the hall 
 of the Four Courts ; the house of a great man a 
 more convenient way to power and to place ; and 
 that it was easier for a statesman of middling talents 
 
 to sell his friends than a lawyer of no talents to sell 
 
 his clients. 
 
 6. In " descriptive " utterances the " circum- 
 flex " (-^) or compound characteristics are the 
 most pronounced, in which the voice has no 
 sudden leaps or long drops, but sustains an even- 
 ness of cadence. A paragraph from " Paradise 
 Lost " emphasises this point, and purity of tone 
 in the voice is so essential in delivery, that any defect 
 in it would spoil the passage and render it ineffective. 
 
U2 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Now is the pleasant time, 
 The cool, the silent, save when silence yields 
 To the night warbling bird, that now, awake. 
 Times sweetest his love-labour 'd song ; now reigns 
 Full orb'd the moon, and with more pleasing light 
 Shadowy sets off the face of things. In vain. 
 If none regards. Heav'n wakes with all his eyes, 
 Whom to behold but thee. Nature's desire ? 
 In whose sight all things joy with ravishment, 
 Attracted by thy beauty — still to gaze. 
 I rose, as at thy call ; but found thee not. 
 To find thee I directed then my walk ; 
 And on, methought, alone I pass'd through ways 
 That brought me on a sudden to the tree 
 Of interdicted knowledge. Fair it seem'd, 
 Much fairer to my fancy, than by day : 
 And, as I wond'ring look'd, beside it stood 
 One shap'd and wing'd like one of those from Heav'n 
 By us oft seen ; his dewy locks distUl'd 
 Ambrosia. 
 
 Exercise XXVI. — As in the graphic arts we 
 distinguish the lights and shades, briUiaLcy of 
 colouring, subjugation of certain parts of the 
 picture, in order to further the effects of others, 
 and as in music we recognise the same law of 
 variety in the soft passages, the crescendo, forte, 
 and diminuendo, so do we experience the same 
 distinction in the varying tones of the voice, 
 from the soft whisper to loud and passionate 
 
SOME HINTS ON PUBLIC SPEAKING 143 
 
 utterances. An " aphonic voice," or hoarse 
 whisper, is often very effective in describing a 
 pathetic scene as in a hospital. 
 
 1. (vocally) Open at last came the big blue timid 
 eyes, an' again I 'eard 'is voice, but so faint and 
 weak. 
 
 (Half -whispered) " Jack ! — I — was a-comin' — to 
 meet you — at the prison gates. They told me — 
 where — you was caged, — and I walked across — the 
 park, — an' I rested 'ere, becos — I — got tired, an' so 
 weak — -an' I think I fell asleep. Jack — Jack — do 
 you hear the bells — the Christmas bells ? " 
 
 2. The sleep-walk scene of Lady Macbeth is 
 usually declaimed in a loud voice by our modern 
 actresses, but a strong " voiced " whisper is 
 far more effective when she exclaims : 
 
 Out, damned spot ! out, I say ! — One, two : 
 Why, then 't is time to do 't ! — Hell is murky ! — 
 Fie, my lord, fie ! a soldier, and afear'd ? What 
 need we fear who knows it, when none can call 
 our power to account ? 
 
 but care should be taken that the throat is not 
 injured. 
 
 3. The full power of the voice is necessary in 
 such passages as : 
 
144 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Come hack, come hack, Horatius ! 
 
 Loud cried the Fathers all. 
 Ba^k, Lartius ! ha^k Herminius ! 
 
 Ba/:k, ere the ruin jail ! 
 
 The voice also illustrates the scene to be de- 
 scribed by modulatiDg or extending its speed of 
 utterance. 
 
 allegro 
 allegretto 
 
 allegro 
 allegretto 
 
 allegro 
 allegretto 
 
 allegro 
 
 {Back darted Spurius Lartius ; 
 Herminius darted hack : 
 TAnd, as they passed, 
 I Beneath their feet 
 '^ They felt the timbers crack. 
 
 But when thej* tiurned their faces, 
 f And, on the farther shore 
 \Saw brave Horatius stand alone. 
 
 They would have crossed once more. 
 But with a crash like th under 
 Fell every loosened beam. 
 And, like a dam, the mighty wreck 
 
 Lay right athwart the stream : 
 And a long shout of triumph 
 
 Rose from the waJls of Rome, 
 As to the highest turret-tops 
 
 Was splashed the yellow foam. 
 And, like a horse unbroken. 
 
 When first he feels the rain. 
 The furious river struggled hard. 
 
 And tossed his tawny mane. 
 And burst the curb, and bounded. 
 
 Rejoicing to be free ; 
 And whirling down in fierce career. 
 Battlement, and plank, and pier. 
 Hushed headlong to the sea. 
 
SOME HINTS ON PUBLIC SPEAKING 145 
 
 (A beam of light fell o'er him 
 Like a glory round the shriven, 
 And he climb'd the lofty ladder 
 As if 'twere the path to heaven ! 
 mf, allegro /Then came a flash from out the cloud, 
 / \ And a stunning thunder roll, 
 
 allegretto, mp rAnd no man dared to look aloft 
 andante, p \ For fear was on every soul. 
 mp LXhere was another heavy sound, 
 
 larghetto, pp r A hush, (pause) and then a groan, 
 andante, mp J And darkness swept across the sky, 
 p \ The work of death was done ! 
 
 4. Dickens's vivid description of a tempestuous 
 sea forms a good subject for practising the grada- 
 tions of voice. In the first paragraph the lower 
 register should be used and the voice occasionally 
 deepened to almost a whisper ; great solemnity, 
 awe, and mystery should be instilled into the 
 rendering until the end of the second paragraph, 
 but in these latter lines the voice should be 
 slightly raised in pitch. 
 
 The inflection marks are only shewn in the 
 first passage, but if the student mentally depicts 
 the scene of the storm-tossed waters, he will 
 have little difficulty in following out the same 
 principle throughout. The voice increases in 
 volume and speed as the third paragraph pro- 
 gresses ; but the reader must remember that 
 although a great deal of inflection is used, it is 
 a descriptive picture, and consequently there 
 10 
 
146 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 are no sudden flights of voice, except during 
 the exclamation of " A ship ! " but a soaring, 
 gliding, and chopping of the voice during its 
 passage, and a gradual increase in volume and 
 force and a modulated diminuendo. 
 
 A stands for allegro. 
 
 A° ,, ,, allegretto. 
 
 M „ „ Moderate. 
 
 L ,, ,, Larghetto. 
 
 f ,, ,, powerful voice. 
 
 mf ,, ,, voice slightly raised. 
 
 mp ,, ,, normal voice. 
 
 P ,, ,, soft. 
 
 pp „ „ very soft, 
 
 and / denotes a pause and // a long pause. 
 
 1. A dark and dreary night : / people nestling in 
 
 their beds or circling late about the fire ; / Want, / 
 
 colder than Charity, shivering at the street corners ; j 
 
 church towers humming with the faint vibration of 
 
 their own tongues, but newly resting from the ghostly 
 
 p 
 
 preachment / "One!" // The earth covered with a 
 sable pall, as for the burial of Yesterday : j the clumps 
 of dark trees, / — its giant plumes of funeral feathers 
 
 mp^ --.^AMnp^ 
 
 — waving sadly to and fro : jj all hushed, j all noiseless, 
 / and in deep repose, / save the swift clouds tfiat skim 
 
SOME HINTS ON PUBLIC SPEAKING 147 
 
 across the moon ; / and the cautious wind, / as, / 
 creeping after them upon the ground, it stops to listen, / 
 awrf goes rustling on, j and stops again, / and follcws, 
 like a savage on the trail. 
 
 2. Whither go the clouds and wind so eagerly ? 
 If, like guilty spirits, they repair to some dread 
 conference with powers like themselves, in what 
 wild region do the elements hold council, or where 
 unbend in terrible disport ? 
 
 3. Here ! Free from that cramped prison called 
 the Earth, and out upon the waste of waters. Here, 
 roaring, raging, shrieking, howling, all night long. 
 Higher come the sounding voices from the caverns 
 on the coast of that small island, sleeping, a thousand 
 miles away, so quietly in the midst of angry waves ; 
 and, hither, to meet them, rush the blasts from 
 unknown desert places of the world. Here, in the 
 fury of their unchecked liberty, they storm and bufiet 
 with each other ; until the sea, lashed into a passion 
 like their own, leaps up in ravings mightier than 
 theirs, and the whole scene is whirling madness. 
 
 4. On, on, on, over the countless miles of angry 
 space, roll the long heaving billows. Mountains 
 and caves are here, and yet are not ; for what is now 
 the one, is now the other ; then all is but a boiling 
 heap of rushing water. Pursuit, and flight, and mad 
 return of wave on wave, and savage struggling, 
 ending in a spout of foam that whitens the black 
 night ; incessant change of place, and form, and hue ; 
 constancy in nothing but eternal strife ; on, on, on, 
 
148 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 they roll, and darker grows the night, and louder 
 howls the winds, and more clamorous and fierce 
 become the million voices in the sea- — when the wild 
 cry goes forth upon the storm, " A ship ! " 
 
 5. Onward she comes, in gallant combat with 
 the elements, her tall masts trembling, and her 
 timbers starting on the strain : onward she comes, 
 now high upon the curling billows, now low down 
 in the hollows of the sea, as hiding for a moment 
 from her fury ; and every storm-voice in the air 
 and water cries more loudly yet, " A ship ! " 
 
 6. Still she comes striving on : and at her boldness 
 and the spreading cry, the angry waves rise up above 
 each other's hoary heads to look : and round about 
 the vessel, far as the mariners on her decks can 
 pierce into the gloom, they press upon her, forcing 
 each other down, and starting up, and rushing for- 
 ward from afar, in dreadful curiosity. High over 
 her they break, and round her surge and roar ; and, 
 giving place to others, meaningly depart, and dash 
 themselves to fragments in their baified anger ; 
 still she comes onward bravely. And though the 
 eager multitude crowd thick and fast upon her all 
 the night, and dawn of day discovers the untiring 
 train yet bearing down upon the ship in an eternity 
 of troubled water, onward she comes, with dim lights 
 burning in her hull, and people there asleep : as if 
 no deadly element were peering in at every seam 
 and chink ; and no drowned seaman's grave, with 
 but a plank to cover it, were yawning in the un- 
 fathomable depths below. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 RHYTHM, ACCENT, AND EMPHASIS 
 
 " My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time 
 And makes an healthful music." 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Speech has been analysed as bearing the san?e 
 relation to singing as walking does to dancing, 
 consequently it possesses metres and is regulated 
 by bars and beats, named by the Greeks the 
 " arsis " and " thesis " — which signifies the rise 
 and fall of the foot in a rhythmic movement. 
 
 The law of cadence, metre, and rhythm, as 
 constituted by Nature, governs our aesthetic as 
 well as our physical characteristics, as we recog- 
 nise its agency in the regular and emphasised 
 beats of our paces in walking. An irregular gait 
 is displeasing to our senses, as it suggests an 
 ill-formed body or a defective mind. This sense 
 of harmony and rhythm of motion is innate, 
 and it is only through our dissociating ourselves 
 
 149 
 
150 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 from all that is natural, and cultivating the arti- 
 ficial — to the subjugation of instinct — that we 
 fail to realise or cultivate it. If we lose this 
 rhythmic response in our locomotion and action, 
 it will not be apparent likewise in our speech. 
 Herbert Spencer emphasises this point very 
 strongly when he says : 
 
 " A much more conspicuous rhythm, having 
 longer waves, is seen during the outflow into 
 poetry, music, and dancing. The current of 
 mental energy that shows itself in these modes 
 of bodily action is not continuous, but falls into 
 a succession of pulses. . . . Poetry is a form of 
 speech which results when the emphasis is regu- 
 larly recurrent ; that is, when the muscular 
 effort of pronunciation has definite periods of 
 greater and less intensity — periods that are com- 
 plicated with others of like nature answering to 
 the successive verses. Music in still more various 
 ways exemplifies the law. There are recurring 
 bars, in each of which there is a primary and a 
 secondary beat. There is the alternate increase 
 and decrease of muscular strain implied by the 
 ascents and descents composed of smaller waves, 
 breaking the rises and falls of the larger ones in 
 a mode peculiar to each melody. And then we 
 have further the alternation of piano and forte 
 
RHYTHM, ACCENT, AND EMPHASIS i5i 
 
 passages. That these several kinds of rhythm, 
 characterising aesthetic expression, are not, in the 
 common sense of the word, artificial, but are 
 intenser forms of an undulatory movement, 
 habitually generated by feeling in its bodily dis- 
 charge, is shown by the fact that they are all 
 traceable in ordinary speech ; which in every 
 sentence has its primary and secondary emphasis, 
 and its cadence, containing its chief rise and fall, 
 complicated with subordinate rises and falls, and 
 which is accompanied by a more or less oscillatory 
 action of the limbs when the emotion is great." 
 As "prosody" is guided by "iambic" and 
 various other feet in constructing rhythm, speech 
 is likewise governed by similar natural beats, as 
 the following examples prove : 
 
 He doth sin that doth be-lie the dead, 
 
 the accentive being shown by the thicker strokes, 
 and it would be opposed to our aesthetic sense of 
 rhythmic balance to alter it in any way. To 
 place the accented beat upon any other words 
 than those marked in "My soul shall wait on 
 thee in Heav'n" would immediately destroy the 
 sublimity of the sentence. If we desired to set 
 proverbs or ordinary colloquial phrases to music. 
 
i52 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 our rhythmic instinct would unerringly guide us 
 in the selection of its measure or tempo. For 
 instance : 
 
 1. 
 
 Men should 
 
 r L 
 
 be what they 
 
 r % z 
 
 seem. 
 1 
 
 
 or: 
 
 
 
 
 2. 'Tis 
 
 sweet and 
 
 r : 
 
 glorious to 
 
 r L 
 
 die for one's 
 
 » m m 
 
 1 's 's 
 
 country. 
 
 L 1 
 
 
 3. If you're 
 
 waking, call me 
 
 early, call me 
 
 early, mother Idear. 1 
 
 
 L C 
 
 
 r_ 
 
 \ 
 
 1 1 
 
 u 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 • » 
 
 ts 
 
 
 m 
 
 4. These sentences suggest \ time as well as • 
 
 I am the guard who's in charge of this train. 
 
 It will be noticed that whilst the htat comes 
 upon the first word in both the first and last of 
 these four sentences, it does not do so in the 
 second and third lines, but it waits for the words 
 "sweet" and "waking." 
 
 The next examples suggest the | or waltz 
 tempo, and it will be observed that, however 
 many words you cram into a sentence, it in no 
 way alters the rhythm nor the duration in de- 
 livery, from a short phrase possessing the same 
 characteristics or meaning : 
 
RYHTHM, ACCENT, AND EMPHASIS 153 
 
 He is the 
 
 ^ ,• • 
 
 I i I 
 
 believe that he's the 
 
 I I 
 
 man for 
 
 r r 
 
 man whom I re 
 
 I L 
 
 rr 
 
 quire. 
 
 That classic oration of Mark Antony is one of 
 those declamations which could be written to 
 musical metre if the oratorical pauses, inflections, 
 and dramatic effects of light and shade were 
 overlooked. Thus : — 
 
 Friends, 
 
 Romans, 
 
 I I r 
 
 countrymen, 
 
 lend me your ears ; 
 
 i 
 
 come to 
 
 r r 
 
 evil that 
 
 LI \ 
 
 bury Caesar, not to 
 
 U L I ^ ^f^ 1_! 
 
 men do llivesaii^erthem; 
 
 r rr 
 
 praise him. 
 
 The 
 
 ri r 
 
 ter-red with their 
 
 L I L-J 
 
 I L 
 
 bones ; 
 
 r 1 
 
 The 
 
 good is 
 
 oftin- 
 
 So let it 
 
 » » m 
 
 ! .1 I 
 
 be with 
 
 Caesar. The 
 
 noble Brutus 
 
 »■» » » 
 
 U L I 
 If it 
 
 Hath 
 
 told you I Csesar was am- 
 
 bitious : 
 
 it was a grievous fault. And 
 
 r*i 
 
 I I ^1 
 
 I ' L«^' i_J I U 
 
 grievously hath Csesar answer'd it. Here, under leave of 
 
 rr 
 
 L"! L_UJ 
 
154 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Brutus and the rest, (For Brutus is an honourable man ; 
 
 So are they 
 
 Come I to 
 
 ri r 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 all, 
 
 all I honourable men;) 
 
 k in 
 
 Caesar's 
 
 funeral. 
 
 Emphasis must not be confused — as it often 
 is — with accent (which I have just illustrated), 
 for whilst inflection d^ls with cadence, accent 
 merely marks the modulated rhythm, but which 
 emphasis often disturbs in order to produce a 
 rhetorical effect, for " the province of emphasis 
 is so much more important than accent, that the 
 customary seat of the latter is changed, when the 
 claims of emphasis require it." 
 
 Emphasis, therefore, supplies not only vivid 
 enforcement to a certain portion, or portions, of 
 a sentence, but the meaning or sense of it would 
 sometimes be obscure without it. Emphasis gives 
 to a sentence what a brilliant spot of colouring 
 does in a picture ; but in order to obtain that 
 vividness, the other parts of the canvas must be 
 rendered dull or be painted less strikingly. And 
 this rule applies to effects in phraseologj'. The 
 emphasis may start the sentence thus : 
 
RHYTHM, ACCENT, AND EMPHASIS 155 
 
 Alone, but yet undauntedly, the victim marked the 
 
 band 
 Of musketeers, in dark array before him waiting, 
 
 stand. 
 
 Or it may come at the end of a verse : 
 
 There are certain things — as a spider, a ghost, 
 The income tax, gout, an umbrella for three — 
 
 That I hate, but a thing that I hate the most. 
 Is a thing they call the sea. 
 
 But after the subject of aversion is commented 
 upon, and is compared to some other object, the 
 emphasis is shifted as the verses continue : 
 
 Pour some salt water on to the floor — 
 /» -• ^ .' 
 
 Ugly, I'm sure, you'll confess it to be — 
 
 Suppose that it extended a mile or more, 
 
 That's very like the sea. 
 
 Or: 
 
 I had a vision of nursery maids. 
 
 Tens of thousands passed by me, 
 ^ ^ ^ V 
 
 AH leading children with wooden spades. 
 
 And this was by the sea. 
 
 The accent marks denote the rhythm and the 
 italics the emphasis. 
 
 If we say, "It is easy to perceive that this 
 
156 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 gentleman is a man of great enterprise," it is 
 obvious which is the dominating word. 
 
 Often there are several words in a sentence 
 that require emphasis, each enforced word helping, 
 instead of detracting from, the others. 
 
 An angry man, who suppresses his passion, thinks 
 worse than he speaks ; and an angry man that will 
 chide, speaks worse than he thinks. 
 
 In an exclamation, " He has no more sense 
 
 than a dog ! " the third and fifth words are 
 strongly accented and the eighth emphasised ; 
 
 but if he had said. " He has not so much sense 
 
 as a dog," the accents are not so conspicuous — the 
 voice gradually ascending — and the "dog" con- 
 sequently becomes more pronounced as the voice 
 suddenly drops for this word. On the other hand, 
 if the word " character " were introduced in the 
 place of "sense," the emphasis would be taken 
 off " dog " and placed upon " character," and the 
 voice would ascend on the end word : "He has 
 
 not so much character as a dog ! " and it 
 would be evident that this animal had been 
 mentioned in a former sentence to draw forth 
 the comparison to the human being. 
 
 Some questions rely solely upon the emphasis 
 
RHYTHM, ACCENT, AND EMPHASIS 157 
 
 to convey the desired interpretation, as the same 
 simple query may possess many meanings. 
 
 " Are you going to Mrs. Jones'g party to-night ? " 
 (or are you not ?). 
 
 " Are you going to Mrs. Jones's party to-night ? " 
 (or your brother ?). 
 
 " Are you going to Mrs. Jones's party to-night ? " 
 (or Mrs. Smith's ?). 
 
 " Are you going to Mrs. Jones's party to-night ? " 
 (or next week ?). 
 
 The words in the brackets are given merely to 
 show what the questioner intended to convey, 
 owing to the emphasis he placed upon the selected 
 words. 
 
 In order to give the emphasis more point, a 
 pause is very often introduced into the sentence. 
 This "caesura," or "rhetorical pause," must not 
 be confounded with grammatical punctuations. 
 
 To err / is human : to forgive / divine. 
 
 He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting / fell. 
 
 Often a pause is more eloquent than the words 
 it separates, and it not only rests the speaker 
 but allows him time to mould his features and 
 direct an appropriate gesture or degree of em- 
 phasis to that which follows. 
 
 Exercise XXVI J. — Hamlet's famous Soliloquy 
 
158 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 forms a splendid example of what great effects 
 can be produced by "rhetorical pauses" and 
 ' ' emphasis . " It should be rendered very solem nly , 
 and the low tones of the voice should be utilised. 
 
 anxiety 
 
 courage 
 
 deep re- 
 flection 
 
 hopeful- 
 ness 
 
 appre- 
 hension 
 
 thought- 
 fulness 
 
 vexation 
 
 anguish 
 
 TO BE, // or NOT to be, // that is the 
 
 question : / 
 Whether 't is nobler in the mind, to 
 
 suffer 
 The slings and arrows of outrageous 
 
 fortune, / 
 Or to take arms against a. sea of 
 
 troubles, 
 And / by opposing / end them ? — To 
 
 DIE,— To sleep,— 
 No more ; // and, by a sleep, to say 
 
 we end 
 The heart-ache, and the thousand 
 
 natural shocks 
 That flesh is heir to — 't is a consum- 
 mation 
 Devoutly to be wish'd. // To die, — to 
 
 sleep ; — 
 To SLEEP /—perchance to DREAM ; 
 
 — ay, there's the riib ; — 
 For in that sleep of death what 
 
 dreams may come. 
 When we have shuffled off this mortal 
 
 coil, / 
 Must give us pause : // THERE'S 
 
 the respect, 
 That makes calamity of so long a 
 
 life : / 
 For who would bear the whips and 
 
 scorns of time, / 
 The oppressor's wrong, / the proud 
 
 man's contumely, / 
 The pangs of despised love, / the 
 
 law's delay, / 
 The insolence of office, / and the spurns 
 That patient merit of the unworthy 
 
 takes, / 
 When he himself mi^hthis quietus raake 
 
 doubt 
 
 deep re- 
 flection 
 
 thought- 
 fulness 
 
 great ap- 
 prehen- 
 sion 
 
 decision 
 
solemnity 
 
 per- 
 plexity 
 
 RHYTHM, ACCENT, AND EMPHASIS 159 
 
 With a bare hodkin ? // Who would boldly 
 
 fardels bear. 
 To grunt and sweat under a weary 
 
 life ; / 
 But that the dread of SOMETHING 
 
 after death, / 
 That undiscovered country, / from 
 
 whose bourn 
 No traveller returns, / puzzles the 
 
 will ; / 
 And makes us rather bear those ills 
 
 we have. 
 Than fly to others that we know not 
 
 of 1. I 
 Thus CONSCIENCE does make 
 
 COWARDS oi us all ; / 
 And thus the native hue of resolution 
 Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of 
 
 thought ; / 
 And enterprises of great pith and 
 
 moment. 
 With this regard, their currents turn 
 
 awry. 
 And lose the name of ACTION. 
 
 awe 
 
 mystery 
 
 awe 
 
 fear 
 
 The noted speech of that grand old rhetorician 
 the late John Bright forms a splendid practice 
 for studying vocal effects ; affording opportunities 
 for the high, medium, and low tones ; inflection, 
 rhetorical pauses, and emphasis. After the first 
 three words — rendered quietly but with intensity 
 — the voice should assume lighter tones, quietly; 
 and although certain words should have de- 
 liberate stress laid upon them, the first part of 
 the speech should not be rendered too forcibly, 
 but the passion and emotion should be kept well 
 under control, in order to give greater effect later 
 
160 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 on. After intense passages the voice should be 
 lighter in tone and quicker in tempo, so as to add 
 greater brilliancy to the emphasised words. The 
 voice should gradually increase in po\^■er as the 
 speech proceeds. 
 
 What is wae ? I believe that half the people 
 who talk about war / have not the slightest idea what 
 it is. In a short sentence it may be summed up / to 
 be the combination &nd concentration oi all thenoEEOES, 
 ATEOCiTiES, CEiMES, and SUFFEEINGS of which human 
 nature on this globe is capable. But what is even / a 
 EUMOUE / of war ? Is there anybody here who has 
 anything in the funds, or who is the owner of any mil- 
 way stock 1 or anybody who has a large stock of raw 
 material or of manufactured goods ? The funds have 
 recently / gone down 10 per cent. I do not say that 
 the fall I is all on account of this danger of war, but a 
 great proportion of it undovhtedly is. A fall of 10 per 
 cent, in the funds / is nearly £80,000,000 sterling of 
 value ; and railway stock having gone down 20 per 
 cent., makes a difference of £60,000,000 in the value 
 of the railway property of this country. Add the 
 two / £140,000,000 / and take the diminished pros- 
 perity and value of manufactures of aU kinds during 
 the last few months, and you ^vill understate the actual 
 loss to the country no\v / if you put it down to 
 £200,000,000 sterling. But that / is merely a rumour 
 / of war. That is war a lono way off, / the small 
 cloud no bigger than a man's hand : what will it be 
 if it comes nearer and becomes a fact ? And surely 
 
■52 
 
 RYHTHM, accent, and emphasis 161 
 
 sane men ought to consider whether the case is a 
 good one, the ground fair, the necessity clear, before / 
 they drag a nation, of nearly thirty millions of 
 people into a long and bloody struggle, for a de- 
 crepit and tottering empire, which all the nations 
 in Europe cannot long sustain. 
 
 Well, / if you go into war now, you will have 
 more banners to decorate your cathedrals and 
 churches. Englishmen will fight now as well as ever 
 they did ; and there is ample power to back them, 
 if the country can be but sufficiently excited and deluded. 
 You may raise up great generals. You may have 
 another Wellington, and another Nelson, too ; / for 
 this country can grow men capable of every enter- 
 prise. Then there may be titles, and pensions, and 
 . ^ (marble monuments to eternise the men who have 
 ^ " ■ thus become great ; / but what becomes of you and 
 
 
 [your COUNTRY and your children ? 
 Speaking here, however, to such an audience / — an 
 audience probably, for its numbers, as intelligent and 
 as influential as ever was assembled within the walls 
 of any hall in this kingdom — I think / I may put 
 before you higher considerations even / than those of 
 property and the institutions of your country. I may 
 remind you of duties / more solemn / and of obligations 
 / more imperative. You profess to be a Christian 
 nation. You make it your boast even — though boast- 
 ing is somewhat out of place in such questions — you 
 make it your boast that you are a Christian people, 
 and that you draw your rule of doctrine and practice 
 as from a well / pure and undefUed, from the lively 
 
 11 
 
162 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 ^^ f oracles of Ood, and from the direct revelation of 
 T| I the Omnipotent. You have even conceived the 
 g I I magnificent project of illuminaling the whole 
 Earth, even to the remotest and darkest recesses, by 
 the dissemination of the volume of the New Testa- 
 ment, in whose every page are written for ever the 
 words of 'peace. Within the hmits of this island alone, 
 every Sabbath day, twenty thousand / — ^yes, / far 
 more than twenty thousand — temples are thrown 
 open, in which devout men and women assemble to 
 worship Him who is the " Prince of Peace." 
 
 Is this a reality ? or is your Christianity a ro- 
 mance and your profession / a dream ? No ; / I am 
 sure that your Christianity is wo« a romance, and I 
 am equally sure that your profession is not a dream. 
 It is because I believe this / that I appeal to you with 
 confidence, / and that I have faith and hope in the 
 future. I believe j that we shall see, j and at no very 
 distant time, / sound economic principles spreading 
 much more widely amongst the people : / a sense of 
 justice growing up in a soil / which hitherto / has been 
 deemed unfruitful ; and / — which will be better than 
 all — / the churches of the United Kingdom, j the 
 churches of Britain, / awaking as it were from their 
 slumbers, and girding up their loitis to more glorious 
 work, when they shall not only accept and believe in 
 the prophecy, but labour earnestly for its fulfilment, 
 that there shall come a time / — a blessed time — / a 
 time which shall last for evek — when " nation shall not 
 lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
 war any more." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 DEPORTMENT, GESTXJEE, FACIAL EXPRESSION, AND 
 GENERAL ADVICE TO SPEAKERS 
 
 " Do not saw the air too much. 
 
 " Be not too tame neither, but let your own dis- 
 cretion be your tutor ; suit the action to the word, and 
 the word to the action ; with this special observation 
 that you o'erstep not the modesty of Nature." 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Harmony is the most distinguishable effort of 
 Nature, and Beauty is aptly described as the 
 " multitude in unity " — the happy blending of 
 all her harmonious parts so that nothing offends 
 the eye. It can be so expressed in relation to 
 oratory, for perfection can only be realised when 
 tones, inflection, facial expression, and gesture in 
 their combination adequately express the desired 
 meaning of spoken words . There are many public 
 speakers, however, who rely wholly upon the 
 beauty in the tones of their voices, fluency of 
 diction, suavity of manner, and graceful demean- 
 163 
 
164 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 our to achieve popularity ; but with all these 
 polished accomplishments they lack the most 
 powerful factor, the principal agent, " Energy 
 and Force," which bears the same paramount 
 relationship to these essentials as the hand of 
 the painter that holds the brush does to the lovely 
 pigments he employs. 
 
 We read in the classics the opinion that Gcero 
 formed of a contemporary orator, CaUidius, who 
 was pleading a case in which, it was stated, his 
 own life had been attempted by poisoning. 
 Cicero maintained that although CaUidius had 
 charmed his hearers by the brilliancy of his wit, 
 his specious logic, fluency of speech, and grace 
 of action, yet his pleading failed to carry with it 
 conviction, for truths can only be made evident 
 when — 
 
 . . . the enthusiast orator affords 
 Force to the feebler eloquence of words. 
 
 On the other hand, a speaker may possess 
 earnestness, and still lack the art of uttering 
 truths in an appropriate manner so as to render 
 them acceptable. "Thou speakest the things 
 thou oughtest to speak; but not after the 
 manner that thou shouldst speak them." 
 
 The records of Quintillian show that both 
 
DEPORTMENT. GESTURE, ETC. 165 
 
 Cicero and Demosthenes were aware of their fail- 
 ings, and sought the advice and instruction of 
 celebrated actors of that period. Demosthenes, 
 at the outset of his great career, was much 
 chagrined to perceive uneducated and Uliterate 
 men obtain a good hearing, whilst he himseK was 
 ridiculed for his uncouth appearance and ungainly 
 mannerisms. We read how diligently he studied 
 under the guidance of Satyrus, the actor, and 
 cultivated a style of address, so that he not only 
 became the foremost rhetorician of that day, but 
 "has never since been equalled as a master of 
 oratory." 
 
 Although arm gesture is a powerful adjunct 
 in an emphatic declaration and in clinching an 
 argument, it is only the visible manifestation of 
 force, an overflow of nervous energy from that 
 A^'hich controls the whole body, which can be 
 perceived by the speaker's attitude and the ex- 
 pression upon his featui'es. Am' gesture which 
 is not thus inspired is ineffective and unnatural, 
 for the source of all physical action is within, 
 and delivered by a spontaneous impulse. 
 
 The countenance is the seat of all expression, 
 and the ej-es have been described as the '" windows 
 of the soul." The Sophists maintain that ' speech 
 was given us in order to conceal our thoughts." 
 
166 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 but our features often betray its attempt to 
 deceive by unconsciously reflecting the hidden 
 purpose. If an orator possesses a good voice, 
 pleasing demeanour, a fluency of diction, and an 
 earnestness of manner, there is need of little 
 gesture, except in addressing a very large audi- 
 ence, when incidents of an illustrative nature 
 have to be often demonstrated by physical action 
 in order to render it intelligible and appreciated 
 at a distance ; but facial expression is the natural 
 and necessary accompaniment upon all occasions 
 of public address. Not only does an expressive 
 countenance impress an audience, but the ex- 
 perienced speaker generally seeks for an expression 
 upon the features of his listeners which will 
 announce the effect of his assertions. 
 
 1. When strong desires or soft sensations move 
 The astonish'd intellect to rage or love. 
 Associate tribes of fibrous motions rise, 
 Flush the red cheek or light the laughing eyes. 
 
 2. Whence ever active imitation finds 
 
 Th' ideal trains that pass through kindred minds ; 
 Her mimic acts associate thoughts excite, 
 And the first language enters at the sight. 
 
 In the days of Julius Csesar the orators reUed 
 a great deal upon the mobility of their features 
 to add weight or give point to their flow of elo- 
 
DEPORTMENT, GESTURE, ETC. 167 
 
 quence, but the players of that period, realising 
 the importance of the countenance exhibiting the 
 correct role, wore masks upon which were depicted 
 in bold outline the various phases of emotion to 
 be portrayed — whether grief or pleasure. To-day 
 the actors follow the same principle by accentuat- 
 ing facial expression by means of paste and 
 and pencil markings. Most people express their 
 feelings in their features, but in a more or less 
 degree, as the extent of facial expression is regu- 
 lated by individual temperament. It would be 
 as unnatural for a phlegmatic man to exhibit 
 signs of intense and dramatic emotion as it would 
 be for an excitable and passionate disposition to 
 appear stolid and collected in delivering a power- 
 ful speech, but a certain portrayal of feature is 
 absolutely necessary for finished oratory. 
 
 K I were asked by a dozen students to give 
 them the gestures I considered the most appro- 
 priate to accompany certain lines in a speech 
 for them to execute, I should study the tempera- 
 ment and physical characteristics of each person 
 and prescribe a series of actions most suitable 
 to them. A shrug of the shoulders, so eloquent 
 in some individuals in order to express contempt 
 or indifference, appears incongruous in others ; 
 even an exclamation or phrase which is appre- 
 
168 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 ciated when uttered by one person, lacks point 
 or is condemned when voiced by another who 
 does not possess the same peculiarity of dis- 
 position. 
 
 " Be natural, and — yourself," and your earn- 
 estness of purpose should help you to manifest 
 the correct amount of energy and gesture to be 
 used; but most speakers are so seK-conscious 
 that they forget to be sincere, and are therefore 
 unconvincing. 
 
 For public speaking the orator has the advan- 
 tage over his compeers — if all other rhetorical 
 qualifications are equal — who possesses a mobile 
 countenance or strongly defined features which 
 help visibly to illustrate his utterances. The 
 student should watch his features in a mirror, 
 and study their play in giving expression to cer- 
 tain sensations; but great care should be taken 
 that too much mobility is not encouraged, the 
 aim being merely to strengthen and intensify 
 facial eloquence. The eyes are the dominant 
 features in portraying mental emotion, and the 
 strongest muscles of expression are the " corru- 
 gators " — those that draw the eyebrows together 
 in a frown. It is contended that the eye alone 
 can dominate audiences. If the speaker be ner- 
 vous, abstracted, or indifferent, the eye will 
 
DEPORTMENT, GESTURE, ETC. 169 
 
 possess a vacant, dreamy, or transient expression 
 which fails to disturb or influence his listeners ; 
 but if he possesses self-confidence as well as 
 fervour, and is able to look his audience in the 
 face, he should have little trouble in riveting 
 attention. 
 
 Pleads he in earnest ? Look upon his face : 
 
 His eyes do drop no tears ; his prayers are jest ; - 
 
 His words come from his mouth — ours from our breast ; 
 
 He prays but faintly, and could be denied — 
 
 We pray with heart and soul. 
 
 Although it may not be necessary for the 
 purposes of ordinary conversation to study the 
 art of facial expression any more than it is com- 
 pulsory to learn the secrets of self-defence and 
 the science of fencing, yet the value of the latter 
 pursuits cannot be denied in imparting suppleness 
 and power to the physique and assisting in the 
 general carriage of the body. In the same way 
 due attention to physiognomy will immensely 
 help a public speaker to carry conviction with 
 his words by visibly accentuating his earnestness. 
 For if a man exclaimed " How dare he do it ! " 
 in a most ringing voice but with a stolid counte- 
 nance, his words would convey little impression 
 unless his eyes and general demeanour endorsed 
 his indignation, 
 
170 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 It should be noted, however, that although the 
 eye dominates a great many human sensations, 
 it does not influence every facial expression, for 
 other parts of the countenance become centres 
 of control in producing certain emotions. For 
 instance, if " How dare he do it ! " were uttered 
 in tones that conveyed an intermingling of in- 
 dignation, bitterness, and humiliation, the sensa- 
 tion would be felt in the centre of the face, as 
 would be perceived by the quivering of the 
 nostrils. This is the seat of "grief." It would 
 likewise be accentuated by the obliquity of the 
 eyebrows. A sneer or a feeling of contempt is 
 denoted by the nostril also, which influences the 
 upper lip; and a "snarl" is emphasised by the 
 drawing up of the side of the top lip, and the 
 eye in these expressions is merely an accessory. 
 The eye is the controlling feature in " firm de- 
 termination," but the lower jaw takes precedence 
 when " dogged stubbornness " is portrayed. A 
 smile must light up the whole face to illustrate 
 genuine pleasure, and a lack of combination be- 
 tween eye and mouth soon betrays any falseness. 
 These facial " character " studies, however, come 
 more within the province of an actor than of a 
 public speaker, although the latter will find them 
 very useful upon occasions when illustrating hig 
 
' I.ADJES AND GENTLEMEN." 
 
172 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 speech by anecdote. Mobility of feature and a 
 prompt facial response in emphasis are the prin- 
 cipal desires of a platform orator in this respect 
 
 Violent, unnecessary, or unsuitable gesture is 
 just as much to be deprecated as too much display 
 of facial expression. All arm gesture, however, 
 should be practised ambidextrously, for the action 
 of one hand alone becomes monotonous. The 
 left arm should, in nearly every case, be sub- 
 servient to the right, and never raised at precisely 
 the same moment in parallel action. If the left 
 hand upon occasions takes precedence, the right 
 becomes the accessory. 
 
 What to avoid in gesture and movement in 
 public speaking is as necessary to know as what 
 to do. A student of oratory should go to as 
 many lectures, sermons, and addresses by cele- 
 brated preachers and speakers as possible, in 
 order to discover how they make their points, 
 watch their attitude and demeanour, and also to 
 note their failings. The first aim of a speaker 
 who has ambitions should be to discover what 
 gestures his natural temperament would prompt 
 him to make in emphasising certain passages in 
 vocal delivery, and strip them of ungainliness, so 
 that they can be rendered gracefully. He should 
 rid himself of all ^.wk^ard movements and 
 
DEPORTMENT, GESTURE, ETC. 173 
 
 fidgety habits that miglit prove displeaging and 
 irritating to an audience. He should follow out 
 certain rules of kinesiology, so that he may imme- 
 diately realise an ill-balanced attitude or gesture, 
 and so counteract it. A slow arm movement 
 should always spring from the shoulder, and the 
 forearm, wrist, and hand should follow in their 
 respective order. An ungraceful arm action re- 
 verses the process, and the hand originates the 
 movement. The shape of the arm inspires a 
 spiral movement, with the elbow and wrist as 
 pivots, and grace depends so much upon freedom 
 and ease of motion in curved sequence, as opposed 
 to restriction and straight lines in gesture. If 
 the weight of the body is slightly borne upon 
 the left foot at the back, the head, to be balanced, 
 should incline — but not noticeably so — in that 
 backward direction, whilst the other foot remains 
 advanced as a slight balance. If the weight of 
 the body should be shifted to the front foot, the 
 head must also be altered to a forward inclination. 
 When the arms are brought into play, however, 
 the head becomes opposed to the hand — the 
 fingers of which are the indicators of the eye — so 
 that if the hand is flung forward the head inclines 
 backwards, and if the fingers move towards the 
 face the head must incline to meet them. The 
 
174 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 law of opposition is the simple and natural law 
 of balance. It needs a master and many instruc- 
 tions and exercises to enable a student to execute 
 physical actions with unconscious grace and ease, 
 and only the simplest of rules can be suggested 
 here. When no arm action is used, the head 
 inclines in direction slightly toward that foot 
 upon which the weight of the body rests ; but 
 when the arms are brought into play, they are 
 balanced by the head acting in opposition, whilst 
 the trunk of the body inclines in a contrary 
 direction to that of the supporting leg. 
 
 The character of an arm action depends entirely 
 upon the desire or sentiment to be expressed, for 
 speech and gesture are divided into three branches : 
 (1) colloquial or explanatory ; (2) emotional or 
 dynamic ; (3) descriptive or illustrative. In the 
 first the curves of arm motion are small and quick; 
 in the third wide and slow ; whilst the second 
 series of gestures are medium in circuit, free and 
 spontaneous, in which the whole body fuUy 
 responds. 
 
 The rhetoricians of old placed greater value 
 upon gesticulation than do those of the modern 
 school, and there is every indication that gesture 
 and action in the process of evolution preceded 
 speech. When an idea is conceived or senti- 
 
DEPORTMENT, GESTURE, ETC. 175 
 
 ment is to be expressed, the vital force flows 
 along the most habitual channels, therefore the 
 features portray the thought behind them, then 
 the limbs by gesture emphasise it, and the voice 
 at last confirms it — if necessary to do so. 
 
 " Speech," says Clodd, " is but one way of 
 expressing thought ; deaf-mutes can converse 
 only by gesture ; to this day it is the sole means 
 of communication between certain wandering 
 tribes of American Indians, and amongst the 
 vivacious races of Southern Europe it largely 
 supplements talk." We read in ancient history 
 of a prince of some neighbouring territory asking 
 Caesar to sell him an actor and dancer who was 
 so expressive in pantomimic gesture that by it 
 he could convey any wish he desired. As this 
 prince lived amongst numerous strange tribes of 
 different languages, he considered that this player 
 would be invaluable. 
 
 "It is a difficult matter," writes Quintillian, 
 " to say what number and variety of motions the 
 hands have, without which all action would be 
 imperfect and maimed, since these motions are 
 always as various as the words we utter. Eor 
 the other parts of the body may be said to help 
 a man when he speaks, but the hands, if I may 
 so express myself, speak themselves. Do we not 
 
'■ 1 APPEAL TO YOU." 
 
DEPOiRTMENT, GESTURE, ETC. Ill 
 
 by the hands desire a thing ? Do we not by the 
 hands promise, call, dismiss, threaten, act the 
 suppliant, and express our abhorrence or fear ? 
 By the hands do we not interrogate, deny, show 
 our grief, joy, doubt, confession, penitence, etc. 1 
 Do not these same hands provoke, forbid, entreat, 
 approve, admire, and express shame ? Do they 
 not in pointing out localities and persons supply 
 the very place often of nouns, pronouns, and 
 adverbs ? insomuch that amid all the number 
 and diversity of tongues upon the earth the 
 infinite use of the hands seems to remain the 
 ancient language common to all." 
 
 Gesture will often — and very effectively too — 
 supply the place of words as in a shrug of the 
 shoulders, or a wave of the hand, signifying that 
 the subject is too insignificant or trivial for dis- 
 cussion, in just the same way as " Silence that 
 spoke and eloquence of eyes." It is preferable 
 to use no action at all than to gesticulate im- 
 properly or too freely, as a superabundance of 
 physical action is suggestive of weakness — a lack 
 of personality and power to impress an audience 
 by earnestness of manner alone which should call 
 forth response. 
 
 Gesture, in a speech, should be reserved for 
 making or emphasising a point, or used for imi- 
 12 
 
178 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 tative or descriptive purposes. " The eye is 
 index to the soul, and the hand the servant of 
 the eye." 
 
 An amateur elocutionist who uses little dis- 
 crimination in regard to emphasis loses the whole 
 force of his sentence, and an inexperienced public 
 speaker who gesticulates too often lessens his 
 power to arouse the attention or interest of his 
 audience for the same reason. Many speakers 
 and reciters are afflicted with the nervous and 
 irritating habit of minutely describing by gesture 
 every detail, and so destroying any hope of a 
 dramatic effect that a cultured rhetorician would 
 create in delivering the same passage. 
 
 A great help toward obtaining clear articulation, 
 modulation, and fluency of diction is to study the 
 art of reading the printed speeches of celebrated 
 statesmen, and rendering them with the inflec- 
 tion, pauses, and emphasis the distinguished 
 speakers probably would have instilled into them. 
 To that end the subject of each speech should be 
 as carefully studied as an actor would study the 
 lines of the character he wishes to impersonate. 
 The speech must not be delivered as if it were 
 read, but given as if it were an inspiration. The 
 student should strive after effects, whether the 
 words he uttered advocated some noble principle 
 
DEPORTMENT, GESTURE, ETC. 179 
 
 or pleaded a great cause, and he must believe in 
 the subject he is advocating. His own indi- 
 viduality or temperament need not be hidden, 
 but utilised, clothed in an appropriate garment 
 of distinction. 
 
 The study of these speeches will emphasise an 
 important point — that the most memorable dis- 
 courses have been those in which the simplest 
 of language was employed. The student will also 
 perceive the difference in the construction of a 
 speech from that of a literary article. Tautology, 
 and even a repetition of the same words and 
 phrases, wearisome if read, become very impres- 
 sive when uttered, for the speaker has the ad- 
 vantage of inflection, whilst the writer has only 
 punctuation. On the other hand, it is a good 
 practice to read the writings of great scholars, 
 in order to study grammatical construction of 
 sentences and fluency of description; but no 
 literary efforts, except prosody, can compete with 
 the verbatim copy of a good speech, with all its 
 idiosyncrasies, idioms, and style, and, as a rule, 
 the more forcible and convincing the speech is, 
 the less it would be likely to exhibit literary merit 
 if printed, whilst an oration which excites less 
 enthusiasm often forms good "copy" for the 
 reporter. 
 
180 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 In Cicero the audiences remembered the man, 
 his oratorical power and personality ; in Demos- 
 thenes only the words he uttered impressed them- 
 selves upon his listeners : never to be forgotten. 
 
 Notable men rarely nowadays are influenced 
 in their desire to speak for love- of oratory, as 
 they were in the classic days, and that is the 
 reason why " matter " takes precedence to 
 " style." When that grand old rhetorician the 
 late Mr. W. E. Gladstone was asked for his 
 advice upon the art of public speaking, he con- 
 sidered that after the initial stage of physical 
 and articulatory ease was reached, the would-be 
 speaker should so imbue himself with his subject 
 that — 
 
 Its story, and glory, and beauty, and song 
 Should glow in his heart and burn on his tongue, 
 
 and this earnestness of purpose should be sufficient 
 to guide his every action. 
 
 In this present work upon the " Speaking Voice, 
 how it should be cultivated for public delivery," 
 and upon those important matters of poise and 
 delivery with which the subject is so inseparably 
 allied, the aim of the author has been to impress 
 the student with the importance of indefatigable 
 attention to physical primary principles in order 
 
DEPORTMENT, GESTURE, ETC. 181 
 
 to secure a firm foundation upon which to 
 place the ladder of oratory, up which it is not 
 difficult to climb when once the ground has 
 been made solid beneath it. The insecurity of 
 the base has been the cause of disaster to many 
 efforts. 
 
 If the scheme of exercises laid down has been 
 judiciously followed, and the law of breath control 
 rigidly observed, the student will have travelled 
 a great way along the path toward ultimate 
 success as a public speaker, handicapped as he 
 is, even, by travelling it alone, without the assist- 
 ance of the experienced teacher to regulate his 
 practice, cultivate his ear, to pave the way for 
 overcoming vocal defects, and to determine the 
 precise phonation of vowels and articulation of 
 consonants. 
 
 During this training, the student should culti- 
 vate a self-assurance, so that when entering upon 
 a public platform confidence in himself and his 
 knowledge of his subje&t will enable him to hold 
 up his head, advance with a well-balanced figure 
 and firm tread to the central position, and look his 
 audience full in the face, and thus by his manner 
 and fearless address will he impress his listeners 
 at the commencement of his speech. It cannot be 
 too much insisted upon that first impressions are 
 
182 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 of the utmost importance. " Ce n'est que le 
 premier pas qui coute," to quote an old French 
 truism. 
 
 An easy, upright bearing and a self-possessed 
 demeanour inspires an audience with confidence. 
 We read in Macaulay of one of our greatest 
 statesmen, William Pitt, possessing a figure 
 " graceful and commanding," features " high and 
 noble," and eyes " full of fire." This was the 
 picture drawn of his personal appearance and 
 vocal powers as he rose and confronted the 
 notable assemblage in the House. His splendid 
 voice, when he sank it to a whisper, " was heard 
 to the remotest benches ; and when he raised it 
 to its full volume it rose like the swell of the 
 organ of a great cathedral, and was heard through 
 the lobbies. His play of countenance was won- 
 derful, and he could disconcert an opponent by 
 a single glance of scorn. Every tone, from the 
 impassioned appeal to the thrilhng whisper, was 
 perfectly at his command." 
 
 A complete mastery of his subject combined 
 with self-confidence will often enable a speaker 
 to answer an interrupter with as much aplomb 
 as one of the candidates at the last election 
 campaign, who was asked to explain in three 
 words what advantage the policy he was advo- 
 
DEPORTMENT, GESTURE, ETC. 183 
 
 eating held over the other. " Workshops or 
 workhouses," was the prompt reply. 
 
 It often happens that a public speaker, despite 
 the fact that he is well versed in his subject, loses 
 his voice. It breaks or becomes hoarse soon after 
 he has commenced. If he is not suffering from 
 a relaxed throat, the reasons are, in the first 
 place, a " faulty voice " production, and, although 
 the orator may have been accustomed to address 
 large assemblies, he has not learned the art of 
 " pitching his voice," and even a slight nervous- 
 ness will promote too high a pitch. 
 
 It is easy to recognise an experienced speaker, 
 not only by the easy deportment and confident 
 manner with which he faces the audience, but by 
 the first few sentences he utters. The middle 
 tones of his voice are used^ — quietly — and no in- 
 terruption will disturb his equanimity — but he will 
 be observed keenly watching the carrying effect of his 
 voice in securing the attention of those of his audience 
 at the furthest end of the hall. He is " feeling his 
 way," and ascertaining the acoustic conditions of 
 the auditorium. When this has been gauged, he 
 has the comfortable assurance of knowing that 
 he not only possesses reserve power in his voice 
 for rhetorical " effects," but plenty of compass 
 both low and high notes — for " inflection." An 
 
184 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 old vocal recipe contains excellent advice for a 
 speaker : 
 
 Begin low, 
 
 Speak low. 
 
 Take fire. 
 
 Rise higher ; 
 
 When most impressed 
 
 Be self-possessed. 
 
 The following selection, which is a series of 
 extracts that form a sequence, is taken from the 
 historic speech of Mr. W. E. Gladstone in 1877 
 upon the Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria. This 
 powerful oration forms a good subject for de- 
 livery, and the student should read the speech 
 through several times in order to become thor- 
 oughly imbued with its doctrine and the lofty 
 principles it advocates, for these lines cannot be 
 rendered impressively or convincingly unless the 
 speaker of them makes the cause they support 
 and the line of action proposed entirely his own. 
 In finally delivering these lines, remember three 
 essentials: (1) breath control and nasal inhala- 
 tions ; (2) voice production ; (3) articulation, 
 especially of small words, and the " ultima " 
 of each long word. 
 
 We have, sir, other cases of the most loathsome 
 and revolting kind in the Blue Book that has been 
 recently placed before us, as to which an English 
 
DEPORTMENT, GESTUEE, ETC. 185 
 
 Vice-Consul says that the evidence left absolutely no 
 room to doubt ; and of these he gives the most fearful 
 and horrible details. . . . 
 
 I will not dwell upon them. . . . Suffice it, sir, 
 on the whole, to say that the evidence of which I 
 have here given but a few points, when taken together, 
 is conclusive. The outrages and massacres in Bul- 
 garia were not the acts of the Bashe Bazouks or the 
 Regulars, or of the Mussulman population, except as 
 mere instruments of the Porte. As instruments they 
 are guilty : as instruments al6ne. These massacres 
 were not accidents ; they were not caprices ; they 
 were not 'passion. They were system ; they were 
 method ; they were policy ; they were principle. They 
 were the things done in Damascus in 1860, and I may 
 say that the Liberal Government of that day took 
 up those massacres in a very different manner from 
 that in which Her Majesty's Government has pro- 
 ceeded, so that under the pressure then exerted by 
 the European Powers, the Porte was compelled to 
 hang a Pasha. Like deeds were done also during the 
 Greek Revolution ; and again and again they will be 
 done, until the Turkish Government finds that there 
 is an adequate authority determined to say they shall 
 Tiot be done again. 
 
 If these things cannot be denied — and I know 
 they cannot be denied — are we to continue this miser- 
 able farce — for so I must call it, since this it appears 
 to have become — of expostulations ? You do not 
 expostulate with malefactors in your own country : 
 you punish them. The Home Secretary would con- 
 
186 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 sider it a senseless proceeding to expostulate with a 
 murderer, and ask him not to commit such a crime 
 again ; or even to protest against his committing it. 
 But with respect to Turkey, we know exactly the 
 process, and how it is managed from beginning to 
 end. When there occurs some crime or outrage, if 
 there are not foreign agents near, no notice is taken 
 of it, provided a Mohammedan be the guilty party. 
 If it be a Christian, it is a very different matter. 
 For example. You will find in these Papers an 
 account of a Turkish boy who seriously wounded a 
 Christian woman. She was pregnant, and she was 
 seemingly about to die, but the report of the Consul 
 is that unfortunately there was no law in the country 
 by which the Turkish boy, being only a boy, could 
 be punished. Would that apply to a Christian boy ? 
 In Miss Mackenzie's and Miss Irby's most sensible and 
 dispassionate work you will find an account of a 
 struggle between a Turkish boy and a Christian boy. 
 They fought desperately. The Christian hoy fought in 
 self-defence. They were both so much injured that 
 they kept their beds for several days. The Turkish 
 boy died, and what happened ? There was plenty 
 of law to bo found then ! The Christian hoy was 
 condemned to he hanged, and the Grand Vizier, who was 
 travelling through the province, delayed his departure 
 in order to see him executed, and thus he gives the 
 Christians solemn warning of the consequences that 
 would follow their resenting injury. One and the 
 same lesson runs through all these transactions : 
 " You rajahs are allowed not to enjoy life, but 
 
DEPORTMENT, GESTURE, ETC. 187 
 
 to live. Your tribute is the condition of your life. 
 You must take your life on the conditions we name, 
 and if you raise your hand — it may be to secure justice 
 by force— you will be the subject of crimes and out- 
 rages which, whatever their nature may be, will 
 become virtue and pubhc service when committed 
 for the sake of maintaining Ottoman dominion over 
 the unbeliever whom he has a right to rule." 
 
 What I have said may sound like exaggeration. 
 It is no such thing. It is, I maintain, a plain, matter- 
 of-fact description of the way in which Turkish power 
 has been maintained. Nay ! more, ! it is the way in 
 which alone this unnatural domination can be main- 
 tained with ever-increasing difficulty, and upon 
 occasions with ever-increasing horror, until the day 
 of its doom shall come. 
 
 I pointed out last year that in the autumn of 
 1875 a body of Herzegovinian refugees had been 
 invited to go back to their homes. In an evil hour 
 they accepted the invitation, and returned, escorted, 
 as they had taken unusual precautions, by a force of 
 Turkish Regular troops ; but they were massacred 
 by some of the Beys — their Mussulman landlords. 
 It was done in the sight of the escort — and the escort 
 raised not a finger in their defence. This was at a 
 time when the Turkish Government and Mr. Consul 
 Holmes were inviting the refugees to return home. 
 The facts were made known to Lord Derby ; he 
 addressed to the proper authorities an indignant 
 despatch, demanding that there should be an inquiry 
 followed by punishment of the offenders and redress 
 
188 VOICE: ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 to the injured persons. No further notice has, 
 however, been taken of the matter. His despatch 
 remains like water poured out upon the sand. . . . 
 
 What I want to know, therefore, is whether we 
 are to continue to make ourselves ridiculous, and at 
 the same time utterly to delude the world by what 
 the Government is pleased to call remonstrating upon 
 these subjects. This matter grows worse and worse. 
 We have in the Papers which were delivered to us 
 two days back a new crop of horrors reported from 
 Erzeroum, as having occurred no longer ago than on 
 the 14th of March. A body of troops went into a 
 village and demanded food and money. These de- 
 mands were, of course, comphed with. They then 
 proceeded to maltreat the men and to violate the 
 women and girls, several of whom died in consequence 
 of the treatment to which they were subjected. 
 On this occasion again an energetic telegram was 
 despatched in the first instance. Afterwards Lord 
 Derby spoke with bated breath, and desired that the 
 attention of the Porte might be called to the matter. 
 It mattered not a straw whether his language were 
 strong or weak. It is the old story. As on the 
 previous occasion, nothing came of his demand. My 
 contention is that this conduct is not compatible ivith 
 the decency of the case or with the honour of England, 
 and that if no result is to follow upon communications 
 of this kind to which I allude, they ought not to he made. 
 It is bad enough to say that you wiU take no notice 
 of crimes such as those, but it is worse to notice them 
 in a way which you know full well can produce no 
 
DEPORTMENT, GESTURE, ETC. 189 
 
 result, yet which delude this country and the world 
 by seeming to promise one, and by making a vain 
 show of interest in the condition of the Christian 
 subjects of the Porte. . . . 
 
 Sir, there were other days when England was 
 the hope of freedom. Wherever in the world a high 
 aspiration was entertained, or a noble blow was 
 struck, it was to England that the eyes of the oppressed 
 were always turned. . . . Five million Bulgarians, cowed 
 and beaten down to the ground, hardly venturing to look 
 upwards — even to the Father in Heaven — have extended 
 their hands to you ; they have sent you their petition ; 
 they have prayed for your help and protection ; ... to 
 be delivered from an intolerable burden of woe and 
 shame. That burden of woe and shame — the greatest 
 that exists on God's earth — is one that we thought 
 united Europe was about to remove ; but to removing 
 which, for the present, you seem to have no efficacious 
 means of offering even the smallest practical solution. 
 But, sir, the removal of that load of woe and shame 
 is a great and noble prize. It is a prize well worth 
 competing for. Ft is not yet too late to try to win it. 
 I beheve that there are men in the Cabinet who would 
 try to win it, if they were free to act on their own 
 behefs and aspirations. It is not yet too late, I say, 
 to become competitors for that prize ; but be assured 
 that whenever you mean to claim for yourselves even 
 a single leaf of that immortal chaplet of renown, 
 which will be the reward of true labour in that cause, 
 or whether you turn your backs upon that cause and 
 your own duty, I believe, for one, that the knell of 
 
190 VOICE: ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Turkish tyranny in these provinces has sounded. So 
 far as human eye can judge, it is about to be destroyed. 
 The destruction may not come in the way or by the 
 means that we should choose, but come this boon 
 from what hands it may, it will be a noble boon, and 
 as a noble boon will gladly be accepted by Christendom 
 and the World. 
 
 After a lengthy debate in the House upon this 
 historic occasion, Mr. Gladstone summed up his 
 stirring appeal : 
 
 The time is short ; the sands of the hour-glass 
 are running out. The longer you delay, the less in 
 all hkeHhood you will be able to save from the wreck 
 of the integrity and independence of the Turkish 
 Empire. If Russia should fail, her failure would be 
 a disaster to mankind ; and the condition of the 
 suffering races, for whom we are supposed to have 
 laboured, will be worse than it was before. If she 
 succeeds, and if her conduct be honourable, nay, if 
 it be but tolerably prudent, the performance of the 
 work she has in hand will, notwithstanding all your 
 jealousness and all your reproaches, secure for her 
 an undying fame. When that work shall be accom- 
 plished, though it be not in the way and by the means 
 I would have chosen, as an Englishman I shall hide 
 my head, but as a man I shall rejoice. Nevertheless, 
 to my latest day I will exclaim, Would God that, in 
 this crisis, the voice of the nation had been suffered to 
 •prevail ; would God that, in this great, this holy deed, 
 England hud not been refused her share ! 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 PUBLIC SPEAKING : HOW TO PREPARE AND 
 DELIVER A SPEECH 
 
 "The beginning of the art is to acquire a habit of 
 easy speaking ; and the next step is to convert this style 
 of ease into chaste eloquence." — Loud Brougham. 
 
 It is not, of course, given to every one to be 
 an orator. And, indeed, it would appear that 
 the dictum concerning a poet being born and 
 not made is equally applicable to the case of 
 an orator. But even if this be so, it must be 
 admitted that there are few people of education 
 who cannot become passably good speakers 
 with practice and a knowledge of the elementary 
 matters which go towards the making of a fluent 
 and successful speaker. 
 
 The first thing that every would-be speaker 
 should reahse is that the employment of merely 
 fit and proper words is not the final excellence 
 of language. It is the employment of the exact 
 word, with its subtle modification of meaning 
 or musical cadence, when associated with other 
 191 
 
192 VOICE: ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 words, that goes to make the perfect, the telhng, 
 and the musical sentence. How often, indeed, 
 have all of us been conscious, even when listening 
 to good speakers, of the fact that they have 
 every now and again missed using the only 
 word which exactly expressed the gradation of 
 meaning that they would have conveyed, or 
 which in association with other words in the 
 sentence served to complete and make musical 
 an expression which was in a measure marred 
 by the use of a less suitable word. The wrong 
 or inexact word in any sentence has the same 
 effect upon a cultured audience that a wrong note 
 in a bar of music would have upon a musician. 
 The aim in speech should be to convey by 
 words an adequate impression of the particular 
 subject-matter of the sentence. A description of a 
 beautiful sunset should be, for example, an assem- 
 blage of words in themselves having a cadence 
 and beauty which would be quite out of place 
 (though some of the words themselves might 
 be suitable) to those used in describing some 
 horror, crime, or scene of devastation. A poor 
 expression or an unsuitable word will often 
 mar an otherwise beautiful sentence, a noble 
 thought, or an elevated style. 
 
 Tautology should be avoided in speech as in 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING 103 
 
 writing, although, as one writer has it, one 
 should never avoid the use of the same word in 
 the same sentence if it be the most appropriate, 
 and if one can think of no other word equally 
 suitable to describe the gradation of meaning 
 one wishes. Nevertheless, tautology should, as 
 a general rule, be avoided, as it gives an im- 
 pression of poverty of speech and ideas. It is 
 only excusable when used by a practised speaker, 
 who is piling up, as it were, a cumulative effect 
 in a sentence. 
 
 It may be briefly said that the first thing for 
 a speaker to consider is the use of words in 
 their proper signification and with a view to 
 their adaptability in the structure of his sentence. 
 Consideration should also be given to the ideas 
 with which custom has invested certain words. 
 One may possibly be right in using them in 
 a different sense ; but if custom has fixed to 
 them a certain meaning, the use of them to 
 convey unusual, though correct, meaning will 
 only lead to obscurity in the mind of an audience. 
 Words should be used in the precise significance 
 which belongs to them. Another excellent rule 
 is only to use words that express with perfect 
 accuracy the meaning one wishes to convey. 
 We have in our time listened to many speakers 
 13 
 
194 VOICE: ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 of various types, and often we have been con- 
 scious that they have not conveyed by their 
 language to our own mind the idea which had 
 come to birth in their own. 
 
 The construction of sentences is an important 
 matter. Clearness is only assured by a proper 
 arrangement of words in their natural order. 
 Some orators, indeed, may break this rule, and 
 frequently do so ; but we doubt greatly whether 
 these gymnastics of speech convey to the average 
 mind anything save an impression of straining 
 after originality, and a certain grotesque clever- 
 ness of mental outlook. When a word is placed 
 out of its natural order at the end of a pro- 
 position, emphasis is sometimes gained, but 
 frequently this is at a loss of clearness to the 
 average listener, and a speaker ought certainly 
 to avoid too frequent a misplacement of words. 
 
 Every speaker should avoid long and in- 
 volved sentences. This is a truism which every 
 one seems to know, but many fail to practise. 
 "To lose oneself in the maze of language and 
 to trip amid tedious circumlocutions is generally 
 an indication that the speaker is unpractised 
 and lacks clarity of thought and vision." Nor 
 should words be used to amphfy sentences which 
 are unnecessary. Vague and indefinite terms 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING 195 
 
 should also be avoided. Many sentences, indeed, 
 with which one meets in reports of public speeches 
 and in books are marred by a vagueness which 
 makes it impossible at first reading, and until 
 giving the matter thought, to determine the 
 exact meaning of the speaker or writer. Here 
 is an example : " She always dishked such a 
 woman when singing." The meaning of this 
 sentence is not clear, and in fact never can be. 
 For the expression may mean that she dishked 
 a certain type of woman when singing herself, 
 because that other woman fidgeted or looked 
 bored, or for some similar reason ; or it may 
 mean that she disliked a certain type of woman 
 when that certain type sang, because of a poor 
 voice, bad expression, or some other reason. 
 
 Sentences also should not be carelessly em- 
 phasised, or quite a different meaning may be 
 given to that intended. Some speakers are so 
 fond of emphasis that it becomes a perfect vice, 
 just as some writers are so fond of italics that 
 they have a tendency to underline wrong and 
 unimportant words, evidently under the im- 
 pression that it will give weight and emphasis. 
 
 A speaker who intends to succeed and to be 
 remembered as a pleasing and effective one 
 cannot be too careful of the harmony of speech. 
 
196 VOICE: ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Words difficult of pronunciation are always best 
 avoided, if simpler ones serving the same purpose 
 and conveying the same gradation of meaning 
 can be found. It is wise to choose words which 
 are composed of smooth and liquid sounds rather 
 than those which are rendered harsh by a pleni- 
 tude of consonants and awkward terminations. 
 To provide contrast, however, it is a good rule 
 to choose a word beginning with a consonant 
 after one which ends with a vowel, although 
 this rule can only be considered in the light of 
 one having many exceptions. It is a good 
 plan, too, to see that the periods are well 
 assembled. A period is a sentence in which 
 several passages or ideas are logically and eupho- 
 niously grouped. It should be remembered that 
 a period should increase rather than decrease in 
 power. Let the final words be the strongest, 
 the most convincing, and the most powerful. 
 
 In public speaking the economy of breath 
 has much to do with the comfort of the speaker 
 and the effectiveness of the speech. More 
 breath than is necessary should never be ex- 
 pended. Few things are more unpleasant than 
 to listen to a speaker who gradually approaches 
 breathlessness at the end of his longer sentences, 
 or who by violent expiration produces that 
 
A FUNNY ANEODOTi;. 
 
198 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 unpleasant "hissing" noise, which afflicts some 
 of the less practised and most nervous of speakers. 
 To learn to exhale the breath slowly is one 
 of the first things a would-be speaker should 
 acquire. And the pauses which come in all 
 sentences (and if made with skill and at the 
 proper places have so much to do with the effec- 
 tiveness of the sentence) are points at which the 
 lungs can be most easily and satisfactorily refilled. 
 Style does not always go with eloquence. 
 Some of the most eloquent men have been 
 distinctly non-stylists ; whilst, on the other 
 hand, some speakers who possess most finished 
 styles of oratory of the present day (as in the past) 
 fail to move their audience either to great emotion 
 or to deeds, whilst they yet please and impress 
 upon the minds of their hearers the idea of 
 beautiful language and the presentation of their 
 ideas in the most accurate and graceful manner. 
 Some speakers, indeed, are very much hke the 
 painter, who even with crudity of colour conveys 
 a vivid, arresting, and emotional impression 
 which the most beautiful work of the sculptor 
 in cold marble and correctness of line can never 
 hope to accomplish. 
 
 There are, roughly speaking, three styles of 
 oratory — the subhme, the middle, and the 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING 199 
 
 plain. The first is that with which a speaker 
 conveys to an audience his thoughts in dignified 
 language and polished periods which impress 
 the listener with a nobiUty, and a power, and 
 even a fire that, whilst compelling admiration 
 for the beauty of the speech, yet succeeds in 
 conveying to the mind an impression which 
 sways and turns it whither the speaker wills. 
 The great orators of the past, such as Homer, 
 Demosthenes, and Cicero, all possessed this 
 quality of oratory ; and of comparatively modern 
 speakers perhaps Burke and Erskine are two of 
 the most notable examples. 
 
 Style may be acquired in several ways. The 
 sublime style, which is capable of moving vast 
 audiences, can scarcely be attained otherwise 
 than by the dwelling of the mind of the speaker 
 upon subjects of sublime and lofty nature and 
 upon great themes ; and by the use of the most 
 suitable and happy words, the best metaphors 
 and illustrations that are applicable to the 
 word-pictures the speaker wishes to paint. A 
 study of authors whose writings possess these 
 qualities, whether the great ones of the past or 
 the present, cannot fail to aid the would-be 
 speaker in acquiring at least something of the 
 more elevated style of speaking. 
 
200 VOICE: ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 The middle style to which we have already 
 referred is a blend of the more ordinary style of 
 conversation, lectures, or mere narratives, and 
 the sublimer flights of oratory to which all would 
 Uke to attain. Probably this is the one most 
 suited to nine out of ten of those who would 
 become public speakers ; because its use avoids 
 risking a failure in the subUme, which at once 
 becomes the ridiculous, and rises somewhat 
 above the level of the ordinary speech of every- 
 day life. 
 
 The plain style is, as we have indicated, only 
 suitable to conversation, lectures, or merely the 
 recounting of incidents, which should be set 
 forth in the clearest, most understandable 
 language, and, provided it is correct in grammar 
 and construction, serves the purpose for which 
 it is intended. 
 
 It is the ability to make use of all three styles 
 which distinguishes the great orator. Such is 
 the man who can rise to subhme heights when 
 he feels his audience in tune and capable of 
 soaring with him to the realms of fancy and 
 imagination ; or who, by adopting the middle 
 style, conveys to an immense audience, con- 
 taining the highly cultured, the cultured, and 
 even the ignorant, the meaning he would heive 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING 201 
 
 them "sense" from his words. By the use of 
 this last-named style the highly cultured will 
 not be shocked or bored ; the cultured will 
 write him down as a fine speaker ; and the 
 uncultured will go away with a clear impression 
 of what the speaker means, even if unable fully 
 to appreciate the cleverness and abihty with 
 which he has presented his ideas or the subject 
 concerning which he has spoken. 
 
 The plain style will be used by the practised 
 speaker when his audience is a commonplace 
 one, or where the subject needs only to be ex- 
 pounded by means of the most ordinary and 
 everyday phraseology. 
 
 One thing should be remembered, that the 
 greatest speakers always adapt their style to 
 their audience, and even study the latter as 
 they go along, and make modifications which 
 they see from the expressions of appreciation or 
 non-appreciation of what they are saying are 
 rendered necessary. It is Cicero who says, 
 "A single style [of speaking] cannot agree with 
 every cause, nor stir every hearer, nor affect 
 every character, nor be suitable to every occa- 
 sion." And that great orator, if we read him 
 carefully, will be found to have varied his style 
 to suit his audience, and even occasionally to 
 
202 VOICE: ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 have descended to the vulgar and commonplace 
 to enable the latter to follow him the more 
 clearly. 
 
 We have already mentioned Erskine, the 
 great Lord Chancellor, who was by no means, 
 for his class and the position unto which he 
 attained, a brilliantly educated man. In fact 
 "his classical attainments," we are told by 
 Lord Brougham, "were so slender, men often- 
 times marvelled at the phenomena of his elo- 
 quence, and. above all of his composition." 
 Erskine had grounded himseM in a good school, 
 having read widely in all the great Enghsh 
 authors of the past whose purity of language 
 attracted him, and he had become so familiar 
 with Shakespeare and Milton that his knowledge 
 of them is said to have been greater than that 
 of any man of his period. His style had been 
 founded upon the best of all models, which, 
 wedded to a natural eloquence and a pleasing 
 presence, proved him one of the most potent 
 forces in the oratory of his time. 
 
 The popular speaker should always be able 
 to express what he himself feels vividly. And 
 it should be added here that mere verbiage, 
 picturesque and even eloquent though it may 
 be, often defeats its main object, which is tp 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING 203 
 
 limn vividly and with a few sure touches a 
 picture for the eyes of one's audience. 
 
 Many people possess this gift of word-painting 
 naturally, and discover it when they become 
 speakers and have learned the elements of their 
 craft. Others can only acquire it (and it can be 
 acquired) by practice and by careful study. 
 An unimaginative man, we think, will never 
 make a good and telhng speaker. Facts are 
 not everything, and indeed a great orator of 
 the past has said that they are very little com- 
 pared with the power of word-painting, and the 
 ability to stir the passions or emotions of an 
 audience. " Let the most accurate thinker, 
 with the most powerful set of facts, precede me," 
 said a great speaker of the past, who was noted 
 for his sublimity of style and power of word- 
 painting, " and I in a few minutes will destroy 
 the effect by a series of pictures which have 
 little foundation in fact, and may in many 
 cases be pure fiction." 
 
 But, be it understood, we are not advocating 
 a system of mere word-painting as the Ultima 
 Thtile of the successful speaker. Facts of an 
 incontrovertible character, presented clearly and 
 with a finality which creates upon the mind 
 of the hearer the impression that something 
 
204 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 unassailable has been said, are often necessary 
 to successful oratory. 
 
 Antithesis is the art of placing two thoughts, 
 words, or sentences so in position as to render 
 the picture which is sought to be conveyed 
 the more striking. "A woman in the purple 
 robes of the rich was seen entering a building, 
 around the portal of which crouched the poverty- 
 stricken in rags," and so on. 
 
 Metaphors need careful using, but they are 
 very effective in a speech ; whilst paradoxes 
 and proverbs and aphorisms introduced into a 
 speech in their proper sequence and places do 
 much to enhance its interest and effectiveness. 
 
 There are a few points in the use of description 
 and word-painting that should be noted. It 
 must not be overdone. The man who allows 
 his vivid imagination to run away with him in 
 the picturing of incidents or in the use of illustra- 
 tion often fails to influence his audience, and 
 runs a great risk of disgusting the more cultured 
 and arousing the hostility or the amusement of 
 the less cultured. 
 
 We have said at the beginning of this chapter 
 that the highest gifts of oratory cannot be taught, 
 although a public speaker of ability may be 
 produced by the following of rules and the 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING 205 
 
 study of good models. But a system of rules 
 is not in itself sufificient to produce the best 
 results in the would-be speaker. Much good 
 may be got by listening to other speakers of 
 eloquence and ability ; in reading the best 
 writers and stylists ; in attempting to write 
 one's own thoughts in well-chosen language ; 
 and in actual imitation of a model suited to 
 one's own individual capacities and tastes. 
 There is one thing about imitation of a good 
 speaker that does not apply to the imitation 
 by an amateur or a beginner of a good writer 
 or a good artist. Certain individualities of 
 thought, inflection of voice, and manner will 
 prevent one speaker becoming an absolute copy 
 of another speaker, however much he may 
 model himself and his speeches upon the master 
 he has adopted as his model. Indeed, only the 
 cleverest can hope to mimic- — otherwise reproduce 
 with starthng exactness — ^the oratorical or dra- 
 matic efforts of the masters and mistresses in 
 these particular callings. Therefore, to imitate 
 a good speaker is not likely, in ninety-nine 
 cases out of a hundred, to lead to that disastrous 
 loss of personahty which might perhaps be 
 dreaded by the inexperienced. Many of the 
 best speakers, indeed, have learned much of their 
 
206 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 art by the close study of other speakers. But 
 imitation will not produce the highest results 
 in itself. There must be a basis of knowledge, 
 of experience, and of imagination upon which 
 to build. 
 
 Imitation, too, should not be too close, for 
 although one cannot, unless a genius, reproduce 
 with exactness the efforts of others, yet a certain 
 cramping of one's own personality must result 
 from a too slavish copy of others. From it, too, 
 one in time gets to depend upon their thoughts 
 and their tricks of speech, rather than upon 
 putting into suitable and graceful language one's 
 own thoughts, and letting one's own personality 
 have some sway. 
 
 The construction of a speech is a matter of 
 some importance. 
 
 In most speeches of any length there are, oi- 
 should be, four principal parts, which may be 
 roughly divided into, firstly, the statement of 
 certain facts, truths, or premises having a direct 
 bearing upon the subject of the speech ; secondly, 
 arguments intended to drive home these facts, 
 etc. ; thirdly, the address intended to convince 
 the audience, and drive home the arguments 
 by imagery or by an appeal to the hearts and 
 minds of the listeners ; and fourthly, the perora- 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING 207 
 
 tion or final appeal to the audience, with a view 
 to either convincing them or to arousing them 
 to some desired action. One therefore, in 
 making such a speech, begins firstly by as plain 
 and clear an exposition of facts as possible ; 
 secondly, one carefully takes fact by fact and 
 endeavours to prove it by argument ; thirdly, 
 one makes an appeal to the sympathies of the 
 audience by a series of word-pictures or by 
 narration of illustrations which will serve to 
 drive home the facts and arguments one has 
 just stated ; and, finally, one seeks to show how 
 and why action must be taken. 
 
 Of course, all speeches cannot be divided into 
 such parts. There are many speeches where 
 neither argument nor a peroration are necessary ; 
 where no endeavour is made to do more than 
 interest an audience or to please an individual. 
 But we are considering the greater speeches 
 upon political, social, or scientific subjects. 
 The narration of the facts which one wishes to 
 place before one's audience in the opening of 
 one's speech should be made very clearly, very 
 distinctly, and with deliberation. In the second 
 or argumentative part of the speech every 
 proposition meant to supplement a fact or a 
 statement made should be clearly enunciated 
 
208 VOICE : ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 and delivered with all the suitable emphasis 
 one has at command. Frequent changes of 
 pitch and speed of utterance are valuable features 
 in driving home the argument and in avoiding 
 a monotony which many speakers exhibit, 
 especially in the argumentative portions of 
 their speeches. When appealing to the audience's 
 senses in the third and fourth portions of the 
 speech, the skeleton of which we have outhned, 
 a tone should be adopted which is suitable to 
 the emotion which one wishes to excite. And 
 it may be here said that few speakers can be 
 either effective or impressive in this portion of 
 their speech unless they themselves feel what 
 they are stating, and have the abihty to convey 
 to the audience the impression of their (the 
 speaker's) belief in what he or she is saying. 
 It is in the final appeal that the greatest flights 
 of oratory generally appear. And perhaps no 
 portion of the speech is of more importance 
 than the finish, which should be worked up 
 to with gradually cumulative force, so that all 
 the fire and energy that one possesses can be put 
 into the final words, which should be spoken in a 
 convincing and even dominant tone, rather than 
 in an appeaUng one. The appeal in reahty should 
 be made in the preceding section of the speech. 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING 209 
 
 Clearness, deliberation, and care in the arrange- 
 ment should be distinguishing features of the 
 first part of a speech. Variety of tone, imagery, 
 and emphasis should chiefly characterise the 
 second portion. Persuasiveness and eloquence 
 should be the chief features of the third portion.; 
 and will-power, fire, energy, and eloquence 
 should be the characteristics of the close of 
 every speech that is intended to produce action 
 in, and enthusiasm for, a cause on the part of 
 one's audience. 
 
 A few words might usefully, we think, be 
 said regarding the necessity of the argument. 
 Of course, every speaker who is advocating a 
 stated cause endeavours from the very first to 
 obtain the sympathy of his audience, and during 
 the course of the speech to make this sympathy 
 cumulative, so that he may, if possible, in the 
 end completely convince and succeed in stirring 
 to action. The commencement of a ■ speech 
 should be more guarded than any other period, 
 for in the first few sentences it is as possible 
 to lose the sympathy of an audience as to gain 
 it, and it is in these prehminary sentences, if 
 not uttered with care, that the hostile element 
 in one's audience is rendered yet more hostile 
 and possibly entirely implacable. 
 14 
 
210 VOICE: ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 The first rule of all with reference to the argu- 
 ment is to have a very clear and accurate grasp 
 of the subject in all its bearings, and to have 
 decided in one's own mind not alone the argu- 
 ments which are most suitable to prove one's 
 case, but those which will in all hkehhood be 
 most easily assimilated by the audience. It is 
 fatal to one's case to wander from the propo- 
 sition into byways of reflection and illustration, 
 tumour, or pathos, which have no real bearing 
 upon the subject in hand, and the greatest and 
 most effective speaker is the one who in the 
 fewest possible words presents in the early first 
 portion of his speech the greatest number of 
 most effective points of view of the subject upon 
 which he is discoursing. Argument to be effec- 
 tive must have finahty. It is futile, too, to use 
 arguments which are equally appKcable to 
 other subjects. For example, to merely argue 
 that excessive drinking is bad is feeble, because 
 the term bad applied to excess in anything is 
 equally appHcable. But to argue that intemper- 
 ance is bad because of the pecuhar results is 
 a very different matter. For this reason one 
 should never argue by applying general terms 
 to a subject which are only suitable to par- 
 ticular cases. For example, to say that all 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING 211 
 
 artists are improvident because many artists are 
 undoubtedly so is to advance a proposition 
 which can be easily shattered. 
 
 The arrangement of the argument is also 
 important. All arguments should be placed in 
 •such order before the audience that as they 
 succeed one another they each serve to build 
 Tip and strengthen the case, and to drive home 
 the particular point of view which one is seeking 
 to impress upon the mind of the Ustener. Con- 
 fused argument is perhaps one of the greatest 
 dangers that all inexperienced speakers upon 
 controversial subjects have to guard agafnst. 
 Argument, too, should not be unduly extended. 
 Four or five pregnant sentences are better than 
 ten minutes' "weakly wandering " amid the 
 maze of confused arguments. 
 
 As regards the third and the final portions 
 of the speech — that is to say, the appeal to 
 the emotions by illustration, etc., and the rousing 
 to action by impassioned appeal — much might 
 be said. But these things can only be learned 
 properly by practice, and each individual must 
 work out his or her salvation in this respect. 
 And, indeed, it is only by feehng one's subject 
 that effective use of these two elements of speech 
 can be really made. 
 
212 VOICE: ITS NATURAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 We might, in conclusion, say a few words re- 
 garding the preparation of speeches. The intro- 
 ductory thoughts or ideas should be classified 
 carefully under various headings, and those 
 headings at least should be committed to memory. 
 Many speakers, we know, find it a great assistance 
 to them to memorise the first few sentences of 
 the speech. Every one who is a speaker reahses 
 the importance of a good start and a good finish ; 
 more particularly perhaps a good start. The 
 body of the speech should also be carefully 
 classified, and the heads here might well be 
 memorised by all save those who are entire 
 masters of their subjects. 
 
 To preserve the exact order of all principal 
 points and paragraphs of a speech is undoubtedly 
 important, and therefore in the preparation 
 of a speech this rule should be rigidly adhered 
 to. The peroration or fihish of the speech 
 should undoubtedly, except in the case of the 
 most brilliant and original speakers, be memorised. 
 Illustrations should be carefully noted in sufficient 
 detail to return like a flash to the mind when 
 these heads are glanced at. Many an illustra- 
 tion has been absolutely spoiled and rendered 
 futile, and sometimes even puerile, by the 
 inability of the speaker to remember the exact 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING 213 
 
 phraseology of the narrative or illustration he 
 wishes to use. 
 
 The qualities of a good speaker, of course, 
 vary. But all really good speakers possess at 
 least these qualities : distinct and pleasing 
 articulation ; a good grasp of emphasis ; the 
 ability to take pauses at suitable points ; a 
 voice capable of modulation and varying tone ; 
 a graceful, or at least not ungraceful, mode of 
 standing ; a certain amount of natural and free 
 action; a "good" eye — that is to say, an eye 
 which impresses upon the mind of the audience 
 the fact that it is seeing them ; and more or 
 less control of facial expression. 
 
 The possession of all these things, of course, 
 cannot make a great or even an effective speaker. 
 But it may be equally well said that the lack of 
 most of them would be sufficient to ruin the 
 most painstaking and even good natural speaker. 
 
 Humour is so rare a gift that we have scarcely 
 ventured to put it down in the list of the qualities 
 which go to make a good speaker. But the 
 possession of it is, indeed, of almost inestimable 
 value when wedded to clear thinking and a 
 sympathetic manner. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abdominal breathing, 9, 25, 
 26 
 
 — exercises, 38 
 
 — muscles, 23, 25, 28, 31, 
 33, 35, 38, 40, 42 
 
 — viscera, 25 
 
 Accent, 3, 128, 137, 149, 154, 
 
 156 
 Actor, 3, 165, 167, 170, 175 
 Acute, 128, 137 
 Adipose tissue, 25 
 Adults, 34 
 Aesthetic, 136, 151 
 Air chest, 42, 47, 50, 69, 85 
 
 — compressed, 44, 46 
 Amateur, 178, 205 
 Anatomists, 20 
 Argument, 209, 210, 2U 
 Aristotle, 98, 104 
 
 Art, 137, 142, 191 
 Articulation, 2, 4, 67, 70, 78, 
 
 82, 107, 108, 110, 111,178, 
 
 184 
 Athletics, 24 
 Attitude, 21, 22, 35 
 Audience, 166, 168, 183, 199, 
 
 206, 208, 209, 213 
 
 Baritone, 11, 101 
 Barrister, 96 
 
 Basses, 12, 99, 101 
 Beauty, 163, 180 
 
 — of tone, 26, 199 
 Bernhardt, Sarah, 26 
 Body, poise of, 13, 18, 19, 20, 
 
 38, 39, 133, 173, 174 
 Breath control, 7, 40, 44, 46, 
 
 61, 63, 78, 109, 184 
 Breathing, 24, 25, 26, 28, 41, 
 
 47, 48, 69, 75, 198 
 
 — exercises, 7, 48, 49, 51, 54 
 Breathlessness, 196 
 Bright, John, 159 
 Brougham, Lord, 191, 202 
 Burke, 199 
 
 Cadence, 3, 41, 61, 149, 151, 
 
 191 
 Chest development, 7, 8, 23, 
 
 24, 26, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 
 
 43, 46, 49 
 Children, 6, 34, 66, 109 
 Chords, vocal, 46, 77 
 
 false, 46 
 
 Chorus, 11 
 
 Chromatics, 63 
 
 Cicero, 108, 134, 164, 165, 
 
 180, 199, 201 
 Circumflex, 137, 140 
 City man, 95 
 
 215 
 
216 
 
 INDEX 
 
 •Clergyman, 96 
 Clodd, 77, 175 
 Colour, 135, 142, 154 
 Compass, vocal, 7, 96, 98 
 Condition, physical, 22 
 Consonants, 81, 111, 114 
 Construction of speeches, 206 
 Consumption, 11 
 Contralto, 99, 101 
 Control of breath, 7, 40, 43, 
 46, 61, 63, 109 
 
 voice, 14, 134 
 
 Corsets, 27 
 Countryman, 95 
 Crying, 66 
 Culture, physical, 29 
 Curvature of spine, 22, 62 
 
 Dancing, 133, 149, 150, 175 
 
 Deaf, tone, 61 
 
 Defects, vocal, 7, 10, 67, 96, 
 
 110, 111, 127 
 Delivery, vocal, 135 
 Demosthenes, 108, 134, 165, 
 
 180, 199 
 Deportment, 163 
 Development, _ vocal, 5, 18, 
 
 33, 66 
 Diatonic, 63 
 Dickens, 103, 145, 146 
 Diction, 4, 98, 163, 166 
 Diet, 66 
 Dominant, 98 
 Dryden, 133 
 
 Ear, 62, 63, 87, 181 
 Economy, 43 
 Education, 128, 191 
 
 — physical, 9, 20, 28 
 
 — vocal, 2, 109 
 
 Egyptian, 33 
 
 Elocution, 3, 4, 5, 178 
 
 Eloquence, 135, 199, 209 
 
 Emotion, 159 
 
 Emphasis, 89, 136, 149, 151, 
 
 154, 156, 157, 159, 160, 
 
 194, 195, 209, 213 
 Emphysema, 28 
 Endurance, 42 
 Energy, 164 
 English tongue, 2 
 Enunciation, 4 
 Erskine, 199, 202 
 Exercises, breathing, 7, 48, 
 
 49, 51, 54 
 — physical, 37, 38 
 Expression, facial, 134, 136, 
 
 165, 166, 167, 168, 170,213 
 Eye, 166, 168, 170, 173, 178, 
 
 213 
 
 Facial expression, 134, 136, 
 165, 166, 167, 168, 170,213 
 Fatigue, 9, 49 
 Feature, mobility, 172 
 Fencing, 169 
 Food, 66 
 Force, 43, 164 
 Foreigners, 3, 117 
 Form, symmetry of, 37 
 
 Gesture, 3, 108, 157, 163, 166, 
 167, 172, 173, 174, 175, 
 177 
 
 Girls, 22, 97 
 
 Gladstone, W. E., 180, 184 
 
 Grattan, 140 
 
 Grave, 137 
 
 Gravitation, 35, 37 
 
 Greeks, 17, 109, 134, 149 
 
INDEX 
 
 217 
 
 Grief, 170 
 Gums, 66, 118 
 Gymnastics, 8, 24, 29, 31 
 
 Habits, bad, 10, 20, 96 
 Hamlet, 157 
 Hands, 175, 178 
 Harmony, 135, 149, 163 
 Health reform, 9, 96 
 Heels, 22 
 Hiawatha, 93 
 Hum, 43, 79 
 Humour, 197, 213 
 Huskiness, 9, 11 
 Hyoid bone, 67 
 
 — muscles, 68, 85 
 
 Iambic, 151 
 Imitation, 205, 206 
 Infant, 22, 66, 95, 136 
 Inflexion, 95, 133, 136, 137, 
 
 138, 154, 183 
 Inhalation, 47, 48, 49, 54, 69, 
 
 123, 195 
 Intercostals, 42 
 
 Johnson, Dr., 61 
 Julius Caesar, 166, 175 
 
 Key, 78, 92, 95, 99, 102, 103 
 Kinesiology, 173 
 
 "La bella voce," 4 
 Language, 77, 107, 109, 128, 
 175, 191, 194, 199,202,206 
 
 — English, 3, 127 
 Laryngitis, 11 
 
 Larynx, 42, 62, 64, 65, 67, 79, 
 
 82, 83 
 Laughing, 66 
 
 Leisure, 17 
 
 Lingual muscles, 67 
 
 Lips, 63, 79, HI 
 
 Literature, 107 
 
 Liver, sluggish, 33 
 
 Locke, 107 
 
 Loudness of voice, 42, 43 
 
 Lung power, 8 
 
 Lungs, 28, 44, 46, 49, 53 
 
 Macaulay, 182 
 Maestro, 5, 97 
 Malformation of vowels, 81 
 Manner, 135, 164, 166, 213 
 Matter, 135 
 Metre, 149, 151 
 Mezzo-soprano, 11, 99 
 Milton, 140, 202 
 Mind, 77, 149 
 
 — concentration, 14 
 Monotony, 135 
 Motion, 149 
 
 Mouth, 41, 64, 68, 69, 74, 79,. 
 80, 82, 85 
 
 — exercises, 73, 74, 75 
 Muscle, 22, 28, 29, 31, 39, 78 
 
 — abdominal, 23, 25, 28, 33, 
 38, 42, 49 
 
 — builders, 27 
 
 — exercise, 37, 51 
 
 — lingual, 67, 68 
 
 — strength of, 18 
 
 — vocal, 97 
 
 Music, 42, 63, 142, 149, 150, 
 191 
 
 Nature, 8, 27, 31, 72, 137, 
 
 149 
 Neck, 23, 31, 38, 39 
 Newspaper, 107 
 
•218 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Nostrils, 41, 47, 48, 53, 54, 
 
 69, 75, 79, 123 
 Nostrums, 10 
 
 ■Oratory, 18, 107, 13b, 135, 
 153, 165, 166, 167, 168, 
 
 172, 182, 191, 198, 200, 204 
 'Organ, church, 44, 77 
 
 Painting, 154, 164, 192 
 
 — word, 203, 204, 207 
 Palate, 64, 72, 114, 122 
 " Paradise Lost," 141 
 Pause, 157, 158 
 Pharynx, 42, 48, 63, 64, 65, 
 
 66, 68, 73, 80, 82 
 Phonation, 77, 78, 80, 81, 85, 
 
 111, 122 
 Phonograph, 12 
 Thysioal condition, 14, 22 
 
 — exercises, 37, 38 
 
 — laws, 26 
 
 — training, 7 
 Piano, 150 
 
 Pitch, vocal, 4, 45, 63, 77, 
 79, 95, 96, 97, 98, 101, 103, 
 135, 183, 208 
 
 Pitt, William, 182 
 
 Plasticity, 51 
 
 Poetry, 150, 191 
 
 Poise, 13, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 
 35, 36, 37, 38, 49, 110, 133, 
 
 173, 181 
 Political, 207 
 Portamento, 102 
 Posture, 134 
 Power, lung, 8 
 
 — vocal, 42, 88 
 Pronunciation, 6, 127, 128 
 Prosody, 151 
 
 Public speaking, 134, 168, 
 172, 196, 200 
 
 Quintillian, 108, 134, 164, 
 175 
 
 Reform, health, 9 
 Registers, 79, 91, 93, 97, 101, 
 
 136, 137, 138 
 Resonating chambers, 42, 47, 
 
 65 
 Respiration, 24, 25, 26, 28, 
 
 41, 47, 48, 49, 75, 198 
 Rhetoric, 135, 157, 158, 159, 
 
 174, 183 
 Rhythm, 135, 149, 150, 151, 
 
 152, 154, 155 
 Ribs, 27, 28, 30 
 Romans, 134 
 Ruskin, 41 
 
 Satyrus, 165 
 
 Scapula, 34, 38 
 
 Sculptors, 19, 198 
 
 Senses, 149 
 
 Shakespeare, 61, 93, 95, 138, 
 
 143, 149, 153, 157, 163, 
 
 166, 202 
 Shoulders, 34, 38 
 Shouting, 66, 102 
 Singers, 29, 180 
 Singing voice, 101 
 Slang, 127 
 Sleep, 48 
 Slouch, 29, 32, 33 
 Social, 207 
 Socrates, 7 
 Sonant, 110 
 Sophists, 165 
 Soprano, 99, 101 
 
INDEX 
 
 219 
 
 Sound, 62, 64 
 
 Speakers, 108, 137, 194, 202 
 Speaking, public, 134, 168, 
 172, 196, 200, 
 
 — voice, 7, 41, 6], 62, 101, 
 180 
 
 Speech, 4, 10, 61, 62, 110, 
 127, 128, 149, 151, 165, 
 174, 175, 177, 179, 184, 
 191, 205, 206, 207, 209, 212 
 
 Speneer, Herbert, 3 50 
 
 Spine, 22, 33, 40, 62 
 
 Stage, 3 
 
 — opera, 4 
 Stitch, 51 
 Strain, 38, 54, 150 
 Stretch, 73 
 
 Style, 180, 198, 199, 200, 
 
 202, 205 
 Surd, 111, 114 
 Surgical treatment, 11, 66 
 Symbols, 128 
 Symmetry, 20, 22, 34, 37 
 Systems, 2, 62 
 
 Tautology, 192 
 
 Teachers, 5, 82, 97, 181, 205 
 
 — incompetent, 5, 6, 10, 28, 
 29 
 
 Teeth, 79, 81, 82, 83, 84 
 Temperament, 136, 137 
 Tempo, 152, 160 
 Tenor, 99, 101 
 
 Throat, 43, 67, 73, 77, 79, 88, 
 123, 143 
 
 — complaints, 9, 10, 11, 12, 
 48, 183 
 
 — exercises, 73 
 
 Timbre, 4, 41, 42, 66, 80, 95, 
 96, 98 
 
 Tone, 5, 26, 42, 61, 62, 77, 79, 
 
 82, 85, 88, 89, 134, 136, 
 
 209, 213 
 Tongue, 64, 66, 68, 69, 73, 
 
 79, 84, 109, 114, 118, 212, 
 
 213 
 
 — exercises, 68, 72, 117, 
 122 
 
 Tonic, 88, 97, 100, 102, 159 
 
 Tonsils, 65 
 
 Training, physical, 7, 18, 28 
 
 — vocal, 4, 5, 7, 18, 33 
 Treatment, surgical, 11 
 
 Uvula, 64, 74 
 
 Ventricles of larynx, 65 
 Venus of Milo, 26 
 Vibrations, 79 
 Violinist, 98 
 Viscera, abdominal, 25 
 Vocal chart, 100 
 
 — chords, 48, 77 
 
 — compass, 99 
 
 — development, 5, 18, 33, 
 62, 66, 109, 184 
 
 — exercises, 92 
 
 — inflexion, 133 
 
 — muscles, 97 
 
 — power, 42, 145 
 
 — quality, 63, 87, 99 
 Voice, aphonic, 143 
 
 — control, 14 
 
 — popular systems of pro- 
 duction, 1, 4, 5, 6, 10, 25, 
 43, 183 
 
 — singing, 29, 101 
 
 — speaking, 43, 62, 101, 134, 
 143, 144, 163 
 
220 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Volume, 145, 146 
 Vowel, formation of, 3, 64, 
 80,81,82, 85,92, 111, 122 
 — malformation of, 81 
 
 Waist, 24 
 Walking, 149 
 Waltz time, 152 
 War, 160 
 Whisper, 114, 142 
 
 Will, 14, 209 
 " Winter's Tale," 139 
 Wireless telegraphy, 12 
 Wit, 134, 164 
 Women, 11, 36, 37, 195 
 Word painting, 203, 204, 207 
 Words mispronounced, 128 
 Writers, 195, 205 
 
 Yawn, 68, 73 
 
 Printed by Hcuell, Watson tt Vinet/, I.d., London and Aylesbury.