and allowing the air to beat against them. The effect upon the ear is that dull and close sound.

Practice. Prolong "m" (as before given); m + ā, glide from m to ā, then to a; m + ä, gliding from the first sound to the second. Open the mouth wide, and "think" the tone front.

Without vocal effort, practise letting the jaw fall freely, opening the mouth wide; and with vocal effort, practise “fan, lah, etc.," uttering rapidly and letting the jaw fall easily and generously. In separating the jaws, be careful to avoid thrusting the lower jaw (chin) forward. A straight edge placed against the chin, lips, and beneath the nose will guide; in opening, the chin should fall away from the straight edge.

Practise reading, exaggerating the opening of the mouth. This fault of keeping the teeth closed is very common, and should be constantly guarded against. Frequently it arises from a lazy way of articulating; but more frequently it is the force of habit, that vigor alone fails to relieve. In the pronunciation of "e," the closest vowel, the teeth should show opening.

(2.) Nasality results from allowing the veil of the palate to hang down, closing the mouth aperture and permitting the air to strike against the veil or find its way into the nasal cavities. This fault is too common. Mr. Spurgeon, in addressing a class of young ministers, censured this vicious habit, telling them that physiologists were agreed that the nose was not an organ of speech, but that it was made to smell with. Only “m” and “n” naturally pass through the nose.

Practice."All call Paul." Read any selection while affecting a gape; hold the nose with finger and thumb; make a strong effort to get the tone to pass through the open mouth aperture. Cultivate consciousness in the soft palate, and feel when it is up and when down. Listen for the dull thud in the voice, and prevent it, as directed above.

(3.) Guttural results from lifting the back of the tongue

against the walls of the pharynx, or of contracting the phar ynx and bringing the pillars of the fauces too near together. Practice. Be quiet, composed, easy in vocal effort; relax the "squeezing" effort of the throat, and grasp by use of the abdominal muscles.

(4.) Thickness or mouthful quality results from lifting the dorsum of the tongue too high. It is sometimes called "sucking the tongue."

Practise the proper use of the tongue as taught in articulation.

(5.) Huskiness results from (a) diseases, as cold or chronic disorder of the parts; (b) failure to approximate or make tense the vocal cords.

Practice. Of course get rid of the disease under some skilled advice.

throat.

Beware of the many nostrums to clear the

Practise the exercises found under "attack."

The clear, penetrating, yet sweet quality of tone, which we call pure tone, is seldom found to perfection; but of the poorest voices, ordinary perseverance will make good ones in this respect.

Practise reading in clear, pure tone :

"Ye bells in the steeple, ring, ring out your changes,

How many soever they be,

And let the brown meadow lark's note as he ranges,
Come over, come over to me."

Pitch.

By pitch we mean the place in the musical scale. 'The faults to be guarded against are as follows :

(1.) Stilting the voice to the higher range of tones; intense mentality leads to this fault, as does also the effort to made one's self heard by a large audience. In other cases it is a

chronic fault.

(2.) Another fault is the opposite one of keeping the voice on a low pitch, ventriloquizing in dull morotony. This

fault frequently arises from intense subjectiveness; again it is a habit.

Practice. Mind and body should be in a free attitude, the middle pitch of voice should be found and used as the common point about which the voice is allowed to play. If the speaker uses the lower half of the vocal range, positive, long downward slides will be impossible; on the other hand, if the upper half is used, the command of long upward slides is impossible.

By using the middle pitch, we have a range above and below that may be utilized. The whole range of voice is necessary to the production of vocal climax, to variety and character of expression, now calling for the thunder of the lower range, anon for the lightning of the upper. All thunder and no lightning is very monotonous; all lightning is a terrible strain upon both speaker and audience.

Flexibility of voice is the ability to move from one pitch to another either concretely or discretely with ease and promptness.

Variety in pitch and in slide is indispensably necessary to effective expression. This depends (a) upon a clear appreciation of the thought behind the language, distinctly and consecutively appreciated; (b) then upon a skilful use of the vocal apparatus, the proper adjustment of vocal cords, posi tion of the larynx, and form of the pharyngeal and mouth cavities.

Practice. Sing the scale promptly; make the third, fifth, and eighth intervals, sung and spoken, slide up and down in speech on the musical intervals over one step, two steps, etc.; then swing the voice over the same intervals, beginning on a low pitch and swing over the higher, returning to the lower; beginning on a higher and singing to a lower.

Pronounce the same word on a different pitch; take several words, pronounce each on a different pitch.

Pronounce Kook-koo, repeat rapidly with prompt attack ("stroke of the glottis "). The finger placed on the larynx outside will reveal the alternate elevation and depression of

this organ.

Grace. By this we mean that smooth and gliding property noticeable in pleasant voices, which is the effect of vowel quantity. Some sounds that appear simple are really compounds. Take, for instance, the vowel "i." Uttered in the simple way we find these characteristics: it opens with some degree of abruptness, and gradually diminishes on the obscure sound of ē, ending in a delicate, vanishing point.

Dr. Rush was the first to note this quality. He gives the name of radical to the first part of the element, and vanishing movement to the second, and calls the whole movement a radical and vanishing tone. This property of voice shows its superiority over all other instruments.

Dr. Barber says, "The full manifestation of the radical and vanishing in the management of the slides of long quantity, or in other words, the utterance of long syllables in reading and speaking, is in the highest degree captivating to the ear, and is what gives smoothness and delicacy to the tones of the voice." The voice, destitute of this vanishing property, sounds coarse, harsh, and heavy.

This perfection of syllabic quantity with vanishing movement is really a perfection of pronunciation. But as it so manifestly affects the quality of the voice, we have discussed it under this head. It is also intimately connected with inflection.

This property is noticeable on short syllables, though not so obvious. The necessity of mastering this property of voice is plain.

Practise the following elements: a (as in fall), ä (fär), ā (ale), i (isle), ō (pole), oo (pool), ē (eel), and the diphthongs ou (our) and oy (boy). The sudden opening of these vowels and their gradual vanishing is very noticeable if uttered deliberately.

Dr. Rush gives the subjoined diagram to furnish a more obvious view of the process.

A. The opening fulness; B. The quantity with diminishing volume; C. The vanishing point.

Practise also with the long quantity: orb, aid, all, save, old, home, praise, hail, the, isles, how, owls, go.

Unusual imperfections of voice resulting from congenital conformation, such as cleft palate, etc., hardly find appropriate place in this connection.

Additional practice: Be careful to observe the faults and excellences enumerated, and practise with attentive ear: — "There's a good time coming, boys,

Practise the following, giving especial attention to long quantity; utter smoothly on long monotone:

- but

not a sound- -was heard

of a dog - crunching - beneath the stall

the dull echo- from the pavement rung

changed his weary feet."

Chant the same.

-a refuse bone- or as the faint captive

Practise on any selection, regarding all the properties

above.