Our nation.

Its destiny.

We pay great deference to the man who affects and moves us by the expression of his opinions. We are therefore, like the Greeks, as a people, liable to be deceived by him who has a false heart and a persuasive tongue. In many respects the prospects before our nation are flattering. It occupies the fairest portion of this western continent. It is situated in the most beautiful and productive region of the whole earth. It has ample territory, and boundless resources. For beauty and grandeur of scenery, salubrity of air, and serenity of sky, it is not surpassed. Its people are of that stock who are ever restless and unsatisfied. The arts eminently flourish. Intellectual culture is duly appreciated and patronized. But, alas for its fate if wicked men are suffered to control its destiny! Heaven grant that wisdom may direct, that virtue may prevail!

6

LECTURE IV.

A

VOCAL CULTURE.

CORRECT and ready elocution can not be overvalued in a system of education. Speech is that one of our faculties which is in almost constant use. From the artless prattle of infancy to the last trembling accents of age, the voice rarely remains long unused. If it be employed for the purpose of public speaking, there is special need of a happy and effective utterance. But even in ordinary conversation it is pleasant to hear a musical voice equally removed from ignorant vulgarity and studied affectation. It is exhilarating to feel in the tone, the sentiments that glow in the mind of him who addresses us. An easy elocution is among the first of accomplishments, because it is one which constantly shows. They who labor so assiduously to maintain a claim to aristocracy in manners and dress should not neglect this.

When we speak, it is our object to convey to the minds of others the thoughts which we have in our own minds. We may fail to effect this purpose,

Tone repulsive.

True idea of reading.

either wholly or in part, from a defective or careless habit of utterance. We receive and retain the thoughts of some persons, because of the pleasant and striking style in which they are spoken, and we forget what another has said before he has done speaking, because his style of address is so repulsive and bungling. If we gain the attention of the one we address and his mind is in a receptive state, still we may fail to make him feel the force of a thought as we do, because we have not the faculty of throwing it fully into the words we speak. We have all observed that there is music, a magic in some voices that is charming and attractive, while others are capable of blunting our perceptions and forcing us to close our ears.

If we read aloud what another has written, the task becomes more difficult; for in addition to what has been named above, we have to learn and appreciate what was the idea of the author. Reading consists in conveying to the minds of those who listen, the thought as it originally existed in the mind of him who wrote it. If we fail to understand and fully appreciate the meaning of the piece as we proceed, then we do not read, but simply call words like the parrot. If we have a correct understanding of it, but still fail to communicate it by the words we use, then we do not read in the proper accep◄

Imitation.

False habits.

tation of that term. The requisites for reading are an appreciation of the thought of the author, and a correct and effective elocution which enables us to convey that thought to the hearer.

The first knowledge of the use of the voice we acquire by imitation. The child, before it is old enough to talk, will express its ideas by a correct modulation. In youthful play and sport we rarely hear an incorrect inflection, and if the example has been good scarcely a principle of elocution will be violated. But when the child learns its letters, and then to combine those letters into words, it usually fails to understand and appreciate the thought, and consequently fails to communicate it. Reading, according to the conception of the child, is a process of calling words more or less rapidily, and stopping to spell out only the more difficult ones. The habit is formed of reading and speaking in a set, measured tone, without any reference to the sense, and observing none of the principles of inflection and intonation which were in infancy correctly learned. As the boy grows up he often indulges in animated and impassioned conversation, and by using language rapidly and without care, the very bad practice is indulged of omitting many sounds, and of obscuring others, and the habit is soon formed of incorrect and imperfect articulation.

Object of elocution.

Enunciation.

The object of vocal culture or elocution is to break up false habits and to establish those which are correct, and to arouse the emotional nature of the reader to a just conception of the thought to be communicated. It is not the province of this science to create an emotional nature, but simply to awaken and direct that which already exists. It can not bestow on the voice any new elements of power; but it may give to those which we have a new vital force by unburdening them of many false habits and imparting skill in correct ones.

In a systematic course of vocal culture, it is necessary to give attention, in the first place, to enunciation and pronunciation. It would be time lost to attempt to cultivate expression before the elements of expression have been corrected. A class in almost any academy or college, will illustrate the variety of habits to which they have been accustomed. A sentence of ten words may not be properly read by any one of them, and yet no two may have made the same mistake. It requires on the part of the teacher a quick and nice sense in detecting errors, and the power of imitating them, that the force of the criticism may be appreciated. It is only by a thorough drill that errors of long standing can be broken up, and that correct habits can be firmly fixed. The omitting or obscuring the consonant R,