natural that the countryman who visited the theater, for the first time, and saw him in Hamlet, said, "if that little man is not frightened, I never saw a man frightened in my life; why, he acts just as I would if I were down there with a ghost."

Booth, in Richelieu, does not seem to be acting the character. The bowed figure, the wrinkles and the voice of age are there, and you can scarcely believe he is not the Cardinal.

And more wonderful still, Ristori, by the magic power of voice, her expressive face and her natural gesture, moves an audience to laughter or to tears at will, and all this, when speaking in an unknown tongue.

The reader must be sympathetic, entering into the joy or grief of others as if it were his own.

Mrs. Siddons once had a pupil who was practicing for the stage. The lesson was upon the "part" of a young girl whose lover had deserted her. The rendering did not please that Queen of Tragedy, and she said, "Think how you would feel under the circumstances. What would you do if your lover were to run off and leave you?" "I would look out for another one," said that philosophic young lady, and Mrs. Siddons with a gesture of intense disgust cried out, "Leave me!" and would never give her another lesson.

There must be a lively imagination combined with artistic skill. The picture must not only be clear and distinct in the mind of the reader, but he must be able to hold it up before his audience as if it were on canvass. He must make the principal parts stand out in high relief; then he must with skillful fingers touch up the picture, showing a vivid light here and a shadow there, until the chiaro-oscuro is perfect.

Such actors as Booth and Ristori, such readers as Fanny Kemble and Murdoch, and such singers as Jenny Lind and Parepa are really Raphaels and Michael Angelos. Their picture cannot be purchased by connoisseurs and hung in stately

nalls, but in the heart of every listener the gems of art are hung, and memory forever after is enraptured as she gazes.

The judgment must be sound, else bombast may be mis taken for eloquence, and rant for the true expression of feeling. And finally, in reading, as in everything else, common sense is a valuable acquisition, and he who has it not, though his voice may be, at his will, as strong as that of a lion or as gentle as that of a dove, will never please.

In brief, the chief requisites of the reader are voice, imitation, feeling, artistic skill and above all common sense.

I. ORTHOEPY.

Orthoepy is the correct pronunciation of words.

In order to fix habits of correct pronunciation and distinct enunciation, it is well to drill the voice upon the elementary sounds of the language.

A Tonic is an unobstructed vocal tone, which is capable of indefinite prolongation.

A Subtonic has vocality, but is interrupted in its passage and is not capable of prolongation.

An Atonic is literally a sound without tone, an expulsion

of whispered breath.

There are also a few "occasional" sounds, and also many combinations, which it is not thought necessary to give in the preceding tables. Let the pupil pronounce the elements with every variety of force, pitch, stress and time; and to this add phonic spelling. These exercises will not only give correct pronunciation, but will give also flexibility to the organs of speech.

II. QUALITY OF VOICE.

Quality is the kind or tone of voice used in expressing sentiment. Nature has so wisely formed the human voice and the human soul, that certain tones are associated with certain emotions. We readily recognize the cry of pain or fright, the language of joy or sorrow, command or entreaty, though the words spoken are in an unknown tongue. Intelligent animals and children obey tones rather than words; and, as quality of voice is nature's own mode of giving us the key to her mind, particular and early attention should be given to this part of vocal culture.

Rubens could, by one stroke of his brush, convert a laughing into a weeping child; and we can color emotion with qualities of voice so that the metamorphosis is not less sudden or more complete.

1. Pure Quality is that used in common conversation, simple narrative or description.

If the voice is not really and technically pure, exercise in vocal culture may make it so. Children's voices seem to be naturally pure. It is the utterance of evil passion, with bad reading and reciting in the schools, that makes the voice