proportion is scarcely greater. But a better day for this long neglected art seems at hand. There is now a growing popular interest in the subject, probably stronger than ever it was before; and professional men seem awaking to the importance of the study, which Demosthenes declared to be the essential branch of Oratory. In short, it is now beginning to be practically recognised, that however richly endowed the mind may be, it can only make known its ideas truly by means of a highly trained voice.

The voice is the servant of the thought, and the main purpose of all exercises in Elocution is to make it a willing and faithful servant. Many artificial methods have been tried to effect this, from simple " imitation up to that of a logical and grammatical analysis of every word uttered; and yet, after a vast expense of labour, the pupil is too often found to have acquired only an increased dexterity in the use of the vocal organs, and to have obtained little power in making the word reflect the thought. All methods which call attention to sound first, sense afterwards, proceed against the principles of Nature, and must fail in their object.

The principles of Elocution, upon which innumerable rules for inflection and emphasis have been built, are few and simple, and may be easily understood by the youngest pupil. To render them concise and memorable, it may be well to express some of the leading principles in the form of precepts :

First Principle.

ATTEND TO SENSE-NOT SOUND.

Let it be insisted on, as the first great principle of

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Elocution, that the pupil is to give no attention whatever to the sound of his voice, but to give all his attention to the thought he is expressing. When he reads The thunder rolled across the sky," his memory and imagination must call up the terrific crash, the jagged lightning, the pause, and the rush of rain torrents; and he must utterly forget or disregard his voice, his pro ́nunciation, and his gesture. The words themselves merely declare a fact, but what an interpreter and commentary is the tone in which the words are uttered. And according to the wealth of the speaker's thoughts and feelings should be the tones with which he declares them. Were it not so common, it would strike us as lamentably ludicrous to hear words of burning elo-' quence, or tenderest pathos, delivered in a voice totally unfitted for any intelligent vocal purpose. How is it that a man of the rarest intellectual endowments can so sever his thought from its natural expression, and cloud and disguise it with unnatural voice? By habit. He has never broken from the habit of voice induced by the mechanical process of learning to read. Just at the age when the voice is most plastic and flexible, when the slightest change of idea is reflected in a change of tone, the mind was directed not to an idea, not to the sound or word which expresses that idea, but to its written or printed symbol. The immense difficulty which the child has to face in learning that m, o, t, h, e, r is "mother," has proved too great for him. He never before uttered that word in the way he now reads it. Thus he acquires a mode of saying words without thinking of the ideas of which they are symbols, and a wide distinction is made between his speak

ing and his reading. Indeed, so pernicious is his new habit that it often affects even his speaking, and destroys its natural mode of expression.

The first step then towards Elocution must be to regain a natural mode of speaking. The judicious parent or teacher will easily show the youngest pupil how to take it. He will see that the child reads exactly in the way he speaks, on the one hand without sing-song, drawling, or monotonous whine; on the other, without high-flown, inappropriate inflexions. True, the child's speaking may not be a perfect way of expressing his thought-sometimes far from it; yet, as regards Elocution, it will be in advance of his reading, because his voice, in speaking, declares his thoughts more accurately. It is, however, worthy of note that the most perfect models of Elocution are to be found among young children who have not yet learned to read. The truth, accuracy, and earnestness with which they express thought and feeling may be reached in after life, but never surpassed. The teacher who is aware of this, strives to counteract those influences which destroy the beautiful elocution of childhood-such as the necessarily mechanical art of reading and the imitation of the unnatural inflexions of schoolfellows. No doubt there are children who talk in a whining and monotonous manner, but those are exceptional cases; and as childhood is proverbially imitative, they soon adopt any prevailing habit of correct reading and speaking.

The Nursery and the Infant School are the proper fields for implanting the principles of Elocution; and were it the rule rather than the exception for parents

and teachers to insist, not upon "fine reading,” but upon hearing from the earliest stage those expressive tones which characterise speaking, a total revolution in the present style of reading would be wrought. The additional time and labour expended is amply repaid in the increased celerity with which the child. learns, because his interest is thus roused, and his intellect exercised. Perhaps no class of public servants are at present making more earnest endeavours than teachers to fulfil high and responsible duties, and most respectfully it is here urged upon them that by putting down all unnatural modes of reading, and by fostering expressiye utterance, they will confer a precious boon on this and future generations. Parents or teachers need be in no doubt as to whether the children under their care are following the true path for Elocution. Let a simple descriptive or conversational passage be read by the pupil, and if he has evidently not the power to "talk" it, or read it as if he were speaking, he has not yet taken the first step towards true reading. The lamentable school-boy whine, or mincing spouting, are sure evidences of bad or insufficient training.

It is a great mistake to delay the study of Elocution, until the child's intellect is supposed to be sufficiently matured to understand and apply the principles of the art. Instruction in Elocution must begin with the alphabet or primer class, for if left without direction, the young pupil, as was shown, invariably contracts unnatural tones which can be corrected only with great difficulty. When a child falls into a monotonous voice in learning to read, it is an infallible symptom that his interest and sympathy have not been engaged.

With older pupils the following method will be found effective in producing expressive utterance. From a passage of poetry-the more striking and vivid in its language the better-a few of the most emphatic and picturesque words may be selected :

"On Linden, when the sun was low,

All bloodless lay the untrodden snow;
And dark as winter was the flow
Of Iser, rolling rapidly."

Here the words "bloodless," "untrodden snow," "dark," “winter,” “ rolling rapidly," ought to be repeated separately, till the pupil finds he can call up the ideas they express and suggest at the moment of utterance.

The habit of simultaneous thought and expression is one of the secrets of elocutionary power. The exercise now proposed re-establishes the proper connection between the mind and the vocal organs, or at least, it tends to disturb the automatic action which habit has induced.

It may happen that when the passage is read after such an exercise, undue stress will be given to those emphatic words, but a few exercises in the Second Principle will remove this tendency.

Another valuable exercise for enabling the pupil to concentrate his thought upon the words he utters, consists in reading aloud lists of contrasted ideas, adopting that tone which he thinks the best interpreter of each thought :- as