Again, it is not merely a study of conscious and voluntary actions, but is dependent upon the unity of conscious and unconscious, voluntary and spontaneous impulses. Every power of the mind, as well as every part of the body, plays a role more or less distinct; but at the same time, the simplest act of expression calls for a natural, even unconscious unity of all the powers of the mind and agents of the body. To develop expression, therefore, the subtlest intellectual, emotional, and physical actions and conditions must be stimulated and trained.

Beside all this, the problem is different in many respects for every personality. No two men are alike; and the distinct peculiarities of every character modify expression. If in developing delivery all men are made alike, expression will not be improved, but will be made artificial and conventional.

Again the work is difficult on account of the universal misconceptions regarding it. Students begin their work with the expectation that some secret will be conveyed which will give the mastery of the whole problem. So many think that it is merely physical, that they are prejudiced against any reference to mental action. So many regard it as a mere matter of manner, that it is difficult to awaken any attention to causes. So many regard it as merely the exhibition of external feats, that it is not easy to get them to observe the unconscious and spontaneous actions of their nature or to stimulate and direct them. So many regard it as superficial and mechanical that it is hard to get them to study the action of the whole man.

The problem of delivery is so important and yet so often misconceived that the student should weigh well each of the following propositions, which could be easily expanded into a volume. They aim to show the nature of delivery and the possibility of developing its elements and power.

1. Delivery is adequate in proportion as it tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, by every agent or modulation of the body.

2. All delivery aims to make men hear, understand, think, and feel.

3. Speech interests and moves us in proportion as it reveals adequately the emotion, relations, or attitude of the speaker toward his thought, and also in proportion to the weight of his character or personality.

4. To improve expression, stimulate a more harmonious action of the mind, a more natural and responsive use of voice and body, and secure more thorough knowledge of strong modes of execution, and develop greater skill and mastery in their use.

5. To improve expression develop the three elemental languages of man,-not only his verbal expression, but the two natural languages of tone and action, and bring them into harmony.

6. Develop harmoniously the elemental faculties and powers of man and bring them into greater unity and harmony with each other, and also into more intimate relationship with the languages whose natural function is to reveal their actions.

7. Develop all the languages of man to act in accordance with their own nature: not only those which act through representation, but also those that act by manifestation; not only those which are voluntary, but those which are involuntary.

8. Delivery is composed not only of conscious and voluntary actions, but of involuntary and unconscious elements, which can never be made directly voluntary without developing artificiality and unnaturalness; hence, true training for delivery must develop all elements harmoniously, each according to its own nature.

9. Secure insight into fundamentals as distinguished from the accidents of delivery, and practise such exercises as will develop the elementals and bring them into unity and harmony.

10. Develop vigor in the fundamental cause of all expression, — the process of thinking, secure power to concentrate the mind, and to hold it upon idea after idea till it becomes so vivid as to quicken the impulse and dominate all the agents of expression.

11. Study not only the act of thinking in reproducing the thought and words of another, but speak in your own words the results of your own observation and thought.

12. Study the best literature, and become conscious of true simplicity, repose and other qualities of the noblest art, and embody these elements in the rendering of selected passages.

13. Stimulate and train the imaginative and creative faculties of the man by the study of great art of all kinds, so as to awaken right artistic feeling and develop taste.

14. Develop the normal and the elemental actions of every agent of voice and body concerned in expression, and bring them into unity and harmony.

15. Relate and unite all technical action to the actions of the mind of which they are the expression. Study the natural expression of the noblest people whose expression is most pleasing, and contrast their modes of execution with that which is weak, so as to be able to appreciate right modes of execution, and distinguish them from that which is perverted.

TO TEACHERS AND STUDENTS.

THE best exercises may be perverted by misuse. The study or diagnosis of delivery is one of the most difficult problems of teaching. The teacher, to develop it, must compare an infinite number of actions, and penetrate to that which is fundamental. It requires thorough knowledge of the actions of the mind and of the structure of the body; it requires knowledge of human nature and of the principles of art; it requires the most immediate application of the most advanced methods in education.

The lessons of this book are so arranged that the student is brought at once into contact with extracts from good literature. These are so arranged that illustrations can be found before the discussion, and others in different parts of the work can be selected, or it may accompany the Classics for Vocal Expression.

All theory must be made secondary to practice. The student must be set to reading, reciting, or speaking at once in order to make him conscious of his needs, and the necessity for training. The text-book is only a means of assistance, not an end in itself. The discussions have grown up in teaching, and are fragmentary, and are only meant to be read over by the student after performance or effort to express, to furnish additional light to what he finds from a study of himself.

Occasionally it is necessary to give a student a clear idea of some specific problem or exercise before he begins to read or practise, but it must be understood to be only a preliminary

hypothesis, to be proved or disproved by his own experiments in practice. The true scientific method is to have a preliminary hypothesis, and then experiment or observe for its establishment or disproval. The same principle is applicable to training.

One of the first difficulties to be met is to get a student to recognize the spontaneous activity of his own nature, and that this must directly cause all expression. The processes of his own thinking must furnish the basis, rather than any external rule.

All art consists primarily in doing, in execution; we cannot learn to swim without going into the water. The teacher must give his explanation in the very midst of practice. A student must be awakened to think. He must be given such problems as will reveal to him his own mistakes and imperfections, or make him conscious of attainment. The explanations are to be given to students to be read out of class. A part of the selections should be practised first with a few suggestions from the teacher, and others should be assigned for definite and special study, as laid down in the "Lessons." The teacher will be able soon to judge, by the way a student reads, whether he has observed the directions in his study or not.

At times, of course, the discussion of many points will be necessary, but too much theorizing and discussion will be injurious. A student must be kept in an attitude of execution. His understanding of the principles must be shown by his artistic rendering. Understanding is only a preliminary step. A student must first know, then do; and doing, he can become.

All the steps should be illustrated by reading, speaking, and by recitation. In the selections for recitation the student should always be brought into direct contact with literature. He should make his abridgments himself, and should in no case take a recitation from books of " Choice Selections." The student must be led to know and feel a whole poem before he attempts to recite a part of it, a whole play before he gives a scene, a whole oration before he give a paragraph, a whole novel before he can

give an abridgment. He must be taught how to read silently. This text-book can be used in many ways.

1. Cause the student to observe himself, to become conscious of his possibilities, of his ideal as well as of his actual, and to compare the one with the other.

2. Students must be led to observe and inspired to think at all hazards. 3. The suudent must receive before he can give; and the way truth is taken must determine the way it is given. Reception and manifestation, impression and expression, must be regarded as essential to each other.

4. Never give rules; awaken a conception of nature's processes and methods, and test expression by truthfulness to what is natural.

5. Give a few clear ideas, and hold students to the definite practice of an exercise which embodies these ideas. Remember, true practice is a struggle to realize an idea.

6. Study each student's peculiar power as well as needs. Remember that even the greatest critics have continually taken qualities for faults.

7. Interest and inspire students. Often change subject and form of literature, and correct any monotonous or mechanical relation to a subject.

8. Do not go too fast. Steps and lessons are divided in this book according to subjects, and not according to time to be taken: most students will require many hours of study and practice to master each step.

9. Have positive convictions and present the truth faithfully; but be sympathetic and receptive in regard to differences in modes of execution.

10. Remember that rarely do two people see anything from the same point of view. It is only the most exalted art that can reveal and determine a definite point of view.

11. Give students definite problems, and explanations of them, and prescribe long-continued practice.

12. State in a few words the results which have been found after each lesson, and indicate the point of advance in passing from step to step. 13. Allow students often to select what they best like in literature, and encourage them to express this in their own way.

14. Give great poems and literary masterpieces to be studied.

15. Never say that a certain piece must be given with a certain "tone." Thought and passion are greater than any tone. The poem is greater than its body. No two poems in the world can have exactly the same expression, nor any two men express the same poem in precisely the same way.

NOTE.-Poetry in this book is often printed as prose, to aid, not to hinder, the study of metre and rhythm and their expression through the voice.