There is nothing more enervating than the bearing of a gigantean cognomen. His gondola glides o'er the legendary waters of the Lethean stream, carrying him further from his coadjutors and his allies, toward a combative country of aristocratic proclivities, where he may indulge his epicurean appetite in an indefatigable way; where his vagaries will no longer prove revolting, and where his peremptory authority will take precedence in a manner wholly inexplicable. It is sacrilegious to exhaust one's self in making an example, in no way obligatory, of a friend, who will surely become an irrevocable enemy, and who will vehemently pronounce an irreparable anathema on his complaisant traducer, simultaneously making demonstrable the fact that, though he is crippled, he is not vanquished. 'T were better his friend had dealt in homœopathic doses, or waited a decade of years, than to have made himself amenable to his neighbor's anger in allopathic degree, for his opponent will not be slow to test the acoustics of the

slanderer's head, in the most vehement manner, though an exemplary Christian. Upon his assailant he will heap contumely and much scathing raillery, showing himself no amateur with his splenetic tongue, but, on the contrary, a man conversant with his recitative.

CHAPTER V.

VOCAL CULTURE.

I. Give the vowels in a pure, conversational tone. Do this until there is left no jot of hardness or harshness in the tone.

II. Taking the vowels in order, one by one, at a medium pitch, prolong the tones to the utmost. This is to teach economy of voice, management of voice, control of breath, and reposeful attitude. Be sure, in the prolonged tone exercises, that your voice maintains the same volume throughout; that the vibratory movements of the voice are equal in length, and that no impurity shall at any moment creep into the voice. Again insist on the conversion of all the breath into tone. In preparing for this exercise, take a quick, deep inspiration. See that the shoulders are not lifted much in this action.

Do not allow a sudden collapse of the lungs at the first stroke of the voice as you begin to exhale. This sudden escape of breath at the very beginning is the chief cause of the beginner's inability to prolong tones. With ten minutes, practice daily the student can, in three months' time, carry a single tone a minute.

III. Give the vowels with full volume. Gather your force from the abdominal muscles. Jostle the shoulder but little in the giving of the sounds. Keep the chest almost passive.

IV. In the same exercise try, with a bit of tissue paper immediately in front of lips, to give the tones

with fullest force, without causing the paper to stir. If you succeed, you have the breath under good control, and can husband your strength by speaking with ease.

V. Take the vowels, step by step, from your conversational key to the highest you can command, preserving the smoothness and purity of tones throughout. At no time tax or congest the throat. Let it rest. Make the body work. Send the tones out through the mouth, not through the nose.

VI. Carry the vowels from your conversational key to the lowest you can reach, insisting on the same conditions as before.

VII. Prolong the tones to the utmost in the conversational key; in your highest, and in your lowest. The rapidity with which voices, by nature harsh and discordant, grow smooth and pure under this simple drill, is amazing. No less surprising is the conversion of weak or piping voices, into voices of wondrous volume and roundness of tones.

VIII. Strike the vowel with full volume and force, gradually allowing it to die away.

In this exercise, take care not to contract or stiffen the throat, otherwise the soundest would quickly become irritated. Such congestion is perhaps the most prolific cause of chronic sore throat, and in many cases leads to troubles of the lungs.

IX. With full force and volume strike the vowels suddenly and as suddenly cut off the voice. Again I warn the student against congestion of the throat. With a throat at repose and a body at work, this voice drill becomes at once a promoter of health and strength.

X. With voice at slightest audible tone, gradually enlarge it to your fullest volume.

Aim to have the lungs exhausted at the moment of reaching your fullest volume. Do not continue the tone when it ceases to increase in volume. Do not alter the pitch during this effort.

Few persons, on their first attempt, can attain much volume; fewer can maintain the oneness of pitch, and not more than one in a thousand can exhaust his breath and reach the fullest volume simultaneously.

Ordinarily, the beginner finds his voice failing him within twenty seconds. A few weeks systematic practice will enable the same pupil to attain a half minute. XI. Opening on the vowel with full volume and force, without altering the key, carry the vowel to the slightest audible tone. Do not allow the voice to descend by jerks, nor to diminish very suddenly at first. XII. Combine tenth and eleventh exercises.

To be able to reach one-third of a minute at the first attempt will be the lot of very few.

XIII. Trill the vowels until breath is exhausted, preserving one pitch, one volume, and equal length of vibrations. Near to the lips, without jostling the paper, give the vowels as above. When you succeed in this, if you are a minister, you will not suffer from Monday prostrations; and if a teacher, your day's work will not close, finding you in husky voice. One who can do this, and will persist daily in practice, will soon find himself the possessor of sound throat and lungs.

VOCAL DRILL.

1. Give the vowels as in common conversation.

2. Pure, and prolonged to utmost.

3. With full force and volume.

4. Prolong No. 3 to the utmost.

5. From conversational to highest key.

6. From conversational to lowest key.

7. Prolong 5 and 6 to the utmost.

8. Full force and volume with vanish.

9. Prolong the vanish.

CRESCENDO.

10. With voice at slightest audible tone, begin each vowel, gradually enlarging it to its fullest volume.

DIMINUENDO.

11. Striking each vowel with the fullest volume, gradually let it die away to the slightest audible tone.

12. Combine 10 and 11; thus, swell .

13. Trill the vowels, prolonging them to the utmost.

PURE VOICE-CONVERSATIONAL STYLE.

Exercises.

1. There's a Magical Isle up the river Time,
Where the softest airs are playing.
There's a cloudless sky and a tropical clime,
And a song as sweet as a vesper chime,

And the Junes with the roses are straying.
-B. F. Taylor.

2. "Well, well, let him think so, the dear little elf,
'Twould be cruel to tell him I did it myself."

-Mrs. Snow.

3. But while she was still very young-O, very, very young-the sister drooped, and came to be so weak that she could no longer stand in the window at night; and then the child looked sadly out by himself, and when he saw the star, turned round and said to the patient, pale face on the bed: "I see the star." And then a smile would come upon the face, and a little weak voice used to say: "God bless my brother and the star!"-Dickens.

4. Suit the action to the word; the word to the action; with this special observance-that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing; which end, both at the first and now, was, and is, to hold, as 't were, the mirror up to nature: to show virtue her own feature; scorn her own image; and the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure.—Shakspere.

5. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

6. The moon above the eastern wood

Shone at its full; the hill-range stood
Transfigured in the silver flood,

Its blown snows flashing cold and keen,
Dead white, save where some sharp ravine

-Bible.