104 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that slipshod kind which is mostly used in ordinary conversation, 

 is an art, and as such has to be learned, often with much labor. 

 The complicated muscular actions, the nice nervous adjustments, 

 the combination of these into one harmonious effort directed to a 

 particular end, and, finally, the mastery of all these movements 

 till they can be produced automatically without a direct and con- 

 tinuous exercise of will-power, form a complex process which 

 takes years to learn, and which by many is even then very imper- 

 fectly acquired. Good speaking is a higher development of the 

 art, which bears the same relation to speech as ordinarily heard 

 that the horsemanship of an Archer or a Cannon bears to the per- 

 formance of a costermonger's boy on the paternal donkey. 



A man who speaks well not only makes himself intelligible to 

 his hearers without difficulty to them, but with a minimum of 

 effort on his own part. If the voice is properly used, the throat 

 hardly ever suffers, but wrong production is a fertile source of 

 discomfort and even disease in that region. It should be clearly 

 understood that public speaking, in addition to its intellectual 

 aspects, is a physical performance which requires " wind " and 

 " muscle " and the perfect management of one's bodily resources, 

 like any other athletic feat. To attempt to speak in public with- 

 out previous training is like trying to climb the Matterhorn 

 without preparation, and is just as certain to end in failure if not 

 disaster. 



It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the training of the 

 voice should begin almost in the cradle. I do not, of course, mean 

 that a baby should be taught to squall according to rule, or that 

 the prattle of children should be made a laborious task. But I 

 wish to insist on the importance of surrounding the child, as soon 

 as it begins to lisp, with persons who speak well. "All lan- 

 guages," as old Roger Ascham says, " both learned and mother 

 tongues, are begotten and gotten solely by imitation. For as ye 

 use to hear so ye learn to speak ; if you hear no other ye speak 

 not yourself ; and whom ye only hear of them ye only learn." 

 Quintilian says : " Before all . . . let the nurses speak properly. 

 The boy will hear them first, and will try to shape his words by 

 imitating them." This applies chiefly to pronunciation and the 

 correct use of words ; but much might also be done for the right 

 management of the voice if every child could grow up among 

 people who speak well. I should be disposed to make it an essen- 

 tial point in the selection of a nurse or governess that she should 

 have a good voice as well as a refined accent. 



In antiquity the training of an orator was almost as elaborate 

 an affair as the training of a race-horse is with us. Not only the 

 voice, but the whole man, physical, intellectual, and moral, was 

 carefully prepared, with conscientious minuteness of detail, for 



