io6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



are intended to support is self-evident. I lay stress on them, how- 

 ever, because I am convinced that the necessity of training the 

 speaking voice is very imperfectly appreciated by most people. 



It is not within my province to discuss the technical details of 

 voice-training. I will only say that every system of vocal in- 

 struction should aim at strengthening the power of the voice, 

 increasing its compass, and purifying its tone, and, above all, at 

 giving the speaker perfect control over it, even in the very whirl- 

 wind of oratorical passion. It would be well if every school in 

 the land had a master of elocution attached to it, and if the art of 

 delivery were taught to every boy as part of the regular course of 

 education. In the excellent system of education which Rabelais 

 sketched out, the development of the voice is expressly mentioned 

 as part of Gargantua's athletic training. In the middle of a de- 

 tailed description of his swimming and climbing exercises and 

 practice in the use of weapons of all kinds, we are told that " pour 

 s'exercer le thorax et poulmons crioit comme tous les diables. Je 

 l'ouy une fois appellant Eudemon depuis la porte Sainct Victor 

 jusques a Montmartre. Stentor n'eut onques telle voix a la bataille 

 de Troye." * There is a hint for schoolmasters of the present day. 

 The " young barbarians " under their charge might by degrees be 

 made to look on strength and beauty of voice, and skill in using 

 it, as an athletic distinction; this would at once ennoble the sub- 

 ject in their eyes, and make elocution a matter of keen competition. 



As part of the general vocal training which I think desirable, 

 I should be disposed to urge that all children and young people 

 should learn to sing as far as their natural capacity will allow. 

 Even those with little or no musical endowment will thus learn 

 to use their voices better in speaking. I may say here, though it 

 is rather anticipating, that, if I think it desirable for speakers to 

 learn to sing, I think it still more necessary that singers should 

 learn to speak. Too many of those who soar aloft on the wings of 

 song despise the musa pedestris of speech, and take no trouble to 

 acquire what they look upon as an inferior and possibly super- 

 fluous accomplishment with what result is known to cultivated 

 listeners whose ears have been tortured by the uncouth distortions 

 and mutilations to which singers often subject the words they 

 have to utter. 



Of the management of the voice I can not say much here. 

 The chief thing is that the speaker should make himself dis- 

 tinctly heard by the whole of the audience, and to this end art 

 serves better than loudness. A weak voice, properly managed, 

 will carry farther than 9 powerful organ worked by sheer brute 



* For exercise, his throat and lungs cried out like all the devils. I once heard him 

 calling Eudemon from the Porte Saint Victor to Montmartre. Stentor in the Trojan War 

 had no such voice. 



