180 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



tube say of rubber, and its unattached end into the nozzle of a 

 bellows which may be worked by hand or foot. Put the mouth-piece 

 to your lips and ply the bellows gently. You will get a clear vowel 

 sound when you place your mouth in a true vowel position. Those 

 who cannot avail themselves of any of these methods may tind it 

 advantageous to practice on the short vowels of English words, as 

 set out in table III., lengthening and modulating them as may be 

 required. 



In producing vowels, primary, intermediate, or con>pound, there 

 should be no breathiness or wind-rush. An approved plan is to hold 

 a lighted candle close to the mouth and shout. Sound vibrations are 

 not likely to extingush the flame nor to throw it outwards. Breath- 

 iness is a blemish in all speech ; in vowels, it is a measure of bad 

 production : it should not be used publicly except where blemish and 

 bad production are required, for instance, in representation of 

 disease. 



Modulation. — We say thou is a personal pi'onoun, if a conjunction, 

 and up a j)reposition. But in, " if thou thou'st him some thrice, it 

 shall not be aniLss ; " " if me no ifs, I know not if; " he up with his 

 staff" and smote ; " what parts of speech are they ? I have no quarrel 

 with our grammarians, but admire the ease with which in former days 

 they swept obstructions from their i)atli. Slang and license remain 

 potent terms, and are explanatory in die manner of the scholastic 

 dictum, natui'e abhors a vacuum. If she does, what then ? Within 

 certain bounds and these very wide, any word in EnglLsh may Vje any 

 part of speech, not by reason of its position, but of its employment. 

 So a word or phi'ase in our language may take or require any modu- 

 lation or any coupling of them. How many standard interpretations 

 of Hamlet have we 1 One for each great actor who has studied and 

 acted the part. Their different renderings consist not in textual vari- 

 ations, but almost wholly in different modulations. For this reason 

 it has often seemed to me misleading to set down for practice in 

 modulation phrases which are marked for one fonn only. The 

 extracts wi-ested from their .setting, bear very little meaning, and the 

 pupil does not perceive why this and not that modulation is given. 

 A better plan would be to carry one or a few phrases through all 

 modulating forms, that the purpose or effect of the vocal change 

 might appear. I would myself like to see a .set of Shakespeare's 



