330 THE VOICE 



ventriloquist not only seems to "throw his voice," as it is said, 

 or simulates the sound as it usually appears at a distance with 

 but little motion of the lips and face, but he imitates the voices 

 of an infant and of a feeble old man, of a drunken man dis- 

 puting with an exasperated wife, the broken language of a 

 foreigner, the cry of an animal in distress, demonstrating that 

 the performer must be proficient in the art of mimicry. Ven- 

 triloquism was known to the ancient Romans and Greeks ; and 

 it is thought that the mysterious responses that were said to 

 issue from the sacred trees and shrines of the '.oracles at 

 Dodona and Delphi were really uttered by priests who had 

 the power of producing this form of speech. (Read Notes 4 and 5.) 



4. Improvement of Conversation by Vocal Training. "For years 

 I had fallen into a low, drawling, lazy tone of voice in my ordinary con- 

 versation ; my utterance came forth in a cloud, and had its dwelling there. 

 From divers experiments and observations I had long ago assured myself 

 that this was a capital defect ; but this assurance had brought with it no 

 reform. Now, at last, I attempted it in good earnest. I studied to bring 

 myself out of my listlessness, to acquire a rapid, distinct, and articulate 

 enunciation. No man can miss this acquisition unless from some organic 

 infirmity, provided only that he pursue it steadily and earnestly. I em- 

 ployed a variety of exercises for the voice, as recitation, the frequent 

 repetition of the same passage, slowly at first, and then more quickly, up 

 to my highest pitch of rapidity, the pronunciation of foreign languages, 

 Greek for the sake of fullness, and French for distinctness and despatch. 

 As a result, I became comparatively a clear and satisfactory speaker ; and 

 as my talk was more distinct my thoughts were all the more pointed and 

 precise. I acquired an evenness of tone, a confidence, a complacency ; 

 my conversation, as the French say of their language, went of itself ; I 

 had leisure to look chiefly to my direction, to march on to my object." 

 Self- Formation, by Capel Lofft. 



5. Ventriloquism and Sound-Painting. "Ventriloquism bears the 

 same relation to other phenomena of sound that perspective does to 

 optical phenomena. The art of perspective consists in portraying upon a 

 flat surface the appearance of objects at a distance from it, so that the 

 same effect shall be produced upon the eye by the picture as would be 

 produced by the objects themselves. In order to do this, the form, tints, 

 and shades are reproduced, not as they really are, but as they are modified 

 by position and distance. Or it may be said to consist in making and 

 arranging a group of objects so that when viewed at a given distance they 

 shall produce the same optical effect produced by another set of objects 

 arranged in different positions and at different distances. 



" Ventriloquism consists in making and arranging sounds so that when 

 heard at a given distance they shall produce the same effect upon the ear 



