it going on as long as you can sustain it. In this style of respiration the breath merely effuses itself into the surrounding air.

4. Exercise in "Expulsive" or Forcible Breathing.

Draw in a very full breath, as before, and emit it, with a lively expulsive force, in the sound of h, but little prolonged, in the style of a moderate whispered cough. The breath in this style of expiration is projected into the air. Repeat this exercise, as directed in the statement preceding.

5. Exercise in " Explosive" or Abrupt Breathing. Draw in the breath, as already directed, and emit it with a sudden and violent explosion, in a very brief sound of the letter h, in the style of an abrupt and forcible, but whispered cough. The breath is, in this mode of expiration, thrown out with abrupt violence. Repeat this exercise as

before directed.

The above exercises are sufficient for ordinary use, but the following are also of service in expanding and strengthening the lungs. Caution should be observed in these, and indeed all forms of vocal training, that no discomfort be created by the exertion. Practice will soon render even the most difficult drill agreeable. But if forced beyond the natural power of endurance, the breathing exercises will injure rather than develop the voice.

ADDITIONAL BREATHING EXERCISES.

Sighing.

Sighing, as a natural effort, designed to relieve the lungs and accelerate the circulation, when depressing emotions or organic impediments cause a feeling as if the breath were pent up, consists in a sudden and large inspiration and a full, strong, effusive expiration. In vocal training it becomes a most efficacious means of free, unembarrassed res

piration, and consequently of organic energy and of full voice. It should be repeated as the other exercises, and practiced through both the nostrils and the mouth; the former being its gentler, the latter its more forcible form. It should be produced also in the tremulous style of inspiration, in which the sigh resembles a series of prolonged and subdued sobs.

Sobbing.

Sobbing, as an instinctive act, consists in a slightly convulsive, subdued, and whispering gasp, by which an instantaneous supply of breath is obtained, when the stricture caused by the suffocating effect of grief would otherwise obstruct or suspend too long the function of inspiration. The practice of the sob facilitates the habit of easy and rapid inspiration, and the expression of pathetic emotion.

Gasping.

Gasping is an organic act corresponding somewhat to sobbing, but much more violent, as belonging to the expression of fierce emotions. Its effects as an exercise, in disciplining the organs, are very powerful, and its use in vehement expression in dramatic passages highly effective, and, indeed, indispensable to natural effect.

Panting.

Panting, as a natural act, in a highly excited state of circulation, whether caused by extreme muscular exertion or by intense emotion, consists in sudden and violent inspiration and expiration, the latter process predominating in force and sound. It is the only form of respiration practicable in high organic excitement. The practice of panting as an exercise imparts energy to the function of respiration, and vigor to the organs. Its effect is inseparable from the ex pression of ardor and intense earnestness in emotion.

CHAPTER II.

ORTHOËPY.

THE term orthoëpy (correct speech) comprehends all that part of elocution which pertains to the organic functions of articulation, and its audible result, which we term enunciation. It will be a matter of convenience, at the same time, to take into view the subject of pronunciation, or, in other words, enunciation as modified by the rules of sound and accent which are drawn from the usage of a particular language. To pronounce a word properly, implies that we enunciate correctly all its syllables, articulate distinctly the sounds of its letters, and accent properly according to prevailing cultivated usage.

We commence with the study of articulation, as a function of the smaller organs of voice, including the larynx and the circumjacent parts, the mouth and its various portions and appurtenances. Our preceding observations applied to the use of the larger organs, the cavity and muscles of the chest, etc., and referred to the act of respiration, preparatory to the production of vocal sound, whether in speech or in music. We are now occupied with the functions of speech.

Propriety of pronunciation is justly regarded as an inseparable result of cultivation and taste. We recognize an educated person by his mode of pronouncing words; and we detect slovenliness in mental habit, or the absence of culture, with no less certainty, in the same way. Whatever thus holds true of pronunciation a thing subject to the law of prevailing good custom merely, and liable, therefore, to various interpretations in detail is still more emphatically applicable to distinct enunciation, the unfailing characteristic of correct intellectual habits, and the only means of exact and intelligible communication by speech.

But a distinct enunciation is wholly dependent on the action of the organs, on their positions and their movements, on the force and precision of their execution. The breath having been converted into sound by the use of the component portions of the larynx, passes on to be modified or articulated into definite forms by the various parts of the mouth, and by the action of the tongue.

The functions of the organs in articulation must obviously be determined by the character of the sound which in any case is to be executed. We shall find advantage, therefore, in first considering the character of the component elementary sounds of our language, as a guide to the mode of exerting the organs in producing them.

Dr. Rush, in his "Philosophy of the Voice," has adopted an arrangement of the elementary sounds of our language which differs from that of grammarians, and is founded on a more strict regard to the vocal properties of each element, a classification which is more convenient for the purposes of elocution, as well as more exact in relation to the facts of speech. Dr. Rush's arrangement we shall follow in this branch of our subject, as it is best adapted to the purposes of instruction.

On a very few points of detail, however, we shall take the liberty to vary from Dr. Rush's system, where precision and accuracy of instruction seem to require such variation.

Dr. Rush's mode of classifying the elementary sounds of our language presents, first, those which he has denominated "Tonic" elements, as possessing the largest capacity for prolongation of sound, and other modifications of tone. The following are the

The following elements of the same class

are omitted by Dr. Rush. But they seem to be indispensable in teaching, which requires exact and close discriminations in order to obtain accuracy in practice.

17. Oi, as in Oi-l.

18. U, as in U-se, sounding long in the verb, short in the noun.

(The student's attention should be directed to the following observations, previous to practising the preceding sounds.)

The a in such words as ale, Dr. Rush has very justly represented as consisting of two elements: 1st. The "radical," or initial sound, with which the name of the letter a commences; and 2d. The delicate "vanish," or final sound, with which, in full pronunciation, and in singing, it closes, -bordering on e as in eve, but barely perceptible to the ear. This element obviously differs, in this respect, from the acute é of the French language, which begins and ends with precisely the same form of sound and positions of the organs of speech; while the English a, as in ale, requires a slight upward movement of the tongue, to close it with propriety; and hence its "vanish" approaches to the sound of e.

1 A shorter quantity, but the same in quality, with oo in ooze.