SPEAKING 
 
SPEAKING 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM MAIE, M.A., D.D. 
 
 FORMERLY MINISTER OF THE PARISH OF EARLSTON ; 
 
 MODERATOR OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1897; 
 AUTHOR OF 'DIGEST OF LAWS AND DECISIONS RELATING TO THE 
 
 CHURCH OF SCOTLAND,' ETC. 
 
 FOURTH EDITION 
 (SIXTH THOUSAND) 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 
 1908 
 
 All Rights reserved 
 
Y, 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 ONCE again I send out this little book. The motive is 
 as fresh as ever, and the desire greater to be of use 
 to such as wish to speak well. Confidence in its fit- 
 ness also has been confirmed by still more testimonies 
 to the service it has rendered. One thing, however, of 
 an opposite sort has grown upon me the wonder and 
 unhappiness of seeing with what indifference many 
 who look forward to public speaking seem to regard 
 the need of preparation, and how unaware they are 
 of the detail, the thoroughness, and persistency re- 
 quired in it. The first difficulty apparently is to 
 convince a man that there is anything faulty in his 
 speech, and the next to induce him to begin at the 
 beginning with determination to master everything. 
 At first sight it seems incredible and might be 
 thought offensive when plainly written down, but it 
 is literally true that even the work of the infant 
 school has frequently to be done for themselves by 
 men who have already donned the robe of the public 
 orator. 
 
 It may be useful if I tell something of myself. I 
 had graduated, and with honours, when within a 
 month a friend worth listening to told me that some 
 of my English vowels were not good. It was a sur- 
 
 206733 
 
VI PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 prise, for they were just like those around me. None 
 the less I there and then set to work, tooth and nail, 
 thankfully making the most of such means as were 
 then at command, and with no teacher in the body, 
 mastering one by one every vowel, every consonant, 
 every movement of the organs, words, phrases, sen- 
 tences, and all. Everything which this book now 
 advises to others I myself have done and done thor- 
 oughly, whether it seemed to be required in my own 
 case or not. Everything was of advantage. I was 
 severely careful to guard on the one hand against 
 half measures, compromises, and on the other against 
 substituting a new error for the old. Where such a 
 spirit is we may be certain difficulties cannot stand 
 their ground, and in no long time a firm sound foot- 
 ing is secured from which indefinite improvement will 
 proceed. 
 
 There is one hindrance to changing anything in the 
 speech which is of such influence and such interest 
 as to deserve special mention. Whatever the vowel, 
 consonant, modulation, or ought else that requires 
 amending, it has been the speaker's medium of 
 expressing his thought and feeling, and has thus be- 
 come bound up with his state of mind. He feels, 
 therefore, as if an amended medium were misrepresent- 
 ing him. It seems to him not exactly to fit and 
 convey his thought and feeling. The hearer may be 
 of the contrary opinion, but not he. He feels as if 
 it did not sound so natural, so impressive, so friendly, 
 so kindly, and what not. That may be true while he 
 has only half learned his lesson and speaks stiffly, 
 stiltedly, self-consciously, but no longer. This close 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. vii 
 
 association of mind with its medium of communication 
 is a very real barrier in the way of amendment. Not 
 only has a habit of the organs to be overcome, but 
 a more tenacious habit of the mind. The difficulty is 
 psychological as well as mechanical. And so it is 
 that one will speak a single word or syllable by itself 
 in the amended form with ease and satisfaction, be- 
 cause this is only mechanical, but the moment he has 
 got something to say he fails, because now the mind 
 dislikes the new form. 
 
 I should think it unkind not to call the attention 
 of young men to an obtrusive mispronunciation which 
 seems to be setting in among them in the unaccented 
 terminal syllable en, though I have already treated 
 of it on page 81. The authorities are unanimous 
 against them. The error is un-English, un-euphonious, 
 uncultured. Comparatively, it is not important, but 
 it is an example of the need of attention where none 
 is supposed to be necessary ; and, if it arises from an 
 effort at distinctness, it gives occasion to point out 
 that distinctness does not consist in always uttering 
 the, sound of every vowel and consonant. This would 
 require the sounding of I in psalm and of g in gnash. 
 The proper sound of every word and syllable has 
 first to be ascertained, and then given distinctly, as 
 is pointed out on page 80, foot. 
 
 To one who has the interest of any learner at heart, 
 and knows what is necessary, it must always be painful 
 to hear him say, as if it was enough, that he has read 
 through this book. The purpose of the book cannot 
 possibly be served by reading it through. This can 
 scarcely do more than waken interest in the number- 
 
Vlll PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 less things that require attention. I can only repeat 
 the earnest counsel of last Preface to every youth to 
 work through the book, sentence by sentence, practising 
 as it directs on every point, and insisting on bringing 
 himself up to the mark wherever he comes short of it. 
 How hard the actor practises that he may have perfect 
 command of his voice ! It never was more a duty 
 than in these days of much public speaking to acquire 
 the art of speaking well. And those in the noblest of 
 professions should feel themselves constrained to aim 
 at excelling all. 
 
 Persons interested in their own speaking might 
 learn something by getting it " recorded " and repro- 
 duced by the phonograph. It does not reproduce the 
 quality, tone, timbre (p. 15) of the voice, but other- 
 wise it does exactly reproduce the spealdng, and doubt- 
 less would surprise as well as greatly help. Indeed, 
 I know it does. I believe most musicsellers can give 
 the opportunity, and at a trifling cost. 
 
 It has come the time when I shall most likely be 
 writing no more Prefaces, and I end this one as I 
 began the first. I there stated the motive which alone 
 could have led me to undertake the work. From the 
 same motive no pains have been spared on it. I hoped 
 that like-minded men would bestow like pains in the 
 use of it, and I shall not let go the hope. For 
 teacher and pupil together must acknowledge the obli- 
 gation, and should know the desire, to put their best 
 into the service of the Master in their use of His 
 great gift of speech. 
 
 W. M. 
 
 EDINBURGH, July 1908. 
 
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 THE reception given to this work has been so cordial, 
 and so many have expressed their indebtedness to it, 
 that in the present edition I could not but strive to 
 make it more useful still. In this I have had the ad- 
 vantage of the fuller knowledge which it has brought 
 me in regard to difficulties that are felt, as well as of 
 the continued and quickened attention to which the 
 subject has lured me. Some of the results are such as, 
 it seems to me, will be most profitably noticed at the 
 outset, and may fittingly find a place in this prefatory 
 note. 
 
 The first place is due to an acknowledgment of the 
 pleasure derived from the success of those who have 
 made resolute, well-directed efforts to improve their 
 speech. Then we have this charming hint for the 
 student who wishes honest criticism : ' My friend af- 
 fected ignorance of any defect in my articulation, but 
 since he saw I was in earnest he has been quite candid/ 
 Some curious problems have been forced on the atten- 
 tion, as, why so many people like to read about faults 
 of speech without any serious purpose to correct their 
 own; why so many are content with a voice which, 
 compared with what it might be, is but a poor toy- 
 voice ; and why full-fledged philosophers from the uni- 
 versity should believe that a fault of years can be got 
 
X PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 rid of as one would flick a speck of dust from his sleeve 
 on a Sunday morning. A young preacher so far missed 
 the mark in aiming to produce a certain vocal tone that 
 many friends had told him of it. At last he under- 
 stood the cause of the error, and the special practice 
 required to overcome it. Some months later, being 
 asked about his practising, he said he went over on 
 Saturday what he was to say on Sunday ridiculous 
 remedy for an inveterate habit. Another who said 
 'psawlrn' and 'keeng' gladly picked up the right 
 sounds, but a year later was surprised to be shown 
 that he had the old way as strong as ever. In spite 
 of advice, he imagined that, knowing the error, he 
 had only to give ' conscious attention ' (which should 
 be occupied with something higher) when the word 
 occurred. 
 
 Again, one is more and more impressed with the 
 exceeding great and widespread forbearance of men 
 toward their own faults of speech, and more and more 
 amazed at the complacency with which they palm off 
 on hundreds of hearers such carelessly executed work 
 as they themselves would not tolerate from their 
 clothier or their cabinetmaker. And this is the more 
 remarkable since those hundreds are far from being 
 ignorant of the treatment they receive. They know 
 very well the difference between good, bad, and indif- 
 ferent speaking, and they believe and feel that they 
 have reason to be dissatisfied because so many of those 
 who have obtained the right of addressing them should 
 have taken so little trouble to qualify themselves. Com- 
 plaints rarely reach the defaulter, but they float about, 
 and so also do regrettable sobriquets, as when one no 
 
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. xi 
 
 worse than others is with ingenious fitness called the 
 schoolboy, and another is known as the corncrake. 
 
 1 Beginners,' writes one whose face I have never seen, 
 who is still educating himself ' beginners think they 
 are already doing all you recommend, and do not see 
 the necessity of taking trouble. Your book is of in- 
 estimable value to me. Every line of it is replefee with 
 meaning/ I wish beginners only knew with what 
 sympathy for them I have written, and with what 
 knowledge of their needs, taught by my own beginning 
 and that of many besides. Such a book as this would 
 have been an immense boon to me. And let me add, 
 the earlier they begin the better, and the less they 
 think they know and can do the better. My earnest 
 counsel to every youth is to work through this book, 
 sentence by sentence, testing himself on every point, 
 and insisting on bringing himself up to the mark wher- 
 ever he comes short of it. 
 
 That beginners should, if unwarned, make the mis- 
 take my correspondent attributes to them is hardly to 
 be wondered at in the light of such a case as I found 
 on my last holiday. An intelligent middle-aged min- 
 ister, speaking of the acoustics of a certain church, 
 described very correctly the manner in which one 
 ought to speak everywhere, saying it was his own 
 way. It chanced that very soon afterwards I sat 
 where he officiated. At the close of the service one 
 of the elders said to me, ' What a pity he cannot be 
 heard!' His utterance had not a single one of the 
 good qualities he had all his days fondly imagined it 
 to possess. He evidently had never known how to 
 drill himself, or been properly drilled by another. 
 
xii I'KKKACK TO T1IIO TIUKI) KD1T10N. 
 
 Such cases l)( i .a.r witness on every hand that the risk 
 of self-deception is very great, and equally great the 
 importance of criticism by a capable and honest friend. 
 Not less instructive is this : ' Our friend/ said one with 
 pity and regret, ' has an unfortunate voice ' ; ' Nay/ 
 said the other truly, 'but he has an unfortunate and 
 blarneable way of speaking, and till some months ago 
 was actually proud of it.' Such is the ignorance on 
 this subject, and such the proneness to blame nature, 
 ili at, in a meeting of professionally educated men dis- 
 cussing the merits of a candidate for office, one said he 
 evidently had cleft palate, when in fact he had only 
 the fault of mispronouncing r and s. 
 
 In the preface to the first edition I referred to the mis- 
 conception expressed in the phrase, ' a carrying voice/ 
 My attention was recently recalled to this by one tell- 
 ing me that a certain person (a public speaker) had said 
 to him of me, ' He has a wonderful carrying voice/ I 
 could only reply, ' It no more carries than a rifle-bullet 
 does : it is driven.' I might have added, * and the 
 bullet has to be well formed, and the muzzle open.' 
 
 I have just returned from an important meeting of 
 some twelve hundred people, where I listened to six 
 able speakers. Three of them seemed to be heard 
 throughout by all, though with some difficulty by the 
 most distant ; the other three in different degrees, from 
 various faults of public speaking, were not completely 
 heard, and this often when both speaker and hearer 
 would most regret it. Yet these three had the best 
 vocal powers by nature and, except when thus imper- 
 fectly heard, were the most effective speakers. 
 
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. xiii 
 
 In the searching revisal which the work has under- 
 gone for this edition, I have had the valuable assistance 
 (especially in Part II.) of a friend of my youth, the 
 Kev. George M' Arthur, M.A., who amid much import- 
 ant work has had the rare experience of having been 
 critical revising editor of the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica ' 
 and the ' Century Dictionary.' 
 
 W. M. 
 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 THIS book is due to the persuasion of young men pre- 
 paring for the ministry, impressed with the importance 
 of good speaking, and unable to find such guidance 
 as they require. Their claim on me could not be 
 denied, after they had heard me say in addressing the 
 General Assembly that the preacher who is loyal will 
 spare no labour that will help to speed home the 
 message of his Master. ' He will even, if necessary, 
 undertake, at the feet of his Lord, the most puerile 
 drudgery to educate himself to speak every word and 
 sentence as it ought to be spoken true to the ear, 
 the intellect, the heart/ No other motive could have 
 led me to undertake this work. 
 
 It will be found, however, that such instruction as 
 the book aims at imparting is applicable to all speech 
 private as well as public. It covers the whole 
 ground from voice formation to platform and pulpit 
 speaking, and keeps constantly in view all that is 
 necessary for the student who may desire to educate 
 himself. The book takes its form in the prospect of 
 finding a place in the student's pocket. 
 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XV 
 
 The art of speaking can hardly be overestimated. 
 With the single exception of the power of thinking 
 itself which could scarcely be exercised without 
 language the human voice and the faculty of using 
 it in speech are the peculiar distinction and the highest 
 endowment of man. They are gifts also of singular 
 beauty and power. They have roused and repressed 
 every emotion, charmed unruly crowds, swayed strong- 
 minded senates, changed the history of nations. Even 
 the mechanism by which they are produced is a per- 
 petual wonder so strangely devised and complex, so 
 finely adjusted in its pares and adapted to its work. 
 Such faculties impose on us great responsibility, and 
 demand and deserve the highest honour and the best 
 treatment. Nor have we any possession that will 
 more frankly respond to and repay such treatment 
 by increase of beauty and power. 
 
 The English language may be difficult, but when 
 well spoken it is eminently beautiful and effective. 
 By those qualified to judge, it has often been said to 
 be unsurpassed among the modern languages of Europe. 
 The eminent philologist, Jacob Grimm, says, 'The 
 English language possesses a power which probably 
 never stood at the command of any other nation/ 
 But it has been ' wounded in the house of its friends/ 
 As Professor Hullah at greater length has said as 
 indeed all authorities have, and many of them in much 
 stronger language neither its vowels nor its con- 
 sonants nor its words get justice. Words are run 
 into one another; vowels lose their true sound and 
 substance, are curtailed, are slipped over ; and con- 
 sonants suffer from every kind of malformation, and 
 
XVI PKIiFACE 10 THE FIKST EDITION. 
 
 every degree of imperfect utterance, down to being 
 completely inaudible. Except among the careless or 
 incapable, he will be a very rare student indeed who 
 does not soon discover that he has much to learn and 
 much to unlearn. Even the forming and using of the 
 voice itself require a great deal of attention ; and this 
 is not more a duty to the language, and desirable for 
 the sake of the hearer, than it is valuable for the 
 health and endurance of the vocal organs. Then, em- 
 bracing more things than those, there is the difference 
 between commonplace speaking and good speaking. 
 Professor Marcus Dods, having said that admirable 
 matter may be nullified by the speaking of it, adds, 
 'It is pitiable to think how much waste goes on weekly 
 in Scotland in this respect/ It is not confined to 
 Scotland. 
 
 The first demand upon a speaker is that the words 
 intended shall distinctly reach the ear of the hearer. 
 It may be noticed in conversation how greatly people 
 differ in this respect, and in public speaking faults 
 of ordinary speech are generally magnified. It is 
 instructive to observe how one or two of the men 
 on a platform make every word to be heard over 
 the whole house, while it is with difficulty that even 
 the gist of what is said by others can be gathered 
 by half the audience and this from no inferiority 
 of strength, general or vocal. And it is still more 
 interesting to see how a speaker will make himself 
 heard in the vigorous enforcement of his views against 
 opposition, but cannot be heard when reading a minute 
 or other dispassionate writing. It is not unusual to 
 hear such varieties accounted for by the easy remark. 
 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xvii 
 
 * He has a clear voice/ or ' a carrying voice/ or ' a 
 thick voice/ or ' His tongue is too large for his mouth ! ' 
 all having reference to what nature is supposed to 
 have done for the speaker; while in truth the dif- 
 ference is mainly due to what he has done or failed 
 to do for himself, and with hardly an exception the 
 most faulty of the speakers might with due pains have 
 been scarcely behind the best of them. Generally it is 
 not the natural gift that accounts for the results, but 
 the cultivation it has received and the use made of 
 it. The second demand next in importance to the 
 words being heard, and contributing to that end, is 
 that they shall have their true sound; that the 
 meaning and the feeling of the speaker shall have 
 their natural expression; and that the general effect 
 shall be pleasing to the ear as well as powerful on 
 the mind and heart. In relation to all such matters 
 it is hoped that the following pages may be helpful. 
 
 Excellence in speaking, as in other things, can be 
 attained only by hard and persistent labour in down- 
 right, outright earnest. And it must be well directed. 
 Of the many in our country to whom English is prac- 
 tically an acquired speech, not a few may be found 
 who, notwithstanding much pains, speak a pedantic 
 style which is all their own, and has not even the 
 merit of being spoken by them easily. 
 
 Two things a book cannot do. It cannot convince 
 a man against his will that he speaks faultily, or that 
 his voice in speaking may be improved though, if 
 he is willing to know the truth, it will help him even 
 to that discovery. But it is to be hoped that every 
 man, willing or unwilling, has a friend or two, faithful, 
 
XV111 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 instructed, and intelligent, who know faults of speech 
 and believe that they may be mastered, and who will 
 make an attempt to tell him the plain and complete 
 truth from the hearer's point of view. Yet, let it be 
 said in passing, something is far wrong when so much 
 cause exists for the hearer to teach the speaker. That 
 speaking should improve by experience need not be 
 said ; but what would be thought of the surgeon who 
 should have to learn from his patient how to handle 
 his tools, or of the tutor who should stand in need of 
 hints from his pupil? Again, neither book nor man 
 can have much success with the indolent, inaccurate, 
 easily satisfied who is without power of will, or does 
 not bring it to bear upon himself, and is without per- 
 severance. But all that a book with its own imper- 
 fections can do in helping young men to overcome 
 theirs, and to make the best of themselves, this book 
 honestly tries to do, and hopes to be received in the 
 friendly spirit in which it is offered. 
 
 Into physiological, scholastic, or theoretic questions 
 we go no farther than would seem to be of practical 
 interest to the intelligent student. 
 
 The best authorities have been consulted. 
 
 W. M. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART 
 
 I. 
 
 VOICE-FORMATION .* 
 
 PAGE 
 1 
 
 
 
 II. 
 
 VOWELS AND CONSONANTS 
 
 30 
 
 it 
 
 III. 
 
 WORDS 
 
 72 
 
 " 
 
 IV. 
 
 SENTENCES . 
 
 82 
 
 " 
 
 V. 
 
 PUBLIC SPEAKING . 
 
 110 
 
 n 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE PULPIT .... 
 
 . 130 
 
 ,, 
 
 VII. 
 
 STAMMKIMNG. 
 
 . 105 
 
 INDEX .... . .181 
 
SPEAKING. 
 
 PAET I. 
 VOICE- FOR MAT I ON. 
 
 THE lungs, the vocal cords in the larynx, with the aperture 
 between them called the glottis, the pharynx, the soft palate, 
 the walls of the mouth, the tongue, teeth, and lips are the 
 principal organs of speech, and the proper or improper use of 
 any one or more of them will appear in the speaking. Happily 
 they are all to a sufficient extent, directly or indirectly, under 
 our control. Notwithstanding the exhortation of some, 
 * Never mind how it is done, but do it,' there can be no 
 doubt that a certain amount of knowledge respecting the 
 organs is necessary. Without it the voice is cultivated at 
 great disadvantage, and the organs are at all times in danger 
 of injury from mistaken treatment. Such knowledge will 
 doubtless be welcome to every real student. 
 
 The moving power is wind from the lungs producing sound 
 by vibrating the vocal cords as it passes between them through 
 the glottis. The sound so generated is by the same power 
 driven through the mouth as through the tube of a trumpet, 
 where it receives the needful modelling to express every par- 
 
 A 
 
2 SPEAKING. 
 
 tic alar word and tone. And the student must start with a 
 clear understanding that the utterance of one sound, or shade 
 of sound, after another, however swiftly, is possible only by 
 corresponding movements of the parts. If he will even in 
 his untutored state give attention to what takes place in his 
 mouth during the utterance of a few syllables he will discover 
 enough to convince him of this. 
 
 The manner of using the several organs will now be con- 
 sidered in their order. 
 
 THE LUNGS. 
 
 The wind-supply from the lungs is regulated by the muscles 
 of the chest, along with the natural elasticity of the lungs. 
 When the cavity of the chest is enlarged, air flows into 
 the lungs; when it is diminished, air is driven out. This 
 alternation of greater and less room is the work of muscles 
 whose ordinary action is independent of the will But 
 for public speaking we must, so to say, take the command ; 
 and on our government much depends both for voice and 
 health. In the respiratory movements of the chest an active 
 part is taken by the most flexible of its walls, that which 
 bounds it below, the midriff or diaphragm. 1 
 
 When speaking is to commence, the chest should be ex- 
 panded, and the upper part kept in this position as much as 
 
 1 The diaphragm is a muscular partition dividing the chest from the 
 abdomen. At rest it has the shape of a basin upside down, arching up 
 into the chest. For inhalation this convexity descends and flattens, 
 making more room above, and pressing out the abdomen. To verify 
 its motion we have only to sit down, or lie, and breathe as when asleep. 
 Its action suggests that of the piston of a pump. The motion is seen 
 in the flanks of an animal that has been running. When inhalation is 
 by descent of the diaphragm, the abdominal motion, as has been said, 
 is outward ; when by expanding the upper part of the chest, it is 
 inward. 
 
VOICE-FORMATION. 3 
 
 possible. The lungs should be kept well furnished with air, 
 the supply being kept up mainly by the motion of the 
 diaphragm and ribs, and not of the more firm upper part of 
 the chest. The importance of a full chest is well illustrated 
 by comparing the eccentric performances of the bagpipes 
 when the wind-bag is in the process of filling with their 
 action when it is full. 
 
 Inhalation should be as much as possible through the 
 nostrils, 1 and should be noiseless and such that the audience 
 do not know the speaker is breathing. It should be made 
 when convenient, so as not to interfere with speech, and for 
 prospective as well as present need. To speak with the fag- 
 end of the breath must be avoided. It makes bad speaking, 
 and is most injurious to the organs. All these things should 
 be practised till they become a habit. 
 
 The capacity of the lungs may be much increased. To this 
 end and for obtaining easy control of the breathing it is good 
 exercise to inflate the lungs fully (through the nose, as 
 always), and after a little retention empty them (by the 
 mouth). Both actions should be done as silently as possible 
 and at every degree of speed from very slow to quick, and 
 done standing and walking, and also sitting and lying. 
 
 To get skill in breathing and strengthen the parts, read in 
 a strong loud whisper, also speak for minutes at a time in a 
 powerful impassioned voice, in both cases keeping a good 
 supply of breath with the least appearance of breathing. 
 
 Waste of breath must be guarded against. It is more 
 
 1 This is the natural way of breathing ; and men of science tell us that 
 it must at all times be the only way, if we would save the respiratory 
 organs from harm, or avoid drawing into the system impurities with 
 which the air is laden. It is an advantage to the throat in speaking. 
 During such inhalation either the front of the tongue touches the 
 palate, or its back part meets with the soft palate (p. 12), or the 
 lips are closed. It is probable there may not be many who in public 
 speaking adhere very closely to this mode of breathing. 
 
1 SPEAKING. 
 
 common than is generally suspected impairing speech, and 
 stealing away the strength of the speaker. Breath emitted 
 either before or after the word or sound is wasted. For ex- 
 ample, in pronouncing 'who,' some are found to waste half 
 the expiration before reaching the word. So also the con- 
 clusion of words may be found followed by voiceless breath 
 like a light sigh. Let the lungs be charged, and let watch 
 be kept that the very beginning of the expiration begins the 
 sound of the vowel or consonant, and that the sound and the 
 expiration end together. Moreover, the sound itself must 
 be purely vocal, with no mixture of what may be called 
 ' breathiness.' 
 
 But this is not all : correct voice-production is explosive by 
 a holding in of the breath momentarily before. This is a great 
 beauty in vocalising, and a source as much of ease and power 
 as of grace. However soft and feeble the tone of voice, it 
 should exhibit the same character of opening fulness. We 
 may have heard this called the explosive voice ; but it is 
 scarcely correct to speak of an excellence in speech as a 
 kind of voice. It has not the most distant relation to 
 attacking words with an emphatic or combative jerk, which 
 is a great vice. It is the secret of an easy, natural, pleasing 
 effectiveness which is everywhere admired, and of which 
 Mr Spurgeon was an eminent example. It is essential to 
 that most valuable art which we have called voice-propulsion 
 (p. 18). 
 
 The following exercises will aid in acquiring this habit oi 
 speech. Inhale a full breath and retain it for a little. Then 
 with open mouth forcibly, abruptly, briefly eject any one of 
 the vowel sounds as often as it can be done with the one in- 
 spiration care being taken not to show any movement of the 
 head or body, and to keep the chest up after each ejection. 
 In like manner take the other vowel sounds. For the next 
 
VOICE-FORMATION. 5 
 
 stage do the same with all varying degrees of force. The 
 manner in which the effect is produced in the utterance of 
 consonants is noticed under Articulation (p. 18). 
 
 The student will find that the more pure and clear the 
 tone the less is the expenditure of breath. Let him charge 
 his lungs, and after a moment sound evenly and steadily any 
 of the vowels till the voice begins to waver, and then stop 
 and begin again. After a little practice, if he is giving the 
 sound purely, he should be able to continue it from five- 
 and-twenty to thirty seconds at an average pitch of note. 
 As will appear later, high notes can be maintained longer 
 than low. Another good exercise is to shut off this con- 
 tinuous sound completely and abruptly, and recommence it 
 in the same equable way without drawing breath, and to 
 make a number of such breaks during the expiration. It 
 will be observed that, as there is precisely the same lungful 
 of breath for this purpose as there was for the unbroken stream 
 of sound in the previous exercise, it should last as long. 
 
 The more completely to acquire control over the breath and 
 therefore the voice in speaking, and to strengthen the organs, 
 one exercise practised by the author was to run up a rising 
 ground till the breathing was quick and the chest heaved, 
 and then to speak in a loud voice as firmly and regularly as 
 possible. As this might be unsafe for some, it should be 
 begun cautiously by all. 
 
 Force or intensity of voice, it need hardly be said, depends 
 on the force of the current of air expressed ; and it is not to 
 be confused with pitch of voice, which depends on the vocal 
 cords. 
 
 THE VOCAL CORDS AND GLOTTIS. 
 
 The larynx is situated at the top of the windpipe, and 
 corresponds roughly to the prominence in the front of the 
 neck known as Adam's apple. The vocal cords are two 
 
6 SPEAKING. 
 
 strong elastic bands on the inside of the larynx at its 
 narrowest part, which is about its middle. They start, 
 apparently touching each other, from a point in front, and 
 diverging, one to the right and the other to the left, they 
 together surround about two-thirds of it. They have an edge 
 free enough to vibrate for the production of sound. At their 
 starting-point they are fixed ; at their other end (towards the 
 back of the larynx) each is attached to a piece of gristle, 
 which is movable, so as to allow of their being tightened and 
 approximated, or relaxed and separated. The open space 
 between them is called the glottis. During a copious in- 
 spiration they are widely separated, giving to the glottis 
 a sort of oval shape with its length from front to back, 
 narrowest at the front. When at rest in ordinary breathing 
 they give to the glottis the shape of a long narrow triangle. 
 When called upon to produce sound they become parallel, 
 and, in proportion to the high pitch l of the note, closer 
 and more tense ; therefore also less air passes and the supply 
 lasts longer. 
 
 The tension of a string, and therefore the pitch of its note, 
 are heightened by drawing it out ; and the length of these 
 cords in repose is increased in the state of greatest ten- 
 sion and highest pitch by about a fourth of itself. Also 
 when strings are at the same tension the longest gives the 
 lowest note ; and so in different persons cords at the same 
 
 1 Those who are unacquainted with the subject may practically verify 
 what is meant by pitch when it is stated that to touch any key on the 
 keyboard of a piano produces a note higher in pitch than is given by 
 any key to the left hand of it, and lower than any to the right hand. 
 Or in the violin, to tighten a string, or to shorten it by placing the 
 finger on it, gives a note of higher pitch. The greater the number of 
 vibrations in a given time the higher the pitch. A greater or less 
 amount of force applied, as by the hand on the piano, or the bow on 
 the strings of the violin, produces more or less sound, but does not 
 nffect the pitch. 
 
VOICE-FORMATION. 7 
 
 tension may give different notes because of difference in 
 natural length, not to speak of mass. With such exquisite 
 precision is muscular action adjusted, that within each semi- 
 tone of the scale an ordinary singer could produce ten distinct 
 intervals that is, ten different adjustments of the cords. 
 We cannot move them by an effort of the will ; but, what is 
 better, if we exert the will to produce a certain tone, the 
 corresponding muscular action takes place. 
 
 As was stated, there should be a momentary holding in of 
 the breath before giving voice. The vocal cords shut, close 
 the glottis, and take the degree of tension necessary for the 
 intended sound. Air accumulates below, and then, sud- 
 denly as when a trigger is pulled, rushes through between the 
 cords and throws them into rapid vibration. The pitch of 
 the voice depends on the number of these vibrations in a given 
 time. The best pitch for speaking will generally be about the 
 middle of the entire compass of the voice ; but in some voices 
 the higher notes, and in some the lower, require special culti- 
 vation. The speaking range need not ordinarily exceed six 
 notes, the extreme ones being much less frequently required 
 than the rest ; their training, however, is important. 
 
 The use of the vocal cords must be cultivated. We must 
 
 train ourselves to the production of voice at any pitch that 
 
 may be required, and of the finest variations of pitch in 
 
 single syllables and sounds called inflexion. A great deal 
 
 of practice for a time is absolutely necessary. And now, 
 
 /whoever is more concerned about his dignity than about 
 
 \the successful training of his voice had better accompany 
 
 us no farther : ithe exercises make such play with words 
 
 and tones as would delight a maniac, 
 
 The student must go where he believes that no person can 
 hear him, for he must be absolutely free from every degree 
 of restraint and reserve. He will practise at first on words 
 of one syllable one word at a time and then increase the 
 
8 SPEAKING. 
 
 number of syllables any words : no, he, them, gay, run, lie, 
 fine, him, young, mean, flout, Iwili, how, cram, never, willing, 
 devise, attention, pleasantry, obedient. Charge the mind, and 
 charge the word full of meaning and feeling, so that the 
 meaning and feeling may be heard and felt more effectively 
 than if they were explained : affirmation, deprecation, sup- 
 plication, question, doubt, surprise, indignation, scorn, banter, 
 vexation, longing, &c. One who uses inflexion well in conver- 
 sation will mainly have to learn how to express it aloud in 
 public speech (p. 24). Those who inflect little and poorly 
 must in practice give sweeping, exaggerated, resistless ex- 
 pression to the feeling at first putting the magnifying-glass, 
 so to speak, on it. These exercises will be best practised 
 after the vowels and consonants are mastered, and the section 
 on Inflexion studied (p. 85). 
 
 Pitch and Power. The distinction between pitch of voice 
 and energy or force or power of voice is of essential im- 
 portance. A singer in a drawing-room gives every note at 
 exactly the same pitch as in a public hall, but the force is 
 vastly different. In speaking, care must be taken not to 
 substitute the one for the other, or let either interfere with 
 the other ; each must be determined on merits of its own. 
 The energy will depend on the urgency of the speaker or 
 on the distance of the hearer, or the like; and so far as it 
 depends on such reasons as distance it must of course be 
 maintained throughout and applied to every word of what- 
 ever pitch. This is very much overlooked, especially in the 
 conclusion of sentences or clauses. Many seem utterly re- 
 gardless, or ignorant, of the fact that it is the pitch and not 
 the force or audibleness that is to be lowered. Not only are 
 both pitch and force lowered by them, but frequently in the 
 pulpit the utterance is with the breathiness of a last gasp. 
 
 The pitch given to sentences, phrases, words, or the 
 
VOICE-FORMATION. 9 
 
 beginning and ending of the same word, varies perpetually ; 
 for in speech every individual note is in transition, never 
 (as in music) sustained. This variation in its more pro- 
 nounced forms is known as inflexion, modulation, cadence, 
 of which more will be said (pp. 82-93). The general or 
 average pitch of a voice will differ somewhat in different 
 moods;* but, surprising as it may seem, the pitch (for the 
 same mood) in what we shall call the public voice, is the 
 same, even in very powerful speaking, as in conversation, 
 with few, if any, exceptions. The difference is in the force, 
 the power ; and happily this does not depend on general 
 strength of physique, or unusual strength of a part. 
 
 Very many who speak in public have not practised this 
 voice, though, apart from questions of hearing, nature itself 
 protests against a public assemblage being addressed in what 
 has only the character of a rather overpressed conversational 
 voice. The mistaken speaker imagines he is doing well, and 
 doing all he can ; and indeed he is put to more trouble than 
 he would be by using the proper voice. But he has no con- 
 ception (see p. 21) of the puny result. It is like waking 
 from a dream when he discovers the character and power of 
 the required voice, and his ability to produce it. What 
 should be done by him should be done by all, lest like him 
 they may unawares be mistaken. He should in practising 
 shout as one who raises the alarm of fire, with all possible 
 body or volume of voice, practising also less forceful degrees, 
 but never relapsing to the old way. 
 
 It is good exercise in pitch and force to strike notes on 
 an instrument, one at a time, and sound the voice in unison 
 with it, open-mouthed, full and clear, at various degrees of 
 strength, again and again. 
 
 It is good practice to speak amid a rival sound, as by the 
 surf when the sea is rough, striving to make the lightest 
 syllables audible. 
 
10 SPEAKING. 
 
 The art of speaking being acquired, the frequent use of it 
 is required to keep the voice at its best, and the organs in 
 good condition. Some consider that public speaking (or 
 speaking as if in public) so seldom as once or twice a-week 
 is even dangerous. The speaker must keep 'in training' 
 like other workers. The feebler any tone is the more it 
 should be exercised suitably, and assuming that the parts 
 are in health. 
 
 Chest Voice. We are now in a position to understand 
 what cannot be meant, and what is meant, by 'chest voice.' 
 It cannot be a voice originating farther down, nearer to the 
 chest, than any other sound. For no sound originates either 
 below or above the vocal cords; every sound originates in 
 them and by their action. The phrase is sometimes used to 
 distinguish a natural from a falsetto voice, but generally is 
 an arbitrary expression applied to a greater or less number 
 of the lowest notes of the voice. It is a matter of pitch, as 
 that has been explained. A young speaker, who might be 
 named, was urged by his teacher to cultivate a chest voice, the 
 reason given being that his voice is high. So far well ; but 
 (1) his voice is not high, its dominant note in speaking 
 being F; (2) he has no conception of what is meant by 
 a chest voice; and consequently (3) he keeps endeavouring 
 to rake a sound out of his chest, to the serious injury of 
 the organs, if he continues. That voice was light and thin; 
 its need was not ' deepening ; (to lower notes) but more vol- 
 ume and resonance (p. 11). 
 
 The chest serves the purpose of a bellows only. The 
 common advice to ' speak from the chest/ should be speak 
 with a full chest, so that a firm, elastic, forceful stream may 
 play upon the cords ; and do not think to compensate for a 
 feeble stream by racking the parts about the throat. 
 
 The language to be met with on this subject bewilders the 
 
VOICE-FORMATION. 1 1 
 
 inexpert. We are told by some that we have ' four voices 
 the upper head-voice, lower head- voice, upper ehest-voice, and 
 lower chest-voice ' ; by others, that we have five registers 
 the lower thick, upper thick, lower thin, upper thin, and 
 small. They divide the complete range of the voice into 
 sections according to slightly differing conditions assumed by 
 the cords at different points as the voice ascends or descends. 
 One authority tells us that 'the first requisite' is to dis- 
 tinguish the four voices; another, that they are often in- 
 distinguishable, and that where they are distinguishable the 
 aim should be to make them not so. And one thinks the 
 directions on the subject given by another ' rather amusing.' 
 We advise our readers not to trouble themselves about the 
 matter, but to believe they have one voice, and to practise 
 it up and down to do its best at every point, and never 
 to extort from it any tone by straining. 
 
 THE PHARYNX. 
 
 Next in order comes the pharynx, which plays an im- 
 portant part in the production of speech. It is a con- 
 tractile cavity lying between the larynx and the mouth, and 
 having openings to the lungs, stomach, mouth, nostrils, &c. 
 It has a considerable share in giving resonance l to the voice, 
 
 1 Resonance (re-sounding) may be defined in general terms as the 
 sound educed from one body by the sounding vibrations of another, as 
 from the table by placing on it the handle of a sounding pitch-fork, 
 . or without contact, as when a musical instrument in a room responds 
 to some accidental sound. The body of the violin gives resonance to 
 the string, and the body of any musical instrument to its primary 
 originating tone. So means of resonance are provided for the tones 
 struck by the vocal cords. Principally they are the mouth and pharynx, 
 but every part outward from the cords contributes, and even non- 
 contiguous structures. Between the mouth and the body of an in- 
 strument, however, there is the immeasurable distance between nature 
 
12 SPEAKING. 
 
 and on its capacity depends in no small degree the volume 
 of voice, Its movements may be felt by the lingers outside. 
 It is in constant activity, for in high notes it is shortened 
 and contracted, and in low, elongated and enlarged. It aids 
 also, as we shall see (p. 54), in the explosive articulations 
 distending by the breath that is sent forward for compression 
 during the obstructive part of them, and contracting to aid 
 in the explosive part. Pharyngeal power may be increased, 
 if necessary, by the practice of such silent distensions, dwell- 
 ing on a vocal articulation as if in an attempt to continue 
 the sound of it (p. 54). It is the part principally affected in 
 so-called clergyman's sore throat, which is accompanied and 
 probably caused by faulty production of voice of a non- 
 natural and strained tone. A medical authority says he 
 has never seen this ailment in one who had the gift of 
 energetic extempore speech. The pharynx is generally the 
 seat of the feeling (when a feeling it is and not a fancy) that 
 leads to the glass of water in speaking. The use of this does 
 harm rather than good, and those who have been persuaded 
 to leave it off have found it was only a bad habit. 
 
 The throat, in the ordinary use of the word, means the 
 parts at the back of the mouth, including the pharynx and 
 soft palate. All constriction or narrowing of the throat spoils 
 the speech. It should in speaking be kept open, easy, free. 
 
 THE SOFT PALATE. 
 As there will by-and-by be occasion to refer to { the 
 
 and art. The mouth having to form all the vowel sounds, each with 
 its resonance, is in perpetual change. To improve resonance: with 
 easy throat, open mouth, and full lungs, speak much aloud and strongly, 
 do justice to vowels, speak heartily, with the feeling that is in the 
 passage, and follow generally this manual. The open-mouthed, open- 
 throated street crier sending his voice afar becomes eminently resouaut. 
 
VOICE-FORMATION. 1 3 
 
 palate/ let this distinction be noted : the palate is the roof 
 of the mouth, the soft palate is a membranous curtain de- 
 pendent from the back part of it, and having the uvula, or 
 ' pap of the throat,' hanging from its edge. The effects of it 
 on speech are very important. By the descent of the curtain 
 and the rising of the back part of the tongue to meet it, the 
 air and voice are shut off from the mouth and sent through, 
 or into, the nose. On the other hand, when the curtain is 
 drawn fully up it closes the way into the nose, and the air 
 and voice pass through the mouth free and clear. The more 
 nearly that the curtain and tongue approach each other, the 
 greater will be the degree of nasal sound in the voice. 
 
 It is not thus that the so-called nasal sound which we are 
 accustomed to associate with American speech is produced. 
 It does not pass through the nose. Indeed some are of 
 opinion that in its origin it was a result of the frequency 
 of catarrh al affections of the nostrils in New England and 
 near the Great Lakes. Like some peculiarities observable at 
 home, it stands in the way of better qualities of speech. 
 
 In the English language the only nasal sounds are m, n, ng, 
 and they are truly so. To give this character to other sounds 
 is a fault of speech. In a vowel the slightest nasal quality 
 is a barbarism. In some people the whole of the speech 
 has more or less of this fault often from sheer slovenly 
 indolence. It has been said that there are buildings in 
 which nasal speech is better heard ; but nothing could be 
 more easily or completely refuted. If the same person who 
 uses the peculiarity will set it aside and speak correctly with 
 the same force and pitch, our case will be proved. There 
 need be no doubt that he who is heard through his nose is 
 heard in spite of his nose. The descent of the uvula into the 
 vocal current produces some degree of guttural tone. 
 
 The student with his back to the light can easily see those 
 parts in a hand-mirror. If he makes a strong, copious, 
 
14 SPEAKING. 
 
 noiseless inhalation by the mouth, he will see that the middle 
 of the tongue is depressed, and the curtain rises fully up. 
 He should try to retain it as high as possible while he utters 
 vowel sounds, beginning with, and dwelling on, such as ah 
 and atv, in the utterance of which its position can be seen. 
 For other sounds its position is higher changing with every 
 vowel but, though higher, it can scarcely, if at all, be seen, 
 because part of the tongue in front of it must rise more or 
 less to produce these sounds. 
 
 It is easy to test whether the speech is free from nasal 
 quality by completely plugging the nostrils. If the speech 
 is sound, the plugging does not make the slightest differ- 
 ence in it, except in words where m and n occur. These 
 articulations demand open nostrils. To overcome a tendency 
 to nasal speech, it is good to speak sharply and forcefully 
 with set purpose to drive the sound through the mouth. But 
 where the habit is inveterate, and above all where it affects 
 the whole of the speech, special treatment will be necessary; 
 that, indeed, will be valuable in any degree of this blemish. 
 The student should plug his nostrils and speak at every 
 degree of pitch and force, omitting words with m or n. 
 This makes speaking through the nose impossible, and should 
 also keep the soft palate up to make way for the whole of 
 the breath passing through the mouth. By such study and 
 practice he should be able to overcome the habit. He may, 
 of course, knock his breath against the plug, especially at 
 first, and still produce unsound voicing, but we assume he 
 will not allow himself to do this. 
 
 THE MOUTH. 
 
 Bringing its pitch with it from the vibrations of the vocal 
 cords, the voice receives from the rest of the organs, and 
 almost wholly the mouth, its body, form, and quality 
 
VOICE-FORMATION. 1 5 
 
 (timbre). 1 With every different formation given to its 
 course outward from the glottis hy the position in which we 
 place the tongue, cheeks, lips, &c., a change of sound is 
 produced. While the form of the fixed parts of the organs 
 differs in different cases, the movable parts adapt themselves 
 so as to produce the same sound. 
 
 The slightest change in the mouth tells. The pitch and 
 force of the sound may be the same and the vowel correctly 
 given, but the quality and effect are different. It is thus 
 that the mouth becomes the instrument and vehicle of every 
 shade of feeling, and the interpreter of the most delicate 
 touches of meaning. And it is thus that many faulty pecu- 
 liarities of speech are produced. Care must be taken to keep 
 the mouth sufficiently open. 
 
 Most people injure their speech by insufficient opening of 
 the mouth, and also (if they attend to the matter at all) 
 imagine themselves to open it more widely than they do. In 
 good speaking the teeth are, as they should be, at least half 
 an inch apart for any vowel sound. One who has not given 
 attention to the subject may think this impracticable for 
 him ; but it is easily put to the proof. Aid the unpractised 
 mouth by placing something between the jaws where it will 
 least interfere with the tongue or breath say, at the sides. 
 It will thus be found that none of our sounds require the 
 mouth to be closer than we have said, save only during the 
 momentary contacts required in the production of P and its 
 kindred, and F and V (pp. 56, 63). 
 
 The only way of opening the mouth is by bringing down 
 the lower jaw. If one cannot do this as naturally and easily 
 for speech as for other purposes, he must learn. Without 
 
 1 Quality is the individual character of tone which distinguishes be- 
 tween tones, though they be of the same pitch and power, as between 
 those of a flute and a violin, or two violins, or an instrument and a 
 voice, or two voices. Resonance contributes largely to quality. 
 
16 SPEAKING. 
 
 openness of mouth, back and front (see throat, p. 12), it is 
 not possible to get volume, clearness, and smoothness of 
 voice. To prevent self-deception as to the degree of open- 
 ness, the mirror will have to be used for some time. Open 
 squarely, not with a narrow stretch downwards. 
 
 Most faults of speech are connected with this part of the 
 vocal mechanism. Many of them fall to be considered in 
 treating of the vowels and consonants ; others are general, 
 affecting all sounds. Of these many are obvious, and not 
 confined to public speaking. One uses the mouth as if it 
 were a cavern, another as if it were a squirt, instead of a 
 speaking-trumpet. One draws the hearer's attention to the 
 back of his mouth, another to the front. One speaks as if 
 everything about his mouth were too tight, another as if 
 everything were too loose. Then we have what may be called 
 inflated cheek mouthing of which there are many sorts, all 
 of them hindrances to hearing as well as faults of speech. 
 One is well forward in the mouth, c pompous, pompo, pomp, 
 po ' ; another is farther back and gives the impression of 
 pride and imperiousness ; and a third may be added which is 
 neither, but would lead the simple-minded to suppose that 
 the thoughts of the speaker are so exceeding great as to 
 keep organs apart that ought to have constant momentary 
 contacts. Then comes the young gentleman proud of his 
 fine tones, and thinking to enhance their charm by slurring 
 over as many of his consonants as possible. Again, by 
 causing the vocal stream to impinge where it ought not, every 
 variety of fault is produced : it may be a sort of hard metallic 
 ring which destroys every element of sympathy in the voice, 
 and is even provocative ; or it may be the sound of a saw at 
 work, incisive enough, but carrying neither conviction nor 
 pleasure ; or the stringy wiriness of a well-worn piano ; or 
 the depressing tones of the forlorn. 
 
VOICE-FORMATION. 1 7 
 
 THE TONGUE. 
 
 Let the student observe in the mirror how his tongue may 
 be moved, arid he will almost shiver to see how it swells and 
 shrinks, goes forth and back, rears itself and cowers, and 
 creeps and wriggles, like an independent living thing. 
 He will then be ready to believe the fact that by a little 
 practice the most lumbering, awkward tongue may be drilled 
 into executing with deftness the most subtle and complicated 
 articulations, and the most delicate shades of sound. It must 
 be kept free of contact with the bed of the jaw. In describ- 
 ing the action of the tongue in the formation of sounds it is 
 better to avoid saying ' the point of the tongue/ because it 
 has no point unless when stretched out. 
 
 THE TEETH. 
 
 The teeth materially aifect the quality of the voice by the 
 degree in which they are kept open. When they are close 
 it is obvious they must impede and deform the vocal current. 
 It suffers both in power and purity, and in resonance and 
 freedom, and has a trill imparted to it from vibration in the 
 teeth. They cannot always be at the same degree of open- 
 ness, but should always be as open as possible, and at the 
 least half an inch for any vowel sound. The teeth render 
 essential service in the pronunciation of certain consonants, 
 as will be seen under that branch of our subject. 
 
 THE LIPS. 
 
 The lips also, besides their general influence on the tone 
 of the voice, render similar special services which will come 
 under consideration in due course. Meanwhile let warn- 
 ing be taken against such faults as pursing or projection 
 
 B 
 
18 SPEAKING. 
 
 of the lips, or stitching them together, so to speak, at either 
 corner or at both. Keeping easily and naturally around 
 the range of the teeth, they should without receiving any 
 attention move in a vertical direction only, except in facial 
 gesture (p. 125). 
 
 It is scarcely credible, but it is true, that a very recent 
 publication prescribes for four of the vowel sounds that the 
 lips shall protrude being also for one of them wrinkled ; 
 for a fifth, in a large circle ; and for another, in a very 
 small circle. It is easy to imagine what an exhibition this 
 would make in speaking, and what would be the effect on 
 observers. That writer might easily have proved to himself 
 that, so far from such movements being required, the sounds 
 are all more purely rendered without them. They would, 
 moreover, render it impossible to use the lips for their natural 
 and important service of expression. A lip may require 
 drilling into sufficient flexibility. 
 
 VOICE-PROPULSION. 
 
 The voice must be shot clear of the mouth, fully propelled 
 forth from it as a discharged projectile. The explosive 
 quality of voice (p. 4) is essential for this. Failure is 
 very common. Words are formed in the mouth, are of 
 course well heard by the speaker, and are then left to 
 themselves as if all his duty towards them was over, not to 
 speak of their exit being often positively hindered by an 
 insufficiently open mouth or some other oral habit. The 
 best that can be said is that they make their own escape 
 from the mouth, and are caught by those who are near 
 enough or alert enough. Attentive observation of the next 
 dozen speakers will prove the importance of what we say. 
 Louder speaking may at the best in some cases supply in 
 a small measure the place of correct method, but much 
 
VOICE-FORMATION. 1 9 
 
 oftener (and in certain circumstances always) it aggravates 
 the evil. The student should practise the projecting of 
 sounds, words, and phrases, avoiding jerkiness and snappi- 
 ness and all jerky motions of the body, and should imagine 
 them directed against a target at various distances. For 
 the successful use of words in this practice good articulation 
 is essential. 
 
 ARTICULATION. 
 
 All articulations are produced by some action of the 
 organs which more or less obstructs and compresses the 
 breath or voice, and then releases it with percussive effect. 
 The various articulations are denoted by the consonants, the 
 proper pronunciation of which is of inestimable value to the 
 speaker. It is essential to distinctness, ease, and effective- 
 ness. There is immense power in articulation. Let us 
 explain it and the manner in which it is effected. Take the 
 two consonants p and b, in which the obstructive part of the 
 pronunciation is so simple as to be merely the closing of the 
 lips. If in pronouncing such words as trip, rib, we conclude 
 with the closing of the lips, the effect of those consonants is 
 merely to cut off sound ; and if we endeavour thus to dwell 
 on them, we only prolong the silence. But this is not their 
 purpose. They denote audible articulations ; and they claim 
 not only the shutting of the lips but the separating of them, 
 and that with a distinctly audible, quick, percussive escape 
 of breath. All the articulations must be mastered (pp. 
 47-71). 
 
 The obstruction and compression of the breath required 
 for an articulation take place in the mouth, and the com- 
 pressed breath is between the point of obstruction and the 
 glottis that is, in the mouth and pharynx (p. 11), both of 
 which are contractile or elastic. The breath sent forward 
 into the mouth should, when obstructed, distend the pharynx 
 
20 SPEAKING. 
 
 more or less (as may be felt by the hand outside) according 
 to the degree of obstruction and force ; and the way of 
 separating the obstructing organs along with the co-operating 
 contraction of the pharynx causes the percussive ejection of 
 the air and audibility of the articulation. At the instant of 
 that separation the stream must be cut off from the lungs by 
 preventing the chest from contracting. It is a common error 
 to neglect the explosive parting of the articulating organs ; 
 and what then occurs is that the flow from the lungs 
 continues, passing aimlessly and wastefully out when the 
 separation takes place. If listened for, it can be heard like 
 a soft sigh or a prolonged 7?,. Where this injurious habit 
 exists, the louder the speaking, and the more gusty the 
 final syllables, the greater the evil ; and it is evident that 
 the number of words ending in consonants must make the 
 accumulated effect very fatiguing, while the real cause of the 
 fatigue has been unsuspected. Besides, without the explo- 
 sive finish there are many syllables and words which can 
 scarcely be distinguished from each other, for example, op, 
 at, dk ; hid, hit ; beg, leek; fear, feared ; whole, hold; robe, 
 rope. The pronunciation of the different consonants is 
 treated of later, as is also articulation in continuous speech. 
 
 In the General Assembly of 1898 a speech delivered by 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury on Temperance was a fine 
 illustration of open-mouthed speaking and of voice -pro- 
 pulsion and articulation. A man of seventy-six years, he 
 spoke naturally and with ease, and every syllable and tone 
 was heard in every corner of the hall. 
 
 Smooth or easy delivery of speech does not lie in glid- 
 ing over vowels and consonants, but in acquired facility of 
 uttering them, and uttering them correctly. 
 
VOICE-FORMATION. 2 1 
 
 SELF-DECEPTION. 
 
 To hear ourselves as others hear us seems no easier than 
 4 to see ourselves as others see us ' ; and this is a preliminary 
 difficulty in learning to speak. One is quite surprised to 
 be told that he speaks \vith a manifest ' burr ' (p. 48), and 
 resolves to get over it ; yet a year later he is equally sur- 
 prised to be told that it is just the same as ever. One 
 occasionally ascends to an absurd falsetto, unconscious of 
 the effect, and is pleased to have been told that he is gifted 
 with two voices. One imagines he has got the English 
 sound of the name of a poet, t Capo ' (apparently Italian) ; but 
 spelling has to be resorted to before it occurs to any of his 
 auditors that he speaks of Cowper. Another is unaware 
 that he says Lord like curd ; another that he says yis for 
 yes, and so in other words ; another that his vowels in men 
 and mane are scarcely distinguishable, and both wrong. An- 
 other is amazed to hear that his letter s is never heard by 
 his audience, and so little does he realise the effect that 
 long time and much insistence scarcely overcome the defect. 
 Another pronounces syllables like first and verse, frst and 
 vrse ; and, after more than time enough, not only remains 
 where he was, but actually fancies he is erring on the other 
 side. Another imagines he says ' psalm ' when he prolongs 
 a little the name of Sam. Some can hardly be persuaded 
 that they skip a great many small words and syllables. 
 Some are monotonous as a pendulum, yet believe they 
 modulate finely. Some imagine they give the ends of their 
 sentences impressively, though repeatedly told that they end 
 them inaudibly. It is strange that any official in an emin- 
 ent position should be so unaware of facts as not to know 
 that half his audience are indignant that he should, as they 
 think, consider it beneath his dignity, or disturbing to his 
 tine tones, to speak so as to be heard by them ; or that an- 
 
22 SPEAKING. 
 
 other should dream that he is being heard, when in equal 
 displeasure they are denouncing his failure as due to sheer in- 
 dolence. At least one friend has told them, but it seems 
 easier for them to believe that they are doing well enough. 
 It is almost as strange that one should imagine he makes 
 his voice carry and grip by the tones of the corn-crake while 
 he does neither, but earns the reputation of a harsh voice. 
 One speaks with half-open mouth, makes s nasal, blunders 
 certain consonant combinations, reduces all last words to a 
 minimum of time and sound, vainly labours to be heard, in- 
 excusably fatigues himself, and then, with the simplicity of 
 a child, asks only, ' Did you notice any provincialisms 1 ' 
 
 Such facts fill with despair any one who desires to be- 
 friend. They are mentioned here to stimulate attention to 
 the universal need of guarding against self-deception. No 
 doubt it contributes to this deception that one hears his own 
 voice to a large extent from within, transmitted through 
 bone and other solids, while others hear it, after it has 
 passed out, by transmission through air. 1 This explains the 
 usefulness of a little device by which the student may make 
 himself better acquainted with his voice as heard by others, 
 and which he may find it good to use frequently in the 
 
 1 It is easy to verify the striking difference in the effect of the two 
 methods. Tie the middle of a string round the head of the poker, and 
 dangle it against something hard : the result is heard through the air. 
 Then take the wings of the string, one in each hand, and wind them 
 once or twice round a finger at the point, put the fingers in the ears 
 (stopping them), and dangle again. Even if the string is wound on the 
 back part of the finger, the effect is much the same ; or, if instead of 
 putting the finger in the ear, it is made to press the small gristly pro- 
 tuberance between the cheek and the ear so as to make it shut the 
 ear like a lid. Or, take a wooden pin into the teeth at one end and 
 (giving necessary support, interfering as little as possible with vibra- 
 tion) dangle the poker from the other end. By such means the in- 
 telligent student will learn that others do not hear his voice as he 
 does. It is a surprising and charming experiment. 
 
VOICE-FORMATION. 2 3 
 
 process of his education, as in getting at the true character 
 of his sounds compared with each other and with the sounds 
 of others, and in judging nice variations of them : place the 
 fingers close together with the thumb close -to the hand, and 
 curve the hand as if to lave water ; put one hand (curve 
 forward) behind the edge of each ear, and turn the ear 
 and hand well to the front so that together they shall make 
 a large close collecting surface to catch the sound ; or, if 
 need be, try even some less natural, if more effective con- 
 trivance to enlarge the surface. 
 
 1 Was I heard 1 ' One might suppose there could be little 
 risk of harm in the answer to this. Yet even here the 
 amount of deceiving and being deceived is incredible. A 
 year ago the author, having worshipped in an historic church, 
 afterwards in the vestry heard the preacher ask an elderly 
 minister if he had been heard. * Oh yes, you were heard,' 
 was the ready response. A few weeks later, in the same 
 place, another preacher put the question to a young man, and 
 received the same reply. Perhaps those comforting but un- 
 warranted answers were intended to mean no more than that 
 the preachers were ' heard ' by some ! or were ' heard ' to be 
 speaking ! We need not speculate. The lesson for our 
 readers is that they cannot too carefully guard themselves 
 against deception, conscious or unconscious, by themselves or 
 others. For most hearers there is a good deal to be said if 
 their answer is misleading. They may have come to believe 
 that complete audibility is not to be expected. They may 
 erroneously imagine they heard correctly what the speaker 
 intended, though they did not, as when a passing reference 
 to the importance of ' health ' was understood to be a reminder 
 of the importance of ' hell.' We cannot pass from this with- 
 out insisting that it is not enough to be merely heard. The 
 speaker should be well heard his words reaching the hearer 
 not with the last expiring movement of a spent ball, but with 
 
24 SPEAKING. 
 
 some degree of impact ; and he should remember that people 
 like to hear, and are entitled to hear, and may be much 
 misled if they do not hear, every word. 
 
 NATURALNESS. 
 
 What is it to be natural? It must not for a moment be 
 supposed that to follow one's own familiar way, whatever its 
 peculiarities, is to be natural. These peculiarities may have 
 grown with his growth and strengthened with his strength 
 and be as a part of him, but if any of them are unnatural 
 this will not make them natural. The cheap and unex- 
 plained counsel, ' Be yourself,' is presumably to the same 
 effect as * Be natural ' ; and surely, though its meaning is 
 left obscure, it cannot be intended to say, * Be this creature 
 of provincialisms and family isms and unnaturalisnis.' To 
 say of anything which is unnatural in a speaker, that it 
 4 has become natural to 1dm} is a misuse of words. It has 
 indeed become inveterate habit, and he has got into the way 
 of associating with it some mood of thought or feeling which 
 is not associated with it by nature ; but that does not make 
 it natural either in him or in any other. It is not the pro- 
 duct of nature, and it does not speak with nature's voice. 
 
 To be natural is to speak in that tone and manner which 
 nature itself has appointed for the expression of every 
 several mood. It is the same for every people and tongue. 
 One may speak in an unknown tongue, but if he speaks 
 naturally, the hearer can tell whether it is in anger or pity, 
 in joy or sorrow or dread ; whether he is commanding or 
 entreating or exhorting ; whether he is praying or instruct- 
 ing. What can be more unnatural, for example, than when 
 one attempts to persuade in the tone of command ; or when 
 speaking on a joyful subject and exhorting to rejoice he fills 
 his voice with tremolo and tears ; or when in prayer he 
 
VOICE-FORMATION. 25 
 
 gabbles and hops along without a suggestion of reverence ; or 
 when he would be solemn he only mouths, or croaks, or is 
 heavy and oppressive ; or when intending to speak a word 
 with distinctness he speaks it instead with emphasis ? 
 
 But if nature does not make a man speak naturally, can 
 anything be done for him? Yes; at one time he always 
 spoke quite naturally, and even now for the most part speaks 
 naturally in private : and these experiences may be used to 
 restore and extend right relations between him and nature. 
 When he was a child his speaking was perfectly natural, as 
 well as his laughing and his crying. It is an important and 
 instructive fact that all little children speak naturally, and it 
 is greatly to be regretted that anything should interfere with 
 this as they grow up. Much may be learnt by carefully 
 listening to them before their speech is spoiled ; but enough 
 of nature remains in homely conversation on which to found 
 the process of making public speech natural. 
 
 It is matter of common observation that men may speak 
 quite naturally in a conversational tone and be painfully un- 
 natural when they must speak or read in a loud voice. For 
 illustration, take the last chapter of the Gospel according to 
 Luke, with its innumerable shades of emotion and its nine 
 questions almost all differing in interrogatory tone. It 
 is probable that any person of intelligence (who does not 
 mouth, or hum and haw, or simper in superfine manners, or 
 do other silly things), having occasion in conversation to 
 speak for himself the counterpart of anything in the pas- 
 sage, would speak it quite naturally, and would also make 
 the transitions from one part to another quite easily ; yet 
 many intelligent persons when called on to read this piece 
 in a loud voice make havoc of the whole. We have heard, 
 for example, some of its questions put in the manner of a 
 slave-driver, and in verse 25 the word of Christ, ' fools/ 
 &c., given in a tone which shocked the hearer as if it had 
 
26 SPEAKING. 
 
 been the word so severely condemned in the Sermon on the 
 Mount. Again, how few pronounce the Benediction so as 
 to be heard over a large place, because most have not ac- 
 quired the art of giving the appropriate tone in a loud voice ! 
 Is it the trouble of learning to speak naturally, and the 
 rareness of it, that account for the tendency in pulpits and 
 reading-desks to adopt a senseless formulated sing-song? 
 
 Assuming that the student can speak naturally in conversa- 
 tion, let him take any expression in few words, or a single 
 word question (of inquiry, doubt, argument, &c.), answer, 
 statement, ejaculation, entreaty, appeal, remonstrance, en- 
 couragement, congratulation, condolence, disapproval, tender- 
 ness, severity, solemnity, reverence, wonder, hope, fear, 
 sarcasm anything, everything, in every mood one thing 
 at a time, and not (for a while at least] culled from a book 
 as something high and fine but the more truly everyday 
 and impromptu the better ; let him see that he speaks it 
 appropriately in conversational tones ; then raise his voice 
 a little, and repeat the expression carefully after the same 
 formula ; when he has got full possession of this, let the 
 voice be raised a little more ; and so on, repeating the pro- 
 cess till by degrees he reaches his loudest coming back 
 constantly to test the utterance by comparison with what 
 must be presumed to be its natural form in conversation. 
 Thereafter, give it at all different degrees of loudness, not 
 proceeding in the order of the degrees, but at random. Treat 
 another expression in the same way, and then speak two or 
 more of them together at every degree of loudness. 
 
 If a person would be natural, he is almost sure to find some 
 peculiarities to be overcome perhaps arising even from what, 
 for example, is imagined to be a good style of cadence or 
 modulation. We heard a reader say, 'and he closed the 
 book . . . and sat down,' with solemn emphasis on l down,' a& 
 if to point out that it was not ' up,' and to impress every one 
 
VOICE-FORMATION. 2 7 
 
 with the gravity of that fact. Again we hear, * I will call 
 upon Thee/ with the supreme emphasis upon ' -on. 7 In most 
 cases the emphasis is likely to be on 'Thee,' and in every 
 case it is certain that ' call upon ' is a single phrase (p. 94). 
 For this, and indeed for everything that stands in the way of 
 naturalness, there is wanted, in practising, the constant and 
 severe application of common-sense. 
 
 Unnaturalisms in speech may strike and impress the un- 
 lettered at first, but so soon as they become familiar their 
 power is gone. Natural speaking never loses its power. 
 
 Both in reading and speaking, the spirit in which anything 
 ought to be uttered should be considered beforehand. 
 
 THE SECRET. 
 
 Practice, practice, practice, daily practice, persevering 
 practice of details, like the girl at her piano, like the ap- 
 prentice at his tools this is the secret. He who would 
 produce good work in reading or speaking must get first the . 
 correct and perfectly easy mastery and use of the tools \ 
 the vocal organs, the vowels, consonants, and syllables ; and 
 this can be got only by determined, persevering practice of 
 elementary details. To acquire only intellectual knowledge 
 of them and their work is useless : they must be practised 
 and with exaggeration at first till their correct use is 
 second nature. This practice of the tools is not to be gone 
 through in imagination, nor in whispers or mumblings, 
 but strongly as they shall be wanted for work. To attempt 
 to recite for practice without such apprenticeship is labour 
 wasted rather, we should say, time wasted ; for little is 
 the labour that the pupil will bestow on it. He finds it 
 so profitless that he soon regards the proceedings with in- 
 difference. Take the piano or violin. Who would dream of 
 putting down a piece from the great masters to a beginner'? 
 
28 SPEAKING. 
 
 The pupil must first master the scales, the use of the fingers, 
 the execution of phrases, the production of effects, and 
 the like ; and thereafter most will depend on his own 
 natural capacity and his enthusiasm. The practice of which 
 we speak must be taken up heartily, and will require at least 
 months of mere apprenticeship. It must be persevered in 
 day and night : on the highways and by-ways and hill-tops, 
 the pupil as he goes giving forth his vowels, consonants, 
 words, and phrases ; conducting imaginary conversations, 
 sense or nonsense, on any subject the weather itself would 
 give abundant scope for every form of utterance and every 
 shade of tone and inflexion. Almost any single short sen- 
 tence would. If shut into a city, let him find some spacious 
 shelter where he will be safe from the fear of man. But 
 however or wherever it be, there must be this indefatigable, 
 open-mouthed practice till the fools, pliable and agile ami in 
 perfect wmmand, at the least hint from the will, or on the 
 motion of an instinct swifter than will, produce almost auto- 
 matically any effect of speech that is wanted. We do not 
 know of failures from any cause but senseless, perfunctory, 
 short-lived practice. A royal road was wanted, and there is 
 none. 
 
 EXCUSES. 
 
 When one has his attention directed to a fault of speech 
 we seriously advise him not to begin (as seems universal) to 
 make excuses, for those who know the subject will laugh at 
 him and his excuses as soon as they are at liberty. One 
 of the notable things is the unanimity with which faulty 
 speakers attribute all to exceptional present circumstances, 
 and never seem to dream that they have got an obvious 
 habit. We further counsel one to whom a fault has been 
 pointed out, not to go canvassing others in hope of hearing 
 a contrary opinion. Nothing is easier than to get that. It 
 
VOICE-FORMATION. 29 
 
 should always be remembered, too, that, for many and 
 various reasons, if only one man in a hundred will mention 
 a fault at all to a speaker, there is not one in a thousand 
 but will understate it. And it must be said for almost all 
 hearers that their standard is generally no higher than is to 
 be got from the very class who are inviting their judgment. 
 Even in the simple matter of audibility it is wonderful what 
 ground may be got on which to found excuses (p. 23). 
 
 Some are excused on the supposition that the obstacles 
 with which they have to contend are very great, if not in- 
 superable. The author has no personal knowledge of serious 
 malformation, but has met with such cases as the follow- 
 ing. It once fell to him to teach a lad that stammered, who 
 in excuse stutteringly named several progenitors who had 
 done the same. ' If that be so,' was the reply, ' it is time 
 it were stopped ' ; and in not many days it was stopped. 
 Years after, teacher and pupil met, and he said in his original 
 unhappy manner, * After you I got a stupid fellow of a tutor 
 and he let me fall into it again.' A pupil- teacher, instead of 
 the letter s wherever it occurred, sent a sound through his 
 nose without an atom of sibilance inimitable, indescribable, 
 ugly, and making it very difficult to follow him. The 
 doctor pronounced it (inferentially, it is to be supposed) an 
 organic defect and hopeless ; the chairman of the managers 
 knew his father, and pronounced it hereditary and hopeless 
 the teacher took no trouble. The lad, being called to atten- 
 tion, was decisively bidden to say ' yeS,' and he said it, de- 
 molishing in a moment all exculpatory theories. Yet the 
 ridiculous habit was continued till the school inspector told 
 him, if he could not speak on next occasion, he would be 
 rejected. So absurdly unwilling are some people to face a 
 little trouble in getting rid of what hinders, or even befools 
 them, that he wept over this like a child. But within a 
 couple of months he spoke s faultlessly. Lastly, an able 
 
29a SPEAKING. 
 
 young man with university honours was declared by his 
 teachei in elocution to be hopeless. His voice flat and 
 thick, his manner of speech monotonously dull and intensely 
 provincial, he could not be improved. Under such a verdict 
 he was heartless also and diffident. He was then started 
 anew with a few lessons on the right lines, and on 
 these lines he went on himself, and speaks well. These 
 typical cases are for the encouragement of those who may 
 think themselves beyond remedy But it must be repeated 
 that those who see little or no need or will not take 
 trouble, are the only classes of whom there is no hope. A 
 youth who had acquired a superfine set of vowels and con- 
 sonants was told that he could not possibly get the first step 
 up in his profession without a revolution in his speech. He 
 answered dolefully, c That is a bad look-out ' as if such a 
 revolution was not to be thought of. He remains what he 
 was, and therefore where he was. 
 
 Has the student taken thought of the power there is in 
 resolute will and practice, and of the obligation which is 
 upon him to give effect to both ? He has only to look 
 round on the innumerable industries, not to say also the 
 public entertainments, of the land, and to compare the work 
 of one who has acquired his art with what the same worker 
 could do when he began his practice, or even was well 
 advanced in it. In the matter of speaking, in his own case 
 alone, let him think how it changed between the age of 
 three and thirteen, or three and twenty-three. No doubt it 
 may have in some respects deteriorated, notably in natural- 
 ness ; but whether for better or for worse, it is a witness to 
 the effect of practice, and that, too, at a period when the 
 motives and power of will that backed it were weaker than 
 now. The improvement which well-directed, resolute prac- 
 tice produces in speaking is scarcely credible. But many 
 of some promise, like children with their toys, as soon as 
 
VOICE-FORMATION. 29fc 
 
 the novelty is off become indifferent ; and with nothing good 
 attained, and a few things half attained, the effect is only to 
 show that they once made some attempt and failed. If the 
 student intends a profession in which public speaking is 
 important, the example of long-continued effort devoted to 
 other occupations has a lesson not only as to the power of 
 practice but the duty of practising. Henry Ward Beecher 
 says he was drilled incessantly for three years. Randolph 
 of Roanoke, though he began with a disagreeable creaking 
 voice, became a most fascinating speaker. A long list 
 might be given of eminent speakers who are known to have 
 attained the power by sheer, determined, laborious, pains- 
 taking self-disciplina 
 
30 
 
 PAET II. 
 
 VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 
 
 MEMORANDA ON VOWEL SOUNDS. 
 
 1. THE possible number of vowel sounds is limited only by 
 the power of the human voice. Even the actual sounds of 
 a single language scarcely admit of being numbered. There 
 are variations so minute that, while some may give them a 
 place and notation, others do not acknowledge them as prac- 
 tically distinct sounds, and some may not have the faculty 
 of apprehending them at all. 
 
 2. It is so in English. And even when the difference of 
 sound is by no means delicate, there are evident difficulties 
 connected with notation. There is first the impossibility at 
 times of finding a sample word which all pronounce exactly 
 alike ; next, we have different authorities using different 
 sample words, and it cannot be told whether they are striv- 
 ing to represent the same sound, or whether they have differ 
 ent opinions of the sound to be represented. It is not sur- 
 prising, therefore, to find that the number of vowel sounds 
 given by six of the most recent dictionaries of repute is as 
 follows : 15, 17, 21, 31, 31, 61 ; and two other authori- 
 ties now lying before the writer give 14 and 16. Further, 
 even those who come nearest to each other do not always 
 make up their lists with the same sounds ; and further still, 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 31 
 
 they not infrequently assign different known sounda for tho 
 pronunciation of the same word. The student will under- 
 stand, however, that there is a wide range within which 
 educated opinion is agreed, and a great store of work remains 
 for him. 
 
 3. The letters of the alphabet which represent the vowel 
 sounds are only six in number a, e, i, o, u, y. The two 
 sounds which y represents are also represented by i. Each 
 of the vowel letters stands for more than one sound ; while 
 on the other hand the same sound is represented in more 
 ways than one e.g., none and nun have the same sound, 
 you and ewe, fane and feign; and again two combine to 
 represent a sound, as in out, oil. 
 
 4. Many classifications of the vowel sounds have been 
 proposed, but the result is unsatisfactory, confusing to all 
 but experts, and of no practical use. Even the simplest, 
 long and short, is misleading and constantly misapplied. 
 For example, note is not the long of not, nor seek of sick, nor 
 wile of mil, nor main of men, nor psalm of Sam, but the 
 two sounds differ in character. At best, long and short is 
 only a scholastic distinction, for a good speaker will lengthen 
 and shorten as required. No one would give the same 
 length to 'there' in the sentences, 'There are some/ and 
 'He was not there.' The a in are is quite as often short as 
 long. Pull and pool are short and long, but there might 
 easily be occasion to prolong pull. 
 
 Discarding all questions of classification, the student 
 should set himself to get correctly the essential character of 
 each of the vowel sounds by itself. 
 
 5. As has already appeared indirectly (p. 14), vowel 
 sounds are produced in the mouth by different arrangements 
 of its parts. Chief of these are the positions of the tongue. 
 The several formations now fall to be described as briefly 
 and accurately as possible. It will be found the best 
 
 C 
 
32 SPEAKING. 
 
 course to take the sounds in two sets, as in the subjoined 
 list, in the order in which the formations most closely ap- 
 proximate to each other. These should be seen in the mirror, 
 as far as possible. 
 
 6. The sounds in the list are necessary for a sufficient 
 equipment, and the student must acquire the power and 
 habit of enunciating them with accuracy and perfect ease. 
 In this study he must be far from assuming that the sample 
 words as pronounced by him, or in his part of the country, 
 give the correct sound, but must test himself by the account 
 given of it. We have attached more such words than one 
 to a sound, the better to guard against error, and also that 
 the student may observe the identity of the sound in differ- 
 ent settings. 
 
 7. In practising any sound it must be dwelt on decisively, 
 to make sure that the true sound has been caught ; and 
 when caught it must be dwelt on and repeated to produce 
 familiarity and certainty. 
 
 8. In relation to distinctness of speech we hear the 
 counsel, l Look after the consonants ; the vowels will look 
 after themselves/ This is not too strong as to consonants, 
 but ruinous as to vowels. When a vowel sound begins or 
 ends a word, it has practically the effect of a consonant, and 
 wherever it occurs its clearness and purity are of the utmost 
 consequence in identifying the word. Besides, to give 
 every vowel sound true and distinct and full and sweet adds 
 a charm to speech, not to mention the part which vowels 
 have in expressing emotion. Mr Gladstone counselled 
 attention to the vowel sounds. Even when they have to be 
 given lightly and briefly they must be given correctly and 
 distinctly. 
 
 9. ' Other symbols ' throughout this Part do not include 
 such as are peculiar to a small number of words. 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS, 33 
 
 e as in eel, he, eve, weak, teem, p. 34. See under R p. 50. 
 
 i M ill, hilt, with, limp, sing, p. 35. n n 50. 
 
 e it ell, let, fled, them, peg, p. 36. .. n 50. 
 
 a ii ale, fate, way, gain, lade, p. 37. u n 50. 
 
 a u am, sad, tax, lamp, ask, p. 39. 
 
 a n ah, far, balm, heart, halve, p. 39. n M 52. 
 
 i n isle, life, fine, by, sight, p. 40. n 52. 
 
 u M ooze, pull, rude, moon, shoe, p. 41. u M 50. 
 
 u ii use, new, tune, few, due, p. 42. n n 50. 
 
 ti off, or, from, dog, got, p. 42. 
 
 01 n oil, boy, void, joy, noise, p. 44. M n 52. 
 o M oh, note, road, tone, woe, p. 44. n n 51. 
 u M us, Ur, rub, flood, turn, p. 45. 
 
 e (r) M erst, sir, her, first, nerve, p. 49. 
 
 ou n out, owl, how, vouch, noun, p. 46. n 52. 
 
 NOTES ON THE LIST. 
 
 1. Five of the foregoing will be found to be composite, 
 that is, composed of two of the other vowels spoken in succes- 
 sion quick as thought, but both heard (pp. 37, 40, 44, 46). 
 
 2. The page references point to the places where the vowel 
 sounds and the formations for them are explained, where 
 also will be found other letters or combinations that are in 
 use to symbolise the same sound. Among these we do not 
 include rare usages. For example, we do not give ai as 
 a symbol of e or of i though said is pronounced sed and 
 captain, captin. 
 
 3. Where this list gives two sounds of a, as in am and all, 
 some good authorities and dictionaries give three. Their 
 first is brought nearer to the sound of e in eZZ. That is, am 
 comes much nearer being em. And between their first and 
 third they give as samples ask, vast, bath. We are of those 
 who prefer two, partly because those who adopt three are not 
 agreed as to some words whether to give them the middle or 
 first place, and as to others whether their place is middle oi 
 
34 SPEAKING. 
 
 third ; but principally because of observing that the attempt 
 to use three leads to much the greater number of mispronun- 
 ciations, especially in mincing the first, and because the first 
 of the three is less resonant and effective in speech. 
 
 4. While this list, in accord with good authority, takes 
 the sound of u in urn and I/urn to be the same as in up and 
 but, there are some who class ur, even down to hurly-burly, 
 with her ; and on the other hand there are some who class 
 her and the like under the u of up. Of the two we should 
 prefer the latter. Together they may be taken as neutral- 
 ising each other and clearing the ground for those who, as in 
 this list, recognise a difference between such words as earn 
 and urn, fir and fur, pearl and purl, birch and lurch, kerb 
 and curb. 
 
 e as in eel. 
 
 Other symbols of this sound : ee, ea, ei, ey, ie, i, as in see, 
 lea, seize, key, niece, clique. 
 
 Formation: The tongue rises mound-shaped pressing its 
 sides against the upper teeth, and fitting the palate at a 
 point well forward so as to leave a very small passage at 
 the top for the air current. Its front (it has ' point ' only 
 when stretched out) retreats from the front teeth, and is 
 directed horizontally to guide the current out clear of them. 
 The lips are open from corner to corner. 
 
 Faults: (a) The front of the tongue touching above or 
 below, or the current striking the teeth, or the lips not suffi- 
 ciently open, makes the sound impure, (b) Tapering the 
 sound off into a breath when it concludes a word. It must 
 be kept vocal throughout, (c) Giving it impurely when the 
 word or syllable is to be lightly spoken. 
 
 See under E, p. 50. 
 
 Exercises : Eel, eke, eve, ease, east ; be, thee, we, lee, tea, 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 35 
 
 sea, see, three, the, 1 key, knee, quay ; been, bean, feel, field, 
 weed, beach, seize, scene, peace, piece, need, knead, leek, 
 leak, scream, theme, breathe, sheathe, leave, leaf, fleece, 
 thief, wreath, sweet, suite ; apiece, obese, police, fatigue, 
 relief, appeal, entreat ; reason, feeling, query, meagre, penal, 
 edict, teaching, feature, people; behold, below, beyond, 
 delay, detain, elide, evade, escape, educe, emit, beware, 
 debar, request, preserve, secure, return ; concrete, timepiece, 
 gangrene ; revisit, republic, velocity ; committee. 
 
 i as in ill. 
 
 Other symbol : y, as in lymph. 
 
 Formation : The tongue rises as for last sound, the closest 
 part of the air-passage between it and the palate being very 
 slightly farther back and very slightly opener. The chief 
 difference is that in this case the cavity behind the risen 
 part of the tongue is wider, giving a little more resonance. 
 
 Faults: (a) A tendency to the last sound e.g., dutee, 
 ceetee, keeng, keenydom. Let the student take other words 
 of the same form and sound which are hardly found wrong 
 and repeat them side by side with words liable to error, as 
 sing with king, (b) On the other hand there may be a 
 tendency to a way of sounding it which is common in Scotch, 
 of more body and hardness, and somewhat farther back in 
 the mouth than the true sound, (c) In some parts of Scot- 
 land, and in Ireland, the tendency is to u, as silk to sulk. 
 
 1 A young man came straight from his teacher of elocution saying, 
 1 Tlia [as in am] quality of mercy.' This is monstrous. Even in sing- 
 ing, where it may still be heard, it is inexcusable ; for surely * the ' is 
 as easily sung as 'he' or 'me.' When 'the' has any degree of em- 
 phasis, it must get the sound illustrated above ; at other times it may 
 either be the same sound briefer, or that of i in HI. 
 
36 SPEAKING. 
 
 (d) Another fault would seem to be an affectation, dute, cite 
 (the e of ell). 
 
 See under E, p. 50. 
 
 Exercises : 111, if, in, ink, is, it ; bid, dip, will, with, his, 
 gild, guild, width, fin, gin, midst, sin, hinge, kin, ring, 
 king, lift, drill, links, lynx; fiddle, vineyard, children, 
 kingdom, symbol, synod, widow, little, whisper, hyssop, 
 mirror, miracle, spirit, vigour ; cigar, direct, finance, divorce, 
 sincere; outbid, admit, fulfil, consist, enrich; acid, axis, 
 languish, holly, many, busy, lady, ladies, fancy, fancies, 
 needy, needing, sleepy, sleeping, profit, sheriff, furtive, facile, 
 justice, vestige, cowslip, bodkin, maxim. 
 
 e as in ell. 
 
 Other symbol : ea, as in health. 
 
 Formation : The closest part of the air-passage between the 
 tongue and the palate is farther back and is more open, and 
 the tongue is rather more withdrawn in front. The forma- 
 tion is about half way between ee and ah (pp. 34, 39) : the 
 top of the tongue-curve has now descended and receded till 
 it is nearly midway in the mouth, both vertically and from 
 front to back. 
 
 Faults : (a) One may at times hear a sound which, for ex- 
 ample, would almost give last instead of lest, or man instead 
 of men, by the formation being too far back in the mouth ; 
 but (b) there is very frequently to be heard the opposite 
 error produced by a formation too far forward. The sound 
 is difficult to describe, but it is a feeble thing, sometimes 
 almost the i of ill (yis for yes), sometimes a malformed a of 
 ale. The correct sound is heard in the Scotch het for Jiot, 
 and in the Latin rein. 
 
 See under E, p. 50. 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 37 
 
 Exercises : Ebb, edge, egg, elm, else, etch, elk ; bell, den, 
 men, get, set, shelf, pelf, fend, friend, wept, health, bred, 
 breath, test, check, debt ; helmet, tendril, tenure, merry, 
 very, berry, bury, ferry, emblem, pleasant, splendid, pedlar, 
 welkin, twenty, leopard, heather, empire, extract, enter, 
 ebon ; endow, extreme, emboss, estate ; intrench, forget, 
 gazette, instead, infect, bereft, unless, confess ; noted, 
 weeded, slighted, folded, hopest, lovest, prayeth, thinketh, 
 feareth, useless, reckless, speechless, witness, madness, stiff- 
 ness, soreness, figment, ailment, wicked, conscience, prophet, 
 trammel, magnet, ancient. 
 
 a as in ale. 
 
 Other symbols: ea, ai, ei, ay, ey, as in break, aim, rein, 
 day, obey. 
 
 Formation : This sound is composite. Its parts are e 
 as in ell followed by e as in eel. Utter both sounds 
 distinctly in succession, and again with less break between 
 them, and finally with continuous voice. The latter sound 
 is never to be omitted even in the very shortest utterance, 
 though proportionately short. 
 
 Note. According to the classing of some we should have 
 taken this sound before the e of ell instead of after it, as 
 being a trifle farther forward in the mouth. But this is true 
 only of its middle and latter part : taking the beginning and 
 radical part of it as the e of ell, it is more scientific to place 
 it here after the study of that sound, and certainly this is 
 also more convenient for the student. 
 
 Faults : (a) Omission of the ee element. This element is 
 unknown in Scotch, and therefore in Scotland this vowel- 
 sound has almost always to be acquired. (&) The mere pro- 
 longation of the first part of the composite sound, becoming 
 
38 SPEAKING. 
 
 feebler as it proceeds. (c) A single sound intermediate 
 between the sounds of the two component parts, a sort of 
 compromise, (d) In England a very prevalent fault is to 
 substitute for this sound one which is often scarcely dis- 
 tinguishable from the i of isle, being only a little more 
 forward in the mouth e.g., wife, lidy, for wait, lady. 
 See under R, p. 50. 
 
 Exercises: Distinguish by utterance between the words 
 in each of the following pairs : Ell, ail ; bell, bale; bled, blade; 
 bred, braid ; cell, sale ; dell, dale ; den, Dane ; edge, age ; fell, fail ; 
 fen, fane ; get, gate ; ken, cane ; lens, lanes ; let, late ; men, main ; 
 knell, nail ; pen, pain ; pent, paint ; quell, quail ; red, raid ; tell, tail ; 
 wren, rain ; wreck, rake ; speck, spake ; sped, spade ; set, sate ; tent, 
 taint ; tread, trade ; test, taste ; west, waste ; well, wail ; wed, wade. 
 
 Aim, ate, ape, ace, eight, ale, age ; amen, 1 azure, aching, 
 ably ; way, pray, bay, day, say, clay, grey, weigh ; spake, 
 same, mate, rein, bail, babe, wane, grace, lame, bathe, knave, 
 reign, quake, straight, safe, save, take, vain, plague; wafer, 
 hatred, eighteen, lady, praying, faithful, saviour, gracious, 
 stranger, nation, cradle, plaintive, naked, pathos, favour, 
 razor, shadeless, baneful, hailstone, flagrant ; dismay, portray, 
 decay, inveigh, affray, obey ; engage, exhale, degrade, retail, 
 complain, defame, assail, pervade, sustain, assuage, partake, 
 relate, forsake, deface, behave ; pottage, preface, dotage, 
 
 1 An English rector recently from Oxford says ' amen ' is only pro- 
 nounced ' ah-men ' in singing ; when said by the minister alone, or 
 read from Scripture, it is pronounced as above. On the other hand, a 
 canon of Westminster says that, even in reading, ' ah-men ' is coming 
 in, and that when it is spoken in prayer by the minister alone most 
 say 'ah-men.' The inference seems to be that the practice differs in 
 different parts. The origin of the word is of no account : English 
 takes its own way with the words it adopts. The ah sound docs not 
 seem the natural expression of a confiding spirit (p. 148). Certainly it 
 cannot be so spoken as to excel the other in beauty or appropriate 
 expressiveness. Whichever is called for by usage, let pains be taken 
 to speak it as it ought to be spoken. 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 39 
 
 palace, homage, portrait, herbage, mortgage, terrace, agate, 
 surface, salvage, sulphate, headache ; oblation, consolation, 
 acquaintance, education, equator, potato, approbation, dis- 
 sipation, retaining, bewailing, defamer. 
 
 a as in am. 
 
 Formation: The changes are still a little farther in the 
 same direction. The top of the tongue curve is about the 
 middle of the mouth ; the tongue also, being now a little 
 hollowed along its posterior half, shapes itself there rather to 
 the floor than the roof of the mouth. There is a wider cavity 
 behind, giving more resonance. 
 
 Faults : In Scotch the only sound of this kind is nearer 
 to the next sound than to this, and the attempt to give this 
 is apt in Scotland to be carried too far with the effect of 
 mincing affectation which is a fault also of some English- 
 men without the excuse. 
 
 See. note 3, p. 33. 
 
 Exercises: Add, am, ant, as, at, act, ask, axe; bad, bat, 
 can, fact, gag, hand, hang, lap, man, nap, pat, stamp, van, 
 waft, wax, last, mast, past ; arrow, anthem, atom, album, 
 adverb ; fragile, gander, quagmire, carriage, marriage, magic, 
 napkin, placid, satchel, rabid, matin ; withstand, romance, 
 despatch, protract; extra, woman, upland, combat. 
 
 a as in ah. 
 
 Formation : The tongue is flat in the floor of the mouth 
 within the teeth, and wholly covers it. 
 
 Faults : (a) One tendency is in the direction of the last 
 sound, robbing the language of the fine effective character of 
 this sound. (6) Another is to give it in some words the 
 
40 SPEAKING. 
 
 sound of aw. (c) Again, such words as card, guaid, garden, 
 may be heard as cyard, gyard, and gyafden, the explanation 
 of which evidently is that, this a being formed in the mouth 
 farther back than c (k) and g (p. 61), the correct speaker goes 
 back from c and g to pick up a, and this produces a nice 
 effect which others attempt in vain to imitate by the easier 
 method of inserting y, often also following it with a more 
 forward sound of the vowel. 
 
 Notandum: This is generally the sound of a before r and 
 another consonant, or r final ; and almost always before Im. 
 If, Ive, when Z is silent. 
 
 See note 3, p. 33. 
 
 Exercises : Arch, art, alms, arm, are ; far, mar, bark, carp, 
 clerk, dart, heart, march, marsh, park, start, charge, can't, 
 calf, halve, palm, psalm, qualm, laugh, bah, balm ; cartridge, 
 partner, tartan, farthing, father, garden, bargain, darkness, 
 hearken, marvel, starling ; debar, enlarge, disarm, remark, 
 becalm, mamma, papa ; lunar, monarch, niggard, dotard, 
 sugar, wizard, haggard. 
 
 i as in isle. 
 
 Other symbol : y, as in try. 
 
 Formation : This sound is composite. Its parts are a as in 
 ah and e as in eel the tongue ascending from the one 
 position to the other. Utter both sounds distinctly in suc- 
 cession, and again with less break between them, and finally 
 with continuous voice. The ah portion, though abruptly 
 uttered, should have its true sound. 
 
 Faults: (a) The fault explained in '(c)' under last 
 vowel, producing <jyide for yuid-e, &c. (b) A tendency in Scot- 
 land and Ireland to substitute for ah some sound farther 
 forward in the mouth a fault having the same origin as 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 41 
 
 the last. The result is that life becomes something like 
 ieyfe. (c) A less common fault is to put i as in ill for the 
 element ee. 
 
 See under K, p. 51. 
 
 Exercises : I, ice, ides, isle ; item, idol, idle, idyl, ivy ; my, 1 
 mine, die, fly, rye, shy, thy, tie, lie, try, thigh, sky, by; 
 bite, gripe, knife, knives, like, size, scythe, type, write, right, 
 smile, mind, crime, vile, drive, wife, wives, wise ; riot, pious, 
 wily, grinder, mitre, mighty, nightly, whiteness, silent, spider, 
 libel, trial, triumph, lifeless, lion, giant ; rely, defy, abide, 
 divine, behind, alive, astride, arise, betimes, oblige, alike, 
 confide, assize, concise, supply, aside, disciple ; gadfly, up- 
 right, contrite, pastime, outline. 
 
 u as in pull, ooze. 
 
 Other symbols : o, oo, ou, oe, eio, ue, as in do, cool, would, 
 shoe, threw, true. 
 
 Formation : The back of the tongue rises rapidly to leave 
 a small air-passage between it and the palate, the rest of 
 the tongue being depressed and retracted. The lips are 
 closer than for any other vowel, but are no less than a 
 quarter of an inch apart, and though they are together at 
 the corners it is but for a little way. Of the teeth see p. 17. 
 
 Faults: (a) Projecting the lips or forming them into a 
 circular opening. A discriminating ear easily discerns the 
 inferior character of the sound so produced, not to speak 
 of what is becoming in appearance and convenient in execu- 
 tion, (b) Tapering off into a breath when it ends a word. 
 (c) In Ireland a sound composed of oo and ee, or a compro- 
 
 1 My and mine require perhaps more than other words to be spoken 
 with varying degrees of weight or lightness ; and when the lightest 
 degree of all is sought the vowel sound is changed to that of i in iLU 
 
42 SPEAKING. 
 
 mise between them ; against which keep the raised part of 
 the tongue back, and the lips as above directed. 
 See under E, p. 50. 
 
 Exercises: Ooze, do, crew, true, two, too, rue, through, 
 screw, blew; boot, croup, fruit, good, goose, choose, move, 
 crude, noon, prove, rule, school, wound, tool ; bullet, bosom, 
 cushion, footman, pulley, ruthless, woman, frugal, gloomy, 
 truism, scruple ; fulfil, rupee ; undo, accrue, reprove, reproof, 
 saloon , manhood, unto, handful, lawful. 
 
 u as in use. 
 
 Other symbols : ew, eu, ue, as in dew, feu, hue. 
 
 Formation: This sound is composed of the articulative 
 action of y (see p. 71) and the last sound, oo. It is yoo. 
 
 Fault : A tendency to omit the y when the sound is in a 
 position which makes correctness less easy, as in elusive, con- 
 sume, and the second syllable of usury. See p. 65. 
 
 See under R, p. 50. 
 
 Exercises : Use, union, ewe ; dew, new, few, view, due, 
 lieu, hue ; tune, lute, pule, fume ; ewer, feudal, euchre, 
 duty, beauty, futile ; unite, humane, superb ; creature, cur- 
 few, deluge, refuge ; renew, adieu, pursue, mature, conclude, 
 acute, induce, confuse, consume ; usury, treasury, penury. 
 
 o as in off, cn\ 
 
 Other symbols: ou, a, au, aw, as in ought, ichat, aught, 
 awl. 
 
 Formation : The raised part of the tongue is rather lower 
 and more forward. The lips are more apart, and their open- 
 ing slightly oval. 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 43 
 
 Faults : (a) It seems to be an affectation of smart pronun- 
 ciation which leads to such blemishes as ' the culleges of 
 Scuttland,' 'schullars,' ' cunscience/ &c. (b) Other devia- 
 tions from the true sound arise from the lips being contracted, 
 projected, or otherwise misplaced. 
 
 Notanda : (a) When this o is followed by r it is gener- 
 ally somewhat longer 1 e.g., compare not and nor ; so also 
 when it is represented by 'other symbols' e.g., compare 
 not and nought, on and awn. But this is by no means 
 always so e.g., the first syllable of forlorn is quite short, 
 and what is as short as not. 
 
 (b) Some may question the identity of sound between 
 this o and the 'other symbols. 7 The ' Century Dictionary' 
 says the sound in fall, talk, naught is practically identical 
 with that in nor, song, off. It finds indeed a different 
 sound in not, on, frog, but admits that the dividing line is 
 variable, and that there is a growing tendency to turn this 
 sound into the other. We do not trouble our readers with 
 distinctions so exceedingly fine and doubtful. Other author- 
 ities give them as the same without remark. Bell says 
 the only difference is that these other symbols have, so to 
 speak, more of the sound of the organs, while o has little 
 of this because of its wider resonance cavity. Those views 
 will be verified if a word is spoken, and its vowel caught 
 and sounded without the consonants. 
 
 Exercises : Odd, off, or, all, on, ought, aught, awe, awl ; 
 chalk, bought, brought, talk, for, frost, short, knock, taught, 
 
 1 In the divine name, God, also it is pronounced in reverence some- 
 what longer that is, the same as odd, but rather longer. It is shame- 
 ful that some ministers should offend their hearers by Gad and Gud. 
 So also we recently heard one from beginning to end say Lurd, finishing 
 with a snap which would not even be applied to curd ; and it may 
 even be heard as Lud. The sound of this name is either the same as 
 or somewhat lengthened, or as the o in oh when followed by r, for 
 which see p. 51. 
 
44 SPEAKING. 
 
 thought, broad, sauce, want, lodge, chord, what, bald, crawl, 
 laud, fawn, call, soft, shock ; saw, claw ; orange, organ, author, 
 awkward, ornate, altar, octave, osprey, office, audience, olive, 
 option, auction, always, goblet, water, daughter, moral, 
 porridge, halting, twaddle, solace, wassail ; offend, oblique, 
 forget, consign, quadroon, pollute. 
 
 oi as in oil. 
 
 Other symbol : oy, as in loy. 
 
 Formation: This is composed of o as in off and i as in 
 ill. It is not so fluent as the composites already considered, 
 because in their case the formation for the first sound 
 passes to that for the second more easily than the formation 
 for o to that for i. 
 
 See under E, p. 52. 
 
 Exercises : Joy, cloy, troy ; boil, void, noise, toys, voice, 
 choice, joint, loin, soil ; joyous, royal, boyish, boiler, joiner, 
 toilsome, spoiler, moisture, oily, oyster, cloister, coinage ; 
 annoy, employ, destroy, enjoy, recoil, adjoin, avoid ; cycloid, 
 envoy, rhomboid. 
 
 o as in oh. 
 
 Other symbols : oa, ou, ow, as in load, though, low. 
 
 Formation : This sound is composite. Its first part is the 
 o in off (p. 42) and the other is oo. Utter the two distinctly, 
 then with less break between them, and finally with continu- 
 ous voice. It need scarcely be said that the final sound is 
 short and swift, but it is always really heard. 
 
 Faults : (a) Omission of the oo element. This element is 
 unknown in Scotch, and in Scotland therefore this sound has 
 almost always to be acquired. (I) Failure to speak one or 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 45 
 
 other of the elements correctly, or to give to each its due 
 share, (e) Giving a single compromise sound, (d) Begin- 
 ning the sound with ah for o, e.g., for hole saying howl. 
 
 Exercises : Distinguish by utterance between the words in 
 each of the following pairs : Blot, bloat ; bald, bold ; bought, 
 boat ; call, coal ; chalk, choke ; con, cone ; cot, coat ; clause, close , 
 dot, dote ; got, goat ; hop, hope ; laud, load ; law, lo ; lot, lote ; mop, 
 mope ; not, note ; odd, ode ; ought, oat ; pock, poke ; raw, row ; rod, 
 road ; saw, sow ; sock, soak ; smock, smoke ; sop, soap ; top, tope ; 
 wrought, wrote ; fox, folks ; rob, robe ; cost, coast ; ox, oaks. 
 
 Owe, old, own, oak ; go, sew, show, dough, foe, ho, no, 
 know, snow, throe, throw, roe ; note, hope, folk, coat, coach, 
 road, rode, host, gross, quote, soul, scope, rose, vote, colt, 
 yoke, yolk, won't, sloth, blown, droll, fold, drove, throne, 
 tone, vogue, knoll, toll ; omen, only, open, owing, oval, 
 odour, overt; locust, motive, notice, vocal, molten, sober, 
 potent, rotate, moment, frozen, Eoman, froward ; bestow, 
 ago, plateau, although, below, atone, dispose, approach, 
 devote, engross ; cargo, echo, also, trio, tyro, negro, quarto, 
 furlough, thorough, sorrow, meadow, billow, threshold, two- 
 fold, utmost, tadpole ; profane, police, romance, oblige, pro- 
 fess, brocade ; harmonious, opprobrious, encomium, diplo- 
 macy, matrimonial ; botanic, vocation, insolent, immolate, 
 panoply, annotate, eloquent. 
 
 U as in its. 
 
 Other symbols : o, oo, ou, io, eo, as in son, food, rough, and 
 the terminations ous, ion, eon. 
 
 Formation : The raised part of the tongue is rather lower 
 and more forward, and the lips more apart. 
 
 Faults : (a) It seems too obvious for remark that error is 
 to be heard both in a tendency towards o on the one hand 
 
46 SPEAKING. 
 
 and ah on the other ; but the remark may put some on their 
 guard. The effects of both tendencies are by no means rare, 
 and never pleasant, (b) Some in presence of r practically 
 discard the vowel e.g., chrch for church. They do the same 
 also with what we have called the B, vowel, p. 49. 
 See remarks, p. 34. 
 
 Exercises : Up, urn, us ; but, bud, cup, fur, purse, churn, 
 come, monk, dust, dost, doth, rush, sun, son, stun, ton, bust, 
 pulp, tough, dove, won, wont, work, lurk, spur, word, worse ; 
 uncle, unction, utter, usher, unto, utmost, umpire ; butter, 
 honey, nothing, combat, comfort, country, crumple, monkey, 
 puncture, brother ; abrupt, percuss, consult, enough ; freedom, 1 
 fathom, custom, kingdom ; apron, melon, wanton, London ; 
 gracious, anxious, conscious, righteous ; fashion, motion, 
 pension, vision ; scutcheon, truncheon, luncheon, dungeon. 
 
 oil, ow as in out, owl. 
 
 This sound is composite. Its first part is ah, and the 
 other oo. For its utterance, see directions for previous 
 composites (pp. 37, 40, 44). 
 
 Faults: Errors are frequent, arising from not giving the 
 true ah t but a sound more forward in the mouth ; and also 
 from making the whole a compromise between the parts. 
 
 Exercises: Oust, ounce; cow, how, now, thou, plough, 
 bough, prow, vow, brow ; browse, bound, count, drown, 
 fowl, ground, house, lout, mouse, noun, proud, rout, scowl, 
 town, bout, cloud, down, frown, grouse, gown, howl, loud, 
 
 1 Some dictionaries mark almost all endings in ora and on to be pro- 
 nounced with the sound of o ; but this is not the practice of good 
 speakers, a practice which extends to the o in of pronounced uv, v 
 being a better sequence to u than /. As to o silent in on, see p. 81. 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 47 
 
 mound, south, trout ; power, vowel, coward, dowry, county, 
 fountain, council, outline, cloudy ; endow, avow, avouch, 
 resound, profound ; outshine, ourselves, outlive. 
 See under R, p. 52. 
 
 R with its vowel effects. 
 
 'Abhor the practice of some men who will not bring out 
 the letter r.' So spake Spurgeon to his students an Eng- 
 lishman to Englishmen. Much more forcibly the words 
 apply where the bringing out of the letter may be said to be 
 national, arid where the attempt to do otherwise is always a 
 failure which cannot be hid. 
 
 Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, the dignity, 
 grace, and beauty of whose speech never failed to make a 
 deep impression upon all who were privileged to hear it, gave 
 full eilect to this articulation. 
 
 Until we have treated of r we have not completed our 
 study of vowels, for many of them have their character 
 changed by it. 
 
 Formation : The front edge of the tongue touches lightly 
 the palate or gum, and the rapid repetition of this obstructive 
 touch alternating with slightly explosive separations con- 
 stitutes the trill or vibratory articulation. 
 
 Where the art of producing this articulation has yet to be 
 acquired the simplest method is to place the front edge of 
 the tongue firmly against the gum, and in the first instance 
 detach it with completed percussive separation as for the 
 letter t (p. 58) ; next, instead of completing this percussion 
 let an attempt be made to interrupt it midway by the return 
 of the tongue. If not at once, this will after trial produce a 
 sort of blurred, ragged percussion, which can soon be made 
 a line, clear, regular trill, continuable as long as a breath 
 
 D 
 
48 SPEAKING. 
 
 lasts. Place the blade of a knife to half its length flat upon 
 the table with the handle projecting over the side ; keep the 
 blade firmly to the table, lift the handle a little and let it 
 go : the less noisy vibrations produced give a very good idea 
 of the sound of r, and the manner of producing it. This 
 must first be mastered by the tongue and executed with 
 ease and pleasure, unaccompanied by any vowel sound pre- 
 ceding or following it. 
 
 The next step is to affix a vowel. The student first trills 
 the r independently, as if no vowel was in view, then stops 
 the r and gives the vowel. When he can do this easily he 
 will soon learn to bring the two together. Likewise with a 
 vowel preceding r he will give the vowel as if no r was in 
 view, will finish this, and then start the r as if there had 
 been no vowel. The vowel and r must never encioach on, 
 or run into, one another, as may be noticed in some mal- 
 formations. There must be patient, outspoken practice in 
 private. 
 
 Faults: R is subjected to many malformations generally 
 producing some variety of burr. One advice covers all 
 revise the formation. In the ' Northumbrian burr ' the uvula 
 vibrates instead of the front of the tongue. This may be 
 seen in the glass during the prolonged utterance of, say, are. 
 In other faults the sides of the tongue vibrate. Again w is 
 substituted for r, as when one tells us that he is ' weally vewy 
 gwateful.' 
 
 Notandum : When the first letter of a word, r is a mere 
 articulation like other consonants, and generally also when it 
 stands between two vowel sounds, unless the prior one is 
 long. For its effects in other positions see pp. 49-52, 34 (4). 
 
 Exei'dses : Reed, reef, reel, ream, reap, wreathe ; red, rest, 
 wretch ; rid, rill, rim, wrist ; rage, rain, raise ; rack, rash, 
 rat, rap ; rod, rock ; wrote, roll ; rub, run, rut ; ride, write, 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 49 
 
 rule, roost, round, rout ; car, for, war, fur ; arm, hurt, course, 
 furl ; dream, fruit, pride, strain.; regent, random, rival ; 
 romance, repose, routine ; spirit, lurid, sorry, very, carpet, in- 
 road; arise, forsook, abrupt; concur, afar; pastor, favour. 
 
 The R vowel, as in her and sir. 
 
 There is a vowel sound which we have ventured to call 
 ' the K vowel ' because it has no existence independent of 
 r. It is represented in the e of ell and the i of ill (and 
 their substitutes), along with r final or followed by another 
 consonant. 
 
 Formation : The formation falls between that for ah and 
 the u of up (and ur), and the sound is between those sounds. 
 Give attention first to the one and then to the other in 
 respect both to their formation and their sound, and then 
 aim at an intermediate sound. It probably came into 
 existence for greater euphony, body, and resonance. Her 
 and sir, for example, would have been unsatisfactory, if 
 pronounced with the sounds of hem and sit. 
 
 Faults : (a) A very common fault is to substitute for this 
 a trifling sound so far forward in the mouth that it disap- 
 pears among the consonants ; for example, we hear frst, vrse, 
 chaptr, for first, verse, chapter, (b) On the other hand, in 
 certain words some make it too much the sound of ah. 
 
 Exercises : Err, earn, earth, erst, earl ; her, stir, myrrh, 
 birth, berth, firm, germ, dearth, first, thirst, girl, girth, 
 mirth, swerve, skirt, jerk, perk, dirk, terse, verse, herd, 
 heard, verge, verb ; early, earnest, ermine, ergot, irksome, 
 mercy, circle, girdle, virtue, merlin, learning, person, ner- 
 vous, fervent, virgin, hermit, sirloin, vernal, servant; older, 
 younger, higher, lower, wiser, eager, otter, lover, mover, 
 fisher, owner, other, brother, chapter, acre, sabre, payer, 
 
50 SPEAKING. 
 
 weigher, martyr, zephyr, fibre, nitre, neuter; persist, per- 
 form, verbose, perhaps, pervade; infer, perverse, convert, 
 alert, exert, invert. 
 
 The R glide. 
 
 When a vowel is long before r, there is inserted between 
 it and the r a vowel sound which is a subdued version of the 
 R vowel. It has no symbol. It forms a glide or bridge 
 between the long vowel and the trill of the r, and is com- 
 monly (and conveniently) called the E glide. 
 
 Being the E vowel, though lightened, it is formed farther 
 back in the mouth than any other save ah. And as it 
 is not so easy to pass backward in the mouth from one 
 sound to another as forward, those who grow up without this 
 sound, as almost all Scotsmen do, rarely take the necessary 
 pains to acquire it, and consequently follow various other 
 uncultured ways. Some omit the glide, as in Scotch, for 
 example pronouncing cheerful, surely, there, with no vowel 
 sound but ee, u, e, instead of cheexrful, su*re!y, the*re. 
 Some, on the contrary, omit the vowel of the word, and 
 give a compromise between it and the glide, savouring 
 most of the glide, saying cherful and shorty (or some such 
 sound). The word's own vowel sound must in every case 
 be clearly heard before the glide sound, and this latter 
 must always be back in its proper place. 
 
 Exercises 1. With e as in eel : Cheer, fear, here, dear, 
 we're, peer, pier, rear, bier, sphere ; appear, adhere ; fearful, cheerful, 
 leering, tearless, weary, zero, yearly, merely, hearsay ; hemisphere. 
 
 2. With 00 (or yoo) : Moor, poor, pure, your, tour, sure, lure, 
 boor, cure ; ensure, mature ; purely, poorly ; epicure, sinecure. 
 
 3. With e as in ell : Ere, there, e'er, heir, bear, wear, nowhere. 
 
 4. With a as in ale (p. 37) : As this composite sound 
 ends in ee, the glide added to it would make three sounds, 
 Instead of this the ee is dropped, leaving only the radical 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 51 
 
 part, e as in ell, so that words under this head are pro- 
 nounced the same as those under last head : Air, bare, care, 
 dare, fair, hair, lair, mare, pair, rare, stair, share, square; prepare, 
 compare, declare ; rarely, barely, fairly ; welfare, hardware. 
 
 When dictionaries refer to the a of ale, fate, &c., for the 
 pronunciation of such words, they should explain (as has 
 been done here) that the ee with which that vowel ends is 
 dropped. Such words as payer, weigher, layer, are dissyl- 
 labic, and the r affects only the e of its own syllable, making 
 it the R vowel. 
 
 5. With o as in oh (p. 44) : All the remarks on the last 
 composite sound apply to this, but when the oo has been 
 dropped the remaining radical part (the o of off or or) is 
 modified by being pronounced slightly more forward in the 
 mouth. As to whether the vowel sound in any word is this 
 with the K glide, or whether it is the harder and bare sound 
 of for, nor, without the glide, the student must consult the 
 dictionary. Of this latter sort are such as for, war, born, 
 horse, short ; of the other, fore, wore, borne, hoarse, shorn ; bore, 
 core, door, four, hoar, lore, more, pour, floor, roar, sore, tore, oar ; 
 board, cord, court, course, coarse, force, forge, fort, forth, gorge, 
 gourd, board, lord, mourn, port, pork, porch, sword, torn, worn; 
 chorus, foresight, porter, courteous, portion, story, portrait ; dis- 
 course, support, exhort, divorce, afford, report, adore, implore ; fore- 
 know, forewarn ; folklore, landlord, sea-board. 
 
 This kind dictionaries generally denote by reference to the 
 sound of note or tone, and, as mentioned under last (4) 
 vowel, without the necessary explanation. The glide is 
 not heard so distinctly in words under the present head as 
 under the last, because it is more like the sound of the 
 vowel itself ; and in syllables which are not final it is barely 
 distinguishable. Such words as blower, sower, mower, goer, 
 are dissyllables, and the r affects only its own syllable, mak- 
 ing e the R vowel. 
 
 6. With i as in isle (p. 40) : This composite ends in ee, 
 
52 SPEAKING. 
 
 and the three sounds produced by the addition of the glide 
 are maintained (e.g., ire is in full ah^er). Colloquially, 
 however, to make the effect as monosyllabic as possible, 
 the ee frequently becomes a sound like e of ell. Exercises : 
 Ire, dire, fire, byre, brier, hire, lyre, mire, choir, pyre, sire, squire, 
 wire ; admire, conspire, require, retire ; wiry, fiery ; iron, Irish ; 
 empire, vampire, samphire, wildfire. 
 
 7. With ou, ow, as in out, owl (p. 46) : Here also the 
 three sounds created by the addition of the glide are main- 
 tained, our being in full ahooer, though colloquially the oo 
 is toned down into an sound. Exercises : Bower, cower, dower, 
 flower, flour, hour, power, scour, sour, shower, tower ; dowry, flowery, 
 hourly, powerful ; empower, devour. 
 
 8. With oij oy : The addition of the glide to this either 
 changes it into the composite i of isle e.g., choir becomes 
 quire, and is treated accordingly (see under 6) ; or else forms 
 an additional syllable, as in employ-er. 
 
 9. Though the sound of a as in ah is generally spoken 
 long before r, there is no place for the glide. It is not only 
 farther back than the glide sound, but is almost the same 
 sound. 
 
 B misused. 
 
 Among certain classes of the English, and in some parts 
 of America, the a of am, or of ah, when it concludes a word, 
 is frequently ended with r (idear). The usual explanation 
 is to the effect that r is introduced as a stepping-stone to the 
 next word when it begins with a vowel. But another ex- 
 planation must be found, for in the first place it does not 
 account for the selection of this particular stepping-stone, 
 and further the practice holds though the next word does 
 not begin with a vowel, and where no word follows at all. 
 In America it is probably an importation from England. In 
 England the practice may be accounted for by the manner in 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 53 
 
 which r is ordinarily treated. When it is the last letter of 
 a word it is practically disregarded, and the word is made to 
 end with a sound which is very much the same as ah. The 
 multitude are better acquainted with what they hear in 
 speech than what they see in print. It is but natural, 
 therefore, that they should be ignorant as to when final a 
 has an r and when it wants it, and that they should speak 
 as if r were a thing to be used or omitted according to fancy 
 and effect. If the fashionable Englishman will observe his 
 own pronunciation of so far (so fah), he will see little 
 occasion to smile at his servant's pronunciation of sofa 
 (sofar). There is little to chose between them. It is an 
 illustration, and others might be given, of the devious paths 
 into which indistinctness and indecisiveness in the use of 
 sounds may lead. 
 
 Formation : The mouth takes shape for the vowel that is 
 to follow h. One unbroken expiration driven straight from 
 the lungs produces both h and the vowel. The beginning of 
 it is passed unvocally (that is without causing vibration) 
 through the vocal cords, and produces h in an inexplosive 
 breathy sound ; and the rest of it passes vocally, producing 
 the vowel. The first part of it is not mere breathing : to 
 change breathing into h, intention operates on the organs to 
 produce accumulation and intensification of breathing ; nor 
 is it properly a whisper a whisper originates in a rustling 
 sound produced by the cords. 
 
 Faults : (a) It is obvious that there is unusual need for 
 guarding against waste of breath in proceeding to the 
 delivery of this articulation. (b) A frequent error is to 
 make a slight break between the unvocal and the vocal part 
 making as it were a new start with the vowel, (c) Some 
 
54 SPEAKING. 
 
 have an offensive habit of trying to give force to h by a sort 
 of vocal preliminary like oo : u hear, "help, "horrible. 
 
 Exercises : Heed, heave, hill, hymn, hem, him, hum, 
 haste, hot, hold, home, hard, hood, harp, horse, hive, hint, 
 help, hurt, hind ; heinous, homely, haughty, humble, heather, 
 helmet, hinder, human; behold, behest, enhance, perhaps, 
 cohere, exhale; forehand, somehow, foothold. 
 
 MEMORANDA ON ARTICULATIONS. 
 
 There are several things which it will save repetition, 
 and be otherwise of advantage, to explain here once for all 
 regarding articulations and their consonant symbols. See 
 also ' Articulation,' p. 18. 
 
 1. Every mere breath articulation has a corresponding 
 voice articulation. They have the same formation for their 
 production ; but the former is voiceless throughout, while 
 the latter is not quite voiceless during the obstruction be- 
 cause there is a suppressed sound, the intentional result of 
 an effort to produce voice. For the voice articulation the 
 vocal cords are made to vibrate by the passage of the air 
 till it has filled, and is compressed in, the mouth and pharynx 
 (the distending pharynx may be easily felt outside) ; and 
 the experimenter will find that when this distension is com- 
 plete he can produce no more sound, for the simple reason 
 that no more air current can come through the cords. For 
 example, for the breath articulation p the lips are firmly 
 closed and air comes voicelessly and is compressed behind 
 them, and the only sound of the articulation is the explosive 
 emission of this air by the manner of separating the lips 
 and the natural contraction of the pharynx. For b every- 
 thing is exactly the same, with the addition of sound (the 
 result of an attempt at voice) produced during the momen- 
 tary gathering of the compressed air. In practising this, care 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 55 
 
 must be taken (by compressing them if necessary) that the 
 sound does not escape through the nostrils. 
 
 2. In acquiring the art of uttering the articulations none 
 should be attempted as part of a word until it has been 
 practised by itself and then as preceded by a single vowel, 
 and uttered with perfect ease. 
 
 3. The sound of a consonants name must not be con- 
 founded with its own sound. Bee is only the name of b, not 
 the pronunciation of it, for which see below under that letter. 
 
 4. Even if it be the same consonant which ends a word 
 and begins the next, both are given distinctly, unless in an 
 unimportant phrase or in light colloquial speech. 
 
 5. In final articulations one may hear in lieu of the 
 explosive breath what is really an additional syllable and- 
 eh, lut-eh. This is an intolerable blemish. The explosive 
 element is an inseparable part of the consonant, and in 
 continuous speech should without hiatus be felt in the 
 finished distinctness with which the word concludes. This 
 is an art to be attained only by much practice, beginning 
 with single words. 
 
 6. Even in articulations where the obstruction is not 
 complete, that is, when a prescribed emission of breath 
 during obstruction forms part of an articulation (as in / or 
 in), there is yet a sufficient amount of compressed air to 
 finish with a palpable degree of explosiveness. 
 
 7. When an articulation precedes a vowel sound in the 
 same word its explosive finish commences the discharge of 
 the vowel ; preceding a consonant it, with few exceptions, 
 stops short of the explosive finish. 
 
 8. A double consonant is generally given as a single ; but 
 when otherwise (e.g., wholly, meanness, oneness, missent) the 
 first, as in last paragraph, stops short of the explosive finish. 
 
 9. Under 'Faults' many are unnoted, among them the 
 slovenly use, or unauthorised dropping, of consonants. 
 
56 SPEAKING. 
 
 P, B, M. 
 
 These represent three corresponding articulations breath, 
 vocal, and vocal-nasal respectively. 
 
 Formation: The lips are closed (in natural shape) and the 
 breath compressed behind them ; they are then opened 
 abruptly and from corner to corner, the breath being emitted 
 with distinct explosiveness. Obstruction by the closed lipg 
 must be complete arid firm. 
 
 Faults : (a) Defective closing of the lips, which leads to 
 a sound like/, (b) Heavy action of the lips, impairing ex- 
 plosiveness and audibility, (c) The closing of the lips made 
 audible by too much force : though the closing must be 
 complete, all the force and audibility is for the opening. 
 
 Notanda : (a) When p is followed by one of its own 
 relatives (6, m) in the same word, it is not finished explo- 
 sively, but is only a stop of the voice as in upbind, up- 
 braid, topmast, upmost ; but a good speaker leaves no doubt 
 that the letter is p. (b) Initial p is silent before all con- 
 sonants except Z and r e.g., psalm, pneumatic, ptarmigan. 
 
 Exercises: Deep, sleep, lip, trip, step, ape, gape, cap, sap, 
 coop, loop, roup, wipe, snipe, cup, sop, hope, soap, help, 
 clasp, lamp, chirp ; pea, pie, paw, pew ; peace, peal, pin, 
 page, pale, pond, pore, pound, pile, pull, put, pure; plea, 
 play, ply, plough, plod, plague, plum, pledge, plight ; pray, 
 praise, prank, proud, prove ; spare, splice, spread ; whips, 
 grapes, wept, leaped, tempt, nipped ; simple, open, ripple, 
 happen, trample ; peevish, porter, plaster, province ; percuss, 
 pretend, parole, patrol ; reaping, happy, viper, haply, upright, 
 chapter, knapsack, compass, torpid ; repay, superb, upbraid, 
 compose ; mishap, unripe ; worship, bishop, stirrup. 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 57 
 
 (2) B. 
 
 Formation : This articulation is p with a vocal quality ; 
 and the formation is the same, with the addition of the 
 action required to give that quality as explained p. 54. 
 
 Faults : These are of the same kind as in the case of p. 
 
 Notanda: (a) When b is followed by its relative m in 
 the same word, as in cabman, it is not finished by separation 
 of the lips, but before n it should be distinctly finished, as 
 in abnormal, (b) b is silent in the final combinations mb 
 and bt, as in limb, doubt. 
 
 Exercises: Crib, rib, web, stab, garb, verb, cub, rob, robe, 
 tube ; be, bay, bah, by, bow, boy ; been, bail, bead, bet, 
 bend, bait, bane, bag, band, bar, barge, bide, bird, berth, bud, 
 bought, balk, bond, born, boot, booth ; black, blow, bleed, 
 blame, blind, block, breed, breath, brink, bride, broke, broom ; 
 ribs, tubes, robed, grabbed ; feeble, able ; borrow, beauty, 
 bracing ; bedeck, blockade, brigade ; lobby, debit, sober, 
 zebra, tablet, fibrous, combat, morbid, emblem ; abide, debate, 
 abroad, subtract, imbue, disburse ; ascribe, disturb ; ward- 
 robe, adverb. 
 
 (3)M. 
 
 Formation : The same mouth obstructive formation as for 
 p and &, and the same vocalising as for b; but while for b 
 the whole of the vocal current is directed against the ob- 
 structing organs in the mouth, in this case the nasal passage 
 is opened by a movement of the soft palate (not enough to 
 shut off the mouth), so that a current passes through the nose 
 making the sound nasal. This escape also prevents the mouth 
 and pharynx from being charged, and therefore the current 
 through the cords from being stopped, so that the sounding 
 of m might #o on. The articulation is finished as in the 
 
 o o 
 
 other cases by the explosive separation of the obstructing 
 
58 SPEAKING. 
 
 lips. The escape through the nose makes this a case of 
 partial obstruction. 
 
 Faults: (a) Neglect to give the vocal quality to the 
 articulation, (b) Loss of the articulative quality by failure to 
 separate the obstructive organs effectively, or by closing the 
 opening to the nostrils before this is done, (c) Imperfect 
 passage through the nostrils. For this let the nasal part be 
 practised by itself. See p. 13. 
 
 Notanda : (a) M before /, v, or w makes a difficult combin- 
 ation which requires special practice e.g., come forth ; from 
 vice; aim well. 
 
 (b) The English nasals, unlike similar American and 
 French sounds, are wholly through the nose, and cannot be 
 produced unless escape of breath by the mouth is prevented. 
 
 Exercises: Seem, dream, dim, hymn, stem, hem, maim, 
 tame, jam, calm, home, lamb, climb, harm, worm, time, room, 
 doom, chasm, prism, film, helm ; meet, march, mild, mud, 
 mob, moan, mew, mute ; smile, smote, smirch ; teems, whims, 
 domes, stamp, dreamt, aimed, prompt, dimmed, stormed ; 
 ample, simple, tremble ; meaning, mellow, motive ; misrule, 
 maintain, mature ; dreamy, booming, homely, timber, inmate, 
 upmost, dismal; lament, promote, combine, submit, dismay; 
 redeem, inflame, consume; system, surname, wisdom. 
 
 T, D, N. 
 
 These three are corresponding articulations breath, vocal, 
 and vocal-nasal respectively. 
 
 Other symbol : d, as in asked if e is dropped. See Notanda. 
 Formation: The edge of the whole tongue is laid against 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 59 
 
 the front and sides of the upper jaw so as perfectly to ob- 
 struct the expiration which is compressed against it, and 
 then is wholly and abruptly removed with percussive emis- 
 sion of the breath. 
 
 Faults : (a) Allowing the breath to escape, or emitting it, 
 at any part all round, or otherwise than as has been de- 
 scribed, (b) Allowing it to escape, or emitting it, through 
 the nostrils, (c) Making t a mere stop before p, k, b, and g, 
 and finishing it nasally before m e.g., footpad, catkin, hot- 
 bed, mortgage, nutmeg. 
 
 Notanda: (a) When e is dropped in -ed after a breath 
 articulation (after t it cannot be so e.g., fatted) the vocal 
 quality of d cannot be given, and therefore it sounds as its 
 non-vocal relative t e.g., reaped (reapt). (b) When t pre- 
 cedes I or n in the same word, for the non-finishing of its 
 articulation (p. 55, 7) the whole tongue continues the con- 
 tact for tn, but only the front of it for tl e.g., softness, softly. 
 If t ends a word, it must, of course, be finished. 
 
 Exercises : Eat, it, ate, ought, peat, fit, set, bait, right, foot, 
 melt, salt, cost, crossed, rust, hissed, first, fact, packed, aft, 
 laughed, heart, sort; too, tie, ten, tame, tank, tar, tug, top, 
 tore, toll, tool ; tree, trip, train, true ; tweak, twain, twine, 
 twirl ; steam, stole, strain, strive ; seats, pits, fates ; beetle, 
 nettle, button, whiten ; timely, terrace, tuneful, trial : to-day, 
 traduce, trustee ; pity, later, hooting, fatted, bitter, sweetness, 
 outward, catkin, party, entrance, culture; detain, pretend, 
 atone, outdo, patrol, obtain; deceit, persist, possessed, unite; 
 habit, tribute, worshipped, comfort, finished. 
 
 (2) D. 
 
 Formation: This articulation is t with a vocal quality, 
 and the formation is the same, with the addition of the 
 
60 SPEAKING. 
 
 action required to give that quality, for explanation of which 
 see p. 54. 
 
 Faults : The same as those connected with t. 
 
 Exercises: Add, odd, bead, lid, fed, laid, bad, lied, mode, 
 mewed, cloud, fraud, pride, robbed, plagued, lived, seized, 
 sold, found, card, ford ; deep, dim, den, dame, dam, dull, 
 dawn, dome, down, doom, dew, dike, darn, dirk ; dream, 
 drift, dress, drain, dry, drug, dross, drove, droop, drought, 
 dwell, dwarf ; lads, birds, odds ; girdle, sadden, dwindle, 
 burden, bridle ; despot, danger, drowning ; devote, distress, 
 dragoon ; aiding, odour, guidance, widow, needless, midnight, 
 loadstone, seldom, mandate, hardy, wonder j adore, bedim, 
 advise, indite, abduct, undue ; abide, beyond, corrode, 
 aroused ; waited, lucid, method, mustard, managed. 
 
 (3)N. 
 
 Formation . The difference between this articulation and 
 d is the same as between b and m, explained p. 57. 
 
 Faults: The same as in the case of m, p. 58. 
 
 Notanda : (a) Its relatives t and d, before n in the 
 same word, though not explosively finished (p. 55, 7), give 
 an explosive commencement to n e.g., fitness, glad nest. 
 (/>) Combinations of n and I are difficult, and should be 
 particularly practised e.g., been late; tell none, (c) The 
 sound of n, like that of m, may be prolonged (pp. 54, 57). 
 (d) When kn or gn begins a syllable, the k or g is silent 
 e.g., kneel, unknown, gnash. 
 
 Exercises: Wean, pin, then, vain, can, barn, fine, pawn, 
 mourn, sown, boon, tune, brown, learn, burn, even, 1 bidden, 
 ashen, stolen, reason, heathen, beckon ; neat, name, nice, nor, 
 nook, new, noise, knell, knob, gnarl ; snake, snow, snub ; 
 dense, chance, lines, crowns, crowned, land, leaned, rent, 
 1 Of en final, see p. 81. 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 61 
 
 paint, tenth, since, punch, change ; never, native, neutral ; 
 neglect, north-east, narrate ; dinner, honey, coinage, fancy, 
 inlet, anthem, tender, illness, mourner; beneath, renew, en- 
 dure, control, misname, ignite ; begin, remain, alone, design, 
 suborn; fortune, cabin, lion, famine, layman, stubborn. 
 
 K, G, Ng. 
 
 These are corresponding breath, vocal, and vocal - nasal 
 articulations. 
 
 (1) K. 
 
 Other symbols: c, ch, and the first half of re, as in cage, 
 arc, chord, monarch, lax, text; qu for kw, as in queen, 
 sequence, and for k rarely, as in pique, conquer. 
 
 Formation: Complete obstruction by the contact of the 
 back part of the tongue with the palate, followed by their 
 audible separation. 
 
 Faults: (a) See a faulty pronunciation connected with k 
 before the sound of ah, p. 40 ' (c).' (b) Allowing emission 
 of breath laterally. 
 
 Exercises: Seek, pick, neck, sack, dike, look, duke, break, 
 cheque, elk, silk, park ; key, keep, kin, keg, cage, cat, carve ; 
 kine, kerb, curb, cob, cone, core, cool, cube, coil, count; 
 queen, quell, qualm, quire, quote ; clean, clip, cloud, cloy ; 
 creep, cram, cross, cry, crowd ; skate, school, scream, scrap, 
 squeeze, squire ; walks, dux, fact, strict, flocks, flocked, 
 picked ; tackle, hearken, waken, sickle, sicken, wrinkle ; 
 kidney, candour, chemist, clomled; canal, canoe, contain, 
 collapse ; echo, weaker, liking, ticket, chalky, action, pack- 
 man, picture, workhouse, bodkin, turkey, anchor, banquet; 
 acute, decay, recoil, bequeath, eclipse, succeed, discuss, 
 unkind, inquire ; unlock, antique, revoke ; outlook, frolic, 
 toothache, moonstruck. 
 
62 SPEAKING. 
 
 (2) a. 
 
 This vocal corresponds to the breath articulation k. 
 
 Other symbol : the first half of x, as in exist. 
 
 Formation : Same as for k, with the addition of an effort 
 of voice during contact of the articulating organs. 
 
 Faults: (a) See a faulty pronunciation connected with 
 g before the sound of ah, p. 40 ' (c). 1 (b) A degree of 
 nasality preceding the articulation from insufficient energy 
 to be corrected by forcibly practising the explosive prop- 
 erty of the articulation. (c) Insufficient vocal sound 
 pointing to the need of practice in prolonging the attempt 
 at sound as much as possible. The sound can only go 
 on (p. 54) so long as the gathering air behind the point 
 of obstruction allows more to come through the cords. 
 (<1) Permitting lateral explosiveness of g before Z, changing 
 globe into dlobe. 
 
 Notandum: Another sound of g it has in common with 
 y, as in gem, jet (pp. 67, 71). 
 
 Exercises: Dig, egg, league, vague, rag, dug, log, rogue; 
 gear, get, gape, guile, gird, gulf, got, gold, ghost, gown; 
 gleam, glib, glen, glade, glide, glut, gloss, glow ; great, grim, 
 grape, graft, grub, ground; fagged, begged, plagued, figs, 
 lags, mugs, logs ; eagle, juggle ; gearing, gunshot, gloaming, 
 graphic ; gazette, guitar, grimace ; regal, vigour, ague, pagan, 
 waggon, tiger, signet, ugly, argue, ingot ; again, cigar, regale, 
 agree, ignore, engulf, misgive ; fatigue, prorogue, agog ; col- 
 league, iceberg. 
 
 (3) Ng. 
 
 This is the vocal-nasal articulation corresponding to the 
 breath and vocal k and g. It is a single sound a nasal g. 
 
 Formation : The same mouth-obstructive formation as for 
 k and g, and the same vocalising as for g, but while for 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 63 
 
 g the whole of the vocal current is directed against the 
 obstructing organs in the mouth, in this case the nasal pas- 
 sage is opened by a slight movement of the soft palate 
 (not enough to shut off the mouth), and a current passes 
 through the nose. Hence the sound may be prolonged 
 (pp. 54, 57). The articulation is finished by the separation 
 of the obstructing organs. 
 
 Fault : Following the sound with the sound of g or k 
 caused by not making it nasal to the end e.g., sing-g. 
 
 Notandum : N before k or g frequently takes the sound of 
 ng. For example, the pronunciation of thank is not than-k, 
 but thang-k ; and similarly we have tang-kard, long-ger, 
 Eng-glish. This never occurs when the accented syllable 
 follows these consonants e.g., ungodly, unkind, incline, are 
 not ung-godly, &c. 
 
 Exercises: Sang, rang, wing, spring, flung, gong, wrong; 
 length, strength, thank, link, slunk, twanged, longed, rings, 
 hangs; angle, uncle, tinkle, bungle; anxious, banker, lan- 
 guage, kingly, anger, finger, longer, hunger ; belong, un- 
 wrung, prolong ; shilling, speaking, furlong. 
 
 F,V. 
 
 These are corresponding breath and vocal articulations. 
 (1) F. 
 
 Other symbols : gh and ph, as in laugh, physic. 
 
 Formation : The middle of the lower lip touches with its 
 edge the tips of the upper teeth, and is rapidly withdrawn 
 downward and backward. The part of the lip in contact 
 with the teeth is not so large as to intercept the breath 
 entirely, but causes sufficient obstruction to produce a degree 
 of explosiveness when they are separated. 
 
 1 
 
64 SPEAKING. 
 
 Faults : (a) Turning out the lip and touching the teeth 
 with the inside of it. (j>) Using the two lips instead of the 
 under lip and upper teeth. This may be the best device 
 where there are no upper teeth. 
 
 Notandum : The /in of is pronounced v, and the whole 
 word uv. See p. 46, footnote. 
 
 Exercises: Leaf, safe, muff, roof, loaf, wife, laugh, cough, 
 lymph, dwarf ; feet, fill, fed, phase, fan, farce, five, fear, fur, 
 fall, fop, foal, fore, food ; flee, flit, flame, flat, fly, flew ; free, 
 frill, friend, from, phrase, fright, few, fume, sphere ; theft, 
 sift, snuffed, coughed, safes, muffs ; muffle, toughen, rifle ; 
 fever, falter, forward, flighty, frontal; foment, forbear, fore- 
 gone ; sofa, reefing, laughter, stiffly, roughness, downfall, sur- 
 face, comfort, hopeful ; before, afraid, deflect, perform, mis- 
 fit ; belief, unsafe, enough ; woodruff, mastiff, tariff. 
 
 (2) V. 
 
 This voice articulation corresponds to the breath /. 
 
 Formation : The same as for /, with the addition of the 
 action giving it vocal quality. The breath which in / flows 
 noiselessly between the lip and teeth where they are not in 
 contact, in v brings a degree of voice from the cords. The 
 sound of v may be prolonged, because the current having vent 
 may be continued, as was explained under M (p. 57). 
 
 Fault : Neglecting to give the vocal quality. 
 
 Exercises: Eve, weave, give, save, have, halve, five, dove, 
 groove, salve, serve ; veer, vein, vat, vile, vault, voice, verb, 
 vouch ; leaves, selves, slaves, knives, heaved, delved, curved ; 
 driven, seven, craven ; vanish, vapour, vocal ; veneer, vacate, 
 vedette ; lever, waving, cavern, oval, river, lively, envy, ad- 
 vent ; event, prevail, advise, convey ; alive, behave, reserve ; 
 motive, conclave, active. 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 65 
 
 Sn 
 , z. 
 
 These are corresponding breath and vocal articulations. 
 
 Other symbols . c and the second' half of x, as in cinder, 
 face, axle, box. 
 
 Formation : The tongue touches the upper teeth and gums 
 at all parts, obstructing the breath, except in front where 
 there is a narrow passage over the middle of its front part 
 (not merely the edge), through which the breath is sent 
 with a clear hissing sound. The articulation ends by abrupt 
 explosive withdrawal of the tongue from that position. 
 
 Faults : (a) A lisp caused by the front of the tongue 
 touching the teeth, (b) The sound of sh, caused by draw- 
 ing back the front edge too much and raising the tongue in 
 the middle, (c) Emitting the breath at the sides of the 
 tongue, (d) A tendency to say sh when yoo follows, as in 
 suit, saying shoot for syoot ; in some words sh for s is 
 authorised, as in sure, issue, pronounced shoor, ishyoo. 
 
 Notandum . Much practice is required to give clearly, and 
 with proper fluency, such word combinations embodying s 
 and t as fits, starts / tastes, states. 
 
 Exercises: Piece, miss, less, face, gas, else, thrice, tense, 
 vex, fuss, worse, course, loose, house, voice, tacks, box, feats, 
 axe, harps ; send, sail", side, scene, sir, cell, sole, sore, suit, 
 soil, sound ; speak, spade, spire, spawn, spoke, sprain, spruce, 
 splash, splice, sleet, slay, slant, small, smote, snow, snipe, 
 swan, swift, steep, stun, stream, strain, skill, sketch, scheme, 
 scrap, square ; least, faced, loosed, nest, worst ; tussle, lessen, 
 thistle, hasten ; saving, cedar, certain, slavish, standard ; 
 sedate, suborn, stampede ; message, tacit, biscuit, loosely, 
 insight, tiresome ; beside, receive, dislike, aspire, foresee, 
 excel; amiss, relates, condense; kindness, furnace, packets. 
 
66 SPEAKING. 
 
 (2) Z. 
 
 This is the vocal articulation corresponding to the breath s. 
 
 Other symbols: s and the second half of x, as in peas, 
 buds, rosin, exalt. 
 
 formation : The same as for s, with the addition of 
 vocalisation during the obstruction. 
 
 Faults : These are of the same kind as in the case of s. 
 
 Notandum : In the inflexions of nouns and verbs final s 
 after a vowel or vocal consonant has the sound of z. 
 
 Exercises : Breeze, graze, these, size, is, goes, wise, sirs, 
 dogs, adze, furze, loaves, ills, tongs, writhes ; zeal, zest, zone ; 
 dazed, used, teased ; chasm, frozen, prism, muzzle, weasel ; zero, 
 zenith, zealous ; razor, hazard, rising, lazy, music, puzzling, 
 pansy ; design, preserve, preside, exact, exert ; amaze, confuse, 
 propose ; topaz, alcoves, legends. 
 
 Sh, Zh. 
 
 These are corresponding breath and vocal articulations. 
 (1) Sh. 
 
 Other symbols : si, ci, ti, as in mission, vicious, nation ; 
 also ch, as in cliaise, and when it follows the sound (though 
 unwritten) of t, as in batch, beach, chain (beatsh, tshain). 
 
 Formation: From its position at s the tongue is drawn 
 back and raised in the middle. The aperture through which 
 the breath hisses is slightly enlarged. 
 
 It will make clear the difference between s and sh, and is 
 a good exercise, to draw the tongue backwards and forwards 
 from one to the other repeatedly during the same expiration. 
 
 Faults: (a) Projecting the lips, (b) See pp. 65, 71. 
 
 Notandum This sound (sh) preceded by t constitutes the 
 sound of ch as in chain; and the sound thus constituted 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 67 
 
 (tsh) is in some parts and by some persons used erroneously 
 for its corresponding vocal dzh, as in John, Tshon for Dzhon. 
 
 Exercises : Wish, rush, dash, inch, quench, marsh ; sheep, 
 shift, shed, shape, chaise, sham, shark, shun, short, share, 
 shoot, shred, shrive ; lashed, pushed ; freshen, washen ; 
 shepherd, shoulder, shortly ; champagne, cheroot, chagrin ; 
 washer, precious, nation, ocean, passion, rashness, mushroom, 
 hardship, conscience, anxious ; ashore, unship, enshrine ; 
 abash, refresh ; foolish, punish. After t (tsh) : fetch, watch, 
 each, niche, rich, preach, much, birch, poach ; charm, child, 
 choose, chant, churn ; hatched, reached ; chamber, chatter ; 
 chastise ; pitcher, duchess, witchcraft, mischief, urchin; 
 achieve, mischance ; bewitch, approach ; sandwich, ostrich. 
 
 (2) Zh. 
 
 This vocal articulation corresponds to the breath sh. 
 
 Symbols : The symbol zh is not in actual use. It is used 
 here to spell the vocalised sh, which in practice is represented 
 only by the symbols s, z, and some of those symbols which 
 we have seen taking the place of sh. 
 
 Formation : Same as for sh with the addition of vocality. 
 The difference between the breath and vocal characters is 
 well shown in the pronunciation of the words vicious and 
 vision (vishious and vizhion). 
 
 Notandum : The sound of zh preceded by that of d con- 
 stitutes the sound which is common to j and g, as in wages, 
 John (wadzhes, Dzhon), giving the vocalised form of the 
 breath tsh. 
 
 Exercises: Lesion, vision, leisure, measure, seizure, pleas- 
 ure. After d (dzh) : jeer, gem, jail, gibe, just ; edge, cage, 
 badge, bulge ; lodged, raged ; regent, budget, rigid, judgment, 
 perjure; ajar, rejoice, adjoin, abjure, unjust; dislodge a be- 
 siege, divulge; orange, knowledge, salvage. 
 
68 SPEAKING. 
 
 Th breath as in thin, and vocal as in this. 
 
 In this case we have but one symbol for the breath and 
 voice articulations. 
 
 (1) Th breath. 
 
 Formation : The front edge of the tongue rests lightly on 
 the inner side of the upper teeth, and breath issues over the 
 sides of its forepart. The explosive recall of the tongue 
 from this degree of obstruction finishes the articulation. 
 
 The first practice in this articulation should be to keep the 
 tongue in its position steadily for some seconds and the 
 breath flowing continuously over the sides, before finishing 
 the articulation. 
 
 Faults: (a) Putting the tongue between the teeth. (&) 
 Letting the tongue touch the lower teeth. 
 
 Exercises: Teeth, pith, faith, hath, cloth, truth, mouth, 
 with (a twig), wealth, birth, north ; theme, thank, thigh, 
 thump, thought, three, thrill, threat, thrice, through ; thwack, 
 thwart ; heaths, friths, moths, girthed, frothed ; thirty, thun- 
 der, thimble, thicken ; ether, pathos, nothing, worthless, 
 panther, something, stealthy; athirst, bethink, enthrall; 
 forsooth, unearth ; doeth, seventh. 
 
 (2) Th vocal. 
 
 Formation : The same as in the preceding, with the addi- 
 tion of vocality during its formation. 
 
 Faults and practice are also of the same kind. 
 
 Notandum : In a few words tli final, though breath in the 
 singular, is vocal in the plural as in paths, oaths y mouths. 
 
 Exercises : Seethe, lathe, writhe, scythe, smooth, with (the 
 preposition) ; thee, this, there, that, thine, thence, though ; 
 clothes, smooths, tithes, sheathed, bathed, writhed, mouthed ; 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 69 
 
 therefore, thenceforth ; thyself, themselves ; teething, wither, 
 tether, bathing, fathom, father, mother, worthy, clothing. 
 
 Wh, W. 
 
 These are corresponding breath and vocal articulations. 
 
 (1) Wh. 
 
 This represents one simple breath articulation. 
 
 Formation : The lips are almost closed, and then rapidly 
 separated, without the air current having been quite ob- 
 structed. The sound may be heard by the experimenter as 
 a sort of swish, like the cut of a whip through the air. 
 
 Faults: (a) Omitting the aspirate element of the sound, 
 and saying witch for which, wat for what, (b) Not confining 
 the action to the lips, but also giving a guttural sound. 
 
 Notandum: Before o and oo the sound can only be ex- 
 pressed roughly, or not at all. Consequently the wh gives 
 place to simple h. E.g., whole, who become hole, hoo. 
 
 Exercises : Wheel, whale, wharf, while, wheat, wheeze, 
 when, whence, whet, where, what, which, whiff, whim, whit, 
 white, why, whine, whirl, whisk ; whistle, whether, whither, 
 wherry ; nowhere, somewhat, meanwhile. 
 
 (2) W. 
 
 This voice articulation corresponds to the breath ivh. 
 
 Formation : The lips are almost closed ; an effort of voice 
 is made, which produces a suppressed sound of oo ; then the 
 lips very smartly take position for the vowel that is to follow. 
 
 Fault; Omission, or imperfect enunciation, before oo in 
 such words as wood, wool. 
 
 Notanda: (a) In wr, w is silent, as in write, wreck, (b) 
 When a as in am or ah immediately follows w it generally 
 takes the sound of o in o/, or e.g., want y wash, war t walk. 
 
70 SPEAKING. 
 
 Exercises : We, weed, weak, weal ; wit, with, will, wind ; 
 wen, went, were, wet ; wail, wage, way, waste ; wax, waft, 
 wag, won, work, was, warm, watch, woe; wore, woo, wool, 
 womb ; wipe, wise, wile ; dwarf, dwell, sweep, sway, thwart, 
 thwack ; winter, wealthy ; within, withstand ; seaweed, al- 
 ways, gateway, forward; away, bewail, reward, outwit. 
 
 This is a vocal, with no corresponding breath articulation. 
 
 Formation : A current of clear sound flows over the sides 
 of the back of the tongue, the air being elsewhere obstructed 
 by contact of the tongue with the front of the palate and 
 the side teeth; the lips are drawn back. The abrupt re- 
 moval of the obstruction by the withdrawal of the tongue 
 is the articulative part of the action. The sound of I may 
 be prolonged, because a portion of the breath is escaping. 
 
 Faults: (a) A faulty I is produced by such causes as 
 making the two apertures for the sound too small or too 
 long ; by not making the obstruction air-tight ; by mounding 
 up the tongue, and so on. (b) In certain combinations 
 inserting a sound (like i of in) after /, as in elm : the sound- 
 ing of Z must go on till the lips shut for m, which has 
 then to be exploded. 
 
 Exercises: Eel, peal, ill, rill, ell, fell, ail, shall, file, style, 
 earl, foal, roll, soul, cool, tool, cowl, howl, boil, furl, snarl, 
 steeple, rifle, table, shackle, puddle, bugle, axle ; lea, lift, 
 late, lax, large, lithe, learn, luff, lawn, loin, lo, loo, loud, 
 lute ; blot, cliff, flash, globe, play, sloop ; help, bulk, held, 
 healed, selves, felt, field, curls, nails, nailed, miles, false; 
 film, fallen, realm; later, lisping, lunar; lament, lampoon; 
 relic, sullen, miller, almost, elbow, bulrush, public, inlet; 
 alert, elude, enlarge, purloin ; distil, annul ; scandal, reptile. 
 
VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 71 
 
 Y. 
 
 This is a vocal, with no corresponding breath articulation. 
 
 Formation: The tongue rises against the palate scarcely 
 behind its position for ee. An effort of voice during the 
 obstruction gives the vocal element, and the abrupt release 
 of the obstruction the articulative. 
 
 Faults : (a) Omitting y before ee : saying, e.g., eer, eeld, 
 for year, yield. (&) Putting h for y between s and oo, as 
 shoot for suit ; see p. 65. (c) For y substituting sh after t, 
 and zh after d e.g., for tune, righteous, feature, education, 
 saying tshoon, rightshus, featshoor, edzhoocation. 
 
 Exercises: Ye, yean, year, yeast, yield, yes, yell, yam, 
 yard, yearn, young, yon, yore, you, youth ; lawyer, court- 
 yard; beyond, unyoke. 
 
 0, Oh, J, Ph, Q, X. 
 
 These symbols have not been treated separately, because 
 of their being represented in others. 
 
 c is equivalent either to s as in face, or to k as in coal. 
 
 ch is composed of t and sh (tsh), as in chain (p. 66), or is 
 equivalent to k, as in chorus (p. 61). 
 
 j is composed, as g also often is (p. 62), of d and zh (dzh, 
 the vocalised form of tsh), as in John (p. 67). 
 
 ph is equivalent to /. 
 
 g, with u which always follows it is equivalent to kw 
 or to k (p. 61). 
 
 x is equivalent to ks or gz according as the articulation is 
 breath or vocal, as in luxury and anxiety (luksury, angziety). 
 
72 
 
 PART IIL 
 
 WORDS. 
 
 IT is only when the student has mastered every vowel sound 
 and articulation that he has the materials for rendering 
 correctly any word that may be put before him. But to 
 possess the materials and to put them deftly together are 
 very different things ; and it is certain that he must be able 
 to do this for words before he can in like manner put words 
 together in sentences. He is therefore earnestly advised to 
 practise the outspoken utterance of words, so formed and 
 collated that they not only facilitate his use of what he has 
 acquired, but aid him in judging of his correctness. We 
 propose first to render assistance in this. 
 
 Dictionaries : We have seen that almost every symbol has 
 more sounds than one ; and the question follows, What does 
 it represent in any given word 1 For this the learner must 
 have a dictionary by him. But dictionaries have idio- 
 syncrasies : one of good repute lies by the writer which, 
 if followed throughout, would make a by-word of any man. 
 And dictionaries have difficulties, as when driven to represent 
 that the o of note is possible before r (p. 51). And diction- 
 aries differ. He who would be correct and not peculiar 
 should have at least two dictionaries, and where they differ 
 take that which is most familiar to his hearers. It is pain- 
 fully significant of the interest they have taken in the sub- 
 
WORDS. 73 
 
 ject, and of the stage which their education in it has reached, 
 when young men have not discovered their need of a pro- 
 nouncing dictionary. 
 
 Affectations: Some who are not what is called affected 
 gain for themselves that undesirable reputation by peculi- 
 arities which rightly directed pains should have prevented. 
 If one is really an affected person, he is vain of his affecta- 
 tions, and advice is wasted on him. But affectations from 
 whatever cause are hindrances to success and to respect. 
 Among the worst are the gawkiness of putting w for r, 
 and the silly lisping of th wholly or partially for s. We 
 lately heard a somewhat affected person who aims at a 
 fine r, and who said ' peffectly,' 'pehaps,' 4 comf ootable ' ! 
 The latest thing which is ministering to the happiness of 
 many is to omit g from the ing of present participles, probably 
 thinkin or hopin it will be thought interestin ease of manner. 
 It is the Scotch form. Is it a compliment to Scotch 1 The 
 compliment would be costly to English, for it can ill afford 
 to lose a single sound that has resonance, and would only 
 compare the worse with Scotch, which is already much 
 more resonant. Such a usage would make the language 
 distinctly poorer. The a in * command' (and a few other 
 words e.g., l grant') is not infrequently given now more 
 as it is in ah than in am; but this is no excuse for com- 
 mitting the two faults of making it nasal and drawling it. 
 We say nothing of military usage, which may have reasons 
 of its own, but ordinarily those faults are mere affectation. 
 Only yesterday we witnessed a case of (to adopt the fable) 
 plain, very plain, jackdaw throughout with the single excep- 
 tion of this one strut in borrowed feathers ludicrous and 
 painful. 
 
 An unusual pronunciation from the mouth of any person 
 should not be adopted without being verified. 
 
74 
 
 SPEAKING. 
 
 c5 .j 
 
 <D ."tn 
 CO CO 
 
 s'i.l 
 
 8 & 
 
 s.^1 ^ I 
 
 O & O O O 
 CO CO CO CO CO 
 
 2 'S 
 
 " 3 
 
 S .3 o 
 
 CO O CO 
 
 -$ . 
 
 n3 S 5 
 ^ ^ a 
 
 6 d |? | 1 
 
 *" ^ -I-H M " C3 1-3 
 2 o3 O O 2 <D o 
 
 fl 
 
 0> d 
 0> .ti 
 
 - ^ 
 
 rt rt ^ 
 
 O ^} 
 
 -^ -*3 
 
 "o -*a ?3 2 'os "S 
 
 O ^ 03 -i, O S3 
 
 O O O C7"^ O O 
 
 ti 
 
 8 
 
 T$ . nd 2 nd 
 
 O> i-rt 03 T5 T3 ?-i 
 
 <D .;H <D c3 03 03 
 
 ^ ^3 ^ ^ ^ ^ 
 
 < 
 
 2 T3 
 
 r^H ;! 
 
 O> 
 
 ^ 
 
 O ^ T2 .2 ^^ ^_ 
 
 O<DOOOS3c5o 
 
 ^^^^^^^^ 
 
 I .d g I .1 
 
 " 
 
 
 - . 
 
 05 fcO d> 
 
 O fl J ^ 
 
 M P^ 
 
 ^^lOCOt-CiOiO 
 diCOCOCOCOCOCO^t 1 
 
WORDS. 
 
 75 
 
 a * 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 
 PH 
 
 to S> 2 
 .5 * % 
 
 ^ o3 MJ 
 
 s' 
 
 
 8 1 
 
 a a 
 
 8 
 
 CP 03 
 
 rn 
 
 of 
 
 r 
 
 1-3 & I 
 
 **H **H i-S r5 P-l 
 
 O 
 P^ PH 
 
 ; 
 
 03 
 
 111 
 
 *?3 S , 
 
 S jT .^ 
 
 c3 S o o5 
 
 2 P S 
 
 S -S g 
 
 * *4 H* 
 
 S 03 I-H ^-i > 
 
 a a I 
 
 ^J d Q 
 
 1 s i 
 
 <^> *" o 
 
 ! i 
 
 1^-9 
 
 T& ^ O 
 
 s -a ^ 
 
 o o 
 
 O 
 ,0 
 
 a* 
 
 ^* o g g || 
 oo J5 .g oo 
 
 ^0303 OO ^.XJ 'OO 
 
 O)<D pOpO -*J-fJ rO-r^ 
 
 > -I 
 
 'So 'o 
 
 O I-H O <> O 
 
 rH O i I CO <M 
 
76 
 I 
 
 SPEAKING. 
 
 a P -3"2 S 
 
 II 111! 
 
 11 ** 
 
 perv 
 purv 
 
 ;^4 ** * 
 
 1 
 .2 
 
 bo 
 
 a> o 
 P ? -SS 
 
 3 33 a a 
 
 64 *t 
 
 II II 
 
 33 a> .1-5 
 
 eg c3 T3 *& 
 
 P d 
 
 .2 
 
 g'-S ^0 
 
 il II II 
 
 pendant. 
 pendent. 
 
 a - 'o'g 
 's a s 
 
 a 9" S 
 
 de 
 di 
 
 a a 
 
 ? li -S-E 
 
 ij s^ 
 
 0) 0) 
 
 a a 
 
 fe O 'Pn'o, o5^ 
 ^ ^ 3 ^ .P .^P 
 
 00 QQ 02 00 i-P rfi 
 
 j i 
 
 a a 
 
 
 l. 
 el. 
 
 manne 
 manor. 
 
 
 El.1 
 
 1 ! 
 
 wr. 
 wayer. 
 
 ' 
 
 
 ' jo ^ - 
 
 o rt 
 
 :t I 
 
 a a 
 
 > 
 
 r-H ' ' C3 ^ "S tl * 
 
 ^S 4 Li ir Ua 31 s 
 
 s i 
 
 S. a 
 
 S '5 
 g 
 
 || ^ 
 
 -SS 4 
 
 ' 
 
 p2$^ o e3 
 
 eg) 2^5 g 
 s-s &S. S> 
 
 onerary. 
 honorar 
 
 as, 
 
 - 
 
 8.13 
 
 
 
 s 
 S^ 
 
 II 
 
WOKDS. 77 
 
 Facility of distinct speech has not been attained till such 
 combinations as the following are spoken clearly and natur- 
 ally (see p. 55, par. 4; and under * Articulation/ p. 19) : 
 
 He would pain nobody, but he could pay nobody. 
 
 His crime moved me ; his cry moved me not. 
 
 Five-sixths should be given, not eleven- twelfths. 
 
 Wet ground brought much trouble. 
 
 The last king left monarchy stronger. 
 
 The stupid detractor wrote twice to him. 
 
 Dost thou own nothing, and owe nothing ? 
 
 I never read Duncan on Nonagons. 
 
 An ice-house is a nice house in a hot day. 
 
 Their riches, sad to say, were their ruin. 
 
 Swift of foot and slow of tongue. 
 
 It is difficult to achieve fame. 
 
 The gig goes swiftly past the spot. 
 
 Our soul loatheth this light bread. 
 
 The first ten verses of the first chapter. 
 
 The creatures seemed of monstrous size, with monstrous eyes. 
 
 Not Irish yews, but Irish shoes. 
 She says she said she shed tears ceaselessly. 
 
 The floors shall be full and the fats shall overflow. 
 --It was not all most awful, but almost awful. 
 
 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. 
 
 A great sheet knit at the four corners and let down. 
 
 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots ? 
 
 Did you say ' his kin ' and * his pots ' ? 
 
 I would not give a cent to see the ascent. 
 
 We set apart a part for the absent. 
 
 A sad dearth, and a sad earth. 
 " " An honoured dame with an honoured aim. 
 . He gave a nod and an odd and doubtful look. 
 
 Never rancour proved so powerless, never anchor so powerful 
 
 Thou that judges t doest the same things. 
 
 Thou art confident that thou art wise. 
 
 He bade me take air, but meant I should take care. 
 
 He will prate to anybody, and will pray to nobody. 
 
 This statement tells strongly against table-turning. 
 
 The brig aids the brigades. 
 
 Their tastes and distastes seem to us strange. 
 
 Mayhap pallor or wrinkle let out the secret. 
 
 The pistol which shot him was one which she gave him. 
 
78 SPEAKING. 
 
 I said that they wash shawls, not that they wash awla. 
 
 A peak quite two thousand feet to climb. 
 
 It is truly rural, very rural truly. 
 
 Six black rows of six black crows singing croak, croak, croak. 
 
 All lancers shall answer the call. 
 
 They cannot stop luck, but may stop pluck. 
 
 Say ' chaste stars,' not ' chase tars. ' 
 
 He appointed a pointed demand to be sent. 
 
 Read, 'the panting spirit sighs,' not 'the panting spirit's eyes/ 
 
 The doctor said I w0 atonic and prescribed a tonic. 
 
 The dawn never finds the daw napping. 
 
 The old duck quacks sadly. 
 
 The statist's statistics state it statistically. 
 
 Thou shalt take no offered donation. 
 
 He said 'abundant toil,' not 'abundant oil.' 
 
 An arrow painted on a narrow panel. 
 
 They have got all ready already. 
 
 He meant not a grey chief, but a great sheaf. 
 
 He was a midshipman amid shipmen. 
 
 All now use fine linen like that. 
 
 Speaking of piump plovers he always said plump lovers. 
 
 They wished to obtain either, not to obtain neither. 
 
 They with this with thought to tie him. 
 
 He said * for conscience' ache,' instead of ' for conscience' sake.' 
 
 Who knows if a noise annoys an oyster ! 
 
 A dark cloud and dreadful lightning. 
 
 Time was when that gem went a-begging. 
 
 The home vacant, the name forgot. 
 
 ACCENT. 
 
 One thing more appertaining to individual words must be 
 noticed accent. This is a certain superior stress or weight 
 of voice put on some syllable of a word, making it of such 
 consequence among its fellows as to give unity and distinc- 
 tive character to the word. Also, by being put on another 
 syllable of the same word, it enables the word to serve 
 different uses as in conduct, which has one meaning when 
 the accent is on the first, and another when it is on the 
 second syllable. Sometimes it is changed from its ordinary 
 
WORDS. 79 
 
 place by emphasis on a syllable, as in expressing antithesis, 
 e.g. r ' He must mcrease, but I must decrease ' ; but not always, 
 e.g., ' He that descended also ascended.' 
 
 There may be more accents than one, of different degrees, in 
 a word, the principal one being generally the last. When two 
 or more syllables precede the accented syllable, one or more 
 of them will have a secondary accent, thus : cdnnona'de, 
 o'pportu'nity, inti' mida" tion, impenetrability, latitu'dina"- 
 rian. The case of the principal accent being first is shown, 
 for example, in pe"netra'tive, ge"ntlemanli'ke, opi"niona'tive- 
 ness. The placing of a subordinate accent need not give 
 concern. 
 
 There is in some quarters an objectionable tendency to 
 bring the principal accent forward to the first syllable, as 
 in concentrate, demonstrate, co'nsummative, purporting, for 
 concentrate, demonstrate, consu'mmative, purporting. It 
 is scarcely possible to imagine agreeable eloquence in a lan- 
 guage having a preponderance of words so accented. And 
 surely it is not by deliberation that the accent is brought 
 from the body of a word and put on a prefix. But those 
 who wish to discharge a word at a shot (see below, 
 Faults), find they can do it more easily when they lead off 
 with the accented syllable and let all else follow as best 
 it can. It is sometimes so contrary to the natural way of 
 expressing the feeling embodied in the word, that even 
 after the accent has been established in its new place it 
 cannot retain it. When the writer was at school the accent 
 of acceptable was on the second syllable ; by-and-by it was 
 transferred to the first; and now it is back to the second. 
 We may add as to uncalled-for changes that the question 
 often presents itself whether their origin may not at times be 
 only some person's vanity, or ignorance, or accidental mistake. 
 
 The student has no better guide than the dictionaries, 
 to which we refer him again with the same suggestions as 
 
 F 
 
80 SPEAKING. 
 
 before (p. 72). And we must add that on the very first 
 symptom of a change some of them seem to hasten to give it 
 preference, as if they would rather lead usage than record it. 
 
 Faults: (a) Some make a snap at an accented syllable 
 like the peck of a fowl hard and sharp. 
 
 (b) A great fault against which many must be warned is 
 uttering the unaccented syllables too lightly and rapidly, not 
 to say inaudibly. They speak as if the whole substance 
 of the word was in the accented syllable, or as if they 
 wished to deliver longer and shorter words in the same 
 space of time. Each word goes off like an unsuccessful 
 attempt to give the whole in a single sound or at a single 
 mouthful. It was but a few days ago that the writer heard 
 an absurdly exaggerated instance of this. The speaker 
 stepped from the accented syllable of one word to that of 
 the next in a way which vividly suggested his crossing a 
 ford on rather widely-set stepping-stones. 
 
 From Australia a friend in the legal profession writes 
 that the tendency to shorten words is such that no word of 
 more than one syllable is properly uttered and finished, and 
 one-syllable words are slurred or omitted. This, whatever 
 its extent, is much to be regretted. It is a frittering away 
 both of our language and of the human voice. How are the 
 greatest and best effects of speech to be produced with lang- 
 uage so stripped of substantial material for voicing ? 
 
 It cannot be stated with too much point and force that 
 (the proper sounds having been ascertained, compare p. 81) 
 every syllable must be distinctly uttered and heard, though 
 not by its being prolonged in-vi-si-bi-li-ty, with six syllables 
 all of the same sound ; co-op-er-a-tive-ness, with six syllables 
 all distinctly different in sound from one another. Words of 
 several syllables should be taken one by one and spoken first 
 deliberately with care to see that every syllable is distinctly 
 given, and then with every degree of rapidity, but with the 
 
WORDS. 81 
 
 same sharp eye on the syllables. The same is true of little 
 words such as prepositions, the articles, &c. In the last 
 preaching we heard they had generally to be taken for 
 granted, even up to so large a word as that. 
 
 In the sound of i as in isle, indifferent speakers often 
 furnish an illustration of the undue prolonging of an un- 
 accented syllable; for example, in the first syllable of 
 gigantic and the third of civilisation. In such circum- 
 stances it seems a pet sound of theirs, and appears to be dwelt 
 on even more than when it is the only vowel-sound in a 
 word, as in fight. It should be true, but quite short. 
 
 (c) Akin to the last mentioned is the common habit of 
 neglecting or maltreating unaccented terminal syllables e.g., 
 age, al, ance, ant, ate, ence, ent, est, tion, &c. 
 
 As always, the sound of the syllable in good usage is first 
 to be ascertained, and then given truly and distinctly, even 
 if lightly or shortly. 
 
 In el the vowel is to be dropped in certain words, but 
 generally it is retained, though not to be spoken obtrusively. 
 
 In en, on the other hand, e is generally dropped, and it 
 sounds harsh and illiterate to hear writ-ten, heav-en, and the 
 like. It is worse in certain words, as hasten, often, where I 
 also should be dropped. In past participles the e of en is 
 always dropped (just as the e of ed generally is when they 
 so end). The syllable rightly spoken is both more telling 
 and more euphonious without e than with it. See (3) N, p. 60. 
 
 In il, in, the vowel is retained, but not in evil, devil, raisin, 
 cousin. 
 
 For on the sound is un (p. 46) ; but many words drop the 
 vowel after c, It, d, p, s, t, or z, as in deacon, reason. 
 
 In tion, sion, om, the correct sound, u as in us, is often 
 faultily dropped, or supplanted by the i of ill. 
 
 The silence of a vowel must not be allowed to lessen 
 the care with which the consonant that follows is given. 
 
82 
 
 PAET IV. 
 
 SENTENCES. 
 
 THERE is no occasion for defining a sentence : our purpose 
 being practical, we aim at speaking it. Hitherto we have 
 been acquiring the correct and easy utterance of sounds, now 
 we seek by their means the utterance of sense. We would 
 add to our present attainments the art of giving expression 
 to thought and feeling. To this end we employ sentences, 
 spoken with appropriate emphasis, inflexion, intonation, 
 movement. 
 
 Since we entered on Part II. we have been occupied with 
 the arbitrary and customary, for of this character are the 
 vowel sounds, articulations, words, and accents of any lan- 
 guage ; and accordingly in these things no two languages 
 agree. On the other hand, the matters which still remain 
 to be dealt with are common to all languages. They belong 
 not to the arbitrary, but to the natural ; and the nearer the 
 sounds of any language or the utterance of any speaker come 
 in the practice of them to universal nature, the greater are 
 the beauty and power. If we had to deal with the framing 
 of sentences, we should say that in so far as relates to gram- 
 matical structure we should still be occupied with the 
 arbitrary ; but that in regard, for example, to euphony, 
 sequence of thought, and the fitting of sound to thought 
 and feeling, we should be in the domain of the natural 
 
SENTENCES. 83 
 
 We assume, however, that the pupil has been instructed in 
 the framing of sentences, and we are left to deal with what 
 is even more difficult, the speaking of them. Yet let it be 
 noted in passing that the better one knows how to, speak, 
 the better will he frame his sentences. "We are to deal 
 then with the natural And now will be put to the test 
 whether the counsels already given have been faithfully 
 followed ; for it is the sober, practical truth that without 
 such preparation what still remains to be done is impossible. 
 And, though it belongs to the natural, the student must 
 bear in mind that this does not in the least lessen the 
 necessity for still further laborious study and practice. If 
 the artificial must be acquired, the natural must be culti- 
 vated ; and this especially when we have to embody thought 
 and feeling in the framework of a language. Indeed, we 
 have not a single natural faculty or gift which can do its 
 work well without cultivation. 
 
 Kules for the doing of that which is natural can only be, 
 in so far as they are correct, statements of what has been 
 observed in nature. If one considers the infinite variety of 
 thoughts and feelings of every shade that have to be ex- 
 pressed in speech, and the variety of methods in combina- 
 tion, and in simultaneous action, by which this must be 
 done emphasis, inflexion, intonation, movement, &c. he 
 will see at a glance how easy it is to overburden both the 
 subject and the student with rules, and how impossible it is 
 to frame rules that can be useful, beyond such statements as 
 will direct the necessary attention to what is found in nature. 
 Nothing is so beautiful in speech as the art of giving to 
 every word and tone its proper character, importance, and 
 effect. But no rule, nor words of any kind, can describe, or 
 tell how to distribute, the innumerable, scarcely differing, 
 ever-changing degrees of pitch or force or movement, or the 
 finely-shaded varieties of tone. And even if all this could 
 
84 SPEAKING. 
 
 be put before the mind's eye of the speaker that he might 
 copy it, he could not. No man can speak by rule ; and no 
 man has mastered any art until he can exercise it uncon- 
 scious of its rules, and oblivious of his early struggles. 
 
 The first essential for either good speaking or good reading 
 is a clear, lively, sensitive apprehension and appreciation of 
 the thought and feeling which the words are intended to 
 convey. The second is sympathy with the author of what 
 is read, and with the hearers, if it is read or spoken to them, 
 and not merely in their presence. The third is organs so 
 well cultivated, and so wedded to the service of the thoughts 
 and emotions, that they leap to discharge that service with 
 the mastery, freedom, and ease that come only from cultiva- 
 tion, and with the spontaneity, swiftness, and certainty of an 
 instinct. 
 
 The student must on no account allow himself for a con- 
 siderable time to be persuaded into reading for practice pieces 
 of continuous sentences. To this are directly attributable 
 almost all the faults of reading as such (that is, apart from 
 such things as untrained voice, or bad vowels or consonants) 
 which have come under the writer's notice. If the student 
 would make straight for good reading or speaking without 
 first acquiring habits which have to be unlearned, he must 
 begin with single, unconnected sentences, and these of only a 
 few words at first ; and must speak them naturally, address- 
 ing them to an imaginary hearer at various distances, looking 
 him in the face. 
 
 We shall best assist the student at this stage by direct- 
 ing his attention to some important elements in the natural 
 expression of thought and feeling, which from whatever 
 cause are apt to be disregarded in practice, or to miss their 
 place and their natural and intended effect. 
 
SENTENCES. 85 
 
 EMPHASIS. 
 
 Emphasis is for sentences what accent is for words. But 
 its place is not fixed: it falls wherever the meaning re- 
 quires it. It is of every degree, from the most forceful 
 down to where it ceases to be called emphasis. It may he 
 on more parts of a sentence than one ; and on single words, 
 or on phrases, or on statements of some length. It is ex- 
 pressed in various ways singly and in combination force, 
 tone, time, pitch, pause, &c. \ and it is very rarely indeed 
 that a pounce, jerk, roar, or thump of the voice is admis- 
 sible. We must not think only of emphasis and non-em- 
 phasis. There is, though it may not all be easily detected, 
 in the words and parts of a well-spoken sentence every 
 degree and variety, from its most emphatic to its lightest 
 words. 
 
 Faults : (a) Confining emphasis to a word when it belongs 
 to a phrase or group of several words (p. 94). (b) Making it 
 mere force without the appropriate tone. These seem the 
 most common faults. Both were heard simultaneously just 
 before this was written. Referring to Christ, and intending 
 to say with emphasis, 'His terrible sufferings,' the speaker 
 emphasised only ' terrible/ and did so with a jerk on its 
 first syllable which might have been fitly accompanied by a 
 rap of the knuckles on a bare table, (c) Some have a most 
 objectionable habit of attacking all their sentences, and even 
 principal clauses, as they hit a ball, as if this initial impulse 
 were to carry them to the end, weakening as it goes. 
 
 INFLEXION. 
 
 Inflexion, and the manner of cultivating it, have already 
 been explained (p. 7) ; and now we treat of its applica- 
 tion. All the tones of natural speech, however brief, 
 
86 SPEAKING. 
 
 are pronounced with inflexion. It abounds most in lively 
 conversation, less in reading or in repeating uneasily from 
 memory, and least when speech is with reverence or solem- 
 nity. Its use is determined not by the form of sentence, but 
 by the sense. The extent of the inflexion may be so little 
 as scarcely to be perceived, or it may sweep from the one 
 end of the scale to the other. The actual length, and the 
 exact pitch of its beginning, will depend on the purpose to 
 be served, and on the judgment and taste of the speaker and 
 his power of execution. The greater the sweep and force the 
 greater the effect. There is, of course, most body and force 
 in the beginning of an inflexion, for in its sweep it tapers off 
 to vanishing. 
 
 A rising inflexion begins below the speaker's previous note, 
 and rises above it ; and the more emphatic it is, the lower it 
 begins. A falling inflexion begins above the previous note, 
 and falls below it ; and the more emphatic it is, the higher it 
 begins. Nature will be found contributing to the pleasant- 
 ness and power of these inflexions when they are strong by 
 raising the said previous note when the inflexion is to begin 
 below it, and lowering it when the inflexion is to begin 
 above it. 
 
 That the lightest, briefest sound may be effectively in- 
 flected must be obvious to any one who has noticed and who 
 has not noticed ? the effect when a comment or the response 
 to some remark has been only the letter m well inflected. 
 In a word of more syllables than one the inflexion begins on 
 the accented syllable. If this is the last syllable, the execu- 
 tion will, of course, be the same as in a monosyllable ; but if 
 syllables follow the accented syllable, they are all swept into 
 the glide, which, so to speak, runs upwards on them or 
 downwards on them, as the case may be. 
 
 The falling inflexion gives point and force. It takes place 
 in the expression of conclusiveness, assertion, statement, dis- 
 
SENTENCES. 87 
 
 pleasure, contempt, weighty command, weighty exhortation. 
 Of these last two it has to be said that grammatical form 
 must not be allowed to determine what is a command and 
 what an exhortation, or what inflexion is to be given to 
 either. ' Fear not/ ' Be of good cheer/ ' Be strong/ * Be not 
 deceived.' These are four exhortations in the grammatical 
 form of command : the first two naturally take the rising 
 inflexion, and the last two the falling. 'Be silent/ * Stand 
 still/ are two commands. If addressed to soldiers, both 
 would have the falling inflexion. If addressed to children, 
 the first would have the falling inflexion ; and so would the 
 second to a disobedient child, while to a willing child it 
 would almost certainly have the rising inflexion. 
 
 The rising inflexion takes place in the expression of inter- 
 rogation, uncertainty, diffidence, surprise, plaintiveness, pain, 
 appeal, admiration, tenderness; and in the progress of a 
 sentence it has a continuative effect that is, points to more 
 coming. For example, the following expressions introduc- 
 tory to something would have the rising inflexion : ' Well 
 then/ ' therefore/ * besides/ l they believe/ ' I wish to say/ 
 It is used in the name or style of persons who are being 
 addressed. 
 
 There is a set of feelings which are better expressed by 
 another than either the rising or falling inflexion insinua- 
 tion, suspicion, derision, irony. The manner of inflecting 
 imparts to the speaker's language a meaning which the mere 
 words would not convey. In this case, whether it is the 
 rising or falling inflexion that would ordinarily fall to be 
 used, instead of going straight to its end, it makes in the 
 course of its progress a movement in the opposite direction 
 and back. It would be illustrated in the utterance of 
 ' your ' in the exclamation * Your honour ! ' addressed to 
 one as a sneer at the peculiar quality of the honour which 
 characterised his dealings. 
 
88 SPEAKING. 
 
 Faults : (a) A tendency, especially among young speakers, 
 to read too fast for proper inflexion, one result of which is 
 ineffectiveness. An opposite fault may be noted, though 
 perhaps rare in these days reading slowly along with defec- 
 tive inflexion, one result of which is oppressive monotony. 
 
 (b) Undue use of the rising inflexion as a continuative. 
 The blame is largely owing to the way in which this use of 
 it has been written of as if the inflection were always in 
 action unless the performer is to stop as if the sentence 
 would fall to pieces without it. Now, while it is true that no 
 sentence should fall to pieces, most sentences should be put in 
 pieces ; and this is prevented by the undue use of the rising 
 (continuative) inflexion, which destroys point and pith, and 
 produces lightness, and a feeling of jumbled particulars. 
 This is often aggravated by making this inflexion too great 
 as well as too frequent. Such faults are seen at their worst 
 when they occur in reading Scripture. We have in more 
 cases than one heard this exercise unintentionally made to 
 look as a light and jaunty performance. When words are 
 used which positively convey intimation of something to 
 follow, nature will call for this inflexion. But when nothing 
 more is wanted than to notify the audience that the end has 
 not come, nature can dispense with it ; and generally there is 
 more need to give attention to the advantage which is to be 
 gained in effectiveness by using the falling inflexion. 
 
 (c) An unaccountable error is taught by a living authority 
 that only questions which can be answered by ' Yes ' or 
 ' No ' are asked in the rising inflexion. Thus, ' Do you see ] ' 
 ' Are you going ] ' take the rising inflexion ; but, ' What do 
 you see 1 ' t Where are you going 1 ' the falling inflexion. It 
 is very unlike nature to make this curious, arbitrary differ- 
 ence ; and indeed it does not, as any quick ear may learn 
 anywhere. And it is a familiar fact that even words which 
 have no interrogative meaning in themselves are made inter- 
 
SENTENCES. 89 
 
 rogative by simply giving them the rising inflexion, as 
 * Well 1 ' meaning ' What have you got to say 1 ' ' He said no 
 more?' meaning 'What more did he say] Out with it.' 
 There need be no doubt nature interrogates in the rising 
 inflexion. 
 
 MODULATION. 
 
 Modulation is the term applied by art to the variation of 
 pitch by which nature modifies its address according to its 
 subject and mood. Nature not only inflects individual tones, 
 but also clauses, sentences, and passages. It will not in the 
 same pitch or manner describe soldiers charging and children 
 playing, or a meeting with a friend and a struggle with a 
 burglar, or repeat words of lament and of congratulation, 
 or the speeches of Joseph and the replies of his brethren on 
 their visits to Egypt. It would not with the same pitch and 
 manner give the voice of them that shout for the mastery 
 and of them that cry for being overcome ; or the words of 
 the two men who went up to the temple to pray ; or a fin- 
 ancial statement and a vigorous argument; or a hearty 
 exhortation and a melting appeal. And if it should inter- 
 polate an ' aside/ or a few words of reminiscence or explana- 
 tion, it would not be in the same pitch as the rest of the 
 sentence. 
 
 Modulation is the main agent in distinguishing a parenthesis 
 from its context in spoken language. The parenthesis is in 
 a somewhat different pitch, and a little faster or slower as the 
 case may be. Ordinarily it is begun in a lower pitch and 
 ends with the rising inflexion. Beginners ought, perhaps, 
 to be warned against too great lowering of pitch. The 
 change ought to be distinctly felt by the hearer, but more 
 than this may cause difficulty to the speaker. (See illus- 
 trations of parentheses, p. 107.) 
 
 Faults: Underdone, overdone, absurdly done caused 
 
90 SPEAKING. 
 
 by imperfect mastery of the voice, or want of sound taste 
 and judgment, or incorrect apprehension of the sense and 
 feeling. 
 
 INTONATION. 
 
 If appropriate tone is not technically an essential part of 
 modulation, it is, in nature's voice at least, inseparable from 
 it. The necessity of suitable tone, and the infinite variety 
 and delicate shading of it, may be best illustrated by setting 
 down for comparison brief sentences which manifestly de- 
 mand to be spoken more or less differently. The natural 
 faculty for this requires as much cultivation as any that has 
 been under consideration. The correct discernment of the 
 thought and feeling depends so much on the context that 
 the following illustrations are taken (sometimes abbreviated) 
 from the most widely-known volume, and references given : 
 
 What aileth thee, Hagar ? fear not (Gen. xxi.) 
 
 What wilt thou, queen Esther, and what is thy request ? (Esth. v.) 
 
 What doest thou here, Elijah ? (1 Kings xix. ) 
 
 Wilt thou kill me as thou killedst the Egyptian ? (Ex. ii.) 
 
 What meaneth this bleating of the sheep in mine ears ? (1 Sam. xv.) 
 
 Are not Abana and Pharpar better than all the rivers of Israel ? (2 
 
 Kings v.) 
 If he had bidden thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have 
 
 done it? (2 Kings v.) 
 
 Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing ? (2 Kings viii.) 
 Shall he break the covenant, and be delivered ? (Ezek. xvii.) 
 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth '{ (Job 
 
 xxxviii.) 
 
 Behold, I am vile : what shall I answer Thee ? (Job xl.) 
 foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you ? (Gal. iii.) 
 Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye ? (Ac. xix. ) 
 Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? (Ac. xvi.) 
 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries ? (Jas. iii.) 
 Can a devil open the eyes of the blind ? (Jn. ix.) 
 Who is sufficient for these things ? (2 Cor. ii.) 
 Who then can be saved ? (Matt, xix.) 
 What went ye out for to see ? (Matt, xi.) 
 
SENTENCES. 91 
 
 What accusation bring ye against this man ? (Jn. xviii.) 
 
 Who is he that will harm you ? (1 Pet. iii.) 
 
 If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? (Jn. xxi.) 
 
 Who will say unto Him, What doest Thou ? (Job ix. ) 
 
 What is that to us ? See thou to that (Matt, xxvii. ) 
 
 Art Thou come to torment us before the time ? (Matt, viii.) 
 
 Why will ye die, house of Israel ? (Ezek. xxxiii.) 
 
 Will ye also go away ? (Jn. vi.) 
 
 Is His mercy clean gone for ever ? (Ps. Ixxvii.) 
 
 Shall the enemy blaspheme Thy name for ever? (Ps. Ixxiv.) 
 
 How long shall I suffer you ? (Matt. xvii. ) 
 
 What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart ? (Ac. xxi.) 
 
 When saw we Thee hungry and fed Thee ? (Matt, xxv.) 
 
 When saw we Thee an hungred and did not minister unto Thee ? 
 
 (Matt, xxv.) 
 
 I cannot hold my peace ( Jer. iv. ) 
 For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace (Is. Ixii.) 
 Hold your peace, let me alone (Job xiii.) 
 Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth (1 Sam. iii.) 
 Come in, thou blessed of the Lord (Gen. xxiv. ) 
 I will not let thee go, except thou bless me (Gen. xxxii.) 
 Come now, and let us reason together (Is. i.) 
 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man (2 Sam. xii.) 
 And they all wept sore (Ac. xx. ) 
 They rejoiced with exceeding great joy (Matt, ii.) 
 When he saw him he passed by on the other side (Luke x.) 
 When he saw him he had compassion on him (Luke x.) 
 Thou shalt not kill (Ex. xx.) 
 Thou shalt never wash my feet ( Jn. xiii. ) 
 I will lay down my life for Thy sake ( Jn. xiii. ) 
 And he went out and wept bitterly (Matt, xxvi.) 
 There is none that doeth good, no, not one (Ps. xiv.) 
 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me ! (Ps. Ixxxi.) 
 how love I Thy law ! (Ps. cxix. ) 
 wretched man that I am ! (Ro. vii. ) 
 Bless me, even me also, my father (Gen. xxvii.) 
 Do thyself no harm : for we are all here (Ac. xvi. ) 
 Fear not, for I have redeemed thee (Is. xliii. ) 
 Quit you like men, be strong (1 Cor. xvi.} 
 Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter (Ac. viii.) 
 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt, viii.) 
 God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes (Rev. xxi.) 
 Master, master, we perish (Luke viii.) 
 
92 SPEAKING. 
 
 They shall never perish (Jn. x.) 
 
 The Lord bless thee and keep thee (Num. vi.) 
 
 Entreat me not to leave thee (Ruth i. ) 
 
 Would God I had died for thee, Absalom, my son, my son 
 
 (2 Sam. xviii.) 
 
 If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean (Mark i.) 
 I will ; be thou clean (Mark i.) 
 Arise up quickly (Ac. xii.) 
 Arise, take up thy bed, and walk (Mark ii. ) 
 Let them be turned back that say, Aha, aha (Ps. Ixx.) 
 He warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm (Is. xliv. ) 
 Brother Saul, receive thy sight (Ac. xxii.) 
 Away with him (Ac. xxi. ) 
 
 Paul, much learning hath made thee mad (Ac. xxvi.) 
 I am not mad, most noble Festus (Ac. xxvi. ) 
 King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets ? (Ac. xxvi.) 
 I know that thou believest (Ac. xxvi.) 
 If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain (1 Cor. xv.) 
 But now is Christ risen from the dead (1 Cor. xv.) 
 grave, where is thy victory ? (1 Cor. xv.) 
 Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory (1 Cor. xv. ) 
 
 We should be the last to encourage reading dramatically, 
 or playing the elocutionist ; but there is a wide difference 
 between that and reading so as to convey the full meaning, and 
 the feeling is part of the meaning. For example, one has only 
 to think how many different degrees of thankfulness he has 
 heard expressed by the different tones put into the simple 
 words, ' thank you.' For this kind of reading or speaking 
 a glance at even so small a number of sentences as the fore- 
 going (no two of them alike) will show the absolute necessity 
 of a voice made thoroughly flexible by practice and controlled 
 by judgment and taste. That the tone may be really true, 
 this equipment should be accompanied by a quality of mind 
 and speech for which we know no better term than frankness. 
 
 Faults: These remarks will sufficiently suggest the char- 
 acter and cause of faults. But we may mention having 
 heard many who are neither absurd nor extravagant, and 
 indeed in their own opinion are doing exceedingly well, 
 
SENTENCES. 93 
 
 when in fact, from very imperfect self -education and dis- 
 cipline, part of their modulation and intonation never escapes 
 from the mouth, and part never exists but in their im- 
 agination. 
 
 MOVEMENT. 
 
 We use this word as summarily embracing better than any 
 other the remaining points that may be thought to deserve 
 attention here. 
 
 Rhythm is produced by the selection and arrangement of 
 words so that accented syllables by occupying certain positions 
 make the passage more or less effective in speech and more or 
 less pleasant to hear. Vowel sounds also have some share in 
 this. Poetry presents most rhythm, and in a poem rhythm 
 is uniform. In prose it must not be uniform. This subject 
 is rather for the composer than for the speaker ; but he who 
 speaks best will in this respect compose best though, on the 
 other hand, one may compose well and utterly fail in speak- 
 ing. In poetry the good speaker will neither make the 
 rhyme overshadow the sense nor the sense disturb the rhyme, 
 but will make both tell, and make each assist the other. 
 
 Cadence, if it has more meaning than modulation, must 
 have it by embracing something of that which is supplied by 
 rhythm. Men may be found concerned about their cadence 
 who ought to be occupied in acquiring some of the first 
 elements of good speaking. 
 
 Motion the rate and manner of progression must differ 
 along with the character of the subject ; and also, though 
 the subject should be the same, with the degree and kind of 
 effect which the speaker intends, as by slow and measured 
 words and sentences, or otherwise. Within limits in either 
 direction which are obvious to common sense, motion is of 
 every degree, and in its finer degrees may be almost always 
 varying. At times it will gradually quicken slightly, as 
 
94 SPEAKING. 
 
 towards the end of a series set forth under feeling. But it is 
 always to be borne in mind that only the expert should 
 observe what is happening : the ordinary hearer should only 
 feel the naturalness and the power. If it were necessary to 
 suggest illustrations of the necessity of difference in the rate 
 and manner of progression (which would of course be accom- 
 panied by proper intonation, already considered), we might 
 point to the ' Lays of Ancient Rome ' and the ' Burial of Sir 
 John Moore/ to the Ten Commandments, the various parts 
 of the picture of the Last Judgment in Matt xxv., the 
 triumphal song of Moses, Paul's speech before Agrippa, the 
 various parts of Rom. viii. and of 1 Cor. xv. ; but illustra- 
 tions are everywhere. 
 
 Phrasing, or grouping of words, may fitly be noticed under 
 this heading. It practically amounts to this, that where 
 more words than one are used to present a single object, or 
 concept, or picture, they are treated in speaking as if they 
 were one word ; or, put conversely, single objects, or concepts, 
 or pictures are to be given with individual distinctness suffi- 
 cient for clear and easy sequence of thought in the hearer. 
 ' House/ ' couch/ ' book/ ' sand/ ' hungry/ ' days/ ' afraid/ 
 are not more distinct individual concepts than ' half-a-dozen 
 houses on the green/ ' he lay helpless on the couch/ ' a pile 
 of valuable books/ ' the sand which is upon the sea-shore/ 
 'I was an hungred/ 'not many days after/ 'they were sore 
 afraid.' The grammatical pointing by commas is not to be 
 taken as the rule in this, or in pausing (see below). 
 
 It must not be imagined that the grouped words are to be 
 crammed together or spoken rapidly. This would destroy 
 instead of securing the vivid clearness intended. It is not 
 thus that the grouping is effected, but in various ways so 
 intangible that they can hardly be described, such as a 
 degree (perhaps infinitesimal) of pause, which yet is not a 
 lifeless pause, and by management of the voice felt but 
 
SENTENCES. 95 
 
 unseen by the ordinary hearer. Perhaps the whole may be 
 best expressed by saying that the group receives the same 
 treatment of voice as a single word would in its place. 
 
 Pausing : If so-called pausing is not of every degree from 
 the most pronounced which is allowable down to nothing, 
 the reading or speaking is not good. The truth is that, on 
 the one hand, what in common language would be called 
 a pause, though effective when well placed, does not occur 
 often ; and, on the other, what the word means as applied 
 to speech would generally be more correctly thought of rather 
 as a throb of time and thought, and requires as quick and 
 true insight and as delicate touch as anything in speech. 
 
 We confess to a little impatience with the manner in which 
 some teachers and many pupils speak of this action in speech 
 as if it were always only an obvious stoppage which the 
 commonest performer could execute. In this light the 
 pupil's great interest in it is intelligible, for one who can do 
 nothing else can at least stop. We knew one who stopped 
 after every few words with the certainty of a metronome and 
 almost with its click ; and we know of another who seems 
 incapable of anything else, and stops instead of doing some- 
 thing else, in season and out of season. If such methods 
 have any good effect on a strange audience, it is certain they 
 lose it on an accustomed audience, and the last-mentioned 
 trick becomes an irritant. 
 
 An appropriate pause will call special attention to that 
 which is next to be said, but not unless the hearer feels that 
 the speaker knows what he is to say and feels its import- 
 ance. A little pause after as well as before a saying may 
 give it still more weight. A degree of pause may also 
 indicate the coming of something unexpected oftenest, we 
 think, unhappy, as that which we would rather not say. He 
 went 'into a far country, and there wasted,' &c. Nature 
 would dictate a little hanging after 'and,' amounting to 
 
 G 
 
96 SPEAKING. 
 
 scarcely more than a perceptible dwelling on the nd of 'and.' 
 The tone also of ' and ' itself would be slightly premonitory 
 of ill. Again, the slightest pause, indeed scarcely so much a 
 pause as a certain touch of the voice, may be necessary to 
 give the meaning. Thus, ' not many days after he took his 
 journey ' might be read to mean ' after he took his journey/ 
 To prevent this we must treat ' after ' with the touch just 
 referred to. Let it be repeated that this so-called pausing is 
 not a mere piece of vacant time. The throb of intellectual 
 and emotional life never ceases either in speaker or hearer, is 
 indeed quicker than at many other times. When to pause 
 and how to pause can hardly be taught to one who has not 
 the instinct of the speaker ; but intelligent study helps, as 
 in most things. 
 
 SENTENCE STUDIES. 
 
 We propose now to examine a few sentences after the 
 manner of one who would prepare to speak them properly, 
 directing attention to such things as might be found diffi- 
 cult, or might be overlooked. The selection is made from 
 the Authorised Version of Scripture, both because it should 
 above all books be well read, and because we consider it to 
 be the best existing English. It need hardly be said, how- 
 ever, that the best sentences have not been sought out (as 
 seems to be usual in books on this subject), but those which 
 may best educate the student. While it is probable that 
 the interpretations given will be generally accepted, our 
 object is not to lay down the law, but, as has been said, 
 to educate. 
 
 God said, Let there be light : and there was light (Gen. i.) 
 
 A writer already referred to says that in the latter part of 
 this the weight of voice should not be on 'was,' as is usual, 
 but on 'light.' Most minds will reject this for excellent 
 
SENTENCES. 97 
 
 natural reasons, (a) When the first part has been told, the 
 attitude of the hearer is, ' And was there light 1 ' the answer 
 to which is ' There was light/ (b) The simple emphatic 
 verb brings out that the task was completely and instantly 
 accomplished, (c) Subsequent verses are expressed in the 
 same form, but in reading * and it was so ' no one would put 
 the emphasis on 'so.' In like manner at verse 11, 'Let 
 the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed,' &c., the 
 words after ' brought forth ' reject emphasis ; most effect is 
 due to 'the earth brought forth' the earth did as it was 
 bid. (d) 'The officer said to his men, "Take the heights," 
 and they took the heights ' : only one reading would be 
 tolerated here. So, ' Jesus said unto him, " Be thou clean " ; 
 and he was clean.' 
 
 In short, we do not doubt that the proper reading of 
 ' was light ' is to give both words expressively, and ' was ' 
 with more weight than 'light.' 
 
 Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, be- 
 cause they are not (Matt, ii.) Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and 
 ye will take Benjamin away (Gen. xlii.) 
 
 A similar question might arise here. Greater weight of 
 voice is usually and rightly put upon 'are' and 'is' than on 
 the 'not.' To emphasise 'not' is to make an emphatic 
 denial ; but here grief is simply mourning absence. The 
 two words form a single sad expression, the first part of 
 which bears the greater share of expressiveness. 
 
 If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved (Gen. xliii.) 
 
 Here also in the last two words the greater emphasis is on 
 * am.' No emphasis on the last word alone, or principally, 
 could give to it an expression which would make it more 
 than a meaningless repetition. The meaning is, ' I am, really, 
 at the heart, beyond all utterance, bereaved.' Nor is the 
 
98 SPEAKING. 
 
 ' am ' without some reference to ' if.' ' Children ' should be 
 impressively speken. 
 
 He hath chosen the foolish things to confound the wise ; and the 
 weak things to confound the things that are mighty ; and things which 
 are not, to bring to nought things that are (1 Cor. L, abbreviated). 
 
 How is the last section to be read ? Try an experiment 
 thus, ' Things which are foolish, things which are wise; 
 things which are weak, things which are strong; things 
 which are not.' The first four times 'are' is certainly light ; 
 if we make it so the next time, some adjective would be 
 expected to follow, or is implied, as ' things which are not ' 
 (weak), 'things which are not' (strong). Again, the first 
 four times ' are ' predicates certain qualities of existing 
 things ; the next time existence itself is in question, and 
 to express non-existence the word 'not' is but a qualifier 
 of the word ' are,' and the denial of existence does not 
 require to be emphatic. We conclude to read ' are not ' 
 as one phrase with the principal weight on 'are.' 
 
 I will go down now, and see whether, &c. (Gen. xviii.) 
 
 It is better here almost to disregard the comma, give some 
 emphasis to ' see,' and follow it by a slight pause. In the 
 rest of this chapter the successive appeals of Abraham try 
 the reader, to give them truly and with due restraint. He 
 deepens in humility, is more and more held back by fear of 
 venturing too far, yet by increasing earnestness and longing 
 is actually driven nearer and nearer. 
 
 Hast thou here any besides ? son in law, and thy sons, and thy 
 daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of 
 this place (Gen. xix.) 
 
 ' Son in law,' ' sons/ ' daughters ' may be read interrogat- 
 ively as an extension by particulars of the general question, 
 and as saying 'What of them?' Or they may more 
 properly be read as a statement of particulars, connected 
 
SENTENCES. 99 
 
 with the summation ' whatsoever,' which must be brought 
 out of the place. Certainly this ' whatsoever ' clause must 
 be a firmly and conclusively expressed address. 
 
 But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law (Gen. xix.) 
 This has to be read so that ' seemed/ and not ' mocked/ 
 shall connect with ' sons in law/ This will be done by 
 giving the falling (concluding) inflection to ' mocked/ and 
 following it by a slight pause. 
 
 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar 
 of salt (Gen. xix.) 
 
 Care must be taken not to emphasise the last three words. 
 The pitch should be slightly lower after ' him. 7 c And ' 
 should be felt premonitory of ill, its concluding letters 
 slightly dwelt on, and followed by a slight pause the sub- 
 sequent words being read evenly. 
 
 And he looked . . . toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, 
 and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace 
 (Gen. xix.) 
 
 Guard against paltry emphasising of single words. ' The 
 smoke of the country ' and ' the smoke of a furnace J are 
 each a single expression, and to be spoken as such. We 
 almost fear to refer often to pausing, for in truth what is 
 meant is seldom properly a pause, but rather as it were a 
 throb of time and thought, and almost voice. This should 
 follow both < beheld ' and ' lo.' 
 
 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a 
 burnt offering (Gen. xxii.) 
 
 * My ' here is neither strong nor light, but medium 
 certainly not the sound of i in ill. The two words are full 
 of love and tenderness. The rest is spoken not as if he had 
 any thought of his son being spared, nor in strained or loud- 
 voiced trust in God ; but in deeply felt willingness to leave 
 
100 SPEAKING. 
 
 himself and his son in God's hands feeling that to be a lamb 
 provided by God for Himself is to be precious in His sight. 
 
 Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld 
 thy son, thine only son from me (Gen. xxii.) 
 
 The so-called pause throb of time and voice should 
 precede and follow i thine only son.' ' Only son ' is one ex- 
 pression to be given with some weight, which is principally 
 on * only.' 
 
 Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again (Gen. xxiv.) 
 The occurrence of the first * thou ' shows anxiety and the 
 pointedness of the charge and is followed by the so-called 
 pause. * My son ' is a single expression, both parts of 
 which are in the same voice. ' My,' as before explained, is 
 medium. 
 
 The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau 
 (Gen. xxvii.) 
 
 There is not emphasis on the second ' voice ' and ' hands,' 
 but on the first and on the names. 
 
 Art thou my very son Esau ? (Gen. xxvii.) 
 
 * Thou ' may or may not be emphasised, but the words 
 ' my very son ' are to be given with anxious distinctness 
 and deliberateness, and with equal weight. 
 
 He cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his 
 father, Bless me, even me also, my father (Gen. xxvii.) 
 
 The description of the cry should of course be with sym- 
 pathy, with somewhat slower motion and in a pitch slightly 
 above what the speaker has been using. The five words 
 that follow ' cry ' are more ordinary. Then in the appeal 
 (again raised in pitch) ' me ' and ' me also ' are touchingly 
 emphatic, and * my father ' is in somewhat lower pitch 
 but with no less voice. 
 
SENTENCES. 101 
 
 This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of 
 heaven (Gen. xxviii. ) 
 
 Some might emphasise * God ' and ' heaven/ It is doubt- 
 less better to take ' house of God ' and ' gate of heaven ' as 
 single expressions. 
 
 With my staff I passed over this Jordan ; and now I am become two 
 bands (Gen. xxxii.) 
 
 There should be no special emphasis on ' staff ' in addition 
 to what it takes from its position in the sentence, but * my 
 staff ' are to be read together, much as if it were l my all. ' 
 * And ' and ' now ' should be given distinctively, each with 
 a slight dwelling on its final sound, and ' now ' in a slightly 
 lower pitch and with feeling. < Two bands ' are spoken 
 together and alike, with pondering, thankful expressiveness, 
 but without jerky emphasis. 
 
 I fear him lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the 
 children (Gen. xxxii.) 
 
 The sense must first be settled, and this no doubt is, lest 
 he rout me, not sparing even mothers and children. To 
 emphasise * me/ or in any way make it personal as distin- 
 guished from c mother and child/ would be an unjust inter- 
 pretation ; ' with the mother and the children ' should be read 
 as an adverbial qualification of c smite me/ and will have a 
 slightly lower pitch. 
 
 And Jacob was left alone ; and there wrestled a man with him until 
 the breaking of the day. (25) And when he saw that he prevailed not 
 against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh ; and the hollow of 
 Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. (26) And he 
 said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let 
 thee go except thou bless me. (27) And he said unto him, What is 
 thy name ? And he said, Jacob. (28) And he said, Thy name shall be 
 called no more Jacob, but Israel (Gen. xxxii. 24-28). 
 
 When two persons are repeatedly referred to as ' he/ the 
 manner of distinguishing them is by making that word 
 shorter and longer, or perhaps lighter and heavier. A little 
 
102 SPEAKING. 
 
 examination will show that when one person is prominently 
 before the mind as the principal subject, his l he ' or ' him ' 
 is given short witness all the preceding part of this chapter 
 in its references to Jacob ; also that when the positions of ' he ' 
 for different persons are so close and apposite as ' he asked ' 
 and 'he replied,' the second is the heavier. But notwith- 
 standing such points of guidance from nature or custom, 
 there may be difficulty in seeing how to make the necessary 
 distinction, as in the present passage. 
 
 It will be found that in this passage the sense is best 
 brought out, and the treatment easiest and most consistent, 
 by taking the ' man ' to be, as indeed he is, the most out- 
 standing personage. The first five times c he ' refers to him, 
 and is given short. The next refers to Jacob (introducing 
 his answer), and is long. The next (27) refers to the man, 
 and is short ; and the next to Jacob (introducing an answer 
 again), and is long. The next (28) refers to the man, and is 
 short. 
 
 Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him (1 Thess. iv.) 
 ' Him ' refers to Jesus, and for this meaning requires some 
 weight. 
 
 And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, . . . and 
 they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters 
 to their sons, and served their gods (Judg. iii. 5, 6). 
 
 The reader having with ordinary expression read ' their 
 daughters ' will, on its recurrence with reference to others, 
 instinctively make a difference, and this will naturally be 
 done by putting weight on ' their.' For the rest it will be 
 found that nothing is gained by attempting to distinguish 
 between the other uses of that word. 
 
 And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in 
 Due night (Gen. xl.) 
 
 What would be the best way of reading this to exclude most 
 
SENTENCES. 103 
 
 surely the thought that both had the same dream 1 To con- 
 nect ' each man his dream ' with what precedes, and not with 
 what follows. This would give the meaning that they 
 dreamed each man his dream, with the additional informa- 
 tion that both happened in one night ; otherwise it would be 
 more liable to appear as if they both had the same dream, 
 and on the same night. 
 
 His bowels did yearn upon his brother ; and he sought where to 
 weep ; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there (Gen. xliii.) 
 
 Some might be led to emphasise the last word ; but there 
 is really nothing in the where. The matter of interest is 
 Joseph's bursting heart, and his haste to hide his head 
 somewhere. 'Wept there' should be one expression, the 
 words of about equal weight, and suggesting a scene of 
 secret weeping from an overwhelmed heart. 
 
 We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little 
 one ; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and 
 his father loveth him (Gen. xliv.) 
 
 There must be no hastening to the words which follow ' a 
 father/ or * age ' ; they will in both cases be in a slightly 
 lower pitch, and they give expression to touching points. 
 * His ' with l brother ' (and again with ' mother ') must be 
 without emphasis or effort, but yet be well brought out. 
 ' Left ' should, for obvious reason, be taken with the words 
 preceding it; * mother ' should have no emphasis; 'father' 
 and ' loveth ' should be given alike. 
 
 The lad cannot leave his father ; for if he should leave his father, 
 his father would die (Gen. xliv.) 
 
 The first two parts are not to be pitted against each other 
 in any way. The effective words are the same in both, 
 'leave his father.' The last part will be slightly lower in 
 pitch, but not less in power. 
 
104 SPEAKING. 
 
 Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to his stature \ 
 (Matt, vi.) 
 
 'By taking thought' should be made to stand out, but 
 scarcely by what is ordinarily understood as emphasis. 
 
 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow (Matt, vi.) 
 To emphasise ' they ' would make comparison with the 
 growth of his hearers ; to emphasise ' grow ' would make 
 comparison with some other quality of the lily. The prin- 
 cipal emphasis is on 'how/ in which lie the mystery and 
 the evidence of care and wisdom and power. On ' grow ' 
 there is scarcely more emphasis than falls to it as the final 
 sound of the sentence. 
 
 Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles ? (Matt, vii.) 
 This should be read as two questions the rising inflexion 
 for 'thorns ' as well as 'thistles.' 
 
 I never knew you : depart from Me, ye that work iniquity 
 (Matt, vii.) 
 
 Emphasis might be put on ' I ' or on ' you,' but not on 
 both. It would seem best to put just a little on 'I/ and 
 the suggestion of it on 'you.' 
 
 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew 
 and beat upon that house ; and it fell : and great was the fall of it 
 (Matt, vii.) 
 
 The nominative and its verb here are to be spoken together 
 and alike. There should be no hasting from the one of these 
 many pictures to the other. ' Blew and beat ' should not be 
 read as one expression ; ' beat ' alone connects with ' that 
 house,' but the throb of time after ' blew ' should be rather 
 less of a pause than is between the other pictures. ' It 
 fell' will be at a slightly lower pitch; and what follows, 
 lower still ; but if the reader has not made preparation 
 for this, he had better do anything than get into bathoa 
 
or THE 
 UNIVERSITY )j 
 
 OF SENTENCES. 105 
 
 jro^T^^ 
 Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed (Matt, viii.) 
 
 6 Word ' should not be singled out by emphasis, nor ' word 
 only ' ; but ' speak the word/ in a piece, gives the centurion's 
 mind. 
 
 The Son of man hath not where to lay His head (Matt, viii.) 
 * Head ' should not be emphasised, as if distinguishing it 
 from something else ; but ' lay his head ' is one expression. 
 
 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he 
 sent him into his fields to feed swine (Luke xv.) 
 
 Another illustration of our remarks on ' he ' : the first, re- 
 ferring to the son, is short, the other long. A so-called 
 pause, a throb of time, after ' fields ' would be natural. 
 
 Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any 
 time thy commandment ; and yet thou never gavest me a kid that I 
 might make merry with my friends : but as soon as this thy son was 
 come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for 
 him the fatted calf (Luke xv.) 
 
 Nature would emphasise the first * I/ and in a less 
 degree the whole statement down to ' and ' ; then all the 
 following words : < me,' ' kid,' I,' < my/ < him,' ' fatted calf ' ; 
 and the character given to the prodigal would be in a tone 
 severely bringing out the fancied injustice. 
 
 For this thy brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is 
 found (Luke xv.) 
 
 1 Thy brother 7 should be brought out distinctively and 
 tenderly ; c was dead ' and ' was lost/ also distinctively, and 
 with the conclusive effect of the falling inflexion, and a 
 sense of sad importance. 
 
 I am not mad, most noble Festus (Ac. xxvi.) 
 ' Not mad ' was spoken doubtless with evenness and 
 composure, after the manner of a man with whom the im- 
 portance of the strange things he had been saying, and the 
 
106 SPEAKING. 
 
 desire to have them believed, overruled everything the 
 manner of an honest man seriously giving assurance (and 
 competent to give assurance) of the true state of the case 
 aiming also to dispel all thought of madness which would 
 make his words of no account. 
 
 If God be for us, who can be against us ? (Ro. viii. ) 
 The following words must be brought out well and 
 thoughtfully, but not with mere jerky emphasis : 'God/ 
 4 for,' 'who/ 'against. 7 
 
 How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things ? (Ro. viii.) 
 'With Him' is to be brought out distinctively, by a 
 throb of time before and after it. 'Also' goes with what 
 follows. 
 
 Who shall separate us from the love of God ? shall tribulation, or 
 distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? 
 (Ro. viii.) 
 
 These particulars are spoken each as a question, and there 
 will be a slight acceleration of motion and accession of 
 feeling from about ' famine ' to the end of ' peril/ ' Sword ' 
 will commence lower, both because it is the last word, and 
 still more because its interrogative rising inflection should be 
 a decisive one. ' Or ' will be somewhat higher, preparatory 
 to the lower beginning of ' sword/ 
 
 I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
 principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
 height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able, &c. (Ro. viii.) 
 
 These particulars are each spoken with firm conclusiveness. 
 Naturally they go in twos, except 'angels, principalities, 
 powers.' Both motion and feeling and force will slightly 
 increase towards the end. ' Any ' is slightly down, rising to 
 ' other,' which is rather above the general tone, that the fall 
 on the final ' creature ' may be the more effective. But there 
 must be no suggestion of haste. 
 
SENTENCES. 107 
 
 Now this, I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the 
 kingdom of God (1 Cor. xv.) 
 
 The force of the statement is in the absolute incompati- 
 bility of the materials of flesh and blood with the kingdom 
 of God. This therefore is what the reader has to endeavour 
 to convey ; and it cannot be done merely by the manner of 
 speaking the i cannot/ 
 
 death, where is thy sting ? grave, where is thy victory ? . . . 
 Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ (1 Cor. xv.) 
 
 Clearly to get the full value of this, there should be 
 emphasis on 'us.' 
 
 The words 'Holy, holy, holy' should be spoken with 
 increasing reverence. 
 
 For the reading of parentheses (p. 89), the illustrations 
 following may afford useful suggestions. 
 
 A typical instance of parenthetical matter, though not 
 shown by a bracket, is seen in John xiv. 22, 'not Iscariot.' 
 In Heb. xi. 38, * Of whom the world was not worthy ' is, we 
 think, best concluded, not as is usual in a parenthesis, but 
 with the falling inflexion. It is an affirmation firmly made 
 of one more fact about the persons in that roll of honour. 
 
 A parenthesis may be so long that it cannot be read dis- 
 tinctively as such : 
 
 Heb. xii. 20 : ' For they could not endure/ &c. This is not 
 very difficult, and we quote it to point out that for the expres- 
 sion of the sense it is not necessary to read it as a parenthesis. 
 
 Heb. iii. 7 : ' As the Holy Ghost saith, To-day,' &c. Here 
 nearly five verses of a Psalm are quoted in a bracket, and 
 the manner of reading a parenthesis could not be maintained 
 throughout ; but considering the nature of its connection with 
 that which precedes and follows, there is obviously no need 
 to attempt such a reading. 
 
108 SPEAKING. 
 
 Heb. iv. 7 : c Again He limiteth a certain day,' c. The 
 concluding of this parenthesis, and the beginning of what 
 follows, need not cause anxiety ; not only because the con- 
 nection between themselves is natural, but the latter con- 
 tains actual words for the purpose of resuming the main 
 argument. But it is quite different with the beginning of 
 the parenthesis. It breaks into the middle of a sentence at 
 a most unexpected point, with no connection of grammar or 
 immediately perceivable meaning. Unless, therefore, one 
 would make the reading appear as nonsense, his manner 
 must mark the transition best done, apparently, by a slight 
 check where the verse is broken, and a somewhat lower 
 pitch for the beginning of the parenthesis. For the rest, 
 no attempt need be made. 
 
 Rom. ii. 13 : 'For not the hearers of the law are just,' &c. 
 This is the opposite of last case, in that the beginning of it 
 connects naturally with what precedes, while there is no 
 connection between its conclusion and what follows; and 
 further, what precedes has the form of a statement which 
 awaits no continuation after the parenthesis, and the con- 
 tinuation which actually comes does not contain one word 
 to lead back to what precedes. This is very difficult to 
 read so as to bring that which follows the parenthesis into 
 connection with what precedes it. The best course will be 
 found to be to read what precedes in a well-sustained voice 
 and conclude it with the rising inflexion : begin the paren- 
 thesis in a somewhat lower pitch, ending it also with the 
 rising inflexion, and resume what follows in the voice and 
 manner that had gone before. 
 
 Kois. v. 13 : 'For until the law sin was in the world,' &c. 
 The conclusion runs easily into what follows, nor does the 
 beginning start abruptly or unconnectedly from what precedes. 
 No attempt should be made to read it as a parenthesis, but 
 we should pass to the parenthesis from what precedes it in 
 
SENTENCES. 109 
 
 the manner one would naturally use if it were not a paren- 
 thesis. 
 
 In our illustrations such a word as 'slightly' or Some- 
 what ' may have been used when on the one hand it might 
 have been omitted, or on the other an expression of a little 
 more strength used, if it had existed. Let it be understood 
 we have sought to err on that which would be the safest 
 side for the awkward. But it need hardly be said that 
 any change of pitch or intonation must be such as to be felt 
 by the hearer or it is useless. It is impossible to define 
 degrees by words. We are, as has been said, only trying to 
 direct attention to nature that it may be permitted to speak 
 for itself. 
 
 It is to be regretted that our national temperament and 
 manners or customs should have so completely robbed us of 
 essential and beautiful elements of good speech which we 
 had by nature in childhood ; and it is strange that the 
 recovery of them should be so difficult to many, largely 
 owing to a stolid, though it may be unconscious, resistance. 
 If one would hear the tones appropriate to the various 
 emotions, and the fine effect of true modulation, let him 
 listen to a child. It has had no teaching and needs none ; 
 yet in every nation and kindred and tongue it utters without 
 fault the tones that express pain, anger, pity, love, joy, 
 expectation, disappointment the whole gamut of feeling. 
 With this in mind it is pitiful to find the elaborate details 
 for at least all the principal emotions which some books 
 think it necessary to present. 
 
 One word more before we proceed to the platform : he 
 who would speak well in public must be careful to speak 
 well in private with distinct articulation and true vowel 
 sounds, with a frank and natural voice, and with the word g 
 that most exactly express his meaning. 
 
110 
 
 PAET V. 
 
 PUBLIC SPEAKING. 
 
 THE pupil, having reached this stage, must be regarded as 
 fully accoutred, and with every weapon ready to his hand. 
 But all will be vain unless there is breathed into him a 
 living soul. He must have something to say which he feels 
 to be important, which he is heartily purposed to say, and 
 as to which he will spare no pains to bring his audience to 
 the same mind as himself. When a speaker is unfavourably 
 criticised as speaking for effect, the meaning must be that he 
 speaks for some effect relative to his own personality, or for 
 present impression or excitement with too little regard for 
 lasting good ; because every true man is bound to speak for 
 effect in the sense of producing some high and good and 
 lasting effect, and in this light it is commendation to say 
 that he speaks for effect. There is frivolous speech-making, 
 of which we take no account here. Nor do our words apply 
 to the actor or the reciter, both of whom must be distin- 
 guished from the speaker. 
 
 ACTOR, KECITER, SPEAKER. 
 
 The actor's part and the speaker's are essentially different. 
 The actor never addresses his audience, the speaker always 
 does. Further, the speaker describes a villain or a piece of 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING. Ill 
 
 villainy, the actor becomes for the time himself a villain ; 
 the speaker tells of the home-coming of the prodigal, the 
 actor becomes the prodigal, and in all his rags and misery 
 rushes into his father's arms. Again, the actor's perform- 
 ances appeal to the imagination, the emotions, the passions ; 
 the speaker seeks to reach the reason, the conscience, the 
 will. The simple statement of the positions is sufficient to 
 show how unreflecting, how absurd, it is to put them in 
 comparison in order to compliment or discredit the one or 
 the other by pointing to the effect produced at the time 
 even if (as is rarely done) persons of equal power and emin- 
 ence in the two professions were taken. The well-worn 
 saying, that the actor produces his greater momentary effect 
 because he speaks fiction as if it were truth, would be easily 
 tested by putting him on the speaker's platform and giving 
 him truth to speak to the audience instead of fiction in their 
 presence. Doubtless the speaker may get hints from the 
 actor, as the actor from the speaker, and as every man in 
 earnest about anything gets hints on all sides ; but let no 
 one suppose that studying the stage will make a speaker 
 of him. No great actor has been also a great speaker. 
 
 The part of the reciter or elocutionist is almost as different 
 from the speaker's in that which is essential as the actor's 
 has proved to be. The elocutionist, as the appellation is 
 ordinarily understood, does not address his audience, but 
 exhibits in presence of it in his own way as the actor does 
 in his. Further, if he does not, like the actor, actually im- 
 personate a character, or present a material scene, he does 
 his best to compensate through the imagination by every 
 suggestion of voice and manner to such an extent that we 
 but lately heard a teacher of elocution absurdly attempt to 
 give his audience the impression of a thunder - storm by a 
 prodigious uproar of voice. Again, in the direct effect 
 designed on the hearer, he is obviously more akin to the 
 
 H 
 
112 SPEAKING. 
 
 actor than to the speaker, and cannot ordinarily be said to 
 seek to reach the reason and conscience and will, but to give 
 pleasure. The practical test also is testimony to the differ- 
 ence of the two parts ; for though there may be a rare ex- 
 ception, the elocutionist generally is not a good speaker. 
 And it is more easy to imagine than to describe the effect 
 on a political meeting or a congregation, if it were addressed 
 after the manner of the elocutionist. The two may learn 
 from one another. But it is a delusion and a snare for any 
 one to imagine that he will be trained for public speaking 
 by the recital of foreign matter, or by imitative elocution. 
 
 In the light of these things the student will better per- 
 ceive the importance of what is stated in the first para- 
 graph of this Part. And now we proceed to matters more 
 immediately connected with the addressing of a public 
 audience. 
 
 PREPARATION FOR AN ADDRESS. 
 
 He must have a very peculiar mind, and is most likely a 
 poor speaker, who does not, in the first place, line out his 
 matter consecutively, and then give it body and life 
 modifying the course laid out, if necessary. 
 
 The beginner must resolutely apply himself to do this in 
 writing thoroughly and well And he must work doggedly. 
 It is very painful to hear of youths who can content them- 
 selves with a single cursory scribble ; but it affords an easy 
 explanation of the effect on their audience. He must also 
 as every one who writes must write with his audience as 
 consciously before his mind as is the correspondent to whom 
 he indites a letter; and must not forget that audiences of 
 every kind admire and enjoy lucidity of expression and 
 natural, easy sequence of thought. 
 
 And here we must press home the wide difference there is 
 between the way of setting forth a matter to be heard by 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING. 113 
 
 others and to be read by them. To present a subject in 
 speech as they would in print seems to be the ambition 
 of some, but it is almost invariably a great error. We are 
 not concerned here about their success in print; but for 
 speaking it must be borne in mind that the hearer has to 
 keep pace with the speaker, and cannot dwell a moment 
 longer on a thought or expression than he does, or the next 
 will be lost to him. The speaker therefore must so express 
 himself that in the progress of his thought he shall not out- 
 step his audience; must state nothing too curtly, or pass 
 from it till it is apprehended ; must not make sudden transi- 
 tions, nor use ambiguous or difficult language, nor make 
 obscure allusions ; must, in short, remember that he wishes 
 his audience to come along with him, perceiving and feeling 
 his meaning as quickly as he speaks it. He must remember 
 also that while it has been thought out by him at leisure, it 
 is presented to them for the first time nor only this, but 
 may be matter and thinking of a kind which is his daily 
 occupation, but not theirs. 
 
 We have said the beginner must write, and write thor- 
 oughly. We must add that no man at any period of life 
 can speak well unless he writes much and carefully, whether 
 it be on that of which he is to speak, or something entirely 
 different ; and this not because of a direct connection between 
 writing and speaking (as some would seem to teach), but 
 between writing and thinking. No man can speak well who 
 does not think well, and no one can think well who does not 
 write much and carefully. 
 
 BEAD SPEECH, EEPEATED SPEECH, FREE SPEECH. 
 
 The modes of addressing an audience may be presented 
 
 under three heads : read speech, repeated speech, free speech. 
 
 Let us take first the case of reading an address. The 
 
114 SPEAKING. 
 
 reader must bear in mind that he is taking an inferior mode 
 of discharging his duty. This lays upon him the necessity 
 of making compensation by every means in his power, while 
 in fact the tendency and temptation of the method are on 
 the contrary so to deliver himself as to aggravate instead of 
 compensate for the disadvantage. One tendency is to mon- 
 otony. Monotony does not mean one tone only, but also one 
 set of tones. A speaker may have not a little modulation, 
 and tones that are pleasant ; but they are soon found to be 
 coming round and round in their order, sentence after sen- 
 tence, with a movement as regular as the pace of a well-ridden 
 rocking-horse, or a boat anchored in a sleepy bay, or, in his 
 very grandest efforts, the swing of a switchback railway. 
 Others cannot be said to have any modulation at all, but go 
 on mumbling, or mkicing, or rasping, or ringing from begin- 
 ning to end. If the monotonous, with or without modula- 
 tion, were at any point sharply challenged and put under the 
 necessity of repeating what they said, they would speedily 
 drop their unnatural mode. A reader has also the disad- 
 vantage of not seeing as he should the faces of his audience, 
 and of not seeing how his face and words are affecting them. 
 Here both parties suffer loss, and this also must be compen- 
 sated for. 
 
 Not to multiply illustrations, the only way by which he 
 can successfully combat the disadvantages is by a careful, 
 constant effort of the will to address in his delivery every 
 sentence and word straight to the head and heart of the indi- 
 vidual hearer. We mean that he shall entirely drop the idea 
 of delivering an address, and act on the principle of saying, 
 bit by bit, from his own mind to another's what he has got 
 to say. And if he does this, soul and body, he will come as 
 near to free speech as a reader can. To a youth who was 
 wonderfully pleased with his sing-song, heartless, ' fusionless ' 
 reading, and who asked for advice, and who could not other- 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING. 115 
 
 wise be made to understand, we have said, Can you remember 
 the vigour, determination, and tones in which you would de- 
 liver yourself in the playground at school 1 Recall that; speak 
 like that, and it may tell. 
 
 For repeated speech the manuscript reproduced by mem- 
 ory the committal to memory must, at least in the case of 
 the beginner and the unaccustomed, be perfect. That which 
 will enable him to repeat correctly in his own room will be 
 insufficient for repetition in public. Much more complete 
 familiarity and mastery and ease are required. It must not 
 be taken for granted that this or that passage will be easily 
 remembered, or spoken with natural ease, or that the next 
 ' head ' is so outstanding that it is sure to come when wanted. 
 The business is intrusted to memory, and its success depends 
 on memory ; and it is notorious that under any stress this is 
 the first faculty to fail as in age, fatigue, illness, excitement, 
 surroundings that distract. Therefore no margin of risk 
 must be left. A word will dislocate a sentence, disturb the 
 speaker, and bring disaster. The trusted 'head' may dis- 
 appear when wanted, and cannot be waited for. Besides 
 such preparation, the speaker during delivery must strictly 
 avoid turning a thought on himself, as to whether he is doing 
 well or ill, or on the audience, as to what they are thinking 
 of him. He must keep his mind concentrated on his work, 
 and the delivery must be free from the faults that are apt to 
 attend on reading, free from the slightest suggestion that the 
 mind is reading from an absent manuscript, and must be 
 easy, spontaneous, natural, forceful. 
 
 By free speech we mean that which is neither read, nor 
 the language of it spoken from memory. Good first practice 
 is to gather the gist or points of a narrative, scene, argument, 
 parable, &c., and speak the matter in the speaker's own 
 language taking care to keep going, whether well or ill, 
 and not to attempt to catch any words of the original, if 
 
116 SPEAKING. 
 
 they do not come spontaneously. In describing any scene, 
 animate or inanimate, he should see mentally the whole 
 scene before him, and describe it as he sees it; and this 
 should be practised. Also let the beginner take part 
 in debating or other societies where speaking may be re- 
 quired without preparation of words. Again, it is good 
 that he should speak at first where he is more anxious to 
 benefit his hearers than afraid of their criticism. This 
 indeed ought always to be the case, but it is more easily 
 attained in some circumstances than in others. It need 
 hardly be said that the fuller one's store of words the 
 better not that he may indulge in deluges of vocables, but 
 that he may always have the right word. And in all 
 exercises or opportunities he should do his best to call up 
 the proper word. But above all, he must rather blunder 
 in his words and grammar than hesitate, and become confused, 
 and go back. Much will be overlooked in a young speaker 
 who is saying what is worth hearing, and saying it heartily. 
 Indeed there is probably no audience which would not let 
 go the niceties of grammar and word-selection, and retain 
 such speaking, if they could not have both. The speaker 
 requires confidence, self-control, command of his words ; and 
 this will only come by practice, and by speaking what he 
 knows and is resolved to say, and says heartily, and by 
 going on. That the power of free speech may be acquired 
 is testified to by numberless instances of excellent speakers 
 for whom at first it seemed hopeless. It need scarcely be 
 said that what is to be spoken must be clearly thought out, 
 the matter well assorted and thoroughly in hand. 
 
 Minds differ so much that we should wish to say here 
 no more than seems to have good foundation in the consti- 
 tution of the mind generally, and to have been general 
 experience. On these grounds we would venture to call 
 in question an advice which is to be heard, to prepare for 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING. 117 
 
 free speech by writing what is to be said two or three times 
 over either literally or in substance. This proceeding cannot 
 fail to bring the memory into action to recall words and 
 phrases that were written. The mind is divided between 
 trust in its power of present selection and trust in its mem- 
 ory of past selection ; and it falls between them. It goes 
 hunting with memory when it should stand to its guns, and 
 defeat is inevitable. It is better to line out the matter, 
 as we have said ; get it thoroughly into the mind ; think 
 out the filling up with any pen assistance that may be 
 necessary ; and, if there is anything that must be spoken 
 exactly, commit it perfectly to memory, but if even this 
 should fail to come when wanted, let it be given as best 
 can be, and not allowed to embarrass the speaker. No hearer 
 should suspect that this precious piece ever existed. 
 
 If one is to begin his career with either of the other two 
 modes of address as an introduction to free speech, let it not 
 be by reading, for this carries one farther and farther away 
 from it. Speaking from memory, however, may lead on to 
 free speech. We know it has done so ; and we suppose 
 the explanation may be that one acquires by means of it 
 self-command and self-reliance ; and possibly at times his 
 memory has failed in a word or two, and yet, speaking 
 heartij, he has found no difficulty in bridging the hiatus, 
 and perhaps doing better than the manuscript. 
 
 It may be that most speakers will find it an advantage 
 to have before them a jotting of the points of their address. 
 No doubt resolute practice would train to dispensing even 
 with this. But we shall only say of it that the more one 
 relies 311 such jottings the more he will require them ; and 
 unless it is rigidly guarded against, they will increase more 
 and nore in fulness. Such as can use free speech will 
 find tiat the more they can dispense with external aids the 
 more successful will be the speaking. 
 
118 SPEAKING. 
 
 Put the three modes now into comparison on the sup- 
 position that they receive equal justice in equally competent 
 hands. 
 
 Both nature and experience place free speech decisively 
 above the other methods. Indeed it so far excels them that 
 it can bear some detraction from the equality of the con- 
 ditions we have supposed, and still be found to hold the 
 first place. It admits and promotes the completest sympathy 
 between the speaker and the hearer; and it has the inval- 
 uable superiority of being most freshly and fully charged 
 with the life of the speaker's mind and heart. It is avail- 
 able, too, on occasions when one must speak and the other 
 methods are impossible occasions which were never so 
 numerous as at present, and are still increasing. In ordinary 
 circumstances it is not more exhausting ; many tMnk it less 
 so. It tells far more on every hearer than reading tells 
 on the few. Whoever would be a public speaker should 
 thoroughly acquire this faculty. 
 
 Next in estimation is repeated speech speech that has 
 been written and is spoken from memory. If it should be 
 said that the highest efforts of oratory have been by this 
 method, no purpose would be served by disputing it ; but 
 we place against it the conviction that the best effects of 
 oratory have not been produced by it. It is difficult to 
 write language which is not too literary for speech ; And no 
 freedom in speaking from memory can perfectly sinulate 
 free speech, and get through the chinks of the hearer's heart 
 as it does. A curious fact in gesture which we shall have 
 to mention later is significant of the natural, and probably 
 therefore insurmountable, difference between them. The 
 highest efforts in speaking from memory may excite great 
 admiration ; may make hearers hold their breath ; nay im- 
 press them as a swift - rushing, swollen river, or B great 
 storm at sea impresses onlookers who have no cause for 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING. 119 
 
 anxiety ; may even lift the hearer above himself and enwrap 
 him in the subject along with the speaker; but these are 
 inferior effects of oratory, and there can hardly be doubt 
 that in the so-called highest efforts by this method the 
 effects which are of highest and best quality are small in 
 proportion. Nevertheless, when it can be well done, and 
 not in its highest efforts, repeated speech is greatly superior 
 to read speech. It can look the audience in the face and 
 be quickened and humanised by the sight ; and in short it 
 comes very much nearer to free speech than reading does. 
 If, therefore, the speaker cannot attain to free speech, and 
 if his gift of memory, and the time at his disposal from 
 other occupations (among which is not to be classed gadding, 
 desultory reading, or over-indulgence in fiction) will allow 
 him, he ought unhesitatingly to prefer it to read speech. 
 
 We come now to read speech. By universal consent this is 
 (on the conditions of our comparison) the least effective and, 
 by audiences generally, least appreciated. He who would 
 say something to his fellows, and has got no farther than to 
 put it in writing, institutes at once a prejudice against 
 himself with most people. Then the style of language is 
 likely to differ from spoken language more than in the 
 other cases. The eye also, if not chained to the manuscript, 
 is at least divided in its attention, and when it looks up 
 suggests little more than a momentary escape from the 
 chain. Intonation is much more likely to be monotonous ; 
 and natural, appropriate gesture is impossible. Guthrie was 
 wont to picture the despairing wooer offering his hand and 
 heart by reading from a written paper. Politicians turning 
 out a paper to read to their constituents would not be 
 listened to. Why has custom allowed it so largely in the 
 pulpit 1 Is it because ministers have proved it is the best 
 they can do 1 Or is it because they have not matter and 
 language and manner that can be made to suit the other 
 
120 SPEAKING. 
 
 modes ? Or is it because some of the greater lights in the 
 pews think it a deference to their fastidious taste in bookish 
 language and expressionless deportment ? This last must be 
 rarest, for such people do go to hear and enjoy an able, free 
 speaker. Only one is named as having produced the highest 
 effects of speech by this mode the great Scotch preacher 
 Chalmers. So one man took the city gate of Gaza posts 
 and all and carried them on his shoulders to a distant hill- 
 top. Give us the strength of Samson, or the spirit and 
 power of Chalmers, and comparison of methods is at an end. 
 But from the case of Chalmers there is much to learn. Not 
 only did he read, but his speech is said to have been thick 
 and his accent provincial, while he had none of the accessory 
 accomplishments which always contribute to good speaking ; 
 and further still, he actually followed the lines of his manu- 
 script with his finger. But what mattered all this when 
 great thoughts filled his mind, and glowed in his imagina- 
 tion, and poured impetuous from a fervent spirit, in language 
 massive and weighty, delivered with the whole force of his 
 soul and the whole force of his body, of which the vigorous 
 action of the right arm was only the most visible of the 
 signs 1 There is a lesson even in the finger that kept the 
 place. "Why was it there? Either that the eye might be 
 freer to cast its gleam over the audience, or because the 
 excitement and energy were such that the eye was untrust- 
 worthy as a place-keeper probably for both reasons. The 
 whole case is the best illustration of that which we have 
 been enforcing on every opportunity, the supreme essential 
 importance of speaking, body, soul, and spirit, as one who is 
 burning with the importance of what he has to say, and with 
 desire that his hearers should be of the same mind. This is 
 as important for one mode of address as another. It cannot 
 but be aided by laying aside every weight which lies in 
 defective training and in the paper itself. And we would 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING. 121 
 
 infinitely prefer a speaker pouring forth wise and interesting 
 thoughts in such a manner as to need his finger at the line, 
 to a trained but soulless performer who runs no risk of losing 
 the place, and has no other use for his finger. The writer 
 has only once, and that recently, heard a preacher who read, 
 and yet spoke with such freedom and power and action and 
 fervour that it was not easy to believe he could be reading. 
 
 Having in view all that has been said, we cannot place 
 the student in any better position for understanding and 
 putting into practice this most important word : Every man 
 is bound to turn himself to the best account. 
 
 Writing for the inexperienced, we pass now to physical 
 preparation for a public address. 
 
 The body should if possible have rest before the address, 
 and, if it can be had, there is no better preparative than 
 sleep. The treatment to which many subject themselves 
 can be accounted for only by ignorance, or little regard for 
 their audience or themselves. An aspirant for parliament- 
 ary honours stands up to address his constituents after toil- 
 ing through the fields for a day with his gun, and then 
 setting the power that moves the brain to digest a meal. 
 The verdict on that address was 'poor.' Another has it 
 announced for him that he had ridden forty miles that day, 
 and of course he also had lately taken a meal. The verdict 
 on that address was ' poor.' They essayed to speak at a time 
 when nature had not only withdrawn blood from the brain 
 but called for general rest. We have heard ministers say 
 they rather liked a five miles' walk before taking the pulpit 
 that is, spending their strength for an hour and a half be- 
 fore beginning that which had the first claim on their whole 
 strength. Even the previous day will tell, if it has been 
 fatiguing. Some will work excitedly at their desks through 
 the night, and a few hours later begin the work of the day 
 
122 SPEAKING. 
 
 with an overtaxed, irritated nervous system quivering with 
 excitement. Even this unhealthy condition they may like 
 for the stimulus of it ; but it is unsound, without real 
 strength, and rapidly hums itself out, and long "before the 
 task is over exhaustion has supervened. Thus men destroy 
 their health, their temper, their mental balance or soundness 
 of judgment, get into trouble, spend wretched lives, perhaps 
 must quit their post. To take strong drink before speaking 
 is from every point of view a most serious error. If it is 
 intended to stimulate, it is taken at the stage when this is 
 not required, and by the reaction hastens the coming of 
 fatigue. If it is taken to stupefy over-sensitive feelings, 
 sensitiveness is better than stupefaction, and such treatment 
 is full of danger. 
 
 It should be said that it takes a strong man to speak well 
 fasting. There is risk in speaking just after a generous 
 dinner, especially when the brain vessels are losing the 
 elasticity of youth. 
 
 As for the glass of water, it is like pouring water on a 
 heated axle, and with as little benefit. No provision should 
 be made for it ; then it is soon forgot, and a hurtful bad 
 habit is gone. All such expedients are better avoided. 
 
 Finally, the speaker will find that if he begins in a sound 
 and fit physical condition, he will speak easier and better 
 as he goes on, either in the same or in successive addresses, 
 and though it should be for days, till fatigue begins. The 
 first indication of fatigue will be that the chariot of his 
 speech begins to drive heavily ; and he should, if possible, 
 immediately leave off. 
 
 SELF-POSSESSION. 
 
 How may one best preserve his self-possession before the 
 audience] There are two prescriptions that seem to have 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING. 123 
 
 more currency than others. 'Lose yourself in your sub- 
 ject/ we are told. But we are not told how a man may 
 lose himself and yet possess himself much less be master 
 of himself and master of the position. And we are unable 
 to see how a person lost in a subject is more likely to be 
 self-possessed than when he is lost on a moor or in a fog. 
 Again, we are told, c Lose sight of your audience ' ; and 
 Madame Malibran, the singer, is quoted as telling that she 
 overcame her timidity by regarding her audience as cabbages. 
 The power of will which could do this might have done 
 better ; but in her case it was not necessary, for there is no 
 reason why one should not sing among cabbages, though it 
 would be very irrational to speak to them. The truth is 
 that both of those prescriptions err in omitting much which 
 every one intuitively feels to be essential in the communi- 
 cating of his thought to another. To the same effect is the 
 teaching of a recent author, which he actually heads, ' Art 
 of forgetting yourself and others.' Now most of us can 
 remember the wise maternal caution, * Don't forget yourself, 
 now/ or 'Bemember who is hearing you/ And who has 
 not heard the criticism, ' He forgot himself,' or, l He forgot 
 that so-and-so was hearing him 7 1 Who shall tell what one 
 might not do or say if he forgot himself, and still worse if 
 he forgot also that others were present 1 All could see the 
 absurdity of such counsels if applied to behaviour in a 
 drawing-room or a small committee-room. They are equally 
 absurd, and for the same reasons, when applied to the platform 
 or pulpit. The speaker must neither lose himself, nor forget 
 himself nor his audience. We would not ' make a man an 
 offender for a word ' ; but either the intended meaning is 
 wrong, or the words which are chosen to express it. 
 
 The truest and most effectual preservative of self-possession 
 is a powerful motive impelling to speak, and to speak so as 
 to reach the minds and hearts of the audience. And this is 
 
124 SPEAKING. 
 
 a preservative which ought never to be wanting to those at 
 least who speak from the pulpit. Next to that is a strong 
 sense of duty, which will set one's face like a flint to do what 
 has devolved upon him wherever it falls to be done ; and 
 this he knows is not to forget himself, but to express himself, 
 and not to forget his audience, but to address his audience. 
 Next, we would prescribe thorough preparedness. Those at 
 least who have come through the university with its many 
 examinations know that just in proportion to their mastery 
 of a subject was their self-possession and freedom from con- 
 fusion when they underwent their trials. To these things 
 we may add that a foreseeing and practically-minded man 
 will forecast for himself the circumstances, so that they can 
 scarcely surprise him. And finally, he will bear in mind the 
 suggestions which we have made about health. 
 
 SELF-OBSERVATION. 
 
 To speak with genuine power, it is as necessary to avoid 
 what may be called self -observation as to preserve self- 
 possession. If the speaker is thinking of himself along with 
 his subject, or of the manner and not of the matter ; if his 
 attention is taken up with his intonations and gestures ; if 
 he is concerned to appear well, to be thought graceful, cul- 
 tivated, striking, he has sold his strength for nought. Here 
 again the favourite prescription is, 'Lose yourself in your 
 subject.' But it was given also to promote self-possession; 
 and, as this very self-possession is apt to lead to* self-observa- 
 tion, the advice may be a cause instead" of a cure. To lose 
 oneself is as undesirable here as ever. An important part of 
 the cure is suggested from a very different quarter. 
 
 When one looks at the words on a page, he is not thinking 
 of his eyes ; when he lifts a book, or tests some article by 
 handling, he is not thinking of his hands ; when he walks, 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING. 125 
 
 he is not thinking of his feet. He is occupied with that on 
 which he looks or which he handles, and as he walks his 
 attention is on that which is "before him, and on many things 
 other than his walking. But while he is thus without 
 thought of the very organs which are doing the work, and 
 of the manner of their doing it, they are not lost, nor is he 
 in any sense lost in relation to them or their work. They 
 are acting under his immediate control and by direction of 
 his will. His will is actively hent on his purpose ; and if the 
 instruments by which he is working it out require so little 
 attention that they seem to be forgot, what is the reason? 
 It is because they have so perfectly learned the lesson of 
 obedience ; it is because of the ease and naturalness with 
 which they serve the will, and thereby set it free to grapple 
 with that for which both it and they have received their 
 power. What have we here, then, but a repetition of the call 
 to master our tools to provide ourselves with such flexibility 
 of voice, power of intonation, correctness of expression, 
 facility of movement for gesture, and all else, that they need 
 no direct attention, and that we need no more and should 
 no more turn to think of them than we turn to think of the 
 eye, or the hand, or the foot in the matters we have sup- 
 posed, that so our powers may shoot straight over and past 
 all this to the great end we seek ? 
 
 GESTURE. 
 
 Gesture is language more natural than words, and con- 
 veying its message more swiftly. A child's gestures are in- 
 telligent long in advance of speech. Gesture speaks by the 
 features of the countenance (called facial gesture), by the 
 posture and movements of the whole body and its parts 
 the manner in which it bends or straightens, plants its foot, 
 presents its chest, moves its shoulders, carries its head ; and 
 
126 SPEAKING. 
 
 by the innumerable movements of the arms from shoulder, 
 elbow, wrist, and every joint of the hand. It can express 
 every feeling and every state of the will. Natural gesture is 
 as continuous as the thought and language of the speaker. 
 It may be the gesture of repose, or of any degree of activity 
 that the occasion dictates, but it never ceases. 
 
 It is not, as some seem to suppose, simultaneous with the 
 word, in illustration or in supplement of it ; much less is it 
 in any degree behind the word ; but it invariably and cer- 
 tainly takes the lead of the word. It helps the hearer to 
 the coming thought, which no doubt largely accounts for the 
 pleasure it gives. Herein there is a remarkable difference 
 between free speech and speech from memory. In the latter 
 the gesture, with scarcely an exception, comes at best only 
 simultaneously with the word, and oftenest the word has 
 begun before it. This deviation from nature is enough to 
 reveal him who is speaking from memory or manuscript, and 
 some may recall it in a late pulpit orator. Even when one 
 emphasises a word by a simultaneous rap on the table, if he 
 is speaking naturally the gesture has had the lead in the up- 
 lifting of the arm for the coming effect. 
 
 Drummond, in his * Ascent of Man, 7 would limit gesture 
 to a stage in man's ' ascent/ and considers that when a 
 certain degree of lofty and abstract thought is reached it 
 will disappear. But it may be safely predicted that, so 
 long as his ascending man is in the body, when he heartily 
 communicates his thoughts (however ' lofty ' or ' abstract ') 
 to his fellows, he will use gesture. The organs of speech 
 and the mind itself are too intimately associated with the 
 whole man not to make sure of this. 
 
 Race and temperament make gesture easier or more diffi- 
 cult, but ought not to govern it. From the south of Italy 
 and France northward to ourselves, the activity of gesture 
 grows less. Among ourselves generally it might be called 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING. 127 
 
 wholly the gesture of repose, were it not for jerks and twists 
 of the body and motions of the head, as if just to show that 
 there is not repose. We listened to a recent discourse in 
 which the only gesture for strong feeling of whatever kind 
 was to shorten the neck and make the head shiver. For 
 most men natural gesture with read speech is impracticable : 
 if any have fire and power enough to rise above this, they 
 need no help of man ; if they have not, that help is vain. 
 Ministers have a hindrance of their own ; for though the 
 pulpit has its advantages, there are gestures which it cannot 
 but conceal or impede. 
 
 As gesture is not artificial but natural, correct rules for the 
 employment of it would only be statements of what has been 
 observed in nature, and even then natural gesture could not 
 come in obedience to rule. But further, gesture may be 
 prompted by nature and yet be sadly bungled. How 
 many are to be seen who cannot even make a bow, 
 but only a kind of great nod, or a crook, or a cringe? 
 Nature has to be trusted with the prompting, but cannot 
 be trusted with the execution. Accordingly, while to learn 
 a code of gestures would be useless labour, to cultivate 
 oneself for the proper and easy execution of any gesture 
 prompted by nature is most valuable labour. Here, as in 
 other departments, the counsel to be urged is : Get the 
 perfect mastery of your tools. There is scarcely a motion 
 that may have to be made, great or small, that can be grace- 
 fully and well made without practice, and much practice. 
 When such practice has done its work, nearly all that can 
 be done for gesture in ordinary cases has been done. 
 
 The instinct of gesture, and the marring of it on a large 
 scale, are well seen in a most objectionable habit of some 
 speakers who, with an audience on either hand, will turn 
 their back impassionedly upon the one set while they stare 
 the other in the face. At the root of this is the very proper 
 
 I 
 
128 SPEAKING. 
 
 impulse which would say, ' Let all men hear and know all 
 men on every side.' So effectually is the end defeated that 
 even all men there present do not hear. The natural action 
 is a sweep of the eye around, with only such motion of the 
 head and body as will drive home the intent like a flash. 
 This does not interfere with being heard, especially as it is 
 naturally accompanied by greater force of voice. 
 
 Another obvious mistake is thrusting the forefinger into 
 the faces of the hearers. This is natural only when the 
 speaker's mood or matter is disagreeable. Directed to any- 
 thing else than the hearer it is rarely suitable, except in the 
 expression of belittling or dislike. 
 
 THE PHYSICAL ELEMENT. 
 
 Much is lost often the whole battle is lost from miscon- 
 ception of, or inattention to, the part which belongs to the 
 body in public speech. One may any day hear a speaker 
 from whose style it might fairly be inferred that the only 
 service rendered by the body was to support the speaking 
 organs at sufficient height. It is a great error, at the very 
 root of power in speech. The whole body, nerve and sinew, 
 must be braced up to the work. This does not mean that it 
 should dash itself about, or endanger the surroundings, or try 
 the power of the hearer's endurance; but it works to the 
 advantage of the speaker's mind, and vibrates in his voice, 
 and tells on the hearer. We cannot be mentally active in 
 speech if we are physically limp and sluggish ; and though 
 the voice may carry the words, the whole physical power 
 must be firmed up if the thoughts are to reach their mark. 
 To see how much more effectively one speaks on his feet 
 than in his seat is a very suggestive lesson on the subject. 
 Deficiency here is often the explanation of what has seemed 
 want of mental and moral strength, So also men of equal 
 
PUBLIC SPEAKING. 129 
 
 mental endowments may be seen differing widely in power 
 because of the part the body plays. It is not merely thought 
 which has to be communicated, but vital force; and the 
 medium is not words alone, but the whole man ; and this 
 is as true of religious force as of any other. It is not more 
 mysterious than the fact which underlies it, that the minds 
 of both speaker and hearer can communicate only through 
 the bodies of both. Let us lay to heart what universal 
 experience has proved. 
 
 IMITATION. 
 
 Imitate no one ; but, while your education lasts, carefully 
 observe every one. Only peculiarities lend themselves to 
 imitation ; and the imitator little thinks that he is but adding 
 those of another to his own. Even the professional mimic is 
 disarmed by the perfectly natural speaker, for he is helpless 
 unless he can seize and reproduce some distinctive points. 
 It follows that the man who can be imitated is the very man 
 that should not be so; and the imitator may reflect that, 
 besides adding to his own oddities, he will, if successful, be 
 known as a copyist by those who know the original. But to 
 learn from observation of any, or every, speaker whom we 
 hear is a very different thing, and may be turned to most 
 excellent account. Are all his vowel sounds and articula- 
 tions uttered correctly and distinctly, as well as his words, 
 little and large, and all this with ease 1 If not, detect the 
 shortcoming, and see that your own speech is free from it. 
 Do the words go clearly forth, so as not merely to be heard, 
 but to tell 1 Is the manner of speech natural, absolutely free 
 from affectation, sing-song, or any monotony ? Is his matter 
 quite easy to follow, not only by me but by the rest of the 
 audience 1 Thus by observation of others we may be greatly 
 profiting ourselves. 
 
130 
 
 PAET VI. 
 
 THE PULPIT. 
 
 ALL that has been said is as directly applicable to the pulpit 
 as to any place. But in some respects the pulpit has a 
 character of its own, so that we cannot be said to have 
 accomplished our task till we have treated of certain addi- 
 tional matters specially associated with it. Our aim has been 
 to aid those who would cultivate the heaven-given faculty of 
 speaking so that it may best serve its appointed uses. The 
 highest of these is reached in the pulpit, and there speech 
 should be at its best. 
 
 The greatest power of the Christian pulpit has always been 
 found to lie, and always will lie, in its own proper subject 
 Christ Jesus the eternal Son of God, who was made flesh, 
 and dwelt among us, and died for our sins, and rose again, 
 and is alive for evermore interceding and reigning and who 
 will come again in glory to judge the world ; with the vast 
 expanse of relative truth which fills the pages of the Old and 
 New Testaments deeper than the depths, higher than the 
 heavens, touching every possible condition of the soul and 
 destiny of every man from condemnation and doom to glory, 
 honour, and immortality the whole a direct message from 
 God to man for man's sake. 
 
 As has already been stated in these pages, it was a grave 
 sense of the boundless importance of the pulpit which moved 
 
THE PULPIT. 131 
 
 me to this work, that whoever would be a preacher might be 
 helped to do his very best ; because in such a service no man 
 should do less, and also because much of his message is un- 
 welcome to the natural heart, for the offence of the cross has 
 not ceased. For both reasons the obligation is upon us to 
 take care that nothing in the manner of executing the 
 preacher's commission should put any kind of hindrance in 
 his way, and that as far as possible everything from the least 
 to the greatest should tend to make the importance of his 
 message felt, and to speed it home. Never was this so need- 
 ful as in these days of education, fastidiousness, impatience, 
 and critical temper. 
 
 Yet I would impress on my younger brethren that as we 
 advocate being 'meet for the Master's use/ in all respects, 
 because of the infinite importance of the subject, so, if this 
 subject is wanting, no accomplishments can supply its place. 
 Nay more, the subject may be present in all its fulness, yet 
 if he who ministers would possess the power which is pro- 
 vided for us, and which is necessary for the work, he must 
 minister with a profound living faith in Christ and His sal- 
 vation, with a faith which is grasping the outstretched hand 
 of Him to whom 'all power is given/ and who gave 'the 
 promise of the Holy Ghost/ and with a heroic confidence in 
 His Gospel. 
 
 Certain things may be noticed at the outset which, though 
 external to the minister, and not to be laid to his charge, are 
 hindrances to him which ought not to exist. The pulpit and 
 its furnishings often show but little regard for his conveni- 
 ence. Sometimes its very smallness cramps him. Again, 
 one may wish to lay by him a pair of spectacles, a watch, a 
 psalm-book, a hymn-book, not to speak of any other book ; 
 and if he finds trustworthy provision for one or two of them, 
 he may count himself fortunate. In most cases he will 
 
132 SPEAKING. 
 
 certainly have to turn round and deposit some of them on his 
 seat. If architects are unaware of what is required, is there 
 no minister at hand who can see to it ? Even the height of 
 the bookboard seems to receive only perfunctory attention. 
 In a certain church, within a few weeks of each other, two 
 ministers of average height, and widely different in years, had 
 to remove the cushion from the board, because, though fitted 
 with a screw, it was too high even at its lowest. Measuring 
 from the surface on which the book rests, at the side nearest 
 to the minister, the lowest height should not be more than 
 three feet from the floor ; and the full height should not be 
 less than eight inches more. 
 
 More than ever we hear of churches that are difficult to 
 speak in or rather to hear in. Comparison of churches will 
 show that apparently the principal reason is the present fashion 
 of rejecting galleries. The result is too much unbroken 
 elastic, or reverberating, surface. Wires across the line of 
 sound could be no remedy, as has been proved ; and radiating 
 wires are for distance. The nature of the cause points dis- 
 tinctly to tapestry as the most likely cure. It is well known 
 how hearing becomes easier when the pews are filled with 
 people ; it would be immeasurably more so if (grotesque 
 though the fancy is) the walls also were lined with them. 
 So far as the speaker is concerned, that which is required 
 of him is simply more carefulness to speak well. Expedients 
 suggested to him to suit a particular church are rarely of 
 any use, and are never to be relied on. It is at least certain 
 that if he really speaks well, there can be little need of 
 them. It says little for pulpit-speaking that in one church 
 two out of three candidates could not be heard, and in another 
 five out of six. In a church that might be named, the acous- 
 tics of which are pronounced delightful, and where the most 
 distant hearer is only sixty feet away, the majority are not 
 fully heard. On the other hand, a few with no better natural 
 
THE PULPIT. 133 
 
 endowments are fully heard in St Giles'. The author has 
 for many years been accustomed to say, and increasing 
 observation and experience have constantly confirmed it, that 
 the only admissible - excuse for not being heard in our 
 churches (with perhaps some rare and peculiar exception un- 
 known to him) is when the place is too large for the speaker's 
 strength the hearers too far distant, as when, for example, 
 he can reach to fifty yards but no farther. When this in- 
 superable condition is absent there are invariably, and 
 obviously to those who can discern, sufficient faults of 
 speech to do more than account for not being heard. 1 
 
 When discoursing of churches that are * difficult to speak 
 in,' people have need to beware of misapprehension. It sur- 
 prised me to discover that one who spoke of difficult churches 
 meant such as were irresponsive to the voice, treating him 
 with dead indifference, so that, as he imagined, his voice could 
 not 'get away.' Such places, he said, strained his voice. 
 Now these are the very places which are easiest to hear in, 
 though they are the most difficult to make a noise in. In 
 such a place the voice, and nothing but the voice, is heard as 
 it really is. It therefore disappoints the speaker who loves 
 to hear himself * sounding the place. 1 But it is an advantage 
 to the hearer ; and just in proportion as this state of the case 
 is departed from the difficulty of hearing increases. In pro- 
 
 1 The author had concluded from what seemed to be universal testi- 
 mony that the M'Ewan Hall of Edinburgh University was, at least in 
 certain parts, unhappily a hopeless failure in acoustics ; and he obtained 
 an opportunity of trying to discover the cause. The discovery which 
 to his surprise he did make was, that he could find nothing amiss with 
 the acoustics. He spoke from every part of the platform and in vari- 
 ous ways. The hall was empty but for three hearers. They sat in 
 all parts. One of these, the hallkeeper, had never heard his voice 
 before. The sentences spoken were without context, and they were 
 not easy to speak, being taken from the list of difficult combinations 
 of words in a former part of this work (p. 77). The experiment was 
 entirely convincing to him in favour of the hall. 
 
134: SPEAKING. 
 
 portion as the place sounds, though only in the degree that 
 our disappointed speaker would desire, the hearer is at a dis- 
 advantage. The speaker who dislikes the dull place and 
 likes the other is mistaken as to both, if his object is to be 
 well heard. One who is used to houses which he makes to 
 sound, and where he feels as if his voice ' got away,' has the 
 feeling in other places that his voice is poorer and less effec- 
 tive, and so is led naturally to strain it. The fact is, that it 
 is only here the true character of his voice appears. If it is 
 actually poor and ineffective, this is almost certainly because 
 its qualities are undeveloped. But his voice is the same in 
 the other place, though there he is deceived. In neither case 
 should there be straining ; in both there should be good 
 speaking, and of sufficient force for the distances ; and it is 
 not the dull place but the other that demands most care. It 
 may help to prevent misconception if, in comparing churches 
 in this respect, we speak rather of their being difficult or easy 
 to hear in than to speak in. 
 
 But while that which is to be looked for from the minister 
 may thus be seen, the responsibility for building churches 
 which are difficult to speak and hear in is in no degree 
 lessened. One never hears of failure in theatres. We had 
 lately the pleasure and satisfaction of conversing on the sub- 
 ject with a highly cultured architect. He considered we 
 were speaking quite truly, except in so far as we put any 
 responsibility on the architect. He said in substance, Make 
 up your mind what you want the church for to speak and 
 hear in, or for show, or for what other use and we will 
 build you a church to suit. 
 
 In some things things too on the very surface young 
 men (in Scotland) are apt to adopt ways and words which 
 they would be the first to discard, if only they thought of 
 subjecting them for a moment to the eye of their own 
 
THE PULPIT. 135 
 
 common - sense. Even that which seems small may do 
 much to increase or diminish power. 
 
 Does it become an ambassador of Christ to crawl to the 
 pulpit as if his legs were entangled, or to hang his head as 
 if he were ashamed 1 
 
 ' Let us begin the public worship of God at this time (or, 
 this forenoon) by singing/ &c. Is it not rather ridiculous 
 that the facts as to the beginning, the publicity, and the time 
 should not be taken for granted] It is surely every way 
 better to say simply, ' Let us worship God ' a call relating 
 to the whole service. And then, ' Let us ' [some act of 
 worship]. It is equally ill-considered to be thrusting the 
 words 'at this time,' or 'this day,' here and there into 
 prayer, from the very beginning where it starts with ' We 
 come before Thee at this time.' 
 
 One stands up and shuts his eyes, and with shut eyes 
 speaking to the congregation says, ' Let us pray/ Another 
 with eyes open enough says, * Let us pray ' ; yet he does not 
 pray, but proceeds to recite some verses of Scripture, which 
 he addresses to the people with his eyes shut. 
 
 One calls upon the congregation to sing, and, this begun, 
 he betakes himself openly to some unnecessary private ar- 
 rangements. Perhaps he turns up a place in the Bible, and, 
 when the singing is finished and he calls to prayer, flops him- 
 self upon the open book. Why should a man treat the 
 Bible in church as he would not treat any valued book in 
 his own or another's study 1 Or he calls to singing and then 
 gazes idly about him as if he had no further interest in the 
 proceedings ; or he darts his eye like a search-light over the 
 congregation, or perhaps on the devoted head of a single wor- 
 shipper ; or he notes the absentees ; or he does other such 
 things during which he cannot be whole-heartedly worship- 
 ping. One will call on the people to sing, and immediately 
 check their good intent by some distracting intimation. 
 
136 SPEAKING. 
 
 He has an organist and choir, and the case is worse if it be 
 only a precentor, for whom it is a matter of some comfort (to 
 say nothing stronger) not to be kept waiting after they ex- 
 pected to begin, nor to be called to begin when they did not 
 expect it yet he seems actually to plan for their annoyance : 
 he will read never a word of what is to be sung, or the 
 whole of it, or two lines, or a verse, or two or more verses, 
 never twice the same thing, without rhyme or reason most 
 patent thoughtlessness or disregard of others. He should 
 have an understood method. 
 
 Again, it is expected that, when anything is announced to 
 be read or sung, the congregation shall find the passage and 
 give attention on the book throughout ; yet here is one who 
 gives no time to find it, but dashes off at full speed as if 
 he were giving drill in the art of overtaking him. What- 
 ever may be the cause of this, we suggest as both curative 
 and becoming that he should himself turn up the passage 
 simultaneously with his audience. 
 
 A moment's action of common-sense would also forbid the 
 use of a word which the hearers do not understand, and still 
 more the use of a word in one sense which they understand, 
 and are accustomed to use, in quite another such as 'pre- 
 vent ' in the sense of ' go before.' 
 
 Then we hear, 'Let us read the Word of God as it is 
 contained in/ &c. Could there be poorer penny-a-lining ? 
 Change it, say, to 'Let us read the Word of God in the 
 
 Book of , or the Epistle to ; the eighth chapter/ 
 
 &c. Do not say, 'Matthew's Gospel' It is God's Gospel 
 'The Gospel, according to Matthew.' 
 
 Those who always end a reading of Scripture with ' Amen ' 
 have not seldom to use it where no sensible man would think 
 of doing so. We lately heard it with most curious effect at 
 the end of Gen. xxxii. A study of Scripture passages would 
 indicate by what contexts one is rightly moved to say Amen 
 
THE PULPIT. 137 
 
 e.g., Ps. xli., Ixxii. ; Matt. vi. ; Kom. i., ix., xv. ; Gal. i. ; 
 Eph. iii. ; 1 Tim. vi. Why not simply ask (always so needful) 
 that God would bless that reading? To end everything mis- 
 cellaneously with Amen tends to confusion of thought, and 
 to its being regarded as no more than a finale (see p. 159). 
 
 Even a very young man, if brought up in Scotland, might 
 know that a preacher's l notes/ still more his sermon in 
 manuscript, are generally regarded as his own private aids, 
 for his own eye only ; and that people accordingly rather 
 dislike to see them made a show of openly, especially in a 
 way which suggests their self-assertive independence of the 
 Bible. Yet, now, some bear the daintily covered manuscript 
 along in presence of all ; and we have even seen it, with a 
 fine disregard of effect, spread conspicuous on the top of the 
 closed Bible. 
 
 In the delivery of the sermon may be seen such perform- 
 ances as no platform can equal. One stands like a graven 
 image, only more careful than the image not to discompose 
 himself; another in his great height writhes like a con- 
 strictor, for no conceivable reason thrusts his hands into 
 his girdle and writhes ; another jerks his head down snap- 
 pishly on his hearers with the accented syllable of every 
 word ; another ascends and descends, pivoting on the ball 
 of his great toe with wonderful constancy and endurance ; 
 another twirls himself from side to side, and wriggles and 
 bobs and aimlessly spends himself to the great discomfort 
 of his hearers. One hangs his hands on the front of his 
 garments and, in the distance, where the arms are not dis- 
 tinguishable, they show like bits of ilesh ; another in a gown 
 puts his arms akimbo and suggests a flying bat ; another now 
 and again takes to pulling his attire, as if his dressing had 
 been mismanaged. Another, instead of looking to those 
 whom he is supposed to be addressing, gazes out into space 
 as if longing after some invisible beings ; and so the eyes, 
 
138 SPEAKING. 
 
 most mobile and expressive of features, become for the 
 service of speech as unpleasant and useless as if they were 
 of glass. 
 
 Let a man walk to his place as one going to a piece of 
 work which he means to perform, and about which he is 
 serious ; and let him stand squarely and firmly on his feet, 
 freely at the disposal of nature for gesture. But all inept 
 and grotesque habits must be relentlessly grappled with and 
 completely overcome, and senseless practices abandoned. 
 
 What shall we say of those pulpits in which (for ordin- 
 ary occasions of ordinary worship) there is now an ' Order 
 of Service,' placed in the hands of whoever may officiate, 
 established by the minister, fixed in detail even to the 
 words with which you are to conclude your sermon, and 
 the order which the thoughts and desires are to take in 
 prayer 1 While the general order of the Church should pre- 
 vent vagaries, and while by this method it is well, so far 
 as needful, to prevent embarrassment to those who must co- 
 operate in conducting the worship, we cannot but say that 
 beyond that extent no person need submit to it, at least in 
 churches where liberty has been secured secured in their 
 claim of liberty for the Spirit of God ; that it falls in with 
 the propensity to give to the external a foremost place ; and 
 that it is a mistake in a minister to hinder a substitute from 
 following his own bent, not only because he cannot other- 
 wise be at his best, but also because of its possible import- 
 ance to some who are there. Hearts and minds may be 
 reached which never responded, or have ceased to respond, 
 to the ' Order,' l for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, 
 either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good/ 
 Take the case of prayer. Most people have loved ones at 
 home or elsewhere not a few of them probably in danger, 
 pain, or sorrow and would not willingly leave the Throne on 
 
THE PULPIT. 139 
 
 their first approach to it without entreaty for them ; it may 
 be assumed also that Christians desire early to bespeak 
 blessing on means of grace everywhere for the day ; yet 
 there are Orders which decree that such things must wait 
 till next time, or next ; and so on. Preaching may, as 
 it should, result in some spiritual condition which longs 
 to utter itself to God, but there is no place for this. One 
 can hardly ask or give thanks for any blessing without 
 feeling some relative unworthiness, and vice versa. All 
 such things are of the essence of prayer, and are means 
 of quickening and deepening full - hearted prayerfulness ; 
 and there is undoubted hindrance to this in the system 
 to which we refer. 
 
 Nor can we omit to notice the shock which it has been 
 to many ministers to be accosted by the organist with the 
 request to know what would be the concluding words of 
 the several prayers that the organ might strike in at the 
 proper moment with Amen. If people are to sing Amen to 
 a spoken prayer, the blame is probably not with the organ- 
 ist. None the less there is in that which he is obliged to 
 do such a misconception of realities and such impropriety 
 as to make it most objectionable as well as amazing. Most 
 men who pour out their hearts unto God, voicing the hearts 
 of their people, could not dream of foretelling (even were it 
 seemly so to do) in what words they might be led to con- 
 clude their prayers. If I may not counsel, I will at least 
 entreat, my young brethren to bear in mind that many 
 things which they may have seen or become accustomed to, 
 in high places, or in certain congregations, however satis- 
 factory they may have been in the circumstances, are unsuit- 
 able and unedifying, if not offensive, in ordinary spheres. 
 And I would here also put in an earnest plea for the exclu- 
 sion of anything that the congregation are unable to accom- 
 pany 'with the understanding' (1 Cor. xiv.). 
 
140 SPEAKING. 
 
 Before the practice spreads farther it is desirable that more 
 consideration should be given to the objection cherished by 
 many good and able men, among whom was Dr A. K. H. Boyd, 
 to the entire discontinuance of reading from the pulpit any 
 of the metre Psalms and Paraphrases when given out to be 
 sung. Nothing need be said of exceptional congregations ; 
 but in most congregations there are many who cannot read 
 well, or at any rate do not read much ; and there are many 
 who do not sing and do not follow what is being sung, 
 and many who sing and are taken up with the music. The 
 reading of the verses, well done, may be a powerful means 
 of grace, may store the mind, or refresh it, with truth, 
 better than can be otherwise done, and may better pre- 
 pare the worshipper to ' sing praises with understanding ' 
 (Ps. xlvii). 
 
 It may be useful to mention here that the prefixing of 
 texts of Scripture to hymns is not the work of their authors 
 but of hymn-book compilers, and to remind that the main 
 use of reading out something at the announcement of a hymn 
 is to identify it in the mind of the hearer, which is evidently 
 best done by the first or first two lines. 
 
 The opportunity may also be taken here to tell that a 
 friendly and competent judge, the Bishop of Winchester, has 
 said he thought our worship had lost something by so much 
 substitution of hymns for psalms. Such an opinion, and 
 the same comes from other quarters, should help to repress 
 the tendency where it exists to sing little except hymns. 
 
 Young ministers would do well to think over c measuring 
 themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among 
 themselves.' If this should be done in the spirit of saying 
 1 this man and that man is no better than I, and as he has 
 got an appointment so shall I,' such thoughts not only keep 
 down the standard, but are alien to the true spirit of the 
 
THE PULPIT. 141 
 
 ministry. Even comparison made in order to excel, how- 
 ever helpful it may be, carries one up but a very small way, 
 and in some measure takes the place of the only proper 
 inspiration. Let every one on his knees settle with his 
 Master how He would have him execute any part of his 
 duties. This will brace him up to his best, and keep him 
 constantly and strenuously striving to do better still. Thus 
 one's level would be ever rising, and the general level of all 
 rising, and this in the sense in which our Lord desires to see 
 it rise, and there would soon be less cause for the question, 
 ' What becomes of all the preaching ? ' Here an important 
 question suggests itself : Why should it be that men who 
 are capable of improvement, and who find one after another 
 preferred before them, should yet show no sign of having set 
 themselves to self-improvement by reason of the experience? 
 
 On preparation for the pulpit this much must be added 
 to what has already been said (p. 112). The spirit and 
 purpose of their ministry should be with young ministers all 
 the week, and this with special reference to their next 
 Sunday's work ; and (discounting men of extraordinary 
 powers) they should have no other mental work on hand 
 than that of their ministry. 
 
 Ministers should be enthusiasts for Christ and for His 
 cause and for the souls of men. 
 
 For the public reading of Scripture the counsels on reading 
 generally which we have been pressing on the attention 
 throughout need to be supplemented by one thing only 
 that no reading so deeply concerns him that reads and 
 them that hear, or may have so great and far-reaching 
 consequences. To this day, after so long a time as forty 
 years, I do not read in public without having carefully 
 looked through the passage, that every item may, if possible, 
 
142 SPEAKING. 
 
 speak naturally and truly to head and heart that which it 
 means, and lest I should miss a connection, or be taken 
 unawares by a transition, or overlook the point or shade of 
 meaning, or fall into any other of the numberless possible 
 mistakes, not to speak of tuning the soul to the writing. 
 In reading as in speaking one must brace himself up, body, 
 soul, and spirit. It is a pleasure to know what discernment 
 the people show, and how keenly they enjoy good reading 
 1 it makes us see the meaning.' 
 
 The announcement of the text for the sermon exhibits 
 much ill -applied ingenuity. Ministers would do well to 
 remember that they are called to preach the Word of the 
 Living God, and that preaching is very different from ' some 
 remarks ' or ' ' a few observations/ et hoc genus omne. 
 
 There are many who speak of preaching as if it were not 
 worship. In respect of the hearer, surely there can be no 
 more worshipful spirit than is in the words, ' Speak, Lord, 
 for Thy servant heareth.' And in respect of the preacher, 
 what is the object of his preaching but to glorify God and 
 His Son Jesus Christ in the proclamation of the wonders of 
 the 'so great salvation/ and in ' bringing many sons unto 
 God ' ? If this be so and nothing less is required of us 
 can there be more real worship ] 
 
 We must impress on every one the inexpressible im- 
 portance of preaching. It can easily be underrated ; it 
 cannot be overrated. Nothing that contributes to its 
 excellence is to be thought lightly of. Some affect to 
 despise the speaking, and congratulate themselves on their 
 thinking. Of what use is the thinking if it cannot be 
 carried effectively home to others? And if it be so good, 
 does it not deserve to be well spoken 1 They speak lightly 
 of men who, as they think, notwithstanding poverty of 
 matter, produce by their speaking a greater impression than 
 
THE PULPIT. 143 
 
 themselves. Do not such men rather put them to shame 1 
 They think meanly of people who seem to them blinded to 
 poverty of thought by speech which had no more commend- 
 able quality than force. But a missile of an ounce in weight 
 driven home accomplishes more than one of a pound weight 
 that cannot be discharged, or misses its mark. Not the 
 people, but those who thus criticise them are to be meanly 
 thought of. The people were right in preferring what told, 
 and they would have given their critics the highest place, if 
 with richness of suitable matter they had brought also all 
 the commendable qualities of speech in addition to force. 
 People delight in good matter well spoken good matter 
 being what is well suited for their edification. Whoever 
 would preach, let him resolve to preach as a messenger from 
 God a message from whom is always urgent and important, 
 and requires a man with his loins girded and so to preach 
 that no doubt need arise on the question, ' Whence was it ? 
 from heaven, or of men 1 ' 
 
 Let it be well considered that in these days of increased 
 knowledge, when everything is printed, and most people 
 read, and so much has been heard from the pulpit, there 
 is more reason than ever for giving full effect to the power 
 of the living voice. Indifferent speaking of that which is 
 known adds nothing to it, perhaps detracts from it, and is 
 always wearisome and soporific. Good speaking is always 
 welcome and interesting even when it tells an 'old, old 
 story '; and it is the only means by which human power 
 can waken dormant knowledge and call it forth to action. 
 I should be afraid to treat it as an ordinary thing. 
 
 It has been said with truth that the average preacher can 
 hardly overrate the indifference of tue average hearer. Nor 
 need the general appearance of attention deceive, for many 
 Church influences conduce to that. 
 
 It does happen, though rarely, that one with faults 
 K 
 
144 SPEAKING. 
 
 enough to undo most speakers can hold his audience 
 and carry them along with him, and we may hear it ac- 
 counted for by saying the power is in the magnetism of 
 the speaker. We have never seen a case in which a dis- 
 cerning and well-instructed observer found it necessary to 
 fall back on this easy and mysterious explanation. But let 
 it be so ; yet as the power of the magnet may be increased 
 or diminished, and its action impeded or aided, so it is 
 with the magnetic power credited to a speaker. Without 
 a doubt faults diminish and impede it, and therefore should 
 be laid aside. Let the poor in magnetism also be comforted, 
 for, if they are speaking that which is suitable, naturally 
 and earnestly, soul and body, in deep sympathy with their 
 hearers and with the subject, this will operate on their little 
 magnet like the coil of wire around the magnet of the 
 electrician, increasing its power as he will. Mr Frank T. 
 Bullen gives an account of a religious meeting and of two 
 of the addresses. One was by a captain in the American 
 army, 'a noble fellow, thrillingly earnest, but with a tre- 
 mendously rapid utterance and most involved style. His 
 speech made me wonder at myself for being so thick-headed 
 as not to understand a word of it.' Then, unawares called 
 upon, came a shipmate. 'Ah, that was a change indeed. 
 For Jem said in the simplest way that which the Lord 
 gave him to say, and the fact that he spoke in an alien 
 tongue . . . did not hinder his discourse being of the most 
 heart-searching kind. . . . Here was a man, . . . hardly able 
 to speak the language of his hearers, who had so gripped 
 the hearts of his audience that they wept, almost writhed, 
 under the fierce stress of their emotions. 7 In the first case 
 thrilling earnestness was unable to compensate for error in 
 delivery and style ; and, we may add, the speaker was sure 
 to be deceived as to the cause of the keen attentiveness of 
 Mr Bullen and probably the whole meeting. In the other, 
 
THE PULPIT. 145 
 
 the question of language may be dismissed with the remark 
 that even if the good effect was aided by it, mis-utterance 
 of a language in which one is known to have been edu- 
 cated produces a very different effect. Need we fall back 
 on magnetism, or any other occult cause, to explain the 
 power of that address reproduced from memory by Mr 
 Bullen ? It seems obviously enough to lie in the speaker's 
 overpowering thankfulness and love to his God and 
 Saviour, and overpowering desire to commend them to 
 his hearers, expressed with a natural simplicity, directness, 
 and openness which brought the hearers into touch with 
 his very heart of hearts a heart which itself was in touch 
 with Godhead. 
 
 Controversy is not in the line of the pulpit's power. The 
 people come that they may be brought to the Saviour, or 
 kept in Him, and fed and led and encouraged and com- 
 forted by truth from on high. They have therefore no 
 pleasure in being made onlookers at a fight, except it be 
 as parties to the fight of the good against the evil within 
 themselves, in which they look eagerly for help. The same 
 may be said of speculation and much besides. The pulpit 
 must be positive if it would be powerful, proclaiming the 
 truth which belongs to it and trusting this truth to dispel 
 error as light dispels darkness, and to blend into harmony 
 with any truths that may come from other quarters. 
 
 It may be set down conclusively that the essay is by the 
 very nature of the case excluded from the pulpit. The 
 preacher is called and commanded to speak to the people 
 not to give off impersonal material in their presence and the 
 people come that they may be spoken to. Preachers, the 
 commissioned of Christ, are far greater than essayists or 
 moralists. Would that all our rising ministers, living in 
 the presence of their Lord on the cross and their Lord in 
 
146 SPEAKING. 
 
 glory, would take their message from Him ! For His is 
 the only message which can restore man to a sense of God's 
 forgiving love, and give him life and a new heart the only 
 message which can turn into fact man's aspirations after a 
 better being here and hereafter. The deliverer of a message 
 from heaven, his preaching should be such as to uphold in 
 the hearers a due sense that the matters dealt with are 
 divine, and that it is God with whom they have to do 
 the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Are divisions an advantage 1 Yes, with scarcely an excep- 
 tion. Two things might satisfy any young man of this : (1) 
 among the published sermons of those who are by common 
 consent held to have been successful preachers he can hardly 
 find an undivided sermon; (2) his own experience in the 
 pew is that, other things being equal, he finds it helpful 
 to have the sermon naturally divided. It helps one to 
 understand and to remember. On the other side we seem 
 to have only (a) the well-worn small fun as to 'firstly,' 
 ' fifteenthly,' &c. ; (b) the case of some preachers who, 
 though not successful, are counted able, and speak in a 
 scholastic fashion ; (c) the fear of being thought old- 
 fashioned, and the wish to be thought of the l able ' 
 class; (d) weakness or indolence, for it requires thinking 
 and some power of abstraction to map matter out well, and 
 it is easier to go dribbling on, annexing the last thing 
 that has turned up, and ending without point or force, 
 and of course without an attempt to aid the memory as to 
 the substance of what has been said, for this is impossible. 
 Dr Caird insisted on his students in divinity dividing their 
 sermons into heads. A good way is to take a subject and 
 study it in Scripture, gather and set forth the teaching of 
 the Word, and then go on from one distinctly stated point 
 to another in exposition and appeal. But, whatever the 
 method, care should be taken that, at least and worst, every 
 
THE PULPIT. 147 
 
 point shall be clearly conceived, put in its proper place, set 
 plainly forth, and driven well home. 
 
 Unity among the various parts of a diet of public worship 
 is manifestly an element of power. Everything should as 
 much as possible co-operate in one aim. The end sought 
 by the preaching should also be felt in the praying. The 
 thoughts and feelings which it is desired to stimulate by 
 the enforcement of truth should have their expression in 
 the praise. Such harmony of the exercises requires that 
 they should all be controlled by one mind, and therefore 
 strikes at stereotyping prayer, or letting the passages to be 
 sung depend on another will than the preacher's. 
 
 There is a temptation greater at present than in any former 
 age to read too much and think too little. Some suffer from 
 a voracious and omnivorous appetite, some from the fashion- 
 able vanity of seeming to know every new book. They not 
 only spend much time unprofitably, but act prejudicially to 
 their power of thinking. Real effective thinking, thinking 
 with a purpose, demands concentration of mind ; but those 
 ways are fatal to concentration. The work that comes of 
 them is loose, scrappy, and powerless much of it being 
 unsubstantial notions that have taken the reader's fancy. 
 Others, more practical and wise, will at least spend some time 
 in what is called 'reading up' their subject; but even they 
 are apt to forget the vast difference between reading up and 
 thinking out. The preacher considering what may most 
 profitably follow his last sermon, or what the condition 
 of his hearers requires, or what the occasion has prepared 
 them for, or what ought to be preached 'by way of re- 
 membrance,' and seeking to get his message from his Lord, 
 should first give himself to prayerful study of Scripture, that 
 he may gather its whole bearing on the subject. After this 
 he may read, but, if before this he goes to a strong mind his 
 
148 SPEAKING. 
 
 own will be overlaid by it, and the result will be not a 
 message from on high, nor even from himself, but from 
 another man. He cannot himself feel confidence in it, l for 
 he has not proved it.' 
 
 To think out for oneself is to untie knots with one's own 
 fingers ; it is to straighten the course and lay the rails, and 
 test the waggons and their connections and their contents. 
 To read the work of thinkers as a study in thinking is 
 good, but this will no more make one a thinker unless he 
 applies himself to thinking, than to study fine paintings 
 will make a painter. Much less will it make him a preacher, 
 unless his great subject of study is the Word of God which 
 furnishes the message, and his great purpose is to convey 
 that message to those that hear him. 
 
 It is not that men by their thinking may strike out 
 anything original. It is not that they should even at- 
 tempt or expect to do so ; already there is too much of 
 this attempt with its inevitable failure. But it is that, for 
 power in speaking, their minds should be full and active and 
 fresh and strong. Without such exercise it will deteriorate ; 
 with such exercise it will every day improve. All who 
 come under its influence will acknowledge it is so. Nor 
 does the speaker reap only from without, but the lively 
 pleasure with which the thoughts from the living fountain 
 sprung up in his mind while he studied, and made them- 
 selves his own, remains with him, and they reproduce that 
 pleasure as they spring from his mind to the minds of 
 others. And it may be added that, on occasions when the 
 thoughts of his people are causing them trouble, his well- 
 stored mind, self -discipline, and experience make him more 
 fit and able as a counsellor. 
 
 That preacher will have most power who can not only 
 preach well from a few words, but who also expounds and 
 applies considerable passages of Scripture. The study for 
 
THE PULPIT. 149 
 
 this is the best spiritual exercise of an intellectual kind. It 
 enriches with Scripture truth and acquaints with Scripture 
 manner. And surely it cannot be questioned that the ex- 
 position (along with the application) of Scripture properly 
 done is the best spiritual nourishment. Its rareness now is 
 greatly to be deplored 
 
 That ministry alone is true to its appointed end whose 
 main purpose is to draw out into clear statement, support 
 by forceful argument, and impress by emotional pleading 
 what God has been pleased to say to men. To steep one's 
 self in the Bible is to have the secret of perpetual fresh- 
 ness. No preaching lasts like honest persistent elucidation 
 of Biblical truth. Learned and unlearned hunger after it. 
 
 It may seem strange that many ministers are scarcely 
 found referring at all to Scripture in support of what they 
 are preaching, and yet the people regard it as of infinitely 
 greater weight than any other authority. Such ministers 
 have need to consider whether they may not give the im- 
 pression that their own regard for its authority is not such 
 as it ought to be, and what may be the effect if, after a 
 time, the people should come to assign to it an inferior place 
 among authorities. 
 
 There should be no occasion to say that quotations from 
 Scripture, as from any other book, should be given correctly. 
 This is due to the author of the book and to the hearer; 
 and if the quotation is known, incorrectness will only reflect 
 on him who quotes, and will turn the mind of the hearer 
 aside to thinking of the blunder. 
 
 The preacher may be reminded that there is possibly not 
 a trait of human character that is not illustrated in persons 
 who appear on the page of Scripture, or anything in human 
 affairs that is not illustrated in theirs. He has only to make 
 their acquaintance, and he will have a vast gallery of por- 
 
150 SPEAKING. 
 
 traits in which to find examples of all that is in man by 
 nature and grace, and of the quality of men's proceedings, 
 and of the providence of God. 
 
 A former part of this work (p. 113) has urged the use of 
 speech that may be easily followed, language that the hum- 
 blest may understand, and on this is frequently heard the 
 advice, ' Do not descend to your audience, but raise them.' 
 There is here a thoughtless and mischievous fallacy. If it 
 means raise them to higher linguistic attainments, then (1) 
 this is not the part of the pulpit ; and (2), if it were, we can 
 be raised to understand difficult language only by having it 
 explained. Such advice given to a schoolmaster would be 
 laughed at. If it means raise them in other respects, how 
 can that be done by language which they do not understand ? 
 But let it not be imagined that childishness or vulgarity 
 is ever to be tolerated. Nor are the thoughts to be little 
 though the language is to be simple. Two preliminary 
 essentials for simplicity of speech are clear thinking and 
 a strong desire to make the hearer understand easily and 
 perfectly. 
 
 The author has never ceased from saying with pain that 
 a great proportion of what is said from the pulpit is not 
 understood by a large number of the hearers. And now he 
 is gratified to find a prince of preachers, Dr McLaren of 
 Manchester, speaking out strongly to the same effect 
 giving it as an explanation why so many are unaffected by 
 our preaching. That which the least educated most easily 
 understand, the best educated may most admire. 
 
 There is a striking lesson for all in the fact that Lord 
 Chancellor Cairns, who frequently attended the meetings 
 of Mr Moody, the evangelist, confessed he had got a new 
 conception of preaching from him, and said to Lord Shaftes- 
 bury, ' The simplicity of that man's preaching, the clear 
 
THE PULPIT. 151 
 
 manner in which he sets forth salvation by Christ, is to 
 me the most striking and the most delightful thing I ever 
 knew in my life.' 
 
 The sermons of that great preacher, Spurgeon, are good 
 examples in language. I may say that, although, as his son 
 informs me, he never wrote his sermons, both the thinking 
 and the language bear evidence of great carefulness. 
 
 Here it may be noted that objective has an advantage 
 over subjective or abstract language. Words that appeal to 
 knowledge acquired through the eye or bodily experience 
 present the thought more quickly and vividly. Scripture 
 throughout illustrates our meaning : ' A mighty hand and 
 an outstretched arm'; ' the shadow of Thy wings'; 'lest 
 thou dash thy foot against a stone ' ; ' the wicked flee when 
 no man pursueth ' ; ' keep my law as the apple of thine 
 eye ' ; * which of you by taking thought can add one cubit 
 to his stature ' ; no man shall ' pluck them out of My 
 hand ' ; ' I have stretched out my hands unto Thee.' 
 
 Questions are a powerful weapon, serving many important 
 uses. A question (1) may put in words the very inquiry 
 that is occupying the thought of the hearers, and thus call 
 their attention to receive the answer : f What advantage 
 then hath the Jew?' (Rom. iii.) ; or (2) may startle the 
 caviller by showing him that the question he is framing 
 has been foreseen, and summoning him to see the worth 
 of it: 'With what body do they come?' (2 Cor. xv.); or 
 (3) may be the strongest form of an assertion : ' What com- 
 munion hath light with darkness?' (2 Cor. vi.) ; 'Who is 
 he that will harm you 1 ?' (1 Pet. iii.); or (4) may, with 
 its answer, be the briefest, most striking, and inspiring way 
 of bringing out a truth : 'Who shall lay anything to the 
 charge 1' &c. (Rom. viii. 33, &c.) ; or (5) may prepare for a 
 great conclusion : ' What shall we then say to these things ? ' 
 (Rom. viii.) ; or (6) may be a challenge exposing ignor- 
 
152 SPEAKING. 
 
 ance or presumption (Job xxxviii., xxxix.) ; or (7) may 
 be the language of appeal: 'Why will ye dieV (Ezek. 
 xxxiii.); or (8) may rouse and arrest the careless: 'Will a 
 man rob God ? ' (Mai. iii.) ; ' How wilt thou do in the swelling 
 of Jordan?' (Jer. xii.). See also the questions put by Christ. 
 The manner in which the question is to be spoken, and the 
 kind of pause that should follow it, depend on the purpose 
 of it. In such as 7 and 8 the hearer should be made to feel 
 that his answer is waited for. Why is so effective an in- 
 strument so little used ] We should say, because it belongs 
 to speech of a hearty, grappling character, while the style 
 now affected is bookish and literary much to the loss of 
 the speaker's cause. Better, however, no question than one 
 that is weak or ill-placed; better never a question than a 
 known habit of questioning. 
 
 It is asked, What if my temperament shrinks from giving 
 expression even to what I feel to be the important and true 
 character of the language, thought, and feeling 1 The answer 
 is evident : You must master your temperament, or turn to 
 work in which it will not make you so undutiful and dis- 
 honest. But when I do not feel any moving interest or 
 earnestness, but am heartless and dormant, must I assume 
 the appearance without the reality : is it honest to use a 
 tone without the corresponding feeling? If you do not 
 consider the themes of the pulpit as of moving interest, 
 and calling for earnestness, it were better to beg than re- 
 main there ; but if the condition described is accidental and 
 contrary to your judgment and desire, then the dishonesty 
 is really in the present apathy, and it should be thrown off. 
 Is a servant at liberty to say, * My heart is not in my work 
 to-day ; I shall be dishonest if I work as if it were ' ? May 
 one say, * I feel surly and uncivil, therefore I must in 
 honesty be discourteous"? Are you at liberty to do in- 
 
THE PULPIT. 153 
 
 justice to the message of God as you read it in Scripture, 
 or deliver it yourself, because of your mood? 
 
 Now Ave make a strong statement, and make it strongly: 
 There is notliing whatever that is worth being said in the 
 pulpit for its own sake. Everything is for the sake of the 
 people the men, women, and children, of all sorts and 
 conditions, with their common human nature, in the pew. 
 And, as Dr Joseph Parker has said, < there ought to be 
 at least one mouthful of bread for the very poorest who has 
 crept into the Father's house.' Even as Christ came for our 
 sakes, and all He did and said was for our sakes, so it is 
 still. The preacher who forgets this loses one main secret of 
 his power. And there can be no doubt that the neglect of 
 it accounts for a great deal of weakness. The weightiest 
 doctrine preached without a living interest in its bearing on 
 preacher and hearer is flat and unprofitable ; but that interest 
 gives it vitality and power. Indifference to the needs and 
 desires of the people may be illustrated by a single glaring 
 instance. Both the unconverted and the Christian are there ; 
 yet from beginning to end all are addressed as Christians, 
 and nothing is said that could be of the least help to the 
 others : they go as they came, uncared for. The thoughtful 
 Christian himself is sorry. So likewise the whole congre- 
 gation are sometimes addressed throughout as if they were 
 unconverted. The same unaccountable thoughtlessness is 
 seen in prayer also. 
 
 Here we must pause to ask whether ministers do not take 
 it too much for granted that the people in church, young and 
 old, have really entered on the Christian life by definite ac- 
 ceptance of Christ and surrender to Him. Have they 1 We 
 earnestly urge the need of frequently and faithfully ' doing 
 the work of an evangelist/ Experience proves that such 
 preaching, when freshly and really done, has also a wonderful 
 power in ministering blessing even to the ripest Christians. 
 
154 SPEAKING. 
 
 Another obvious illustration of neglecting the needs of 
 the hearer occurs in a matter which bears alike upon all 
 together. The preacher has been dealing with some Chris- 
 tian virtue or some weakness. Perhaps he has been, as 
 is the modern fashion of some, backing himself, not by 
 Scripture, but by stories, and by moralists and poets and 
 writers of fiction, eking out his sermon with quotations which 
 nobody quite understands, but from which everybody may 
 judge of his wonderful reading ; but let us suppose that, by 
 whatever method, he has led the people to think about their 
 failures and weaknesses. To what good 1 It was unnecessary 
 for most of them to be brought to church for this. They 
 have felt it all at home, and on occasions much more sharply. 
 There is not a word to tell of help, or to bring them to a 
 more real and constant practical hold of the Helper, or 
 knowledge of being held by Him ; no Holy Spirit ; not a 
 word to quicken perseverance or hope. He has got no higher 
 than his literary friends. The sores of his people are probed, 
 but there is no balm in that pulpit. 
 
 To one who complained of preaching in which the re- 
 demption work of Christ, and His relation to saint or 
 sinner, receive but vague, useless, passing allusion, a young 
 man answered, ' We are not taught it ' as if these things 
 are not taught even in the Shorter Catechism, and as if any 
 man ought to think of entering the ministry unless he has 
 been taught them also by the Spirit of God, and is moved 
 above all things by the desire to impress them on others. 
 
 There are two great fundamental facts which, though 
 scarcely appreciable in contributing to the power of most 
 other speaking, are not only immeasurable in their effect on 
 the power of preaching but are essential to it, viz., the author- 
 ity of God in His revealed will, and the power of conscience 
 in man, with his sin, sorrow, and need. To these the 
 
THE PULPIT. 155 
 
 preacher's mandate directs him as the basis of all his preach- 
 ing. If they do not receive his constant, reverential, sym- 
 pathetic attention, he is weak as well as undutiful to his 
 people and his Master. 
 
 But on the other hand, if he takes his stand on the 
 authority of God in His revealed will, and is an intelligent 
 and honest man, he cannot but speak with strong conviction ; 
 and if he has in mind the conscience and need of his hearer, 
 he cannot but speak with deep sympathy and tenderness, and 
 with care to be easily understood. Add to this the spirit 
 and manner of one who glows with pleasure in a work so 
 fraught with blessing to those for whom he cares, and then 
 we have the most important of the essential human elements 
 of power in the pulpit strong conviction, sympathetic desire 
 for the hearer's good, and pleasure in the work. 
 
 Let him see that in his preaching he founds the possibility 
 to 'live godly' and in ' everlasting consolation and good 
 hope ' only and always on union with Christ and the power 
 of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Where is now to be heard from the pulpit the voice of 
 beseeching, entreaty, appeal to the hearers? There is no 
 substitute for it. Argument often tends rather to provoke 
 reply than to induce consent, and, according to the proverb, 
 may convince and leave the convinced of the same opinion 
 still. Every day there is proof in every department of life 
 that beseeching has succeeded where argument failed. It 
 may be said that appeal had made itself distasteful and in- 
 effective by being overdone and badly done; but any one 
 can answer this, which is heard in relation to most good 
 things, and can draw from it the inference that his duty 
 is to make sure that in his case it is not badly done, but 
 well done. 
 
 Are we asked to define more exactly what is meant by 
 
156 SPEAKING, 
 
 beseeching or appeal 1 It is the cry of heart to heart. It is 
 the voice of profound longing. If it reasons, its thoughts 
 come from a heart that is deeply moved ; and their passing 
 through the intellect of the other on their way to the heart 
 is as when the spark darts through the electric wire. Its 
 tone cannot be mistaken. If he who has asked us to define 
 it has forgot his own childhood, let him listen now to children 
 in their frequent beseechings. Let him imagine having to 
 entreat some loved one to turn away from ruin, or to plead 
 that one who is dear to him may not be exposed to shame. 
 From the heart we would say to the young minister, Think 
 till the fire burns within you, think how God yearns over 
 your people with the love which gave His Son for them, and 
 has sent you as His ambassador to beseech them, and has 
 given them to you to love and care for, that you may present 
 them every one perfect in Christ Jesus. They desire to 
 regard you as speaking in the name of God ; let them have 
 no cause to wonder that they never find you pleading as He 
 would plead. The things of which we preach are of supreme 
 and eternal importance to them do not let them think 
 that you doubt it ; do not let them wonder that your love 
 never breaks out in earnest entreaty over that which con- 
 cerns them so deeply. Think of them one by one ; think 
 what you would not say or do to see it otherwise with some ; 
 think till your heart is full and longing, and let your heart 
 speak. As well-known illustrations of the character of appeal, 
 we might point to passages in Ruth i., Isaiah xl., lv., Ezekiel 
 xxxiii., Paraphrase xxx. ; but Scripture is full of it. 
 
 We would not be taken as meaning that appeal is only 
 for a great outpouring on special occasions, or that it should 
 be reserved to the end of the sermon. But every definite 
 truth in the sermon should be made to press in on the 
 conscience in view of character and life. 
 
 The time was when Mr Gladstone could say, and said 
 
THE PULPIT. 157 
 
 with commendation, that the distinctive note of preaching 
 in the Scottish Churches was that of a wrestling with the 
 hearer. 
 
 Yet one other truth loudly claims to be heard, and should 
 be heard with thankfulness. The Holy Spirit can enrich in 
 all utterance. God giveth His Holy Spirit to them that ask 
 Him. Paul begged the prayers of the Ephesians that utter- 
 ance might be given to him. This gift of the Spirit will not 
 take the place of natural gifts, nor can it be expected to 
 supply the want of attainments caused by indolence and un- 
 faithfulness (though the abundance of grace may overflow 
 even all that) ; but this at least is certain, that, in answer to 
 prayer, taking us as He finds us, He will breathe upon us such 
 life and desire and freedom and power, and such faculty of 
 speaking for Him to others, as nothing in ourselves can attain 
 to. Let no one think to minister in the Gospel without 
 seeking constantly and earnestly this power from on high. 
 To do otherwise is to attempt the work of God with the 
 power of man. It is to reverse the words, ; Not by might 
 nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts/ 
 
 Can it be the fact fearful if it is so that little prayer is 
 now to be heard for the Holy Spirit at all 1 
 
 If the preacher should live in ' an age of doubt/ as this is 
 said to be, or in an age of devilry, he should know that this 
 only increases, if that were possible, the obligation which 
 rests upon him to preach Faith and the risen and reigning 
 Lord, who came to destroy the works of the devil. This is 
 the distinctive part which has been assigned to the preacher 
 by the Most High. 
 
 'Let us pray,' and especially the last word, is to be heard 
 in certain quarters given in what may be thought the ecclesi- 
 astical mode. It might easily be described, but we refrain, 
 
158 SPEAKING. 
 
 content to say that it is utterly unnatural ; and to he un- 
 natural is to he prohibited. In a less degree the same is true 
 of the oft-repeated words, ( through Jesus Christ our Lord.' 
 
 He on whom it falls to lead the prayers of a congrega- 
 tion cannot hut desire that no one should suffer loss because 
 of any shortcomings on his part. And in this we desire to 
 assist him. What has been said of the voice and of speech 
 generally is as applicable and important here as anywhere. 
 But there is additional matter having special reference to our 
 present subject ; for, as hitherto, we take speaking to embrace 
 spirit and matter and manner, and whatever conduces to the 
 end desired. 
 
 Such faults as the following have, not once nor twice, 
 come under the writer's own observation, and may be stated 
 as illustrative, (a) Frequent utterance of the name of God, 
 which is irreverent ; as also is a noisy, rough, or curt utter- 
 ance of it. (b) Addressing the Almighty always by the 
 same name, regardless that He has been pleased to make Him- 
 self known to us by many, each with its revelation of Him 
 more appropriate to certain contexts than to others, (c) Too 
 rapid or light-toned speech, which is irreverent, (d) The 
 frequent use of some pet expression or some neat sentence. 
 (e) Rambling : going backwards and forwards ; no natural or 
 spiritual or logical progression. (/) Sameness, as when one 
 at the beginning could rarely exclude the 'come before 
 Thee/ and after not many words always fell back on 'in 
 spirit and in truth/ with only the poorest rearrangement of 
 his commonplace words introducing it. (g) Too great vague- 
 ness ; and, on the other hand, too great minuteness, (h) Ill- 
 considered expressions, most frequently in confession e.g., 
 We have not been thankful ; We do not trust Thee ; Our lives 
 have been full of wickedness. Many people know that this 
 is not their case, and must wonder what manner of man the 
 minister is. In all those subjects there is plenty of room for 
 
THE PULPIT. 159 
 
 conviction and confession and penitence, but nothing is 
 gained by untruthful language, (i) Want of though tfulness 
 as to some main lines of difference in the spiritual condition 
 of the people present, so that some can find no place for 
 them in respect of that which mostly concerns them, or which 
 at least they know they ought to pray for. (j) It would be 
 well to listen to an order of the Jewish doctors that in the 
 synagogue 'Amen' be not pronounced hastily and swiftly, 
 but with a grave and distinct voice. By this word we are 
 understood to testify our desire to be heard, and our con- 
 fiding assurance that we shall be heard. But how many 
 are there whose utterance of it does not make the very least 
 suggestion of such a state of mind, sometimes rather the 
 contrary? Not infrequently now we hear one who omits it 
 entirely, trusting it to others whether they fulfil the un- 
 sought trust or not. Why should they more than he? 
 Why should he less than they? Surely it is a comfort, a 
 joy, to address to the Almighty a word filled full by us 
 of the meaning assigned to it in prayer by the Shorter 
 Catechism ' in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be 
 heard, we say Amen. 1 
 
 Those who say the Lord's Prayer should say it correctly 
 for example, not putting ' who ' for * which/ * on ' for ' in/ 
 ' each ' for l this,' ' day by day ' for ; this day,' omitting ' and,' 
 inserting ' and ever,' or the like. Are such things intended 
 to correct the translators, or St Matthew, or whom? Since 
 last edition I had the curious experience of hearing this 
 'in whose perfect words we farther pray/ followed by the 
 Lord's Prayer full of inaccuracies ! We take the lowest 
 ground in thinking that a quotation should be given with 
 strict accuracy, and especially where it is familiar to the 
 hearer. Let all guard also against prefatory expressions im- 
 plying that this prayer was commanded, or is the only perfect 
 praying, or the like. 
 
 1* 
 
160 SPEAKING. 
 
 The Christian's view of the throne of grace includes as 
 living realities the new, blood-consecrated way to it, and the 
 Intercessor at the right hand, and the teaching and helping 
 of the Holy Spirit and His own pleading in our prayers. 
 
 The first spiritual act of prayer is to enter within the veil 
 into * the holiest/ the very presence of God. The minister 
 does this for himself, and he bears on his spirit his congrega- 
 tion with him. 
 
 And being now there, the soul is naturally and by grace 
 filled with reverence, humility, and sincerity, and with other 
 graces, such as faith and comfort, and with the deep satisfac- 
 tion of communing with God. This position, and the mental 
 and spiritual frame which belongs to it, will give the true 
 character to all the parts of prayer : adoration, profound and 
 reverential, giving with gladness the glory that is due to His 
 name ; confession, honest and sin-hating ; the prayer of great 
 and urgent need ; the thanksgiving of real gratitude for 
 loving-kindness undeserved ; intercession with the same love 
 for others as for ourselves, and happy in the fact that 
 God's love is greater still ; longing after holiness, as He 
 with whom we are communing is holy ; and so in any other 
 thing. 
 
 And what is his relation in all this to the congregation? 
 His words and the manner of their utterance not only convey 
 the knowledge of his thoughts and feelings, but they do more. 
 Words and tones, among those who are friendly, excite in 
 the hearer the feeling which they express ; and thus, if his 
 speech has given true expression of himself, the congregation 
 will be affected as he has been. This is the human side, on 
 which lies the minister's duty, and with which alone we are 
 dealing. 
 
 Let it be noted then that, not that which it was intended 
 or desired to express, but only that which is actually ex- 
 pressed, will determine the response of the congregation : it 
 
THE PULPIT. 161 
 
 may be the mental and spiritual frame of the minister, or it 
 may be something else. 
 
 If never before, surely now there comes clearly out the 
 immeasurable importance to a minister of having so mastered 
 the instruments of speech and perfected his use of them that 
 they express with exact truth the thoughts and feelings 
 which seek expression. We write it in all affection, and in 
 profound sorrow that there are not a few within our know- 
 ledge who cannot so much as express the simple elementary 
 sentiment of reverence, cannot express earnestness, or come 
 within sight of a longing desire, or of the Scripture ' cry 
 unto the Lord.' Whether it be that the feelings are not 
 there, or that the power of expression has not been acquired, 
 is it not grievously undutiful 1 
 
 As for one's own soul, so for the ' two or three/ and so for 
 the many, there is no comparison between free prayer and 
 prayer read, or said from memory, for bringing men truly 
 into the Presence for communion, and for rendering spon- 
 taneous and unfettered worship, and opening the heart for 
 copious blessing. This statement is to be taken along with 
 all that is said in these paragraphs on prayer, for either 
 mental or spiritual un fitness makes free prayer a great trial 
 to a large part of the congregation. 
 
 Eespecting the language of prayer, there is one point on 
 which the man who really does pray, the man who has really 
 entered into the Presence, does not need advice, for in that 
 Presence he cannot, if he would, use other than simple and 
 direct language. Laboured sentences are abhorrent to him, 
 such as one now lying before the writer, part of which is an 
 interjection of the relative pronoun with nine lines belonging 
 to it, or one which, on the other hand, is well enough as a 
 piece of writing, and indeed might take the fancy as saying 
 a great deal in compact, good literary form ; yet when one 
 knows and feels himself in practical converse with God face 
 
162 SPEAKING. 
 
 to face, such a manner of address feels utterly and most 
 objectionably out of place. One of the greatest lessons of 
 the Lord's Prayer is in its simplicity. All true prayer 
 speaks simply. It will, for example, address God very 
 sparingly as 'Who.' The growing practice of often using 
 such a form as ' Almighty God, who ' is wholly in the wrong 
 direction. It comes from the schools, and neither from 
 nature nor grace. The manner and comparative rareness of 
 its use in Scripture may teach us. Common experience 
 would attest that the more truly and earnestly a soul is 
 crying unto God in its own spontaneous words, with no 
 habit contracted from books, the less will there be of this 
 form. I cannot doubt that yesterday when prayer from the 
 pulpit began with ' God, who art our refuge and our 
 strength/ there was many a worshipper whose heart would 
 have gone forth more fully in thankful, restful, joyous trust 
 had the form, properly spoken, been, ' God, Thou art our 
 refuge and our strength.' 
 
 Books of devotion and books of prayers do not serve their 
 best use when they receive attention for the sake of their 
 language, and least of all when it is for the sake of appro- 
 priating their sentences. They are valuable when they stir 
 up the gift of prayer ; deepen our sense of nearness to God ; 
 quicken faith and earnestness and all the graces that con- 
 tribute to effectual fervent prayer ; prevent forgetfulness of 
 any proper subject of prayer ; give increased fulness, and 
 keep before our minds the great amount and variety of 
 human need, and the abounding, all-sufficient grace of God. 
 But above all, there must needs be much prayer for the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 The great educator and the exhaustless storehouse for 
 prayer is the Word of God. He who would do his duty 
 well in this part of the worship must have his mind saturated 
 with the thought and stored with the language of Scripture. 
 
THE PULPIT. 163 
 
 He should particularly familiarise himself with the prayers 
 recorded there short as well as long and by whomsoever 
 uttered, including of course the Psalms. They are most 
 striking and instructive from their directness, simplicity, 
 depth of meaning and feeling, and nearness to God ; and 
 also in their exquisite touching and natural transitions from 
 one mood to another ; to all which must be added the im- 
 pressive appropriateness, weight, and euphony of the lang- 
 uage. There is nothing to compare with them ; and nothing 
 can be more appropriate in holy converse with God than the 
 very words of Scripture. All Scripture is of use to direct 
 us in prayer. There is but little of it which may not give 
 occasion for prayer and furnish the language. There is no 
 more valuable exercise than to make what we read the 
 ground of prayer. I cannot give my young readers kinder 
 or better counsel than to be much occupied with the Word 
 of God. 
 
 There is great variety among us in the way of pronounc- 
 ing the Benediction ; and perhaps uniformity is not to be 
 desired. The Benediction is a form of prayer. Some 
 think it is more, when pronounced by an ordained minister. 
 As it does not belong to this book to argue theology, it is 
 enough to say that we have never found any divine authority 
 for that view ; and we are very sure that a parent, unaffected 
 by views held outside of our Church, would rather over the 
 head of his child see the hand and hear the words, * The 
 Lord bless thee, my child/ from the unordained man whose 
 effectual fervent prayer availeth much, than the hand and 
 words of one whose principal qualification is ordination. 
 We believe it is admitted that no one among us ever truly 
 pronounces the Benediction unaccompanied with sincere 
 heart-prayer, and this common ground is enough for our 
 present purpose. In practice it is the fact that some use 
 
164 SPEAKING. 
 
 the prayer as for the congregation only, saying, for example, 
 * Grace be with you' ; some as including themselves, * Grace 
 be with us.' In the former case the natural attitude would 
 obviously be the minister looking on the congregation with 
 outspread arms and the palms downwards. In the latter 
 case this would as obviously be inappropriate, and the proper 
 attitude may be regarded as being partially upturned eyes 
 and arms and palms expressive of earnest and confident 
 expectancy in this summary and last act of the worship. 
 The utterance of the Benediction is referred to on page 26. 
 
 For a form of words we naturally turn to the New Testa- 
 ment, and there the fullest is that which concludes the 
 Second Epistle to the Corinthians. In this it is a frequent 
 mistake to say ' our Lord ' for ' the Lord,' which implies 
 very much more. We would say then : The grace of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion 
 of the Holy Ghost be with you [or us] all. Amen. 
 
165 
 
 PAKT VII. 
 
 STAMMERING. 1 
 
 WE assume that the student of this Part has made himself 
 acquainted with at least Parts I. IV. It may be taken as 
 established that in all ordinary stammering there is want of 
 co-operation between the voice-producing cords in the larynx 
 and the word-modelling organs of the mouth, and that it is 
 the voice-production that lags behind. Dr Wyllie, in his 
 1 Disorders of Speech,' aptly compares it to violin-playing in 
 which the bow hand fails to use the bow while the other 
 hand vainly presses the harder upon the strings. This is 
 actually to be seen in first lessons on the violin, when the 
 pupil, intent on the placing of his fingers, neglects to ply 
 the bow. 
 
 From the exactness, rapidity, and ease with which the 
 
 1 For their sakes in sympathy with whom this Part is designed it 
 may be well to state that it is not based merely on a very careful gen- 
 eral study of the subject, but cases to the number of ten not to say 
 more have received special attention in connection with this work. 
 All were cases of persons of intelligence. Four were men of education 
 (two of them being in the learned professions), and two were educated 
 ladies. Of those a lady and a minister had mastered the defect, and 
 frankly gave me the benefit of their experience. To the latter the 
 original manuscript of the Part was submitted before publication, and 
 he was pleased to say that, much as he had read on the subject, this 
 was the best treatment of it he had seen, and that he could suggest 
 nothing for its improvement. 
 
166 SPEAKING. 
 
 good player executes the perpetually changing combinations 
 in the movements of his hands and fingers we get some idea 
 of what is required of the organs of speech. In truth, the 
 production of speech demands such swiftness and delicacy of 
 co-ordinated action of the parts that the wonder is there are 
 not more instances of failure. In the difficulty of the per- 
 formance lies the explanation of the great amount of slovenly, 
 indistinct speaking that exists, for it leads the careless and 
 indolent, omitting and blurring as they go, to shuffle along 
 in the easiest way they can. Thousands are more difficult 
 to follow than the stammerer, and ought to be more 
 ashamed of themselves ; only, though they give great annoy- 
 ance, they do not in their blissful ignorance add to the pain 
 of the hearer by exhibiting distress themselves. 
 
 In stammering of the common variety the speaker neglects, 
 or goes a little ahead of, the action of the vocal cords. Then 
 in the disappointing, disconcerting absence of voice he un- 
 consciously throws increased force into some part of the 
 mechanism outward from the cords, where it struggles vio- 
 lently to effect the impossible. This produces one or more 
 of those spasmodic movements in various parts which some 
 have taken for causes instead of effects. Some of those 
 struggles dam up the breath by shut lips or otherwise, so 
 that the cords cannot give voice, because a current cannot 
 pass through them. 
 
 What, then, may be the beginning of this failure in co- 
 ordination, whatever its particular form ; and what, where it 
 exists, will make it more troublesome at one time than an- 
 other? (a) In childhood and even boyhood it may be com- 
 menced by imitation ; or (b) by inducing children in thought- 
 less play to attempt combinations of sounds or words too 
 difficult for them, (c) It may accidentally occur, as in an 
 outburst of crying, and thus be discovered to be a means 
 of gaining an end, and therefore be repeated as occasion re- 
 
STAMMERING. 16<T 
 
 quires, (d) When the boy is at a loss, and would make 
 believe that he knows what to answer if only he could ex- 
 press it, he finds this practice gains him sympathy, perhaps 
 he gets 'helped out/ and at least he gains time, (e) A 
 severe fright or other violent emotion may be the beginning. 
 (/) It may first occur in the extreme weakness of the early 
 stages of recovery from severe illness, (g) Like every fail- 
 ing, it becomes a habit unless firmly resisted, (h) If it has 
 become a habit, no more need be said to account for its 
 occurrence at any time, (i) It is most likely to occur (and 
 in some cases it may be from more occult causes than those 
 enumerated) in natures that are nervous, or timid, or deficient 
 in decision and power of will, (j) It will in every case be 
 more troublesome in circumstances that tend for the time to 
 produce those conditions as the state of health, disconcert- 
 ing surroundings, and causes that lessen self-confidence. 
 
 How, then, may this defect be cured ? We would begin by 
 addressing those sufferers who are of age to treat themselves. 
 And first we would beg them (a) to believe that this is but 
 one of a hundred kinds of faulty voice-production; (b) to 
 believe that they are able to overcome it ; (c) if they have 
 got any theory, correct or incorrect, about nerve centres, &c., 
 to leave it out of account and, as in other things, give the 
 mind and will directly to the practical work ; and (d) not to 
 put any trust in artifices and expedients : their effect is not 
 permanent, nor is this an evil to be out-manoeuvred by mere 
 strategy. 
 
 It must be met straight, face to face, with knowledge and 
 with full and tenacious purpose of victory, and mastered 
 fairly ; and then it will not only own defeat, but will pay 
 tribute ; for the skill and labour it has called forth will have 
 left their mark in a general improvement of the whole 
 speech. 
 
 Throughout this work we have had our eyes both on the 
 
168 SPEAKING. 
 
 mechanism and the man behind the mechanism. The same 
 principles which have underlain all that has been said 
 underlie all that has to be said now. The mechanism must 
 be understood and fitted to its work by the man behind it, 
 little by little. The apprentice knows that when he has 
 practised with any tool at a piece of work till he has mastered 
 his hand and the tool, and has done this with every tool on 
 every kind of work, he is then master of his trade. And he 
 knows that in no other way can he master it, and that until 
 he has done so he will be timid, and will blunder in presence 
 of those who know. It is so in all speaking. If the faults 
 of other faulty speakers were as obvious to themselves and 
 others as in the case of one who stammers, he would not feel 
 himself so lonely and so marked. They need the same 
 practice as he does, but they do not take it. Let him but 
 take courage, and he may excel them all. 
 
 It is manifestly of the utmost importance in learning to 
 speak, and even more in amending speech, to acquire correct 
 knowledge of the arrangement of organs required for every 
 vowel sound and articulation. It is equally evident that the 
 knowledge must not be intellectual only but practical 
 acquired after the manner of all practical knowledge. This 
 must be gone into thoroughly. According to the directions 
 given in Part II. , one by one every vowel sound and every 
 articulation must be taken alone, the adjustment of organs 
 for it correctly effected, and itself correctly delivered. Then 
 it must be repeated times innumerable until it is done as 
 easily and naturally and promptly as the moving of a finger. 
 For the next step, if it is a consonant, place a vowel before 
 it, taking first whichever most commends itself, and practise 
 as before, then the rest of the vowels one after another. 
 For the next step, take the vowel and place it behind the 
 consonant, and do likewise. If the work in hand is a vowel, 
 
STAMMERING. 169 
 
 the procedure must be the same. When it has been cor- 
 rectly got, it must be incessantly repeated and made a 
 familiar friend. Thereafter put a consonant behind it and 
 repeat the process, one consonant after another ; then a con- 
 sonant before it, one after another. Having attained perfect 
 readiness and ease in all this, do the same with every kind 
 of word of one syllable, till the most difficult are easy. 
 Then words of more than one syllable ; then two words and 
 three words, and short sentences repeated over and over 
 again. All this is to be done till there is no such thing as 
 difficulty; and all in private, but with full, open voice. 
 Three months of such practice, willing and hearty, should 
 lay a firm foundation for a habit of sound speech. 
 
 Is a teacher in the body necessary for all this? Only in 
 the very improbable event of the student being unable to 
 understand such descriptions of the formation of the vowels 
 and consonants as have been given in this book ; and this 
 could be set right in a couple of lessons. If, as is hoped, 
 this little exception has no place, it is believed that the 
 student is better without help ; for in this education a 
 very important part is education in self-reliance and self- 
 confidence. 
 
 Everything in the practice we have just described must 
 be done with even exaggerated firmness and forcefulness. 
 In the articulations the contact and release of the parts 
 must be decisively clear and strong. It is to be remem- 
 bered that the evil to be overcome is that the parts act 
 irregularly, waywardly, despising control. For their owner, 
 therefore, to use anything less than a very strong hand is 
 utterly useless. In addition to what has been said about 
 practising, the following counsel will doubtless be useful to 
 the student. Every one finds it is easiest to produce, and 
 to hear, the complete, distinct, firm explosive utterance of 
 an articulation when it ends a word. And for those to 
 
170 SPEAKING. 
 
 whom we now write the greatest difficulty generally lies in 
 articulating consonants which begin a word. They would 
 therefore find it very instructive and helpful to do as fol- 
 lows : Take a short word which begins with a vowel and 
 ends with the troublesome consonant, for example, at ; utter 
 the word with strong decisive explosiveness of the t; do 
 this twice or thrice, then drop the vowel and reproduce the 
 t exactly as before, once or twice ; and then with precisely 
 the same style of t fire off the word which had been giving 
 trouble. Thus, at, at, t, t, till; ebb, ebb, b, b, 
 bean; aim, aim, m, m, me; off, off, f, f, food; 
 up, up, p, p, pie; earth, earth, th, th, thin; 
 oil, oil, 1 9 I, life; and so on. 
 
 Very decided results have come from practising before a 
 mirror so as to see the appearances which accompany the 
 stammering. The determination to prevent them is a power- 
 ful help. 
 
 When the firm rendering of all the sounds has been 
 mastered and well practised, the principal remaining hind- 
 rances are the bad habit of the parts and of the mind, and 
 want of will-power arising largely from self -distrust. Any 
 bad habit is got quit of only by establishing a good habit; 
 self-distrust must be met by fearless pluck ; and the will 
 must be taught its duty and braced up to do it. On these 
 things more light will be thrown in what has yet to be said. 
 
 He who plays the violin, or sings a solo, or twirls plates, 
 or tosses balls, practises in private unseen and unknown, 
 except by rarely privileged friends, till he has obtained the 
 mastery. He who would amend his speech has no such 
 advantage, for he must take part in the business and con- 
 versation of life. And yet even this may be turned into a 
 benefit, for there is a portion of his education that we have 
 but slightly alluded to, in which it may play an important 
 
STAMMERING. 171 
 
 part. He must learn not to be * put out ' in the presence of 
 others at least so much put out that his speaking is troubled. 
 Now while it is certain he would learn this more easily after 
 having mastered his speaking, yet it is better, on various 
 grounds, that this part of the education should proceed 
 simultaneously with the other. The parts will act and react 
 on each other to the advantage of both. 
 
 This part of the subject brings us to the closest quarters 
 with the man behind the mechanism, for it brings us to his 
 thoughts and emotions. And we must beg him neither to 
 stop us nor stop himself by saying it is of no use. If his 
 heart is in this education, he will soon prove the contrary. 
 First, then, we would say to him, all men who are not very 
 conceited are for years more or less ' put out ' in presence of 
 their superiors, and you are no exception. You must do as 
 others do, and ' set a stoot hert to a stey brae.' Do not be in 
 the least afraid of saying what you have got to say. If you 
 mix up Scotch and English, if you hash up every rule of 
 grammar, if you mispronounce half your words, who cares ! 
 But if you stammer, everybody cares. They see it distress- 
 ing you, and this distresses them. Therefore do anything 
 rather than that. To this it may be answered that thus 
 directing the thoughts to stammering will rather cause 
 it. But we are not directing your thoughts to it ; we are 
 bidding you direct them to anything else rather, and go 
 on. Don't fear; but if you should fear that you are 
 going to fail in some word, be in no hurry. Pronounce 
 it deliberately. 
 
 And if the trouble does come, the best course is to STOP 
 to stop at its very commencement. If one cannot, he can 
 soon learn. It is not a convulsion. He has only to say to 
 himself ' I won't try/ and all the parts will return to their 
 natural position. The course therefore is to STOP, TAKE 
 BREATH, and begin again. This does not take half the time 
 
172 SPEAKING. 
 
 of a stammer, nor attract such attention, nor give pain ; and 
 it would be a very important step in the curative process. 
 This is urged most earnestly. 
 
 We have said of what may be called the indoor education 
 that about three months of the practice prescribed should lay 
 a firm foundation ; and now that we have dealt with the out- 
 door education which must be going on at the same time, 
 we would say the same of it. More has to be done in both, 
 but if we have laid that foundation and will go on in the 
 same spirit, complete success is certain. Such preparatory 
 work, to the admiration of all the world, has recently led 
 with sure foot to the crowning glory of our arms in the 
 Soudan. 
 
 Returning, then, to private study: what value may be 
 attributed to the exercise of reading aloud ? If it is done 
 with attention to the right execution of every word, it gives 
 practice to the organs in going about their work correctly 
 and easily, and to the man behind them in sending them 
 about their work. If he has occasion to read in public it 
 will also accustom him to that kind of work, thereby making 
 it easier, and will improve his reading and thereby give him 
 confidence. If in his practising he should begin (as he 
 ought not) to fear stumbling, or if stumbling has begun, 
 he should follow the counsel given on last page for each 
 of the contingencies, and should in addition repeat the word 
 many times, and also go back some lines and take it again, 
 He must treat it as if it were always a stumbling-block to 
 him. He must have no mercy on that word, and let his 
 adieu to it be that it shall never again play him that trick. 
 The word may be one which rarely offends; nevertheless, 
 the course prescribed is necessary for discipline both of the 
 mind and organs. 
 
 But in reading there is a complete lack of some of the 
 elements of conversational and other speaking; so that for 
 
STAMMERING. 173 
 
 speaking we must carry on another kind of practice also. 
 Lay aside for the time all thought of books, and of repeating 
 from memory ; and speak in a full, natural voice all manner 
 of imaginary conversations, in all kinds of tones. Put 
 questions, and answer them ; tell something that you have 
 seen, or heard, or read. Be grave; be funny; be firm ; be 
 tender. Talk a great deal. Get away by yourself, and 
 talk, talk, talk. Always of course try to imagine you have 
 got a listener or listeners of some consequence, and speak for 
 their ear as well as for your own. 
 
 The public-life practice simultaneous with this is the same, 
 except in two particulars. An offending word cannot be 
 flagellated on the spot, and must be reserved for private 
 discipline ; and a real hearer may be more embarrassing 
 than an imaginary one. 
 
 We have been for some time, as has been said, handling 
 the very thoughts and emotions of the man behind the 
 mechanism, and now we must go a step further still, to 
 the man behind the thoughts and emotions the man who 
 wields the will. His post here is a high one and of great 
 power ; and here he is supported by a strong staff, such 
 as dutifulness, high purpose, propriety, 'ought to do,' and 
 'can do/ A weak hand on the will, and wreck will follow 
 as surely as when a weak hand is on the helm. It is by the 
 action of this power that the thoughts and emotions are 
 controlled that people restrain an inclination to laugh, or 
 weep, or speak. Plainly, therefore, it must play a most 
 important part in the matter on which we are now engaged, 
 even if it were only to overrule the feeling of being put 
 out, or the fear of being unable. The will therefore must 
 be braced up, and supported by every member of its staff. 
 In the stammer of many it would indeed appear as if there 
 were a strong, but perverse, exercise of the will ; for instead 
 
174 SPEAKING. 
 
 of immediately stopping, they will persist with a determina- 
 tion which would seem bent on driving everything to wreck 
 and ruin rather than give in. If this be the will (and there 
 must be will in it), it is untimely and sadly misdirected. 
 The will must operate at an earlier stage than that. It 
 must assert itself against that weakness which doubts one's 
 ability to speak aright in the presence of others. It must 
 say, ' I will neither vex myself nor others in this small 
 matter. God helping me, I won't. I can and I will? As 
 it is, he gives the impression (he can judge if it is a true one) 
 that at the very first symptom of a stammer his will deserts 
 to the enemy, cuts off his retreat, and runs him violently 
 down the steep place. This will must be taught its duty 
 better. It must practise its duty. It must support its 
 owner, and be supported by him. It is for the will both 
 to suppress emotions that would disturb the action of the 
 mechanism, and to set the mechanism to its work in an 
 orderly manner. It is the will in every man that gives 
 the order to those organs for the production of a certain 
 word. When they have got beyond control of the will, or 
 have lost the art of responding to it, the will and they must 
 be made to understand each other again. All the counsel 
 that has been given here has indirectly had this in view ; 
 and if it has been followed the end must, perhaps uncon- 
 sciously, have been attained, if not wholly, at least to a 
 great extent. 
 
 But if not, there is yet one direct and conscious attempt 
 that ought to be made. Let the student watch with de- 
 tective care the operation of the organs when they give 
 forth a word satisfactorily which at times they give unsatis- 
 factorily. Let him compare them strictly and discover the 
 difference in the action of the mechanism, noting particu- 
 larly the point at which, and the manner in which, the 
 erroneous performance deviates from the correct mode of 
 
STAMMERING. 175 
 
 production in snort, discover how and where the organs 
 go astray, and where the will must be applied, and what for, 
 to keep the organism right. We even go so far as to say he 
 might (though he should not practise it) mimic his stammer 
 in some word, and also say it correctly for comparison. And 
 we are not sure that it might not do the will good thus to 
 prove its power of command. The object in all this is to 
 show the will what is wanted in controlling the mechanism, 
 and to practise it in meeting the want. 
 
 Meantime of course, as at other stages, the public-life 
 practice cannot but go on, and it should be directed to 
 bringing the will to bear on all fear and uneasiness in 
 conversation or public speaking. Let the speaking be with- 
 out haste, natural and frank, and free from all thought or 
 feeling that an ordeal has to be gone through. 
 
 It will be observed that we have not been assuming weak- 
 ness of will in those for whom we write. On the contrary, 
 they have quite as much strength of will as is common, and 
 often more. But it is common to man that the will (weak 
 or strong) does not always do its part, and do it timeously. 
 And in this peculiarity of speech it would seem to hang back 
 in its duty. As we have said, it must be taught its duty and 
 made to do it. Two persons are known to us who ordinarily 
 stammer badly, but who have delivered speeches of from ten 
 to thirty minutes without a hitch. In this there must have 
 been efficient action of the will, aided no doubt and braced 
 and cheered by circumstances within and without. We 
 would have it trained to do this duty in speech under all 
 circumstances, and would therefore use the means we have 
 set forth not only for that training, but for making the will's 
 path of duty as easy as possible. 
 
 Those for whom this is written, and such as have been 
 careful observers, must know many things that corroborate 
 
 M 
 
176 SPEAKING. 
 
 what has been said. For example, one has difficulty in 
 speaking to children because, finding them without sym- 
 pathy or consideration, he fears their ridicule ; he has still 
 more difficulty among familiar associates, because he speaks 
 too carelessly ; and he has least difficulty of all in presence 
 of superiors, because then he is braced up. Such facts 
 establish a case against him for not exercising will-power 
 as he ought. An incident of which the writer was witness 
 is to the same effect. An educated young man who stammered 
 very badly was taken to task in the very act by a superior 
 for being content to go on in such a vile habit of mangling 
 speech and distressing others; and so far was he from suf- 
 fering collapse through perturbation that a most striking 
 improvement took place there and then. Another has 
 no difficulty either in speaking to children or among his 
 acquaintances, because he is not afraid in these circum- 
 stances, and is never careless ; but his difficulty is in 
 presence of superiors, and especially if they are critical, for 
 then the want of being at ease makes a greater demand on 
 the will-power : it has not only to direct the organs but to 
 overrule the fear which is troubling them. One can take 
 his section of a volunteer company through a field-day with 
 perfect freedom ; for then he has the will of a man who is 
 master of the situation. One speaks much worse when 
 mentally tired, for then not only is the will weak but it has 
 more difficulty with the other wearied mental faculties ; but 
 if he is only physically tired he speaks rather better than 
 usual, for then the will has less difficulty with the organs 
 submissive in their weariness. Being appointed speaker 
 through the telephone, one found that in this his stammer 
 gave no trouble. He was not only undisturbed by the 
 presence of another, but his will was roused by the necessity 
 of speaking pointedly and demanding an answer from the 
 unseen. His speaking at the telephone began improvement 
 
STAMMERING. 177 
 
 in his ordinary speaking, which goes on. Persons who 
 stammer would seem never to have any difficulty when they 
 sing, for the separateness of the words removes a difficulty, 
 and the attention being directed to the note removes another, 
 and the will is decidedly more operative in uttering words 
 according to fixed sounds and fixed time than in speaking 
 without rule of any kind. Another difference between 
 speaking and singing is that in the former the words begin 
 explosively, but not in the latter ; and we mention this by 
 itself in order to warn the student against founding any 
 expedient upon it (as some may advise him) in the hope "of 
 thereby aiding in the removal of his defect. An old man 
 spoke badly at all other times, but faultlessly in extempor- 
 aneous prayer, for then the deliberate expression of strong 
 feeling, and communing with the Most High, roused the 
 will and all the faculties to their best, most harmonious, and 
 most engrossing action. Those who receive special assist- 
 ance find that the benefit is in proportion as the will 
 receives backing and as the exercises tend to establish self- 
 confidence. Again, who stammers in the delirium of a 
 fever? Freed from fear of failure, self-consciousness, and 
 all mental intermeddlers with the mechanism of his speech, 
 the patient drives it by the power of an untrammelled will, 
 speaks like an orator, and will face any audience. Even 
 when he is lucid, but borne down by illness, with his 
 mind rendered careless of all such things, he will say his 
 needy little say as easily as if he had never known defect. 
 If there be cases which are not consistent with the views 
 here expressed, none of them have come to the knowledge 
 of the author. Among many more illustrations which might 
 be given two are so striking that they ought not to be 
 omitted one historic, the other at present under observa- 
 tion. Fanny Kemble states that Mrs Inchbald in conversa- 
 tion stammered habitually, but never on the stage. A lady's 
 
178 SPEAKING. 
 
 articulation in singing is easy and of very rare excellence, 
 in conversation with strangers any hesitation is so rare and 
 so slight that they do not observe it, in easy conversation 
 with familiar friends and at home she stammers, and all at- 
 tempts to read anything or to repeat from memory the most 
 perfectly remembered passages are most distressingly im- 
 potent. Here is a regular gradation from excellence to im- 
 potence just in proportion as the work in hand dispenses 
 with stimulus and will-power. We would here interject the 
 suggestion whether, in a case like this, in the unlikely event 
 of the will being by habit so undone at the sight of print or 
 memory that its recovery seems to resist all other treatment, 
 it would not be well to try such an extreme course as refus- 
 ing to look at print, or repeat from memory, for such a period 
 as might break the habit, say, half a year. It should not be 
 necessary. 
 
 It may be said, if the secret lies in the presence of stimu- 
 lus and the exercise of will-power and confidence, what need 
 for all that has been said. As the questioner well knows, it 
 is not enough to say 'Be thou confident/ or 'Be thou at 
 thine ease/ or 'Be thou of strong will/ No such end can 
 be reached by a bound. We must show the way to it. We 
 must show how to take difficulties out of the way ; we must 
 make straight paths for our feet, and pave them too. We 
 must so equip the halting that he may not lose heart from 
 the poverty or defencelessness of his condition. We must 
 show him how to lay a sound foundation in knowledge and 
 practice on which he may rest his confidence intelligently 
 and firmly, that it may not be moved by any passing wind. 
 Such has been the aim ef all that has been said here. 
 
 Only one parting word now. Supposing the end has been 
 attained, he must keep himself in training, or he may lose 
 what he has gained. See p. 29. 
 
STAMMERING. 179 
 
 It would appear that stammering ordinarily begins in early 
 years. This lays no small tax on the wisdom of those who 
 must be looked to for the treatment of it, and cannot but 
 quicken their sense of responsibility. The very first symptom 
 should awaken their attention and move them to care. 
 
 If the stumbler is of a nervous disposition, special pains 
 must be taken in the treatment to avoid all unnecessary 
 excitement, and this is wise in any case. From the time of 
 the very first symptom the treatment should begin, and it 
 must be kind and deliberate, and cannot be too firm. 
 
 Tell the child quietly and firmly that he must not speak 
 that way, and that you will not listen till he speaks nicely. 
 On every occasion at the very beginning of a stammer inter- 
 cept it by making him stop. Put up the finger, or do what- 
 ever will bring the quickest standstill, so that the stammer 
 may never be carried through. 
 
 If it should appear that the child has a purpose to serve 
 by making this show of affliction, let him feel very decisively 
 that he is detected, and that this course will not serve his 
 purpose. 
 
 If the failing is real, it will be treated with respect, but 
 there must be no less firmness. Stopping the stammer, as 
 has been said, at the first sign of it, say, ' I cannot listen to 
 that ; you must speak nicely ; do it now, but don't hurry.' 
 Commend success, and say, 'See, you can do it.' 
 
 The best general rule (in addition to cutting short a stam- 
 mer) is to let the child know that he will not be listened to 
 till he speaks rightly. It may at a time be desirable to give 
 a lead to an offending word by making him look at you and 
 saying it firmly, that he may say it after you. But this should 
 not be done too often. There is no better way of bringing 
 up the power of the will, and begetting the required confi- 
 dence, than acting on the rule not to listen. His determin- 
 
180 SPEAKING. 
 
 ation to be listened to will overcome difficulties ; and if he 
 has a good cry first and a time of sulk, it will do him no 
 harm. It will make him guard more carefully against a 
 similar crisis. But he must be let alone to corne out of his 
 crying and sulk in his own way. 
 
 In all this we have assumed that the case is one of stam- 
 mering. If there is fear of anything more serious, the doctor 
 should be consulted. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A as in ale, 37- 
 
 followed by r, 50. 
 
 as in ah, 39, 33 note 3. 
 
 as in am, 39, 33 note 3. 
 
 as in fall, 43 Notandum (b). 
 Accent, definition of, 78. 
 
 uses of, 78. 
 
 faults in use of, 80. 
 
 more than one in a word, 79. 
 
 tendency to bring forward, 79. 
 Acoustics of churches, 132. 
 Actor, the, 110. 
 
 compared with speaker, 111. 
 Address, preparation for an 
 
 intellectual, 112. 
 
 physical, 121. 
 
 Affectation in speech, 73, 129. 
 1 Amen, ' pronunciation of, 38. 
 
 use of, 136, 159. 
 
 utterance of, 159. 
 American nasal speech, 13, 58. 
 Appeal in preaching, 155. 
 Arbitrary, the, and the natural, 
 
 82. 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, his 
 
 speaking, 20. 
 
 Argument versus appeal, 155. 
 Articulation how effected, 19. 
 
 its importance, 19. 
 Articulations treated of, 47-71. 
 
 importance of their proper pro- 
 nunciation, 19. 
 
 breath and vocal, 54. 
 
 memoranda on, 54. 
 
 utterance of, 19, 54, 55. 
 
 Articulations, why certain can be 
 
 prolonged, 54, 57. 
 Artificial, the, and the natural, 83. 
 Audience, the 
 
 fallacy as to raising, 150. 
 
 before the mind in preparation, 
 112. 
 
 must not be outstepped, 113. 
 
 claim of, on speaker, xii, 24. 
 Australia, speech in, 80. 
 Awkwardness in the pulpit, 137. 
 
 B, 56, 57. 
 
 Beecher, H. Ward, his example, 
 
 296. 
 
 Beginners, advice to, vii. 
 Benediction, the, 163. 
 
 pronouncing of, 26. 
 Bible, the, in devotion, 162. 
 
 See Scripture. 
 
 Bishop of Winchester on our wor- 
 ship, 140. 
 
 Book, a, what it cannot do, xiii. 
 Boyd, Dr A. K. H., 140. 
 Bracing up, 128, 142. 
 Breath, waste of, 3. 
 Breathiness, 4. 
 Breathing, 2. 
 
 inhalation, 3. 
 
 how and when to breathe, 3. 
 
 control of, exercise for, 5. 
 Bullen, F. T., account of a meeting 
 
 by, 144. 
 Burr, a, 48. 
 
182 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 C, 71. 
 
 Cadence, 93. 
 
 Caird, Dr, 146. 
 
 Cairns, Lord, on Moody 's preach - 
 
 ing, 150. 
 Ch, 71. 
 
 Chalmers, Dr, his preaching, 120. 
 4 Cheerful,' pronunciation of, 50. 
 Chest, action of the, 2. 
 
 a full, 3, 10. 
 Chest voice, 10. 
 Child, stammering in a, 178. 
 Childhood, speech in, natural, 23, 
 
 109. 
 Churches, difficult to speak or hear 
 
 in, 133. 
 
 Classification of vowel sounds, un- 
 satisfactory, 31 (4). 
 Clergyman's sore throat, 12. 
 Commas, in relation to reading, 94. 
 Comparisons, preachers', inter se, 
 
 140. 
 Composite vowel-sounds, 37, 40, 44. 
 
 46. 
 
 Conduct in the pulpit, 135. 
 Consonants, 47-71. 
 double, 55. 
 
 'looking after the,' 32. 
 memoranda on, 55. 
 Controversy in preaching, 145. 
 Conviction, in the preacher, 155. 
 Cords, vocal, 5. 
 Cultivation, required for every 
 
 faculty and gift, 83. 
 Curtain. See Soft Palate. 
 
 D, 58, 59. 
 
 Delivery, smooth or easy, 20. 
 
 Devotion, books of, 162. 
 
 the Bible in, 162. 
 Diaphragm or midriff, 2. 
 Dictionaries, 51, 72, 79. 
 
 use of two advised, 72. 
 Distinctness, 19, 24, 32, 80. 
 Dods, Dr Marcus, on wasted preach- 
 ing, xii. 
 
 Doubt, an age of, 157. 
 Drummond, Henry, on gesture, 126. 
 Dzh, 67. 
 
 E as in eel, 34. 
 
 followed by r, 50. 
 as in ell, 36. 
 
 followed by r, 50. 
 
 'Earn,' 'urn,' and the like, 34. 
 El t en, il, &c., as unaccented ter- 
 minal syllables, 81. 
 Elocutionist, the, 92, 111. 
 Emphasis, what, and how used, 85. 
 
 faults of, 85. 
 
 in mistake for distinctness, 24. 
 English language, Grimm on, xi. 
 
 maltreated in speaking, xi. 
 Entering the pulpit, 135, 138. 
 Entreaty in preaching, 155. 
 Essay excluded from pulpit, 145. 
 Exaggeration, required in practis- 
 ing, 27. 
 
 Excellence, how attained, xiii. 
 Excuses, 28. 
 
 Explosive voice-production, 4, 7. 
 Exposition of Scripture, 148. 
 
 F, 63. 
 
 Failure, the sure cause of, 28. 
 
 to be heard, when excusable, 
 
 133. 
 
 Faith, the preacher's, 131. 
 Falling inflexion, 86. 
 Faults in public prayer, 158. 
 
 of speech, vi, 15, 18, 19, 21, 25, 
 
 29, 73, 80, 81, 88, 114, 132. 
 specific in utterance of indi- 
 vidual sounds, 34-81 passim. 
 explain failure to be heard, vii, 
 
 viii, xiii, 132. 
 
 as bad as stammering, 168. 
 Feeling is part of the meaning, 92. 
 Flat and profitless preaching, 153. 
 Force of voice versus pitch, 5, 8. 
 Frankness in tone, 92. 
 Free speech compared with read 
 
 and repeated, 113, 115, 118. 
 French nasal speech, 58. 
 Furnishings in pulpit, defective, 
 131. 
 
 G, 61, 62, 67. 
 Gesture, 125. 
 
 concerning rules for, 127. 
 
 poverty of, 127. 
 
 takes the lead of the word, 126. 
 
 Drummond, Henry, on, 126. 
 
 the marring of, 127. 
 Gladstone, W. E., on vowels, 32. 
 
 on Scottish preaching, 156. 
 Glass of water in speaking, 12, 122. 
 Glide, the r, 50-52, 75. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 183 
 
 Glottis, the, 5. 
 
 God, manner of addressing, 158. 
 
 pronunciation of the name, 43. 
 Grimm on English language, xi. 
 Grouping or phrasing, 94. 
 Guthrie, Dr, on read speech, 119. 
 Guttural tone, 13. 
 
 H, 53. 
 
 Hearers, misled and misleading, 
 
 23. 
 indifference in, 143. 
 
 See Audience. 
 Hearing, relation of architecture to, 
 
 132. 
 
 Hearing the Word is worship, 142. 
 Holy Spirit, the, in relation to 
 
 prayer, 157, 160, 162. 
 in relation to preaching, 146, 
 
 157. 
 Hullah, John, on English speech, 
 
 xi. 
 Hymns, 140. 
 
 I as in ill, 35. 
 
 followed by r, 49. 
 as in isle, 40. 
 followed by r, 51. 
 unduly prolonged, 81. 
 Imitation, 128. 
 
 Inchbald, Mrs, a stammerer, 177. 
 Indifference, average hearer's, 143. 
 Inflexion, definition of, 7, 9. 
 how to practise, 7. 
 application of, 85. 
 lightest sound admits of, 86. 
 misuse of, 88. 
 the falling, 86. 
 
 what it expresses, 86. 
 the rising, 86. 
 
 what it expresses, 87. 
 Interrogation, inflexion for, 88. 
 Intonation, 90. 
 
 illustrations of, 90-92. 
 
 J, 67, 71. 
 
 Jaw, the lower, 15. 
 
 Jottings for public speaking, 117. 
 
 K, 61. 
 
 Kemble, Fanny, on Mrs Inchbald, 
 
 L, 70. 
 
 Language, the English, xi. 
 
 objective, preferable, 151. 
 Larynx, the, 5. 
 Lips, the, 17. 
 
 necessary openness of, 41 ' For- 
 mation.' 
 
 misuse of, 17. 
 Lisp, how caused, 65. 
 List of vowel-sounds for use, 33. 
 
 in tabulated words, 74. 
 Lists of words. See Words. 
 'Lord,' pronunciation of, 43. 
 Lord's Prayer, the, 159, 162. 
 Lungs, the, 2. 
 
 action of, 2. 
 
 M, 56, 57. 
 
 Maclaren, Dr A., on preaching, 
 
 150. 
 Magnetism, so-called, in a speaker, 
 
 144. 
 
 Malibran, Madame, 123. 
 Memoranda on vowel sounds, 30. 
 
 on articulations, 54. 
 Memory, speaking from, 115, 118. 
 
 trusting to, 117. 
 Messenger, a, from God, 143. 
 Midriff or diaphragm, 2. 
 Mirror, uses of, 13, 16, 17, 170. 
 Modulation, 89. 
 Monotony, 114. 
 
 Moody, D. L., his preaching, 140. 
 Motion, 93. 
 Mouth, the, 14. 
 
 faults of speech mostly in, 
 15. 
 
 openness of, viii, 15, 17, 18. 
 Mouthing, 15, 25. 
 Movement, 93-96. 
 
 cadence, 93. 
 
 motion, 93. 
 
 pausing, 95. 
 
 phrasing or grouping, 94. 
 
 rhythm, 93. 
 
 Musical tones differ from spoken, 9. 
 * My ' and * mine/ pronunciation of, 
 
 N, 58, 60. 
 
 Nasal sounds, the, in English, 13. 
 Nasal speech, 13. 
 
 Natural, the, and the arbitrary, 
 82. 
 
184 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Natural, the, must be cultivated, 
 
 83. 
 
 of rules in relation to, 83. 
 Naturalness, what it is, 24. 
 
 how to attain it, 25. 
 Nature, how far to be trusted, 127. 
 Ng, 61, 62. 
 
 Notauda on the use of sounds, 40- 
 69 passim. 
 
 as in of, or, 42. 
 
 as in oh, 44. 
 
 followed by r, 51. 
 
 Observation of others useful, imita- 
 tion bad, 128. 
 
 Obstacles to good speaking, 27. 
 4 Of,' pronunciation of, 46. 
 
 01 as in oil, 44. 
 
 followed by r, 52. 
 Om, on, terminal, 46, 81. 
 
 the mouth, viii, 15, 17, 18. 
 
 the throat, 12. 
 
 the teeth, 17. 
 
 the lips, 17, 41 'Formation.' 
 Oratory, best effects of, 118. 
 'Order of Service,' 138. 
 Organs of speech, 1-17. 
 
 knowledge of, important, 1. 
 
 lips, 17. 
 
 lungs, 2. 
 
 mouth, 14. 
 
 pharynx, 11. 
 
 soft palate, 12. 
 
 teeth, 16. 
 
 tongue, 16. 
 
 vocal cords and glottis, 5. 
 
 positions of, for the speech- 
 sounds, 34-71. 
 
 Originality in preaching, 148. 
 Ou as in out, 46. 
 
 followed by r, 52. 
 Outstepping the audience, 113. 
 
 P 56. 
 
 Palate, the, 12. 
 
 the soft, 12. 
 Parenthesis, 89. 
 
 studies in reading of, 107-109. 
 Parker, Dr Joseph, on preaching, 
 
 153. 
 
 Pausing, 95. 
 Ph, 71. 
 Pharynx, the, 11, 54. 
 
 Phrasing or grouping, 94. 
 Physical element in speaking, 128. 
 Physical preparation, 121. 
 Pitch, what it is, 6. 
 
 of voice, 7. 
 
 confused with force, 8. 
 
 the, to speak in, 7. 
 
 range of, 7. 
 
 variation of (inflexion), 7, 9. 
 Power versus pitch of voice, 8. 
 
 in the pulpit's subject, 130. 
 
 in the minister, 131. 
 Practice, absolute necessity of, 27 
 
 power of, 29a. 
 
 must be well directed, xiii. 
 
 example of Beecher, 296. 
 
 to master stammering, 167. 
 
 neglect of, vi. 
 
 Prayer in public worship, 135, 157- 
 163. 
 
 faults in, 158. 
 
 first spiritual act in, 160. 
 
 language of, 161. 
 
 use of ' who ' in, 162. 
 
 value of Scripture in, 162. 
 
 * Let us pray,' 135, 157. 
 See Throne of Grace. 
 Preacher, the, loyal to his Master, x. 
 
 the power of, 131, 155. 
 
 a messeng er, 143. 
 
 not in the mood, 152. 
 
 conviction in, 155. 
 
 tenderness in, 155. 
 Preaching 
 
 importance of, 142. 
 
 fresh and lasting, 149. 
 
 simplicity of language in, 150. 
 
 is worship, 142. 
 
 a strong statement regarding, 
 153. 
 
 flat and unprofitable, 153. 
 
 undiscriminating, 153. 
 
 controversy in, 145. 
 
 two great facts the basis of, 154. 
 
 appeal in, 155. 
 
 a wrestling, 156. 
 
 waste in, Dr Marcus Dods on, 
 
 xii. 
 Preparation for an address 
 
 intellectual, 112. 
 
 physical, 121. 
 
 Presence, the Divine, 160, 161. 
 Pronunciation of vowels, conson- 
 ants, words, 30-81. 
 
 changes in, 79. 
 Pronunciations, unusual, 73. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 185 
 
 Public speaking (Part V.), 110-129. 
 Pulpit, the (Part VI.), 130-164. 
 
 greatest power of, 130. 
 
 minister's power in, 131. 
 
 construction and furnishing of, 
 131. 
 
 manner of entering, 135, 138. 
 
 conduct in, 135. 
 
 awkwardness in, 137. 
 
 inept ways and words in, 134- 
 138. 
 
 preparation for a day in, 141. 
 
 Q, 71. 
 
 Quality of voice, 14. 
 
 Questions, uses of, in preaching, 
 
 151. 
 Quotations to be correct, 149. 
 
 K, with its vowel effects, 47. 
 how to produce it, 47. 
 when a mere articulation, 48. 
 malformation of, 48. 
 misused e.g., idear, 52. 
 the r vowel (as in her, sir), 49. 
 the r glide, 50. 
 table of words illustrating, 
 
 75. 
 
 Read speech compared with re- 
 peated and free, 113, 119. 
 Reading, naturally, 25-27. 
 good, essentials for, 84. 
 so as to give full meaning, 92. 
 commas in relation to, 94. 
 Scripture, 141. 
 
 See Sentences, 
 too much, for thinking, 147. 
 versus talking in stammering, 
 
 172. 
 Reciting different from speaking, 
 
 Repeated speech compared with 
 
 read and free, 113, 115, 118. 
 Resonance, 11. 
 Rhythm, 93. 
 Rising inflexion, 87. 
 
 S, 64. 
 
 Scripture, use of, in prayer, 162. 
 
 in preparing sermon, 146. 
 
 exposition of, 148. 
 
 making reference to, 149. 
 
 quoting of, 149. 
 
 Scripture, reading of, 25-27, 84, 
 
 141. 
 
 Secret, the, of success, 27. 
 Self-deception, vii, 21. 
 
 illustrations of, 21. 
 Self-observation, 124. 
 Self-possession, 122. 
 Sentences (Part IV.), 82-109. 
 
 arbitrary and natural elements 
 in, 82. 
 
 must be practised, 83. 
 
 method of practising them, 84. 
 
 attacking of, 85. 
 
 studies in, 96-109. 
 Sermon, the, nature of, 145. 
 
 divisions in, 146. 
 
 study of, 147. 
 Sh, 66. 
 Simplicity, in preaching, 150. 
 
 in prayer, 161. 
 Soft palate, its use, 13. 
 
 its abuse, 13, 48. 
 Sore throat, clergyman's, 12. 
 Sound, production of, 6. 
 Sounds, consideration of, one by 
 one, 34-81. 
 
 positions of organs for, 34-71. 
 Speaker, compared with actor and 
 reciter, 110. 
 
 first demand on, xii, 23, 24. 
 
 second demand on, xiii. 
 
 his language compared with lit- 
 erary language, 112. 
 Speaking 
 
 the great power of, xi. 
 
 poor, wrongly explained, xiii. 
 
 good, essentials for, 84. 
 
 smoothness of, 20. 
 
 natural, never loses its power, 
 27. 
 
 for effect, 110. 
 
 its relation to writing, 113. 
 
 after toil, 121. 
 
 after feasting, 121. 
 
 its present value in the pulpit, 
 
 143. 
 Speech, childhood's, natural, 109. 
 
 faults of. See Faults. 
 
 frankness in, 92. 
 
 free, read, repeated, 113-121. 
 
 organs of, 1-17, 27, 28. 
 See Organs. 
 
 physical element in, 128. 
 
 private, carefulness in, 109. 
 
 simplicity of, 113, 150. 
 Spurgeon, C. H., his speaking, 4., 
 
186 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Spurgeon, C. H., on the letter r, 
 
 his pulpit language, 151. 
 Spirit. See Holy Spirit. 
 Stammering (Part VII.), 165-180. 
 
 mismanagement of organs in, 
 165. 
 
 beginnings of, 166. 
 
 counsels respecting cure, 167- 
 
 expedients untrustworthy, 167. 
 
 how to face, 167. 
 
 compared with faults of others, 
 168. 
 
 practice for remedy of, 168-173. 
 in reading and in talking, 
 172. 
 
 teacher unnecessary in master- 
 ing, 169. 
 
 as to feeling ' put out,' 171. 
 
 offending words in, 172. 
 
 the will in, 173. 
 
 corroborations of the views set 
 forth, 175-178. . 
 
 the cured must keep in train- 
 ing, 178. 
 
 in a child, 179. 
 Syllables, none to be slighted, 80, 81. 
 
 T,58. 
 
 Teeth, the, 17. 
 
 openness of, 17. 
 Temperaments, 126, 152. 
 Terminal unaccented syllables, 81. 
 Text, announcing of the, 142. 
 Th breath, 68. 
 
 vocal, 68. 
 
 * The,' pronunciation of, 35. 
 Thinking out, 147, 148. 
 Throat, the, 12. 
 
 racking of, 10. 
 
 clergyman's sore, 12. 
 Throne of Grace, approach to, 160. 
 
 Christian view of, 160. 
 
 utterance at, 161. 
 Timbre, 15. 
 Tone, purity of, 5. 
 Tongue, the, 17, 31 (5). 
 
 point of, 34. 
 Tools, mastery of the, for speaking, 
 
 27, 125, 127. 
 Tsh, 66. 
 
 U as in pull, 41. 
 
 followed by r, 50. 
 
 U as in use, 42. 
 
 followed by r, 50. 
 as in us, 45. 
 
 Unity in diet of worship, 147. 
 ' Urn,' * earn,' and the like, 34. 
 
 V, 63, 64. 
 
 Victoria, Queen, her speaking, 47. 
 
 Vocal cords, the, 5. 
 
 Vocal organs, 1-18. 
 
 they change for slightest vocal 
 
 change, 2. 
 Voice, chest, 10. 
 
 how to hear one's own, 22. 
 different to self and others, 
 
 21. 
 
 for public speaking, 9. 
 a 'carrying,' viii, xiii. 
 Voice-formation (Part I.), 1-296. 
 Voice-production, explosive, 4, 7. 
 
 a closure to, 54, 165. 
 Voice-propulsion, 18. 
 Voices, four or five so-called, 11. 
 Vowel, silence of a, 81. 
 Vowels and consonants (Part II.), 
 
 30-71. 
 Vowel-sounds, 30-52. 
 
 the classifying of, 31 (4). 
 how to practise, 31, 32. 
 composite, 37, 40, 44, 46. 
 to be distinct, however brief, 32, 
 
 80, 81. 
 to be dropped in certain cases, 
 
 81. 
 
 innumerable, 30. 
 in English, 30. 
 
 list of, for equipment, 33, 32 
 (6, 7). 
 
 formations of, 34-52. 
 memoranda on, 30. 
 classing them as long and short 
 
 misleads, 31 (4). 
 table of, in words, 74. 
 the approved value to be given 
 to, 32, 80, 81. 
 
 W, 69. 
 
 Waste of breath, 3. 
 
 Water, glass of, in speaking, 12 t 
 
 122. 
 
 Wh, 69. 
 Whisper, for breath exercise, 3. 
 
 how produced, 53. 
 Will, the, in stammering, 173. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 187 
 
 Words (Part III.), 72-81. 
 omission of small, 80. 
 store of, 116. 
 tabulated lists of 
 
 showing vowel sounds, 74. 
 showing r glide, 75. 
 nearly alike in sound, 7G. 
 in difficult combinations, 77. 
 Worship, let us, 135. 
 Worship, preaching and hearing are, 
 142. 
 
 Writing, relation of, to speaking, 
 
 113. 
 Wyllie, Dr, on stammering, 165. 
 
 X, 71. 
 Y,71. 
 
 Z, 65, 66. 
 Zh, 66, 67. 
 
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