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 MfHUR Edward PHii^l 
 
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 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Charles A. Marsh
 
 THE TONE SYSTEM 
 
 IN 
 
 PUBLIC SPEAKING AND 
 READING 
 
 REVISED EDITION 
 
 A DISCUSSION OF THE SOURCES OP EF- 
 FECTIVENESS IN ORAL EXPRESSION AND 
 IN THE TEACHING OF ORAL EXPi.ESSION, 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 ARTHUR EDWARD PHILLIPS 
 
 Antbor of "Effective Speaking;" Director, Department of Public Speaking, the 
 
 Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Chi 
 
 cago; Principal, Phillips School of Oratory, Chicago 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 THE NEWTON COMPANY 
 
 1910 
 
 ' •*. ;'. • • 
 
 • » .' ' ■ . 
 J » J . . . ■ . .
 
 COPTRIGHT, 1899, 1910, 
 BY 
 
 ARTHUR EDWARD PHILLIPS 
 All rights reserved 
 
 
 • ••••• ; • .• • .' «♦ • .• «'.•!•• •• • • ' I ' ,
 
 CO 
 CM 
 
 
 3 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 This book is born of a desire to make plain and practical 
 
 J that which I beheve to be the main source of effectiveness 
 
 in delivery — the true expression of feeling. Constant 
 
 observation has convinced me that the failure to speak 
 
 <: naturally and well rarely arises from inabihty to grasp 
 
 3 or express thought, but almost always from the inabihty 
 
 I to grasp or express feeling. By feeling, however, is not 
 
 c meant the "emotional'" as when we speak of an emotional 
 
 preacher, but earnestness, that certificate from the soul 
 
 J that the thought is genuine and that the speaker or reader 
 
 L is sincere. 
 
 . It is unfortunate that this department of expression has 
 
 "" in marked degree been ignored, and that "thought" in a 
 
 confused or narrow sense has received almost sole consider- 
 
 -^ ation. I beheve this to be due, first, to the failure to 
 
 3 perceive the universahty of the symbols of emotion 
 
 £ irrespective of the language in which the emotion is 
 
 „ clothed, and, second, to the failure to perceive the scope 
 
 < and power of the principle of reference to experience. 
 
 In elaborating the foregoing statements, in the work 
 
 I itself, I have thought it wise to depart from the veiled and 
 
 ' sometimes insidious references that have characterized 
 
 -I text-books on elocution, and, instead, to state frankly 
 
 ^ what I believe to be wrong or right in existing systems, 
 
 and my reasons therefor. There has been altogether too 
 
 much flattery and adulation in pubhc and too much 
 
 o abuse and condemnation in private, in pedagogical circles 
 
 \2 of elocution and oratory. If a thing is wrong it deserves 
 
 III 
 
 i
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 to be condemned openly, if right it deserves to be praised 
 openly, and he who has the true interests of expression 
 at heart will not shirk the responsibility of presenting the 
 results of careful investigation, please or displease whom 
 it may. 
 
 What is here set forth is not the impulsive chronicling 
 of a suddenly conceived idea, but the result of several years 
 of careful inquiry, and whether its value be much or little, 
 the pains were many. While the fact of tone in utterance 
 is by no means new, it is believed that there is here pre- 
 sented, for the first time, a practical method by which 
 the tone principle can be utilized in all its power. 
 
 Special thanks are due to Mrs. Abbie Birdsall-Phillips 
 for her valuable assistance, and also to Mr. Charles W. 
 Phillips for his keen, comprehensive and fruitful dis- 
 cussion of the various points treated. 
 
 Arthur E. Phillips. 
 Chicago, November, 1899. 
 
 PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION. 
 
 In this revised edition of "The Tone System" the 
 author has only to reiterate what he said in the preface 
 to the first edition, but with even greater emphasis, that 
 "the failure to speak naturally and well rarely arises from 
 inabiUty to grasp or express thought, but almost always 
 from the inability to grasp or express feeling." 
 
 The apphcation of the tone principle, indicated in 
 Part II, will be found in complete detail in the author's 
 "Natural Drills in Expression with Selections." 
 
 A. E. P. 
 Chicago, April, 1910. 
 
 IV
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PART I. 
 
 The Tone Principle, 
 chapter. page. 
 
 I The Rush or Element System 1 
 
 II. The Subjective System 8 
 
 III. The Purpose of Elocution and Its General Classi- 
 
 fication 17 
 
 IV. The Sub-Classification of Vocal Symbols 22 
 
 V. The Place and Value of the Tone Symbols 27 
 
 VI. The Place and Value of the Tone Symbols (Con- 
 tinued) 38 
 
 VII. The Working Principles OF Effective Expression.. 44 
 
 VIII. The Further Utility of the Tone Symbols .... 58 
 
 IX. A Summary 69 
 
 PART II. 
 
 The Application of the Tone Principle. 
 
 I. The Tone Drills 73 
 
 II. Dominant Tones 80 
 
 III. Tonal Analysis 86 
 
 PART III. 
 
 The Expression of Thought. 
 
 I. Prominence and Pause 95 
 
 II. Articulation 98 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I. Method of Study and Practice of Expression. . 103 
 
 II. Example of Method of Arrangement of SelectionsIOS 
 
 III. Topics for Speeches with Dominant Tones Ill
 
 PART I. 
 THE TONE PRINCIPLE.
 
 THE TONE SYSTEM 
 
 IN 
 
 PUBLIC SPEAKING AND READING. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE RUSH OR ELEMENT SYSTEM. 
 
 It is my purpose to offer some reasons for the ineffec- 
 tiveness that has in large part characterized oral expression 
 and instruction in oral expression, and, further, to set 
 down a few principles the application of which it is beUeved 
 will, to some extent, do away with this ineffectiveness. 
 Necessary to this is an examination of elocutionary 
 methods as set forth in the works recognized as authorities. 
 
 In 1827 there was pubhshed a book whose influence 
 is still felt, and which, until recently, dominated elocution- 
 ary instruction in America. This book w^as entitled 
 "The Philosophy of the Human Voice, embracing its 
 Physiological History, together with a system of principles 
 by which criticism in the art of elocution may be rendered 
 intelhgible, and instruction definite and comprehensive." 
 The author was Dr. James Rush, of Philadelphia. 
 
 Dr. Rush in his introduction tells us: "The analysis 
 of the human voice contained in the following essay,
 
 2 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 was undertaken some years ago, exclusively as a subject 
 of physiological enquiry. Upon the discovery of some 
 essential functions of speech, I was induced to pursue the 
 investigation, and subsequently to attempt a methodical 
 description of all the vocal phenomena, with a view to 
 bring the subject within the limits of science, and thereby 
 to assist the purpose of oratorical instruction." And 
 further on he says: "The following essay exhibits an at- 
 tempt to delineate the varying modes of speech with a 
 precise analysis which may render criticism instructive 
 and afford to future times the means of comprehending 
 its discrimination." In the work itself he tells us, in 
 the first section: "All the varieties of sound in the human 
 voice may be referred to the following heads: quahty, 
 force, time, abruptness, pitch. The detail of these five 
 genera, and of the multiplied combination of their species, 
 includes the enumeration of the expressive powers of 
 speech." Then follows, section after section, the most 
 minute analysis of all vocal phenomena 
 
 Having completed his analysis, he somewhat briefly 
 but specifically applies his discoveries to the vocal ex- 
 pression of the passions. He tells us that "admiration is 
 shown by the rising third, fifth and octave. The octave 
 has the power of raillery. When the guttural emphasis 
 is united with these intervals it adds scorn to a question. 
 The downward third, fifth and octave are given to phrases 
 significant of authority, command, confidence, and 
 satisfaction. Sorrow, grief, vexation, chagrin, etc., with 
 all the differences that may exist between them, are still 
 expressed by this intonation of the wave of the semitone. 
 Radical stress is employed on the imperative words of 
 authority. The tremor of the second and of higher 
 intervals is shown in the expression of exultation, mirth, 
 pride, haughtiness, sneer, derision, contempt."
 
 THE ELEMENT SYSTEM. 3 
 
 Of the mode of instruction in elocution he tells us: 
 "I have thus far set before the eye of philosophy a copy of 
 the designs of nature, in the construction of human speech. 
 It is necessary, if I may carry on the figure, to furnish at 
 the same time a 'working plan' to him who may wish to 
 build up for himself a fame in elocution;" and a little later, 
 "If I were a teacher of elocution I would form into a didac- 
 tic system the mode of practice by which the analysis 
 contained in this work was accomplished, and would 
 assign to my pupil a task imder the following heads: 
 Practice on the alphabetic elements; practice on the time 
 of elements; practice on the vanishing movement; prac- 
 tice on force; practice on stress; practice on pitch; 
 practice on melody; practice on the cadence; practice 
 on the tremor; practice on the quahty." "The pupil 
 is to learn not only the names of the notes (alphabetic 
 elements), but all their varieties." "Let the student 
 reiterate his tonics and subtonics until he finds himself 
 possessed of such a command over them, that he may 
 give any required quantity to their syllabic combinations," 
 (page 351), and "The pupil, without confusing his ear 
 by other particulars, should exercise himself in the natural 
 radical and vanish on all the extendible elements. In 
 this elementary intonation of the equal concrete, particular 
 attention should be paid to the structure of the vanish. 
 The pupil must therefore endeavor to attain that delicate 
 expiration which may render its limit almost impercept- 
 ible." And under "Pitch," "I would have every interval 
 of pitch both in an upward and downward direction, 
 and in concrete movement and radical change, practiced 
 in every tonic and subtonic element." Also, "that the 
 pupil may ascertain when he is executing a downward in- 
 terval, let him familiarize his ear to the effect of the last
 
 4 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 constituent of a cadence, consisting of a gradual descent 
 upon three distinct syllables;" and further, "I would have 
 the pupil in going through the elements, play upon them 
 in the movement of the wave." 
 
 From these quotations which I have made it will be 
 seen that the purpose of Rush was twofold. First, to 
 set down accurately and minutely the physiological phe- 
 nomena of the voice. Second, to establish a system of 
 instruction based on these recorded and classified phe- 
 nomena. 
 
 His first purpose he attained so thoroughly and so 
 satisfactorily that all subsequent investigators have 
 found little to add or take away. His analysis, in the 
 main, stands unchallenged. 
 
 Also, in marked degree, he attained his second purpose. 
 As I write I have beside me book upon book published in 
 America upon the subject of elocution, and with few ex- 
 ceptions they all follow, and follow closely, the Rush 
 system. One noted writer in the introduction to his 
 work says: "I have labored to simplify and make practical 
 Dr. Rush's 'Philosophy of the Voice,' which I consider the 
 most complete system ever offered to the student of 
 elocution," and in the body of the work the author is 
 constantly reproducing the terminology and illustrative 
 matter of Dr. Rush. In another work on oral expression 
 that has run through many editions, we find the author 
 elaborating his title thus: "A Manual of Elementary 
 Exercises for the Cultivation of the Voice in Elocution, 
 founded upon Dr. James Rush's 'Philosophy of the Hu- 
 man Voice.' " And in yet another representative text 
 we find the authors acknowledging Rush as, in large 
 part, the father of their methods. So numerous, ui fact, 
 are the text books that base their method on the perception
 
 THE ELEMENT SYSTEM. 5 
 
 of the elements that one is justified in the statement that 
 the Rush or element system has been the very core of 
 elocutionary instruction m America. 
 
 By referring to the quotations from Rush we can see 
 that he sought to attain excellence in the art of delivery 
 by means of instruction in the use of the elements of vocal 
 sound. Rush argued that as inteUigible human sound exhi- 
 bits phenomena, which he styled "pitch," "force," "time," 
 "quality," "abruptness," the proper way to become a 
 master of expression lay in the practice upon, and applica- 
 tion of, these elements, and these elements considered 
 separately. Says Rush: "Let the master and the scholar 
 meet without books. Let the master exemplify the grace- 
 ful spring of the vanish, the effect of the second and of 
 intervals of pitch. Let him make the scholar sensible 
 of the difference of these intervals of separate utterance. 
 Let him show the peculiarities of a rising and falling move- 
 ment; in short, let his lessons consist of his alphabet of 
 vocal functions throughout the whole of the elements. 
 Let the scholar practice these things as a task when he 
 retires, let it not be to hear him read and vainly try to 
 imitate him, but to repeat his practiced elements and to 
 hit at once any required mode of voice." 
 
 Following conscientiously the method laid down by 
 Rush, a student finds himself studying speech in its 
 elemental form. His study is in sections. He takes the 
 element "a" and he practices upon it, first in respect to 
 its possible variations in pitch, force, time, and so forth. 
 He has to pay particular attention to the structure of 
 "the vanish in the equable concrete," to "practice every 
 interval of pitch both in an upward and downward direc- 
 tion" and in "concrete movement and radical change;" 
 he has to "famiharize his ear to the effect of the last con-
 
 6 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 stituent of a cadence," and he must play upon the "a" 
 in "the movement of the wave." Then, too, the student's 
 attention is directed to the vocal phenomenon called 
 "stress." Having educated the ear to this phenomenon, 
 he is told that he must practice it until he is able to pro- 
 duce with perfect precision the "vanishing" stress, the 
 "radical" stress, and other phases. He must so work 
 on what is called the "tremor" of the voice until his execu- 
 tion of it satisfies his ear, and so on throughout all the 
 variations of the elements. 
 
 Had Rush stopped here, had he contented himself with 
 setting down a series of elementary exercises for the devel- 
 opment of the voice, the world of expression would have 
 little cause to quarrel with him. It might disagree as to 
 the value of so much isolated, soulless drill, but the ques- 
 tion would be one of the relative values of various systems 
 of voice-building. And even then it may be doubted 
 whether any system of vocal training for the purposes of 
 speech can entirely ignore the principles of Rush. 
 
 But Rush went further. Having attained a mechan- 
 ical exactness in the numerous exercises set down, the 
 student is then to apply these elements to the reading 
 aloud of literature! And here Rush made a momentous 
 mistake. Once his philosophy was seized upon and 
 adopted in relation to interpretation, it caused its followers 
 to look to externals alone, and in time begot such artificial- 
 ity that the term elocution became a by-word. The 
 student's attention was taken from the very essence of 
 speech, the thought and feeling, and concentrated upon the 
 mechanical execution of vocal elements as such. 
 
 For example, the student turns to a page of a noted 
 Rush text-book and finds there three lines of Milton's 
 Morning Hymn;
 
 THE ELEMENT SYSTEM. 7 
 
 "His praise, ye winds that from four quarters blow, 
 Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye pines, 
 With every plant, in sign of worship wave." 
 
 The student notes the text book comments— "effusive 
 orotund," "subdued force," "full and prolonged median 
 swell," "low pitch," "equal wave of the second." Follow- 
 ing his instructions and training, the Rush disciple 
 proceeds. He concentrates his mind upon the "effusive 
 orotund;" he tries to reproduce it; next he puts his mind 
 on "subdued force," he tries hard, very hard to add that; 
 next he passes to "median swell," tries heroically to com- 
 bine this with the others, and then, struggling with these, 
 he makes a desperate effort to include "low pitch" and 
 "equal wave of the second!" What is the result? What 
 must be the result ? An execution precise and mechanical. 
 Has the student thought of the meaning of the lines? 
 Has he felt their beauty? their purpose? Ask him. 
 He will tell you he thought only of the "orotund," "sub- 
 dued force," "low pitch" and of the "equal wave of the 
 second." And why? Because he is trained to look for 
 elements, for the anatomy of speech. Is it any wonder 
 that we find individuals, year in and year out, standing 
 before audiences, public and private, and reading or speak- 
 ing with soulless precision?
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SUBJECTIVE SYSTEM. 
 
 I have said that the Rush or element system dominated 
 the elocutionary realm for half a century, and still holds 
 supreme sway in certain quarters. It was, however, 
 inevitable that with the changes taking place in the in- 
 dustrial and intellectual world there would sooner or 
 later come a revolt. Some truthseeker would perceive 
 the artificial structure so conspicuously erected by Rush, 
 and seek to overturn it. This was the case. 
 
 Almost simultaneously there appeared two series of 
 works that, both by implication and direct reference, 
 attacked the element system. In opposition to the Rush 
 view these writers contend that reading and speaking are 
 subjective, and must proceed from withm, that there must 
 be something in the mind before anything can come out 
 of the mind, and they proceed to develop a system on 
 these subjective lines which, they contend, will do away 
 with artificiality. That I may present this view fairly 
 I quote liberally from the work of one of the leaders of 
 this school. 
 
 In the introduction to one of his works this author 
 says: "Vocal expression is the most subjective and spon- 
 taneous form of art; it is the most immediate manifesta- 
 tion of thought and feeling. It does not represent pro-
 
 THE SUBJECTIVE SYSTEM. 9 
 
 ducts, but manifests processes; it reveals emotions and 
 conditions; it is the outbreathing of the soul. This book 
 is an endeavor to meet the problem of deHvery from an- 
 other point of view (different from Rush and others), 
 and to arrange some steps for its improvement different 
 from either of the two methods commonly in use (imitative 
 and mechanical). There is an endeavor to recognize the 
 fact that the technical actions of vocal expression must be 
 studied side by side with the actions of the mind, which 
 they manifest. Everything proceeds from the principle 
 that in natural expression every modulation of the voice 
 is the direct effect of some action or condition of the mind, 
 and that very frequently, wrong action of deHvery can be 
 traced to wrong action in thinking, such as one-sided- 
 ness, lack of control over emotion, lack of imagination, 
 or the fact that conception is too abstract," and "deHvery 
 is a question of responsiveness." And again "The 
 fundam.ental element of expression is thinking; all ex- 
 pression is primarily an effort to reveal thought." And 
 further on, — "Here, then, are the fundamental requisites 
 of reading and speaking, in accordance with the laws 
 of nature and the human mind; impression must precede 
 expression; the act of thinking must be accentuated; 
 there must he developed the power to pause and hold the 
 mind upon one idea until a conception arises so vivid as to 
 create a response. True expression is based primarily upon 
 this mental action." And later, — "Expression must be 
 simply transparent thinking. To improve expression, 
 therefore, thinking must be made stronger. No super- 
 ficial rules, no aggregation of artificial tricks, can ever 
 furnish substitutes for the Hving act of thought." 
 
 From these extracts it will be seen clearly that the 
 pivotal point of the subjective method is the grasping by
 
 10 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 the speaker or the reader of the thought; that if the stu- 
 dent will take a passage and think over it, right expression 
 will come. 
 
 Duly considering all that is here insisted upon, I con- 
 tend that this system has been of little direct benefit to the 
 average student of delivery. The reason for this conten- 
 tion is to be found in the truth that in order to secure 
 effective expression it is not enough to ask a student simply 
 to see and feel the thing to be expressed, or, to phrase it 
 differently, true responsiveness will rarely follow the act 
 of simple contemplation. 
 
 Throughout the book referred to, there are problems 
 which the student is to solve. We have: "To develop vocal 
 expression, therefore, become conscious of the impulse to 
 express. Meditate upon some beautiful poem or passage 
 of good literature, until something of the feeling that dom- 
 inated the heart of the author is awakened, then simply 
 give it voice and become conscious of the spontaneous 
 tendency of noble thought and feeling to dominate voice 
 and body." And then follow some lines from Tennyson's 
 Sir Galahad: 
 
 "Sometimes on lonely mountain-meres, 
 
 I find a magic bark; 
 I leap on board; no helmsman steers; 
 
 I float till all is dark. 
 A gentle sound, an awful light; 
 
 Three angels bear the Holy Grail; 
 With folded feet, in stoles of white, 
 
 On sleeping wings they sail!" 
 
 Now given a student who is already possessed of a 
 sensitive and responsive organism, and the instruction to 
 meditate may be productive of excellent results. But
 
 \ 
 
 THE SUBJECTIVE SYSTEM. 11 
 
 , unfortunately the average person is not gifted with this 
 dramatic temperament, and while this exercise may aid 
 him a httle it will certainly not achieve the desired end. 
 
 It is contended, and by actual test I have demonstrated 
 it, over and over again, that some students might "medi- 
 tate" upon this passage until doomsday and never be able 
 to reproduce the true emotions that lie in these fine lines. 
 It is useless to say they do not try; they do. It is also 
 useless to argue that they do not know how to "meditate." 
 If they do not know how, then clearly the problem is 
 an impracticable one, and the student must first learn to 
 meditate in general before he tries to meditate on these 
 lines in particular. 
 
 Again, we have: "Take some animated extract, 
 vividly conceive each idea, and yield to its influence. 
 See, feel, and tell simply and naturally only what has 
 been seen and felt." Here again the criticism is that the 
 ordinary student cannot see, feel and tell other people's 
 thoughts and feelings naturally. And quite hkely the 
 student will immediately tell the instructor that that is 
 the very thing in which he seeks help. It is true the 
 problem is to tell only what has been seen and felt, but 
 while much may be seen and felt inwardly, quite often 
 very httle or nothing has been seen and felt expressively. 
 What teacher has not had a scholar say to him, in effect, 
 of Tennyson's Bugle Song: "Yes, sir, I see all. I see 
 the long light and I see the light shake across the lakes, 
 and I see a cataract leap with glory, but I cannot express 
 all this." He has done right thinking, but his organism 
 is not responsive. And this is the one great problem — 
 how to make a student harmoniously and completely re- 
 sponsive. 
 
 Surely, it is sheer nonsense to tell a student that he
 
 12 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 must keep on thinking about lights shaking across the ^^ 
 lake until his organism responds. ("Pause and hold the 
 mind upon one idea until a conception arises so vivid as to 
 create a response.") If this be necessary, then ninety-nine 
 persons out of a hundred will never read well. I repeat 
 that how to arouse this necessary responsiveness is the 
 great problem of instruction in oral expression and the 
 problem which the subjective system has not solved. 
 If the problem is solved by meditation, incidentally it 
 may be asked what provision is made in cases where the 
 reader's convictions or tastes are antagonistic to the 
 thought to be dwelt upon? How long, for instance, 
 would an atheist require to meditate in order to give spon- 
 taneous expression to Pope's "The Dying Christian?" 
 Must a man who would portray lago wait until his con- 
 templation of lago arouses spontaneously all lago's 
 deviHsh feelings? Is not the man's utter abhorrence of 
 lago an effective bar to spontaneous expression from 
 meditation? 
 
 My second criticism of the purely subjective system 
 is that consciously or unconsciously its advocates fall into 
 artificial methods much after the Rush style. For 
 instance, not Rush himself with all his philosophic and 
 analytic skill treats of the element "inflection" with the 
 exhaustiveness that we find in some of the text books 
 of the subjective method. They apparently ignore 
 their intention of concentrating the mind of the student 
 solely upon the synthetic form of speech and instead 
 examine with the minutest detail the various phenomena 
 of an element, inflection! 
 
 This element of inflection, it may be remarked, nas 
 been the bugbear of all writers upon elocution. Even 
 before the time of Rush, and most markedly since, elocu-
 
 THE SUBJECTIVE SYSTEM. 13 
 
 tionists have bowed down before its awful front. And yet, 
 truth compels the statement that inflection as such has 
 absolutely no place in a system of practical instruction in 
 interpretation. As will be sho\Mi later, it is not truly a 
 symbol, and gives place to a more comprehensive and 
 more practical principle. 
 
 Coming now to precise statements regarding inflection, 
 we find in a standard subjective text book: "Minor 
 inflections present many difficulties; in general they 
 suggest a chromatic scale, while major inflections suggest 
 the diatonic scale. Minor inflections are manifestive of 
 weakness. Such weakness may be physical or mental, 
 or it m^ay be due to a lack of volitional control. Major 
 inflections predominate in the expression of all normal 
 emotions or character." Major and minor inflections? 
 chromatic scale? diatonic? It reads hke a verbatim 
 transcript from Rush. What is this but forcing the 
 student's attention upon those very isolated elements 
 which are so loudly condemned? And again: "Give 
 some simple passage, first indifferently and then with gen- 
 uine earnestness, without increasing loudness, and observe 
 the effect upon the inflections." Is this not taking the 
 mind from its earnestness and putting it upon an external? 
 Is this not artificial? And further: "Make the emphatic 
 word of a clause salient by a falling inflection, and subor- 
 dinate the unemphatic words by giving them the same 
 inflection, but shorter and upon a much lower pitch. 
 Reverse the form and give rising inflection." Here the 
 student is to take his mind from the thought and feeling 
 and concentrate it upon the isolated element "inflection" 
 douTiward and upward. Surely this is in contradiction of 
 the "'think the thought" precept, and most distinctly arti- 
 ficifti. And again: "Read some passage, taking time to
 
 14 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 realize intensely each successive idea before giving it 
 expression, and so vary the pitch and other modulations 
 of the voice as to show that the period of silence was 
 necessary on account of this mental activity." Vary the 
 pitch? The pitch! Again I ask if this is not artificial. 
 And further on: "Give lines full of kingly dignity, 
 authority, intensity, or such elements as will naturally 
 increase force, and express them by greater decision of 
 touch and variety of pitches and pauses, but without in 
 creasing loudness." Again we behold mechanics. Th 
 student is told to concentrate his mind upon "greater de 
 cision of touch," and upon expressing a given line with a 
 "variety of pitches and pauses," and at the same time, if 
 we can conceive the possibility of the complex proceed- 
 ing, he must not increase his loudness. What becomes of 
 the thought and feeling in this exercise? Is it not the 
 purest mechanics? The unavoidable conclusion in the 
 face of these illustrations and quotations is, that the 
 subjective system, while masterful in its attack upon the 
 element system, fails when it attempts to meet pedagogical 
 demands. 
 
 It may seem strange in the face of this to say that the 
 subjective system is acceptable so far as it goes. Yet such 
 is the fact. No one can take exception to the fundamental 
 its advocates have insisted upon. For while meditation 
 upon the thought may not produce responsiveness (as 
 already shown), it cannot fail to prove an excellent mental 
 discipline, and result in more accurate thinking. And 
 no system of elocutionary instruction can be called rational 
 which omits this principle of "thinking thg thought;" 
 and it may even be asserted that with the student of deh- 
 cate sensibilities the subjective system may be adequate. 
 
 But after this has been said, all has been said. .The
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF ELOCUTION AND ITS GENERAL CLASSI- 
 FICATION. 
 
 As a science, elocution deals with the examination 
 and classification of all phenomena of delivery intelligible 
 to the listener; in other words, a treatment of the principles 
 underlying intelligibility in utterance. As an art, elocu- 
 tion concerns itself with the application of these prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 When a man speaks, what is his purpose? It is to put 
 all the thoughts and feelings his language is intended to 
 contain, into the mind and soul of another. Elocution is f^ 
 not "speaking out," as has been so constantly iterated, »^ 
 but "speaking to;" not "elocution," but "allocution;" it, •^ 
 perforce, implies a listener. It is a telling, and, in fact, 
 might not be inaptly termed the science and art of teUing. 
 Man separated from his fellow would have no use for 
 elocution. 
 
 The all comprehensive purpose, then, of elocution is 
 'dbjective. Its aim is intelligibility. Its method of pro- 
 cedure must be altruistic. It implies that the speaker, 
 if he would realize his aim, must adjust himself to the 
 capacities of another, and, paradoxical as it may seem, 
 must consider self not at all in order that self may be 
 
 17
 
 18 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 considered most. Not to deal in riddles, the speaker, no 
 matter how strongly he may desire to utter the language 
 in a certain manner, must give up that desire, and be 
 governed by the powers of comprehension of the listener, 
 in order that a higher desire, the desire to impart the 
 thought and feeling to the listener, may be gratified. 
 
 Because I here assert that elocution is first and fore- 
 most an objective affair, let it not be hastily inferred that 
 I deny that elocution has in it considerations which are 
 properly classified under the head of subjective. Far from 
 it. I admit the place of the subjective. But I assert that 
 a consideration of elocution to be scientific, demands that 
 the subject shall be treated as finding its foundation in the 
 objective world. And I go further, and assert that any one 
 who at any moment of his study ignores the inherent ob- 
 jective nature of elocution, will lose his true expressional 
 compass, and in all likelihood make false courses. That 
 chaos exists in respect to a scientific treatment of elocution, 
 may be ascribed to the fact that writers have not this com- 
 pass, or possessing it, constantly forget to use it. 
 
 To insist that expression is wholly a subjective concern 
 is to presume that because a speaker sees or feels a given 
 thought or emotion it follows that the listener also does, a 
 presumption not warranted in practice. A listener will 
 interpret a sign or a symbol, vocal or gestural, as meaning 
 what it has always meant to him, whether that meaning 
 was intended by the speaker or not. Interpreted strictly 
 the subjective method implies not only a total disregard 
 of the listener's capacities, but insists upon the death 
 of art in elocution. It would enthrone egoistic impulse 
 as the sole sovereign of effective deUvery. Judgment 
 would no longer share in the sway. 
 
 Treating the subject from its objective side, we proceed
 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF ELOCUTION. 19 
 
 o consider the listener. A person has just spoken. Now 
 ow did the hstener get the speaker's thoughts and feel- 
 ings? He will tell you, through his senses. Ask him 
 further and he tells you that he got the thoughts and 
 feelings by means of certain phenomena. These phenom- 
 ena were reported by the senses to the brain and there 
 were interpreted to mean certain things, or, there volun- 
 tarily or involuntarily aroused certain states. Asked to 
 particularize, the hstener tells us that he saw the speaker's 
 arms move in a certain way; he saw the face take on a 
 certain look; he observed the physique and apparel and 
 general appearance of the speaker, and further he heard 
 certain vocal sounds. All these, taken together, the 
 listener tells us, gave him the thoughts and feelings. That 
 is to say, all these phenomena represented or stood for 
 thoughts and feelings. To the listener they were symbols 
 picturing the speaker's mind and soul. 
 
 It is quite possible that some will object to the use of 
 the word s3anbols and insist that I should use "signs" as 
 being more accurate. To this I answer that I have either 
 to take a term that is too narrow or one that is too broad. 
 Symbols may not strictly embrace all the phenomena of 
 telling, but signs would embrace much more, and, as one 
 of the definitions of symbols reads thus, "The sign or repre- 
 sentation of something moral or intellectual by the images 
 or properties of natural things," I feel justffied in using 
 its plural as the generic name for all those phenomena 
 which the listener must interpret in order to get the 
 thoughts and feelings of the speaker. 
 
 We see, then, that what might be called the inter- 
 mediate agents between the speaker and the listener are 
 symbols, and the great concern of the speaker will be the 
 fullest comprehension of their relative value and signi- 
 ficance.
 
 ^ 
 
 20 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 The classification of the symbols of thought and feeling j 
 that has hitherto been adopted by writers on elocution is ' 
 open to criticism. Some would seem to consider that 
 elocution is concerned solely with the vocal organs; others 
 apparently fix the boundaries at pantomimic expression. 
 But if elocution be concerned with all the means by 
 which the listener gets the thoughts and feelings from the 
 speaker then its scope is wider, and instead of one or two 
 general heads, a complete classification of elocutionary 
 symbols demands three. 
 
 We enter an auditorium. Before us is a pubHc 
 speaker. He says not a word, makes not a movement, 
 yet he is telling us something. We note his clothes; 
 their make and fit; we note his physique, his rotundity or.- •? 
 spareness; we observe closely his face and head; from ' 
 top to toe we examine him. Each of these things that \\ 
 we observe is a symbol, standing for this or that. One -4 
 inclines you to the belief that he is honest, another tells 
 you he is neat, yet another symboHzes sociability, and 
 every symbol, separately or in conjunction, has talked 
 to you of the speaker and told you something about him. 
 y'Such symbols as these are so markedly of one kind as to 
 demand a separate classification and may be denoted as 
 symbols of personality. 
 
 The remaining two generic heads are more easily 
 defined. Let us suppose our speaker arises and begins to 
 talk. Throughout his speaking we find a great variety of 
 movements and a great variety of sounds. It will give 
 us a very intelligible and clearly marked classification of 
 these if we set down all movements of the body and its 
 parts perceptible to the eye of the hstener, all changes of 
 position, under the head of action, symbols made by action. 
 And all intelHgible sounds made by the vocal organs 
 under the head of vocal symbols, symbols made by voice. 
 
 
 1
 
 THE PURPOSE OF ELOCUTION. 
 
 21 
 
 Thus, then, the three generic heads under which come 
 the phenomena of delivery are Personahty, Action, 
 Voice.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE SUB-CLASSIFICATION OF VOCAL SYMBOLS. 
 
 As a sub-classification of the symbols of voice, Rush, as 
 we have seen, sets down the following: quality, force, 
 time, abruptness, and pitch. And the larger part of his 
 work is taken up with evidence that in these five genera 
 are included the expressive powers of speech. 
 
 The mistake Rush made here was in considering these 
 five genera as in themselves symbols. The term symbol, 
 as here used, means something which is in itself intelli- 
 gible. Now, these five genera of Rush, pitch, force, 
 quality, time, abruptness, have not, separately, this 
 intelligibility, and, therefore, remarks upon them, as to 
 their isolated significance, are of little practical value to 
 the student. Pitch, for instance, is never, in speech, 
 separated from some of the varieties of time — time from 
 quahty — quahty from force — as Rush himself asserts. 
 Every human sound invariably contains them all. And, 
 what is of supreme importance here, it is only in their 
 combination that they become intelligible. A Ustener 
 never interprets utterance by saying to himself, "The 
 speaker's pitch stands for this, his stress for that, his 
 quality for so and so". He takes the sound as a synthetic 
 whole and understands it to represent certain thoughts or 
 feeUngs. Never for a moment does his mind dwell upon 
 
 22
 
 THE VOCAL SYMBOLS. 23 
 
 force, quality, abruptness, as such, and if it did, the 
 probability is that the thoughts and feelings would be 
 wholly lost to him. 
 
 It is argued, therefore, that pitch, time, quality and the 
 other elements, in isolation, are not entitled to the term 
 symbols, taking the term symbols to mean intelligible phe- 
 nomena. And yet, as we have already seen, and are still 
 to see, these five elements have been the source of all elo- 
 cutionary dicta. Not a text book, not an article, not an 
 utterance which does not sooner or later enter upon a mi- 
 nute analysis of pitch, force or quality. Even the very 
 latest writers, have found it necessary to recognize one or 
 more of these elements and discourse lengthily thereon. 
 And this, despite the fact that nearly every reference to 
 these five elements, as such, does more harm than good. ■ 
 That elocutionists and writers upon elocution have so 
 long based instruction upon these elements is another 
 proof of the great difficulty man has in getting out of a 
 deep worn rut. 
 
 Now, if these five elements, considered separately, are 
 not vocal symbols, what then are the vocal symbols? The 
 symbols can be embraced under four sub-heads — Articula- 
 tion, Prominence, Pause, and Tone. In the main, the 
 first three symbolize thought, the last symbolizes feeling. 
 Let us here consider the tone symbols, symbols made by 
 tone. 
 
 A speaker says, "The soldier smote the man." What 
 do I get from his manner of delivery of these words? I get 
 the idea that a certain soldier smote a man, and further 
 that the speaker is somewhat indifferent to the fact. 
 Again the speaker utters the words, "The soldier smote the 
 man." From his manner of delivery this time I get the 
 information, as before, that a certain soldier smote a man,
 
 24 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 and further that the speaker is indignant at the fact. 
 Again the speaker says, "The soldier smote the man." 
 Again do I get the information that the soldier smote the 
 man, but the manner of deUvery this time tells me that 
 the speaker has pity for the man that was struck. Here, 
 then, are the same words uttered three consecutive times, 
 each time conveying to me the fact that a certain man was 
 smitten, but each time informing me of something further, 
 and that something varying with each utterance. What 
 was it in the speaker's delivery that gave me these different 
 impressions? It was variations in a symbol of voice 
 which I shall name tone. Apart from the words there 
 came a distinguishable symbol which told me of a state or 
 feeling. In the first case the tone of the speaker told me 
 of a state of feeling of indifference; in the second case the 
 tone of the speaker told me of a feeling of anger, and in the 
 third instance the tone of the speaker told me of a feehng 
 of pity. 
 
 I have taken a simple illustration, but the observations 
 here made hold good in all utterance. A listener finds in 
 all speech symbols which we have called "tone," which 
 clearly and unmistakably symbolize to him certain states 
 of feeling. Whether the hstener hears a man calling out a 
 dry column of figures, or asking at the dinner table that 
 the bread be passed, or again hears him calling some one 
 a fool, in every instance there is to be found tone, telling 
 the listener the feehng or state of the speaker, and which 
 may be designated as indignant, indifferent and the like. 
 And note that this tone is comprehended by the listener 
 irrespective of the words. I may stand outside a room in 
 which several people are talking. I speak of them with 
 the utmost positiveness. Now, I say, one is laughing, 
 now another is sobbing, now a third is pleading, a fourth is
 
 THE VOCAL SYMBOLS. 25 
 
 angry, a fifth is indifierent. How do I know this? Is it 
 by the words? No. They are not distinguishable. I 
 know this by the "tone." And what is it I know? States 
 of feeUng, tlieir kind and degree. 
 
 It seems extraordinary that so Httle attention has been 
 given to these sjnnbols. As will be subsequently shown, 
 they form the most vital part of elocution and elocutionary 
 instruction. And yet we find them almost universally 
 ignored. If their existence is admitted it is usually in 
 some casual remark. Had the tone symbols in their full 
 significance been early perceived, the history of elocution 
 woidd be very different and much more pleasing. There 
 would have been no necessity for a constant defense of 
 elocution as a useful department of study. 
 
 To analyze these tone symbols in precise detail would 
 be impossible. They are as subtle as the states of man 
 himself, and psychology has frankly confessed its inability 
 to definitely set these down. But to say that these 
 symbols cannot be set down in all their analytical accuracy 
 is not to say that their use as practical data for the student 
 of delivery is destroyed. It fortunately happens that a 
 physiological description would be of no value whatever 
 to the student, while, on the other hand, the setting down 
 of a suggestive name, accompanied by illustrations, is of 
 much value, bringing before the student a tone symbol in 
 its full vividness, and enabling him, out of his own ex- 
 perience, to identify it — and easily so.* 
 
 And the reason for this ease of identification lies in the 
 fact that these tone symbols are inseparable from utter- 
 ance, some of them being used and being heard and being 
 understood almost every hour of our lives. 
 
 ♦See Part II for examples of Collomiial and Classical Tone Drills taken 
 from the author's "Natural Drills in Expression with Selections" in which 
 work the complete table is to be found.
 
 f 
 
 26 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 It may be said that the tone principle is unscientific, 
 that it lacks technical precision and completeness; but, as 
 already stated, the principles of speech, to be useful, must 
 be presented so as to avoid mechanical, analytical exact- 
 ness. Instead they must be formulated that way, 
 which, inexact as it may seem, is, to the student, the most 
 exact, because it brings them within his own tangible, 
 measurable experience. 
 
 I fancy I hear some disciple of precision say: "Pooh; 
 call this fact of tone a principle? Why, there's nothing 
 precise, nothing exact; you measure nothing; you do not 
 give us the height, the breadth, the depth, the length of a 
 single sound." And why? Because, for the student to 
 effectively use the tone of command it is not at all neces- 
 sary that he should know its physiological and acoustical 
 formation. We have the electric railway, the electric 
 light, the telephone, the telegraph and a myriad other 
 marvelous devices of electric power. And yet this has 
 all been done without knowing what electricity is! And 
 so with the tones; every day we work wonders with them 
 and yet are oblivious of their component parts. The tones 
 of the soul are like the rose: the moment you attempt to 
 take them to pieces, to reduce them to their elements, 
 their beauty, their animating power is lost. 
 
 i
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE PLACE AND VALUE OF THE TONE SYMBOLS. 
 
 In order to determine the place of the tone symbols 
 and their value, let us proceed to consider what constitutes 
 value in a symbol of expression, and having determined 
 this, to test the symbols by such standard. Among other 
 things a symbol of expression is valuable just in the degree 
 that it has universality, frequency, persistency, power of 
 identification, power of vitality, power to arouse interest, 
 power to secure belief, power to arouse enthusiasm, and 
 economy both in itself and as a medium of practical in- 
 struction. Considered in the last sense, as a medium of 
 practical instruction, its worth is measured by the degree 
 in which it prevents artificiality, secures accuracy and 
 truth in interpretation, completeness, and free play of 
 the individuality. 
 
 That a vocal symbol is valuable in proportion to its 
 universality, needs no demonstration. The larger a terri- 
 tory in which a symbol is understood the greater is the 
 symbol's power. Given a symbol that is understood 
 everywhere one may laugh at political and physical 
 divisions. With such a symbol he overrides race and 
 locality and, within its scope, is as much at home in 
 China or Nubia as in New York. 
 
 Frequency of use also commends a symbol. A symbol 
 which is used hourly is unquestionably more valuable 
 than another used but once a year. 
 
 27
 
 28 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 Persistency, that is, an intelligibility that is lasting, 
 lifts a symbol above one that is ephemeral. The speaker 
 will consider he has a far greater possession in a symbol 
 which will be understood always than one which will be 
 understood only for a decade. 
 
 Power of identification is a mark of superiority in a 
 symbol. Just in the degree that a symbol leaves no room 
 for doubt as to its meaning, so is its value. To enable a 
 listener to at once know and identify a symbol, thereby 
 securing precision, gives keen satisfaction. 
 
 Power of vitality is unquestionably an element of value 
 in a symbol. To have the power of manifesting the energy 
 and movement of life itself, of producing nature's variety, 
 places, per se, one symbol above another. 
 
 Power to arouse interest, per se, establishes a relative 
 superiority of one symbol over another. A symbol that 
 permits of holding the attention takes precedence over 
 one that does not. Without securing attention the 
 speaker achieves nothing. 
 
 The power to secure belief is another source of strength 
 in a symbol. Plainly, in proportion to the extent that a 
 symbol can convince a listener of the truthfulness of the 
 speaker, so will be its usefulness. 
 
 The power to arouse enthusiasm is a further character- 
 istic that demonstrates the superiority of one symbol over 
 another. To lift the soul of a listener to higher things, to 
 set it on fire for truth, or even to focus the energies to one 
 specific end is a power that would be a deciding factor 
 between symbols otherwise equal. 
 
 Economy both in effort and in time stands easily as a 
 desirable requisite of a symbol of expression. Other things 
 being equal, that symbol most commends itself which ob- 
 tains a given result with least exertion of speaker or 
 listener.
 
 THE TONE SYMBOLS. 29 
 
 Practicability is a very important requisite. That a 
 symbol of expression which permits of being used effec- 
 tively in delivery and that also permits of being used in 
 teaching such delivery is superior to a symbol lacking this 
 power is self e\adent, and the greater this power of practical 
 appUcation the greater the worth of the symbol. 
 
 That this practicability will be the greater just in the 
 degree that there are secured naturalness, accuracy, com- 
 pleteness and free play of the individuality is axiomatic. 
 
 Let us now see how the tone symbols meet these de- 
 mands. First as to universality. Tone symbols are 
 intelligible everywhere. I may go to Turkey, to Lapland, 
 or the Fiji islands, and in each place I find anger symbo- 
 lized by the same tone. I find this true also of love, hate, 
 contempt. And by this means of tone, alone, I am able 
 to some extent to understand and to be understood. 
 
 Not only do all nations understand the symbols simi- 
 larly, we find them understood in all stages of Ufe. The 
 tone of anger is intelligible to the little child, to the youth, 
 to the man in his prime, and to the aged. The servant 
 understands it and so does the master. It is in large part 
 understood even by the lower animals. 
 
 Coming to frequency of use. We have seen that as 
 tone is the vocal manifestation of states, and as some 
 state, must, by nature's law, be ever a part of life itself, 
 tone symbols are as frequent as utterance. And by the 
 same reasoning we infer that the tone symbols may lay 
 claim to persistency. It would not be long before the grunts 
 and groans of early man became intelligible, and until 
 man ceases to associate with his fellow this intelligibility 
 will persist. The only modification so far discoverable 
 is this: that man, always possessing the species, has from 
 time to time increased the variety,
 
 30 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 Let us look next at the tone symbols in respect to their 
 'power of identification. Tone symbols individualize feel- 
 ing, identify it. By them we not only distinguish a state, 
 but the exact state. Not only do we say "here is a symbol 
 of a state of feeUng," but we assert the symbol tells us the 
 state is joy, or love, or sorrow. Not only do they sym- 
 bolize feeling and the kind but they also indicate its 
 direction. Thus a tone may tell the listener the bodily 
 state of a speaker toward himself, as when we hear a 
 tone of agony in the utterance "0-0-0" in "Open the door, 
 you are crushing my finger, 0-0-0," or it may tell the 
 state of the speaker towards others, as in "The soldier 
 smote the man," the tone telling us the speaker is angry 
 at the soldier; or, again, has pity for the man that is 
 smitten. Yet again, the speaker's tone may indicate the 
 speaker's state of feeling towards thought itself, as in 
 "Twice two are five," "The world is flat." Here the tone 
 tells us that the speaker looks upon those statements 
 as absurd. Taking these instances together we perceive 
 a mighty power lying in tone symbols. 
 
 But we are not through yet. That tones vitalize 
 speech, that they give it life, fire, animation, movement 
 is at once apparent. They are one of the great sources of 
 variety. Now we get a tone of joy, now of anger, now of 
 assertion, now of praise, now of blame, now of command. 
 Now it is pleading, now raillery, and thus, when rightly 
 used, with their almost infinite transitions tones give the 
 listener those changes in utterance so much desired, 
 thereby preventing monotony. 
 
 That tone symbols arouse interest is plain from their 
 very nature. They permit of intensity, enabling a 
 speaker to lift his feelings into the realm of the unusual. 
 In the line "One night, I do remember well" (from "The
 
 THE TONE SYMBOLS. 31 
 
 Uncle"), the speaker, by using a tone of intense awe, 
 arouses in the Ustener a keener interest in what follows. 
 Also a tone of intense defiance in the line "There is no 
 power to push me from the throne" (Robert of Sicily), 
 heightens the listener's curiosity in the outcome. 
 
 Tone symbols fulfill the demand of sincerity; they pro- 
 claim the false and the true. Thought must, in large 
 part, depend on the tone symbol to get the listener's ap- 
 proval. He will not accept thought alone; he demands 
 that the tones shall pronounce the thought's genuineness. 
 The pupil says he studied his lessons. The master feels 
 sure he did not. Why? Because of the boy's tones. 
 They lack sincerity. The truth seeker is never content 
 with assertion in words (thought alone); he demands, as 
 we have said, that it be supported and proven by tone. 
 The state of feeling of the speaker must be in harmony with 
 the thought — and this is proclaimed by the tone symbols. 
 
 Not only do tone symbols tell the states of the speaker, 
 but they are a great power in kindling enthusiasm. They 
 are the soul sparks that set other souls afire. Quite often 
 tone symbols arouse in the listener the states they them- 
 selves stand for. The tone symbol of anger arouses anger; 
 joy, joy; agony, agony; and thus we see that there lurks 
 in the tone symbols an immense power of suasion. Their 
 judicious use is the marked characteristic of all great 
 readers and speakers. 
 
 The tone symbols are also a source of beauty. They 
 permit of that sweetness and music that give to speech its 
 greatest charm. 
 
 And when looked at from the point of view of econ- 
 omy, we find them meeting this test admirably. Tone 
 symbols attain an economy of time — they convey im- 
 pressions more quickly than words. Let the listener ana- 
 lyze his impressions in their order as received from the
 
 32 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 speaker and he will find how rapidly he identifies the tone 
 and is positive of the state of feeling. In fact this identifi- 
 cation with the more intense states, such as anger, is 
 almost instantaneous. In contrast, let it be noted how 
 slow, compar'atively, we are in grasping the significance of 
 the words. This swift intelligibility of tone is due to the 
 fact that it is independent of words, that whether the 
 words are strange or familiar, obsolete or in common use, 
 the tone is the same if the state is the same, and there- 
 fore it is at once identified. It is plain, then, that if an 
 impression could be conveyed completely by either words 
 or tone symbols, economy of time would be secured by 
 choosing the medium of tone symbols. 
 
 Also, tone symbols secure, and for the same reason, 
 economy of effort. They save labor. In the utterance 
 "The soldier smote the man" we find the tone of indigna- 
 tion in which it is delivered telling the listener, as we have 
 already seen, that not only did the soldier smite the man 
 but that the speaker is indignant at the soldier for so doing. 
 The tone has saved the effort it would take for the speaker 
 to tell his feeling in words, that is to say, "The soldier 
 smote the man," delivered with a tone of indignation, is 
 equivalent to "The soldier smote the m.an and I feel angry 
 at the soldier for so doing." If effort is saved to the 
 listener it is also saved to the speaker. And if labor has 
 been saved, so has time. 
 
 But not only do the tone symbols achieve economy 
 in these respects; they achieve economy when considered 
 from the point of view of pedagogics, and also when 
 considered as a means by which the student is enabled to 
 interpret literature. They sweep away all that consider- 
 ation of pitch, force, time and quality which has hitherto 
 filled hundreds of pages of standard text books. Tone
 
 THE TONE SYMBOLS. 33 
 
 symbols say to the student of the old school: "Why 
 worry over 'waves,' why worry over 'stress,' why try 
 the impossible in 'quaUty,' why struggle so desperately 
 with 'pentads,' why waste time with the intangible in 
 'quantity,' why so vainly, wearily pursue the endless 
 task of trying to combine all these things with a mechanical 
 exactness? Leave them alone, absolutely alone; forget 
 that they exist; throw the analytical table to the winds, 
 and in the place of all this woe and worry try simply to 
 realize and reproduce us just as you give utterance to us,, 
 just as you hear us, every hour of the day, and then you 
 will have produced a synthetic whole, that everybody 
 understands. In it will be found that "time," that "force" 
 that "quantity," that "quahty," that "inflection" which 
 analytically you sought so long and so vainly to attain." 
 
 For example, anger is to be portrayed. The student 
 following conscientiously the dictum of the element 
 system, will spend his time mastering the vocal character- 
 istics that, it is asserted, anger exhibits. He will work 
 hard on the "aspirated pectoral and guttural quality" 
 until he thinks he has mastered that; he will then slave 
 with the "impassioned force" and with "radical and 
 compound stress" and strive dihgently with the "octave" 
 and "wave of the fifth." Then when all these things 
 have been mastered, he will spend still further time in 
 the effort to so combine all these elements as to produce 
 the tone of anger. Many an hour did I try this thankless 
 task when, in my youthful enthusiasm, I followed un- 
 flinchingly the instructions of my Rush text book. 
 
 As an example of the complexity of the element 
 method I quote from a textbook the following instructions: 
 
 "The following stanza requires Effusive Form, Orotund 
 Quality, Moderate Force, Median Stress, Low Pitch, and 
 Slow Movement.
 
 34 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 Break, Break, Break, 
 
 On thy cold gray stones, O sea! 
 And I would that my tongue could utter 
 
 The thoughts that arise in me. 
 
 "Now, if the same degree of each of the elements in 
 the above combination be given, the delivery will be 
 correct, but unpleasantly monotonous. To group it, give 
 the first word "break" with Effusive Form, Orotund, 
 the second degree of Moderate Force, a moderately 
 prolonged Median Stress, about the second note of 
 Low Pitch, and Slow Movement. Give the second word 
 "break" with Effusive Form, Orotund Quality, the third 
 or even a fourth degree of Moderate Force, Median Stress, 
 but more prolonged than on the first word; Low Pitch, 
 but not so low as on the first word, and Slow Movement, 
 but a little faster than the first. Give the third word 
 "break" with Effusive Form, Orotund Quality, Moderate 
 Force, but the first and mildest degree of Moderate Force, 
 Median Stress; but less prolonged than the first; Low 
 Pitch, the lowest of the low division, and the slowest of 
 the Slow Movement." 
 And again; 
 
 "The following requires Effusive and Expulsive Forms, 
 Pure Tone, Subdued and Moderate Force, Median and 
 Thorough Stress, Low Pitch, and Slow Movement. 
 
 The departed! the departed! 
 
 They visit us in dreams. 
 And they glide above our memories 
 
 Like shadows over streams. 
 
 "Give the first "The departed" with Expulsive Form, 
 first degree of Moderate Force, Thorough Stress, Low 
 Pitch, and Slow Movement; the second "the departed,"
 
 THE TONE SYMBOLS. 35 
 
 with Effusive Form, Pure Tone, Subdued Force, Median 
 Stress, Low Pitch, and Very Slow Movement; "They 
 visit us in dreams," with more force than the last, higher 
 pitch, and less Slow IMovement, Expulsive Form, Pure 
 Tone; "And they glide above our memories," with Effusive 
 Form, Pure Tone, Moderate Force, Low Pitch, and 
 Moderate Movement; "Like shadows over streams," with 
 less force, slower movement, and lower pitch." 
 
 In the place of this the tone symbols ask that the 
 student spend only such time as is necessary for him to 
 know and produce them. As most of the tones are used by 
 him in colloquial utterance hourly, he has but to have his 
 attention called to them specifically to discover his ability 
 to naturally reproduce them. His concern on the vocal 
 side is, from the art standpoint, such continued practice 
 on these familiar tones that he daily uses, as will enable 
 him to utter them in their varying degrees of intensity. 
 
 The subjective system in respect to this expression of 
 feeling would seem to take an indefinite time inasmuch 
 as the specific development of a particular emotion seems 
 not to be countenanced. The student for the expression 
 of anger, and for its development, must rely solely on liter- 
 ature in general. Perhaps a lifetime may not see the re- 
 quired development for highest expressional purposes. 
 
 When, now, we pass from the work of vocal develop- 
 ment to the actual interpretation of the printed page, 
 the tone principle still achieves a saving of time and 
 effort. Here is an excerpt from William Tell: 
 
 "Place there the boy," the tyrant said; 
 
 "Fix me the apple on his head. 
 
 Ha, rebel, now! 
 
 There's a fair mark for your shaft; 
 
 To yonder shining apple waft 
 
 An arrow." And the tyrant laughed.
 
 36 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 The student of the element system, if consistent, is all 
 eyes for the stress, the quality, the wave, the semi-tone, 
 in these lines. From word to word he passes, trying 
 desperately to determine what each demands: whether 
 the concrete or discrete, the wave, the ditone, the polytone, 
 the monad, the duad or the triad, the guttural or orotund. 
 What a Herculean task ! No wonder the student becomes 
 expressionally dead. 
 
 In place of this interminable detail, the student of the 
 tone symbols looks for the states underlying the language, 
 and having determined these, refers to his own experience 
 and gives out the tones by which they are denoted. And 
 as will be hereafter shown, undergoes the feeling to the 
 greatest allowable extent. 
 
 Thus, to illustrate, after studying carefully the selection 
 the student of the tone system looks at the first words of 
 the poem — "Place there the boy." He says, "the state of 
 feeling here is one of authority or command," and (as 
 hereafter shown) he goes into his own experience, grasps 
 the feeling, the true state, and denotes it to the listener 
 by a tone of command. "And the tyrant laughed." 
 Here the student may decide that the poet intends con- 
 demnation of the tyrant to be the dominating state, and 
 he goes again into his own experience and catching the 
 emotion delivers the words in a tone of indignation. And 
 in hke manner the student goes through the selection. 
 Never for a moment is his mind upon the elements, never 
 for a moment does he concern himself with the quality, 
 the wave, pentad, the stress, his whole attention is concen- 
 trated upon discovering the specific feelings or states which 
 . the poem demands. Words in themselves have no signifi- 
 r cance; he looks at them only in their usefulness to suggest 
 the true feeling.
 
 THE TONE SYxMBOLS. 37 
 
 The difference, then, between the tone system and the 
 element system in this department is plain. The tone 
 S5'stem represents simplicity, the element system com- 
 plexity. And the time and effort saved by this concentra- 
 tion upon one thing is almost immeasurable. 
 
 And also in comparison with the subjective method 
 the tone symbols show economy of effort. In the forego- 
 ing lines from William Tell, the disciple of the subjective 
 system tells the student to "meditate"— wait, ponder, 
 until the words, standing in their unfamiliar phraseology 
 develop in him all the conditions requisite to effective 
 delivery! This may be soon; it may be never! 

 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PLACE AND VALUE OF THE TONE SYMBOLS (CONTINUED). 
 
 It seems never yet to have been realized fully, at least 
 all systems in practice ignore it, that when the tyro reads 
 prose and poetry, his process is different from that of 
 ordinary conversation. In natural conversation every- 
 thing is spontaneous. There are real objective and sub- 
 jective causes, and in all likehhood we are unconscious 
 of delivery. But when reading aloud we have not the 
 real cause and are conscious of our dehvery. And even in 
 extempore speeches it is the exception to find a speaker 
 free from this consciousness and not artificial. 
 
 Now, here, exactly here, we find the office of elocution 
 and of the elocutionary instructor. It is to so assist the 
 reader or speaker, that he will be able to express all the 
 thoughts and feelings as effectively as in spontaneous con- 
 versation; in fact, more so. 
 
 How is elocution to attain this? How is the teacher to 
 proceed? What would common sense tell us? What 
 does the best pedagogics say? What does psychology 
 say? We must proceed from the simple to the com- 
 plex, from the easy to the hard. In elocution what is en- 
 titled to be called "simple"? It surely will be those 
 things that we do, and do constantly. Those things that 
 we know, those things with which we are familiar; those 
 things that are within our own conscious experience. 
 
 38
 
 THE TONE SYMBOLS (Continued). 39 
 
 These are the things which, common sense would say, 
 elocutionary systems and elocutionists would take full 
 cognizance of, would use as its alphabet. Yet, how has 
 elocution proceeded? On these lines? Not at all. 
 
 What is the ground work, what is the primary work 
 that Rush has set down? We have seen that he asks the 
 student to master "time," "pitch," "force," "waves," 
 "stress," "wave of the second" and a hundred other vocal 
 phenomena, which the student never heard of until he 
 set about the study of elocution. Possibly he may have 
 heard of pitch, but ninety-nine per cent of the phraseology 
 and phenomena are as foreign to the student as the lan- 
 guage of a Central African tribe. The whole system haa 
 the appearance of difficulty, almost of insurmountability. 
 In all the hundreds of utterances that the student hears 
 daily, never once does he find his mind, of its own accord, 
 dwelling on pitch as such, or on quality or on stress. And 
 now, when he is told to observe and study this phenomenon 
 he finds the greatest difficulty not only in the effort to 
 separate the quantity from qualit}'^, force from abruptness 
 and so forth, but he also finds it an interminable task to 
 educate the ear to the countless varieties of these, to tell 
 the wave of the fifth from the wave of the octave, to tell 
 the pentad from the triad. And when he comes to the 
 studying of hterature itself, he is simply told to apply these 
 principles. 
 
 The element system in respect to interpretation, it will 
 thus be seen, runs counter to common sense. It takes 
 the student wholly out of his daily experience and forces 
 him into a realm of which he knows, as we have said, 
 absolutely nothing. Is it to be wondered at, then, 
 that such a proceeding has brought about artificial 
 results?
 
 40 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 To show to what extent this artificial system has been 
 carried it may be stated that in four representative text 
 books the pages devoted to quaUty, force, pitch and their 
 variations total 84, 185, 235, 250! 
 
 Considering now the subjective method, what do we 
 find? Is the principle of reaching the complex through the 
 simple more happily observed here? Is nature's method, 
 the known to the unknown, easy to the hard, followed in 
 this system? No. While its advocates in large part 
 denounce and ridicule the analytic study of time, pitch, 
 set forth by Rush, we find them asking the student to 
 work out exercises on inflection. In these cases, what 
 has been said about the element system applies with equal 
 force to the subjective system. The student is taken out 
 of the realm of the known. He is asked to do the very 
 thing the element system has asked him to do, that is, 
 to study an element called inflection, to study something 
 strange and foreign to the student. This departure from 
 their own central subjective principle leads us to say with 
 Herbert Spencer, it is "needful to insist strongly upon the 
 distinction between the fundamental principle of a system 
 and the set of expedients devised for its practice." 
 
 The central principle of the subjective method is the 
 concentration of the reader's mind upon what he is to read; 
 it is insisted that if the student will reflect long enough, 
 he will get from a line all the ideas in it and they will be 
 naturally expressed, that is, expressed in the same way 
 that spontaneous speech is uttered. That there may be 
 instances where this will be so it is admitted, but that it is 
 at all usual must be denied. 
 
 At the very beginning of a work based on the subjective 
 principle there are set before the student these lines from 
 Tennyson;
 
 THE TONE SYMBOLS (Continued). 41 
 
 Ah! blessed vision! blood of God ! my spirit beats her 
 mortal bars 
 
 As down dark tides the glory slides, and star-like ming- 
 les with the stars. 
 
 Tried by our canon of proceeding from the known to the 
 unknown, from the familiar to the strange, surely here is 
 placed before the student something almost insurmount- 
 able at the outset. Does the student talk like this? No! 
 never in his whole experience has he spontaneously spoken 
 such words. Following his instructions, the student looks 
 at it, again and yet again and then tries to give it voice. 
 What a miserable failure he makes of it! Why? Because 
 he is asked to spontaneously give expression to thoughts 
 and feelings of another, couched in words, style and ar- 
 rangement absolutely foreign to his own experience. 
 
 It will surely appeal to everyone that if a student could 
 effectively grasp all that Tennyson has here set down, if a 
 student could grasp and tell this at the outset, elocution, 
 on its interpretative side, has no place whatever in a sys- 
 tem of instruction. It would be supererogatory. What 
 the advocates of the subjective system seem here to fail 
 in is this: they do not realize that with the average person 
 who for the first time tries to read such language as this of 
 Tennyson's, the words and their arrangement, the strange- 
 ness of it all, the marked difference between the Tennyson 
 phraseology and that in daily use, all erect a barrier, 
 which, unassisted, it may be impossible to surmount. 
 
 A student looks at Tennyson's lines and says to him- 
 self, consciously or unconsciously, "I never said 'blessed 
 vision.' I never said 'Blood of God', I never said 'My spirit 
 beats her mortal bars', and I never heard anyone else 
 speak them, or if I did, I never heard it often enough to
 
 42 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 get any idea of how they were said" (which may be a good 
 thing); "these sensations and this phraseology are all 
 outside of my experience!" Hence he flounders through 
 it in such a manner as would make Tennyson weep. 
 Now the subjective system tells him what? To concen- 
 trate his mind on the thought. But the very phraseology 
 frevents him, as we have seen. What then must be done? 
 The student has told us that it all seems outside of his 
 experience. Then, if that is so, before we can get true 
 naturalness we must show him that this phraseology and 
 these sensations are not so foreign as they seem. How 
 can this be done? Very simply. And therein is to be 
 found the core of the true method of instruction. We 
 can get the student to tell these thoughts and feelings well 
 only by likening them to something in his own experience. 
 They must be likened to something that the student has 
 himself said, or done, or felt, or heard, or seen. The 
 complex must be reduced to the simple, the unknown must 
 be translated into the known; the unfamiliar must be 
 shown to be based on the familiar. And it is right here 
 that the tone symbols demonstrate their pedagogical 
 practicabihty. 
 
 In previous paragraphs it was demonstrated that utter- 
 ance cannot separate itself from tone, and it was further 
 shown that these various tones remain the same irrespec- 
 tive of the phraseology. In the most involved utterance 
 and in the simplest utterance the tone of anger is the same. 
 Why is this? Because tones, as we have shown, have 
 nothing to do with words, but with states. Thus "you 
 unmitigated scoundrel," and "you wretch" if both born 
 of the same feeling will have the same tone. Again, 
 "this is superbly magnificent" and "that is grand" if 
 both in admiration will have the same tone symbol. 
 These cases could be multiphed indefinitely.
 
 THE TONE Symbols (Continued). 43 
 
 Grasping this principle of the sameness of the vocal 
 manifestation of a given state, irrespective of the variation 
 in the phraseology, a flood of hght comes in upon the 
 student. He sees that the most exalted, abstruse or 
 complex phraseology is nothing but a cloak under which 
 lies a feeling that he himself is familiar with in his everyday 
 life. He learns that all complexity is nothing but the 
 simple elaborated or combined, and that the highest 
 states are but simples intensified. And thenceforth the 
 student is in possession of a really practical working prin- 
 ciple. He no longer sits down and spends fruitless hours 
 in "meditating" upon lines as they stand in all their 
 intricate unfamiliarity, waiting for a responsiveness that 
 never comes, but, catching the intent of the poet as to 
 the thought and the feeling, he gives it effective expression 
 by searching into his own experience, and there finding an 
 equivalent feeling couched in a familiar phraseology that 
 at once arouses the desired state. 
 
 It may be argued that it is debasing literature to associ- 
 ate with it the common experience of ordinary mortals, 
 but, however that may be, hard logic insists that if mortals 
 are to interpret the immortals, they can do so only by 
 finding similarities, and then, if need be, intensifying, 
 refining or combining them. 
 
 The principles justifying the position here taken will 
 now be stated.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE WORKING PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE EXPRESSION. 
 
 In preceding chapters it has been shown, and clearly, 
 I trust, that before literature and utterance in general, 
 can be properly understood in their relation to feeling, the 
 following three principles must be perceived : 
 
 (1) Inseparable from all utterance are tones denoting 
 the speaker's states. 
 
 (2) The underlying states embodied in the most exalted 
 and most complex phraseology are nothing but the states 
 of ordinary life intensified or refined; love is love whether 
 expressed in the language of a Shakespeare or in the lan= 
 guage of the home. 
 
 (3) A physical sensation and its mental equivalent have 
 the same generic vocal symbol. Agony of body and agony 
 of mind are portrayed by the same tone, have the same vocal 
 manifestation. 
 
 If these three principles are sound then hterature 
 on its emotional side is nothing but the presentation of 
 daily, ordinary states in novel environment or novel 
 phraseology. And if the student can effectively portray 
 these ordinary states, the interpretation of the very highest 
 feelings set forth in literature means to him nothing but 
 a refining or combining or intensifying of these ordinary 
 states. Thus, then, to effectively give forth the tone 
 
 44
 
 THE TONE SYMBOLS (Continued). 45 
 
 symbols, places the emotional expression of all language 
 within the power of the student. Plainly, the great 
 desideratum is the development in the student of the power 
 to portray feeling, but not feeling in that general, loose 
 sense in which it has heretofore been used. It is to portray 
 feeling in that specific sense of particular, individual states. 
 
 Really surprising is the confusion of ideas exhibited by 
 writers on expression in respect to the foregoing principles. 
 And what is the reason ? I restate it. The failure to dis- 
 tinguish, for the purpose of delivery, between thought and 
 feeling. Though asserting that there is a difference, 
 nearly all writers proceed to treat the two as one, or, at 
 least, to constantly confound them. "Think the thought," 
 "think the thought" has been the command of the teacher. 
 Much better, a thousand times better, had the injunction 
 been, "feel the feeling." 
 
 It is true that many have supplemented the injunction 
 to "think the thought" with that of "make a paraphrase," 
 but here, too, there often was failure. Why? Because 
 thought and feeling again had been confounded; because 
 the paraphrase had been a paraphrase that treated only of 
 the dry bones of language, of words. Because the soul, the 
 feeling embodied in the phraseology had been ignored. 
 And this, in the face of the fact, that it is the feeling in 
 language that nearly all readers and public speakers fail 
 to express. To one that fails to justly pause, to rightly 
 emphasize, a thousand will fail to effectively intone. 
 
 To illustrate the contention made here in regard to 
 paraphrasing of thought and not of feeling, we find several 
 chapters of a recent work devoted to pharaphrasing, and 
 yet the tendency is the paraphrase of the thought, even 
 though the paraphrase of feeling is the specific intention 
 in certain sections.
 
 46 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 "The splendor falls on castle walls 
 And snowy summits old in story: 
 The long light shakes across the lakes, 
 And the wild cataract leaps in glory." 
 
 These four lines from Tennyson are paraphrased thus: 
 
 "The mellow, brilliant light now glorifies the turrets 
 and arches of yon ancient fortress, and tints the historic 
 peaks of the hoary mountains towering above us. The 
 westering sun sends slanting rays, which shimmer on the 
 water; and the free, glad stream, rejoicing in the fullness 
 of its life, gives itself to its destined course with confident 
 abandon, throwing out its glorious torrents resplendent 
 in the smile of heaven." 
 
 Will anyone say that this paraphrase will cause oral 
 responsiveness in respect to Tennyson's lines? Let him 
 try it and he will find its inadequateness. The trouble 
 here is that the paraphrase is only of the thought, not of 
 the feeling underlying the pictures. 
 
 It may be said that the purpose of this paraphrase is to 
 make the student see the thought; that it does not pretend 
 to call up the emotion. But if a paraphrase fails to tangi- 
 bly aid responsiveness it is of little expressional use and 
 really becomes an exercise in literary composition. 
 
 Also we have a paraphrase of Lady Macbeth's lines: 
 "We fail, but screw your courage to the sticking point and 
 we'll not fail." The paraphrase reads: "0 you miserable 
 coward! Talk of our failing! What ails you? Why are 
 your knees smiting together, you white livered wretch. 
 Come, command yourself, man. I am ashamed of you." 
 This more nearly realizes the effective method of para- 
 phrasing. But, even here, the thought receives more 
 elaboration than the feeling if we consider it from the view
 
 THE TONE SYMBOLS (Continued). 47 
 
 point of actual responsiveness. The emotional paraphrase 
 to secure responsiveness should keep closer to the specific 
 tone the line demands. 
 
 In respect to paraphrasing it may be set down as a gen- 
 eral principle: 
 
 A paraphrase to best secure oral responsiveness must 
 not be a paraphrase of the thought alone, but must be so 
 constructed that it presents the feeling more vividly than 
 did the original 'phraseology. 
 
 In fact so important a part does feeling play in effective 
 paraphrasing that the following two assertions will stand 
 the test of actual experience: 
 
 (a) With few exceptions a paraphrase of the thought 
 alone, will not secure oral responsiveness. 
 
 (b) With few exceptions a paraphrase of the feeling 
 alone, will secure oral responsiveness. 
 
 Returning now to our general discussion of thought 
 and feeling, and presuming the nature and place of each in 
 their relation to utterance has been fully grasped, the ques- 
 tion then presents itself, of how best to secure their effective 
 expression. 
 
 As general principles the following hold good: 
 
 (1) Per se, a desire to have thoughts and feelings seen 
 and felt objectively will secure responsiveness in the speaker 
 more effectively than if such desire is lacking. 
 
 (2) Per se, in proportion to the intensity of this objective 
 desire so will be the speaker's responsiveness. 
 
 (3) Per se, the concentration of this objective desire 
 upon some specific person will secure responsiveness more 
 effectively than if the desire is not so concentrated. 
 
 (4) Where, as in private drill, it is sometimes impossible 
 to secure a listener, then, vividly imagining the presence of 
 a specific listener will secure responsiveness more effectively 
 than not to so imagine.
 
 48 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 Every observant teacher of expression very quickly 
 discovers the truth of these principles. And the reason 
 for their truth is this, that the carrying out of what is 
 demanded brings the student most nearly under the con- 
 ditions accompanying the spontaneous utterance of every 
 day life. He is led furthest from the artificial and nearest 
 to the natural. 
 
 These four principles are universally applicable. All 
 delivery comes within their scope. And, once in a while, 
 we find their application sufficient to develop the desired 
 responsiveness. 
 
 But in the great majority of instances the application 
 of these principles is not sufficient. As shown in preceding 
 chapters the study or contemplation of literature as it 
 stands, will not arouse the state and secure the desired 
 responsiveness; nor, as just stated, will this responsiveness 
 be secured in many cases even when it calls into aid the 
 four principles just set down. Therefore, it becomes 
 necessary to further assist the student. And it is con- 
 tended that this assistance must take the form of reference 
 to the student's experience. To put it into precise form: 
 
 A reference to something experienced will more quickly 
 arouse a state and secure oral responsiveness than a refer= 
 ence to something never experienced. 
 
 This principle has been fully discussed already, and 
 here it is only necessary to set down clearly the method 
 of applying it. The principle will have its greatest 
 effectiveness, if its application is made in accordance with 
 the following: 
 
 Per se, a reference to an experience that is mentally 
 vivid will more quickly arouse a state and secure oral re= 
 sponsiveness than reference to an experience that is not 
 vivid, and the greater the vividness the more effective the 
 responsiveness.
 
 THE TONE SYMBOLS (Continued). 49 
 
 Thus, if a person had but once experienced a prick of 
 the finger and but once experienced a raging toothache, 
 a reference to the latter experience would more quickly 
 arouse the feeling of pain and cause an oral responsiveness 
 than a reference to the former. And the more intense the 
 toothache the greater this responsiveness. 
 
 Vividness of an experience may arise from the original 
 intensity, or from the frequency of the experience, or 
 from the frequency of its recollection, or from recency, 
 or again, from the co-operation of two or more of these. 
 
 "Vividness" means here great facility in rc-knowing 
 thoughts and feelings. Careful thinking will make clear 
 to the reader that, with certain exceptions, interpretation 
 in the last analysis is a process of re-knowing thoughts and 
 feelings, and psychology tells us that this re-knowledge is 
 strengthened and quickened by all the means we have just 
 set down. The principle, then, governing the degree of 
 vividness may be thus stated: 
 
 In the degree an experience is (a) originally intense, 
 (b) recent, (c) frequent, (d) frequently recollected, and (e) 
 in the degree that this original intensity, recency, frequency 
 of occurrence and frequency of recollection co=operate, so 
 will be the vividness of an experience, and therefore its 
 effectiveness in securing oral responsiveness. 
 
 Experiences have not only the attributes we have just 
 given them, but we find they may be classified as having 
 caused and not caused oral responsiveness, and as to the 
 respective value of these it may be stated : 
 
 Other things being equal, a reference to an experience 
 that has caused responsiveness will more effectively secure 
 responsiveness than a reference to an experience that has 
 not caused a responsiveness. 
 
 Thus, of two experiences of admiration of equal in-
 
 50 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 tensity the one causing oral expression, the other not, a 
 reference to the former will more effectively secure re- 
 sponsiveness. 
 
 Continuing our consideration of experiences we find 
 that to place them before the student it is necessary to put 
 them into a phraseology, and the question arises as to 
 whether there is any principle governing this that would be 
 of use to the student, and the answer is in the affirmative. 
 We may say: 
 
 A reference to an experience expressed in a phraseology 
 uttered or heard in connection with it frequently will 
 arouse the feeling bom of that experience and cause oral 
 responsiveness more effectively than a reference to the 
 same experience in a phraseology associated with it rarely 
 or never. 
 
 Thus, the phrase "0 look at those lovely roses! Look 
 at them!" will arouse the state of admiration and secure 
 responsiveness more effectively and more quickly than 
 would the phrase, "At those roses look, they are lovely," 
 or, "note the loveliness of those buds." 
 
 Perhaps it is not too much to say that in this principle, 
 rightly applied, we have the greatest of all means by which 
 responsiveness can be attained. Certainly my personal 
 experience overwhelmingly attests this. The secret of 
 its immense power in securing responsiveness is simple. 
 From constantly uttering a certain phraseology in con- 
 nection with a certain feeling, a person in time so deeply 
 associates one with the other that the power of reflex 
 action is shown in its most effective form. The phrase- 
 ology at once recalls the experience. Thus, then, the 
 very best way of attaining the utmost effectiveness from 
 an experience is to place it before the student in a phrase- 
 ology most frequently associated with it.
 
 THE TONE SYMBOLS (Continued). 53 
 
 US suppose an insult similar to our first illustration again 
 occurs. As before the man's passion arises, but this time 
 on the very fall of his hand he checks himself. Surely no 
 one will assert, that because here the man does not strike 
 the woman he is under no genuine feeling, is not in earnest. 
 By our very supposition he is under all the emotion of the 
 first case cited. The difference is that this emotion, feel- 
 ing, has been controlled, mastered. 
 
 Thus, then, if the student will consider the judgment 
 as not swallowed up in the emotion but in control of it, 
 it may be positively asserted that, other things being 
 equal, to be most effective with an audience, the speaker 
 or reader or impersonator must be under the genuine 
 feeling of real life as in our second illustration. And the 
 nearer the student attains to this the greater will be the 
 effect. The aim of the student must be genuine feeling 
 with the judgment in control. 
 
 This, also, is the dictum of Shakespeare. In the advice 
 to the players he has Hamlet say: "In the very torrent, 
 tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you 
 must acquire and beget a temperance that will give it 
 smoothness," which unmistakably means that you must be 
 under genuine emotion with the judgment in control. The 
 necessity for this Shakespeare partly tells us: "to give it 
 (the voicing of the passion), smoothness." 
 
 But this feeling is not desired for itself. Emotion is 
 insisted upon because it is the most effective way of secur- 
 ing expressional responsiveness, because it is the best 
 means by which a reader or speaker can give forth that 
 magnetic earnestness that goes straight to the soul of the 
 listener. 
 
 And to arouse this emotion, to render the organism 
 responsive, it is contended that the tone symbols present
 
 64 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 the most powerful and economic means. Utilizing all the 
 principles we have set down, examples are prepared 
 illustrating the specific feelings. Everything has specific 
 reference to arousing the jjarticular state and not a hazy, 
 indefinite something, called "feeling in general." Arising 
 out of his own experience he is in the realm of the known, 
 the famihar. He can make positive comparisons. He 
 becomes his own monitor and tutor in the highest degree 
 and reahzes that greatest of all educational laws — self 
 development. To offer a concrete example: Let us sup- 
 pose we desire to secure the effective expression of ad- 
 miration. There is set before the student the words: — 
 "0, look at those lovely roses! Look at them!" 
 Here the student finds his imagination worked upon. It 
 is not so very hard for him, to some extent at least, to 
 realize this experience. Next, the phraseology in which 
 the experience is couched appeals to him at once. It is 
 both concrete and frequently used. With some slight 
 change he has uttered these words over and over again. 
 And how many times the student has heard others utter it. 
 So that by his own sensations and by the remembered 
 utterance of others he is very familiar with the phraseology 
 in connection with the specific experience given. Also 
 it will be noticed how the example lends itself to our earher 
 principles of having a specific desire and a specific person. 
 The example is so framed as to imply the presence of a 
 listener. Now, all these things acting simultaneously, 
 and in connection vnth the other princifles set forth, result 
 in the student taking on the state in greater or less degree, 
 and, what, at present, is very important, becoming responsive 
 and reading the line with the tone that the listener associates 
 with admiration. 
 
 Let us take a further illustration. We desire the
 
 THE TONE SYMBOLS (Continued). 55 
 
 student to give out the tone of command. We set down 
 this: 
 
 "Go right home this instant; do you hear me? Go 
 right home." 
 
 Who has not had this experience? And what student 
 has not more or less frequently phrased the experience in 
 language much like that set down, and also, who has not 
 often heard others use this phraseology in connection with 
 this experience. So true is this that after long use of the 
 foregoing illustration I have yet to come upon a case where 
 the student did not give out the symbol of command at 
 least in a degree sufficiently %'ivid to be identified. Simi- 
 larly with the feeling of amazement in"Gone to be married! 
 j\Iarried! Well, did you ever;" with annoyance in" I told 
 you once. How many times do you want me to tell you," 
 and so on through the whole gamut of feeling. Thus at the 
 very outset the student realizes a fair degree of responsive- 
 ness, and by practicing regularly on representative ex- 
 amples of the tones, drawn from experience, the student 
 steadily increases his effectiveness until, at last, he is able 
 to express truthfully emotions the most complex and in- 
 tense. 
 
 Also, what ever power there is in reflex action is secured 
 to its fullest extent by the method we have here set down. 
 James, in his Psychology, lays great stress on reflex action. 
 "Any voluntary and cold blooded arousal of the so called 
 manifestations of a special emotion should give us the 
 emotion itself * * * Each fit of sobbing makes the 
 sorrow more acute * * * In rage, it is notorious 
 how we work ourselves up by repeated outbreaks of ex- 
 pression * * * Sit all day in a moping posture, sigh, 
 and reply to everything with a dismal voice and your 
 melancholy lingers * * * Smooth the brow, brighten
 
 58 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 the eye, contract the dorsal rather than the ventral aspect 
 of the frame, and speak in a major key, pass the genial 
 comphment and your heart must be frigid indeed if it 
 does not gradually thaw." And, says Charles Darwin 
 in his "Expression of the Emotions," "Even the simula- 
 tion of an emotion tends to arouse it in our minds." And, 
 says Lessing: "Even the simulator will attain a sort 
 of feeling since the emotions that produce bodily changes 
 are also produced by them." And if any one will try the 
 experiment of a forced laugh, he will find that persistency 
 will develop the real state and cause it in others. 
 
 Returning for a moment to the view herein expressed 
 in respect to the feeling that should dominate the reader 
 and actor. If there be any who dissent from this view and 
 contend that a reader or speaker should be under no 
 emotion whatever, that the feehngs have, distinct and 
 apart from themselves, certain chords which, if struck 
 mechanically by the breath, will be as powerful and true 
 as when operated upon by the emotions themselves, that 
 the voice, in other words, is a piano with its notes, and all 
 that is requisite is to strike the keys, then, even in that case 
 it will still be found that the tone symbols achieve this 
 mechanical result more quickly than any other S3^stem yet 
 devised. If the will has simply to operate coldly upon the 
 chords, the tone symbols, illustrated as they are by 
 colloquial phraseology drawn from experience, will most 
 quickly enable Mr. Mechanic to attain his mechanical end. 
 
 Now in respect to means for the development of re- 
 sponsiveness, where do we find the element system? 
 Does it develop responsiveness by bringing the student 
 into his daily experience? Does it put his frequent 
 experience into frequent phraseology.^ The answer must 
 be, no. We have seen that it ignores man's daily experi-
 
 THE TONE SYMBOLS (Continued). 57 
 
 ence and deals solely with phenomena, such as quality, 
 pitch, force, abruptness, of which, as such, the student 
 knows nothing. 
 
 Does then the subjective system develop responsiveness 
 by the use of the principle we have set down? Again 
 we must answer, no. We have seen and shall see yet, 
 that this system immediately proceeds to set before the 
 student, not experiences drawn from daily life, but drawn 
 from experience of remarkable individuals. We have seen 
 that it refuses to consider colloquial phraseology and in its 
 place sets before us the unfamiliar phraseology of the great 
 poets and other authors who make it their concern to 
 dress feelings in strange and novel garb, altogether differ- 
 ent from that of daily life. 
 
 As against these we have seen that the tone sjonbols 
 prove themselves a most adequate means to develop what 
 might be termed the soul side of man, and at the same 
 time, surely and quickly lead the student along the path 
 of true naturalness.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE FURTHER UTILITY OF THE TONE SYMBOLS. 
 
 It will be admitted that one of the severest tests that 
 can be made of a symbol is its power to secm'e accuracy and 
 completeness in interpretation. Accuracy demands that 
 the delivery shall be true, that it shall be in accordance 
 with nature. It does not demand, however, that it be a 
 photograph of nature. To demand this would be the death 
 of art. It would sink the powers of mind to the low 
 level of imitation. It v/ould make the voice of man 
 but a phonograph, his actions that of a marionette, and 
 his personality an affair of paint and powder. 
 
 But it is given to man not alone to copy nature, but to 
 master nature. Not alone to imitate but to create. And 
 in elocution this is no exception. Elocution sees nature, 
 observes her intently, and while retaining the resemblance 
 necessary for intelligibility, selects, combines, harmonizes, 
 intensifies, refines. She takes the best that is in nature, 
 the best that is in voice, action and personality, and height- 
 ens even these in power and beauty. This is art. Art in 
 its highest sense is the best natural bettered. Thus the 
 mind of man while working in and with nature has yet a 
 God given freedom which enables it to create ideals and 
 gloriously labor for their attainment. 
 
 And the listener is in the heartiest accord with all this. 
 
 58
 
 FURTHER UTILITY OF TONE SYMBOLS. 59 
 
 He says to the speaker, "What you set before me I desire 
 to be intelligible, but I desire you to use the intelligible in 
 the highest, best and most powerful form attainable by 
 you. I would have you show me what the mind and soul, 
 acting upon nature, can produce. I would have Art. " 
 
 Accuracy in elocution, therefore, from the art stand- 
 point, demands intelligible resemblance, and really insists 
 that nature be shown more exquisitely than she shows 
 herself. Thus love has its tone symbol. To all mankind 
 it is intelligible. Artistic accuracy says your tone of love 
 shall have a sweetness, a richness, a beauty, a swaying 
 power that nature herself has not equaled. 
 
 But how can this be attained ? There is but one answer 
 — along natural lines. The student must proceed from 
 the easy to the hard. He must know nature in the crude 
 before he proceeds to the refined. He must know and be 
 able to give forth the distinguishing characteristic of the 
 tone of love, that something which differentiates it from 
 all other tones, and this he must always retain in his 
 perfecting process. Having then the distinguishing 
 characteristic, he may hope with judgment, practice and 
 earnestness to increase the effectiveness of the tone. 
 
 The practical working of this principle is illustrated 
 by Edwin Booth in his interpretation of Hamlet. A 
 preacher vouches for the fact that when Edwin Booth 
 was crossing the ocean to make his appearance in London, 
 the preacher (whose stateroom adjoined Booth's), heard 
 Booth almost incessantly uttering the word "murder" 
 which is spoken by Hamlet when the ghost tells him of 
 his father's murder. What was Booth doing? He was 
 trying to refine, intensify, make more horror stricken and 
 awful his tone. He was trying to utter the word in a 
 tone more effective than it had ever been uttered. He was
 
 60 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 trying to attain the best natural bettered. And the preacher 
 goes on to tell us that he went to hear Booth, and then, he 
 fully realized, by Booth's profound effect upon him in the 
 utterance of the word "murder," what the constant prac- 
 tice had attained. 
 
 The basis, then, of artistic truth is the perception of the 
 ordinary tone. But is this insisted upon by existing sys- 
 tems? The Rush system takes the student as far from 
 the tone as possible. As we have seen, it says nothing of 
 the tone of love, of hate, as such, but instead demands 
 practice upon waves and stresses, insisting that these, when 
 combined will attain the desired end. This combining 
 process we have seen is practically impossible. 
 
 The subjective system simply ignores all consideration 
 of the tones individually and insists upon the getting of the 
 thought, which we have shown is very often barren of 
 effective results. Could Booth, for instance, have attained 
 his extraordinary artistic effect on "murder" had he simply 
 contented himself with "thinking the thought" and medi- 
 tating? 
 
 Compared with these systems we find the tone symbols, 
 as here set forth, give at once a key to nature which the 
 student can use. Mastering the characteristic tone of a 
 state, he may, as has been said, with practice and judg- 
 ment and earnestness attain a high degree of artistic ex- 
 cellence. 
 
 And further, whether he undertakes to deliver the most 
 ordinary phraseology, or that of the greatest, profoundest 
 of our poets, he may be ever sure that if not attaining per- 
 fection, he is at least giving out tones which clearly tell the 
 kind of feeling which he believes to exist in the lines. 
 Tone symbols are the standard by which the student can 
 measure his degree of accuracy in denoting feeling. And
 
 FURTHER UTILITY OF TONE SYMBOLS. 61 
 
 yet existing systems seem almost unaware of such a price- 
 less standard. 
 
 If tone symbols permit of artistic accuracy, they per- 
 form an equally valuable office in securing thoroughness, 
 completeness. It is not sufficient that tones shall resemble 
 nature. It is further demanded that the feelings which the 
 tones tell shall be the feelings in the poet's lines. That is 
 to say, one might give out a tone of joy, but the poet may 
 intend sarcasm as the feeling, and thus while the tone is 
 admirably bodied forth the student has misinterpreted the 
 poet. Under the existing systems there is nothing to pre- 
 vent a misreading of a poet's lines except the precept of 
 "getting the thought" or "study the selection." This is 
 too indefinite. In daily experience with scholars I have 
 found that this precept of thinking the thought leads 
 largely to the study of the thought alone, in its narrowest 
 sense, the determination of the emphasis and the like. 
 There is a vague consciousness that emotion must be 
 expressed, but not realizing definitely the fact that every 
 word demanding utterance has its state, the subtleties of 
 expression are not perceived. As proof of this let me cite 
 the lines "the tyrant laughed" in the poem entitled 
 "William Tell." Under the principle of "thinking the 
 thought" and "meditation," students almost without an 
 exception, rendered this line in a tone of ordinary expla- 
 nation. But when the principle of the tone symbols was 
 explained, when the students realized that every word in 
 rendition has its tone, which tone must cither be false or 
 true, some of the keener students at once stated that "the 
 tyrant" demanded a tone of indignation, and "laughed" a 
 tone of amazement, and through the selection they went 
 discovering truthful touches which by the indefinite in- 
 struction of "think the thought" and "meditate" they had
 
 62 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 previously passed over. Realizing that every intelligible 
 sound denotes also a state of feeling of some sort, from the 
 commonest indifference to the mightiest concern, the stu- 
 dent is impelled to make a word to word analysis of the 
 poem to determine the state or states to be portrayed. If 
 he is conscientious, the tone symbols do not permit 
 him to skip even a word. Thus we see practical 
 evidence of the thoroughness that results from the appli- 
 cation of the tone system to the interpretation of literature. 
 The tone symbols as a working principle of elocution 
 are further to be commended in that they permit the free 
 play of the individuality. A student from the beginning 
 works with his own judgment, uses his own observation. 
 He is called upon to match nothing. While restricted to 
 uttering the symbols intelligibly he has, within those limits, 
 the fullest liberty, he must determine for himself the rela- 
 tive intensity of a feeling or state and of the tone necessary 
 to portray it. Thus joy, love, anger, admiration, are al- 
 most infinite in their varieties, and the student must rely 
 on his own powers to determine the exact shade demanded 
 by the selection. If, however, the student is told to 
 match a certain given note set down on a scale (as shown 
 in pages of Rush et al), wherein lies any freedom in 
 execution? He must execute it as precisely as a note in 
 music, and all must execute it alike. Or, if the student is 
 simply to "think the thought," as laid down by the sub- 
 jective system, he has no guide to truth whatever, no test. 
 He must hope that his responsiveness due to meditation is 
 adequate. Or again, not held within specific bounds, but 
 told to "meditate" he has license, not freedom, and license 
 is too broad. He may run riot. The great aim in inter- 
 pretation is unity with variety. And this, it is contended, 
 is exactly what the use of the tone principle permits.
 
 FURTHER UTILITY OF TONE SYMBOLS. 63 
 
 A further recommendation for the tone system as a 
 working principle is that it calls into play the student's 
 highest powers. It causes the student to realize that all 
 language has feeling l^ehind it, and that he must, there- 
 fore, necessarily set out upon a most careful psychological 
 study of the poem. Every moment must he exercise his 
 judgment and his observation of men and things. He 
 must refer back the printed words to their significance in 
 nature, and determine what the state of feeling is that 
 gave rise to them. He must study human motives, must 
 determine their kind, how complex or simple, and constant- 
 ly live in the realm of higher psychology. Thus, in the 
 lines: 
 
 "Place there the boy," the tyrant said, 
 
 "Fix me the apple on his head." 
 the student must decide if the poet intends "Place there 
 the boy," to exhibit the state of feeling of the story teller 
 or the state of feeling of the tyrant, and if he decide that 
 the feeling of the tyrant must be exhibited, then the 
 student has yet to determine what feeling animates the 
 tyrant. This, consciously or unconsciously, forces him 
 into his own experience and observation. What has he 
 himself heard, seen or felt in this respect ? How do tyrants 
 talk under such conditions? He may conclude that the 
 state of feeling is one of calm command or authority, or 
 again, one of impetuous sharp command. He may even 
 think that contempt is mixed with the tyrant's feeling 
 on the words "the boy." Having arrived at a decision 
 by means of a keen exercise of his judgment and obser- 
 vation, if the desired responsiveness does not come, he 
 must again go into his own experience searching there for 
 an emotional parallel, in which search he is greatly assisted 
 by his practice upon the Tone Drills drawn from daily life.
 
 64 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 He passes to the next words, "the tyrant said." Here he 
 must determine whether the poet intends him to simply 
 exhibit the state of feeling accompanying the ordinary 
 story telling or whether the poet intends that the reader 
 shall show his sympathy for William Tell and his indig- 
 nation at the tyrant by delivering the words in a tone of 
 indignation. Thus we see that in the very first line of a 
 comparatively simple poem, the carrying out of the tone 
 system results in the student exercising his powers of 
 analysis and judgment. 
 
 Again, in the lines from Longfellow's "King Robert of 
 Sicily:" "And the poor jester was hustled back among the 
 populace," the student, impelled by the demands of the 
 tone symbols, impelled by the law that every tone will 
 manifest a feeling, and that he must give the right feeling 
 and the right tone, finds himself using his judgment to 
 determine whether Longfellow intends the reader to denote 
 a feeling of pity in these lines, thereby arousing sympathy 
 for King Robert in his degradation, or whether the reader 
 shall exhibit a feeling of contempt, and thereby paint for 
 the listener, \'ividly, the punishment God is meting out to 
 King Robert for his sin. Here also, it is apparent what 
 psychological work the true and thorough study of a piece 
 of literature is when conducted on the principle that all 
 language is accompanied by certain states portrayed by 
 tone. 
 
 It will be said, does not every method of elocution- 
 ary instruction demand the exercise of these higher powers 
 of mind, and this must be admitted. But it is contended 
 that the non-recognition or disregard of the truth that 
 every word in utterance must manifest a state has led to a 
 much less use of these higher powers than is the case when 
 the tone symbols have been recognized. After their
 
 FURTHER UTILITY OF TONE SYMBOLS. 65 
 
 recognition the student ceases his haphazard method in 
 respect to emotion. The difference between the student 
 who has realized the existence and the scope of the tone 
 symbols, and a student who has not, is exactly the differ- 
 ence between a gold seeker who, having been informed 
 that gold is mixed with the earth throughout his entire 
 claim, examines every shovelful with a specific purpose, 
 and a gold seeker who looks for only such gold as is at 
 once apparent to the eye. 
 
 It ■^ill incidentally be seen, also, how the student is 
 forced to make known his mental calibre. In a tonal 
 analysis of a selection the student must set down the 
 states, and he either sets down the wrong states or the 
 right, and while this will in no way test the student's 
 power of reproducing the tones, it does emphatically 
 declare the student's mental grasp of the selection. It 
 shows how deeply, how carefully he has studied, and 
 proclaims the student's conceptive power. 
 
 Another commendable feature of the tone system is the 
 intense interest aroused in the student. He sees his task 
 a worthy one, and he enters with the keenest delight upon 
 a study which means an examination into the very heart 
 of the poet and his creations, and a constant weighing and 
 measuring of the psychological states of man in all his 
 various situations. He even finds himself, by this system, 
 discovering the weakness of a poem, and having discovered 
 this, the student sets to work to so mould his rendition 
 as to most effectively hide the blemish — a worthy task for 
 which many a writer would be deeply thankful. 
 
 The tone principle, used in connection with that of 
 reference to experience as exemplified in the Tone Drills 
 possesses other important pedagogic values. Among 
 other things, it helps, materially, to rid the pupil of that
 
 66 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 phase of self-consciousness that kills spontaneit5^ The 
 colloquial drills coming vividly into the pupil's experience, 
 and so phrased that they imply a hstener, bring about 
 almost a parallel state to that of spontaneous conversation, 
 and, therefore, tend to prevent those subjective reflections 
 of "how foolish this is," "how ridiculous I am," which so 
 frequently accompany the student's earlier attempts in 
 the expression of the thoughts of another. 
 
 Further, the tone principle, applied through the 
 Colloquial Drills, causes the pupil himself to be alert to 
 his short comings. The drills coming into his life, he has 
 a standard by which he tests his own expression. If, 
 for instance, he utters the Tone Drill of Amazement "Gone 
 to be married! Married! Well did you ever!" with ex- 
 pression that is uncertain or weak he sees his own mistake, 
 and tries again. Almost daily have I seen a look of self- 
 criticism come over a pupil's face as his own ear told him 
 his rendering was inadequate. Surely this almost instan- 
 taneous self-correction is a mighty factor in expressional 
 education, and commends the method that achieves it. 
 
 Another element of pedagogic power in the tone 
 principle working through the colloquial Tone Drills, is 
 the arousal in the pupil of a keen pleasurable interest. 
 Becoming objective, concentrating his expression on some 
 particular listener and uttering ideas which in themselves 
 and their phrasing come into his daily life, he has the joy of 
 definite imaginative expression. There is royal fun in 
 calling out "Do you hear me up there? Are 5''ou in the 
 tower? George! George! Come down I say," it gives the 
 pupil all the joy of childhood's simulation to cry out to 
 his class-mate — "O, Open the door, you are crushing my 
 finger! 0-0-0." He gets a half-heroic pleasure in de- 
 nouncing his imaginary enemy with the words — "You cur,
 
 FURTHER UTILITY OF TONE SYMBOLS. 67 
 
 strike that little boy again, and I'll thrash you on the 
 spot," and how his chest expands with his bold cry — (De- 
 fiance), "Try it, if you dare! Try it!" Each example in 
 this series of drills has for him its own distinctive interest 
 and thus is secured that "joy in the doing" which is the 
 crowning requisite in education. 
 
 Further, the tone principle permits a course in ex- 
 pression that is comprehensive. The teacher, perceiving 
 the wide range of tone, is enabled to choose selections, each 
 of which, is representative of a distinct phase of feeling, 
 and in this way, he can cover with definiteness the field 
 of expression in its entirety. Perhaps no greater sin of 
 omission has been committed by the compilers of reci- 
 tations than the failure to make their compilations 
 emotionally comprehensive. Even the supposed standard 
 works have this weakness. They present several hundred 
 selections and yet when we come to classify them in 
 respect to variety of feeling we frequently find the entire 
 collection falling within a half dozen to a dozen emotions! 
 Surely this is all too narrow a field in which to train the 
 student. 
 
 It is no answer to say that there are no selections cover- 
 ing these phases of feeling, for the writer in his "Natural 
 Drills in Expression with Selections" found no difficulty 
 in compiling under their dominant tones selections repre- 
 sentative of over fifty different feelings. 
 
 Further the tone principle permits a graded classifi- 
 cation and arrangement of selections in so far as grading 
 is practical. In respect to many of the tones of the emo- 
 tions there is no such thing as relative ease and difficulty. 
 The emotions of joy and anger if both set forth in idea 
 and phrasing that come with equal vividness into exper- 
 ience are equally easy or equally hard. Similarly with
 
 68 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 appeal and pity, and many other emotions. The kinds 
 of feeling that may be said to be more difficult than others 
 ^yill be those which are aroused in us rarely, such as despair, 
 horror, hatred, agony, terror. These can be graded in 
 accordance with their relative difficulty of expression. 
 But apart from this the essential thing is a grading, not 
 of the kind of tone, but of the degrees of difficulty in the 
 expression of a particular tone. This difficulty may be 
 due either to the varying degrees of intensity in the tone, 
 as in the case of love, or, to varying degrees of difficulty 
 in the literary style, due to the unusual in phrase, sentence 
 structure, or thought, as in many passages from Shake- 
 speare and Milton. In these cases the selections, of course, 
 will be arranged and given to the student in the order of 
 difficulty. The tone principle therefore, permits of a 
 thorough and comprehensive course in literary interpre- 
 tation, because of its practical recognition of the great 
 variety of states of feeling, and of the gradations of this 
 feeling, and because it tests selections by the ease or 
 difficulty with which they can be resolved into the emo- 
 tional experience of the pupil,
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A SUMMARY. 
 
 Summing up now, I have sought to show that the recog- 
 nition of the tone symbols as a working principle of elocu- 
 tion is vital; that without such recognition, a system of 
 instruction must, at best, be one sided. I have sought to 
 show that existing systems practically ignore this factor, 
 and yet have furnished nothing in its place. 
 
 And as proof of the immense value of the tone symbols 
 it has been shown that they can be readily apprehended, 
 that they are, in large part, eternal and imiversal, that 
 they are in all utterance, that they are a source of variety 
 in speech and have an immense influence upon an audience; 
 that they can be readily grasped by the student and as 
 readily applied; that they go a long way toward preventing 
 artificiahty, that they preserve the free play of the in- 
 dividuality, secure accuracy and completeness in rendition, 
 and that in them is to be found the soul of delivery. 
 
 We have found, also, that they permit, as nothing 
 heretofore in elocutionary pedagogics has permitted, the 
 complete and easy application of the principle of proceed- 
 ing from the simple to the complex, the known to the 
 unknown, that they draw aside literature's awful mask of 
 strange phraseology and show the beautiful simplicity 
 that mask conceals. And also we have found that by
 
 70 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 co-operation with the principle of appeaUng to experience, 
 the tone symbols permit of a true, and rapid and thorough 
 development of responsiveness. 
 
 The more one contemplates the tone symbols the more 
 their power is seen. Above all, unceasingly thankful is 
 the student. He sees all those mysterious processes that 
 have come down to him as a necessary part and parcel of 
 instruction, all that interminable phraseology, all that hair 
 fine analysis of elements, all that anatomical cataloguing 
 of the vocal phenomena — he sees all these disappear, and 
 in their place finds the sunshine of intelligibihty, the light 
 of his own experience and observation flashing upon him. 
 In place of hazy indeterminate things which he never could 
 comprehend for practical use, he finds something tangible, 
 natural. He learns that elocution is no longer a thing of 
 unending definitions, and on the other hand, that it is no 
 haphazard affair which must be left solely to the effect of 
 "thinking the thought," but that it is something measure- 
 able, that while given the freedom of variety, he must 
 move within the realm of certainty. 
 
 It will be perceived, too, that the tone system furnishes 
 a principle which will enable the great pubhc to more 
 easily and more readilj^ interpret literature, and which will 
 greatly assist in ridding their minds of the opinion that 
 elocution is an affair of artificiality. 
 
 Perhaps the most powerful and valuable feature of the 
 tone symbols is that by their aid a student always works 
 on natural lines, and though he may soften and heighten 
 nature in various ways, he can always make sure that he 
 is not departing from the semblance to nature that true art 
 demands.
 
 PART II. 
 THE APPLICATION OF THE TONE PRINCIPLE.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE TONE DRILLS. 
 
 The problem that confronts every teacher of oral ex- 
 pression in school or college is how to get the greatest 
 results from a body of students ranging from ten to one 
 hundred, meeting one to five hours a week, for one to 
 two terms. The solution of this problem will depend 
 primarily on the goal of the teacher. Speaking broadly, 
 that goal will be the development in the student of natural- 
 ness and power. 
 
 Experience soon convinces the teacher that this 
 development is not attainable by lectures or discussions 
 alone. The student must be given recitation and drill. 
 The problem, therefore, resolves itself into a decision as 
 to whether frequent brief recitations or infrequent long 
 recitations are preferable, and, further, as to whether 
 there shall or shall not be drill in chorus. 
 
 A careful study of the problem for years has convinced 
 the writer that the frequent but brief oral drill results in 
 greater expressional progress than the infrequent but long 
 drill, that three to five minutes every day is more pro- 
 ductive of results than fifteen to twenty-five minutes 
 once a week, that five three-minute recitations are more 
 beneficial than one fifteen-minute recitation. And, also, 
 that under certain conditions, drill in chorus has its place. 
 
 It is in the planning of courses of instruction in line 
 with these conclusions that we see the great pedagogic 
 
 73
 
 74 THE TONE SYSTEM 
 
 value of the tone principle. The author here seeks to 
 indicate, briefly, the practical application of this principle. 
 Each teacher, of course, will apply a principle in that way 
 which most meets his own particular needs, and what 
 follows, therefore, is not absolute. It is suggestive. 
 
 The first thing the teacher should do is to compile a 
 list of emotions and prepare one to three examples of 
 each, in accordance with the pedagogic principles set 
 forth in Part I. A little research will reveal that there 
 are some two hundred phases of feeling that can be treated 
 in this manner. The use of this number is advocated 
 because it permits of constant variety in expression, 
 enabling the student to be drilled upon all shades of 
 feeling, and also giving him valuable exercise in transition. 
 
 The tones that may be chosen comprise: 
 
 Admiration, admission, advice, affection, agony, amazement, 
 ambition, anger, annoyance, antithesis, anxiety, appeal, appre- 
 hension, appreciation, approval, apology, arguing, arrogance, assent, 
 assertion, assurance, authority, aversion, awe, belittling, benediction, 
 bitterness, boasting, boldness, bravery, calling, calm, carefulness, 
 caution, challenge, climax, coaxing, commendation, complaint, 
 comparison, command, concession, condemnation, concern, confi- 
 dence, confusion, contempt, conviction, courage, cowardliness, 
 cruelty, cursing, decision, defiance, deference, delight, denial, deri- 
 sion, despair, deprecation, determination, dignity, dissatisfaction, 
 discouraging, dispraising, disdain, dismissal, disappointment, dis- 
 may, disrespect, dread, emulation, encouragement, entreaty, envy, 
 excitement, exclamation, excuse, execration, exhortation, expecta- 
 tion, explanation, exultation, fatigue, farewell, fear, feebleness, 
 flattery, foreknowledge, frankness, gasping, gayety, generosity, 
 geniality, grief, gratitude, horror, impatience, impertinence, in- 
 credulity, indignation, indifference, interrogation, insolence, irrever- 
 ence, irresponsibility, irony, jealousy, joy, love, malediction, medita- 
 tion, melancholy, mirth, mistrust, modesty, moaning, mock-defer- 
 ence, mockery, obstinacy, omination, pain, permission, perplexity, 
 persuasion, pity, politeness, praise, prejudice, pride, promising, 
 protest, rage, rebuff, recklessness, refusal, regret, rejection, reliance, 
 remorse, renunciation, repose, reproach, resentment, resignation.
 
 THE TONE DRILLS. 75 
 
 respect, responsibility, reproof, request, retaliation, retort, ridicule, 
 sadness, sarcasm, satisfaction, scorn, secrecy, self-denunciation, 
 shivering, sloth, solemnity, solicitude, startling, struggling, stubborn- 
 ess, sublimity, suspicion, sympathy, terror, thanks, threat, tran- 
 quillity, triumph, tyranny, uproar, urging, vindication, w arning,wel- 
 come, whispering, woe, wonder. 
 
 WTiile in the case of some of the tones there may be 
 close resemblance each will be found to have some dis- 
 tinguishing characteristic that justifies its inclusion. 
 
 The tones selected, the next step is their illustration 
 by examples chosen from every day conversation. The 
 author has done this in his "Natural Drills in Expression 
 with Selections," and he here gives a few examples taken 
 from that book. 
 Under Admiration: — 
 
 a — O, look at those lovely roses! Look at them! 
 
 b — I never listened to such beautiful music in all my life! 
 The purity of it, the sweetness of it! 
 
 c — What a magnificent sunset! Isn't it glorious! 
 Under Amazement: — 
 
 a — Gone to be married! ilarried! Well, did you ever! 
 
 b — ^What! our club beaten? It's impossible. Beaten? I 
 can't believe it. 
 
 c — What? The society will lose it's charter? The mem- 
 bers will be turned out? Disgraced? I am amazed! 
 Under Awe : — 
 
 a — Hush, boys! They are praying. 
 
 b — Don't speak, he's dying! 
 
 c — O, girls, she told the most awful lies. It was terrible. 
 Under Assertion: — 
 
 a — That is not so. It is. It is not. It is. It is not. 
 
 b— Stop that. I'll not. You shall. I'll not. You shall. I'll 
 not. 
 
 c — What that man says is false. He did do it. I saw him do 
 it, and he knows he did it. 
 
 Under Defiance: — 
 
 a — Try it if you dare — try it. 
 
 b — I defy you, sir; I defy the soldiers; I defy you all.
 
 76 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 c — Prove it; you cannot. I challenge you to prove it. 
 d — I defy everyone here to point out a single error in my 
 course. 
 
 A glance at the foregoing examples will show that the 
 purpose has been to realize the working principles of 
 expressional pedagogics as set forth in Chapter VII, part I; 
 that is, the drills are framed so that the experience and 
 the phrasing both come into the pupil's experience, and 
 also suggest a listener. There has been observed, also, 
 the need of variety, and of adaptation to different ages 
 and to sex. 
 
 Following along the same lines with all of the tones we 
 have a complete table of one half to one minute colloquial 
 drills. With these drills we can give a reasonably large 
 class individual recitation and individual criticism two 
 to three times each session. Also, if we so desire, we can 
 give recitation in chorus, the drills being so brief, and 
 coming so vividly into the average experience, that the 
 disadvantages of work in unison are reduced to a minimum 
 and the advantages realized in the maximum. 
 
 The manner of the use of these Drills which the author 
 has found effective is this: 
 
 ^•- First, seek only for naturalness, demanding that the 
 delivery be spontaneous and true. This is attained by 
 having the student deliver the examples to a Ustener, 
 either a fellow student, the teacher or the class as a whole. 
 Next, the teacher may demand vividness, that is, 
 he will aim to secure degrees of intensity in the rendering, 
 as angry, angrier, angriest. This is achieved by inspiring 
 the student through judicious criticism, to stronger en- 
 deavor. 
 
 Skill in vividness attained, the teacher may seek next 
 for completeness, a rendering that utilizes all the agents 
 of expression that, legitimately, can aid in the interpre-
 
 THE TONE DRILLS. 77 
 
 tation. To secure this the teacher may have the pupil 
 render the drill silently with only facial and bodily ex- 
 pression; then have him add expression by voice. Then, 
 if so desired, the teacher can pay attention not only to 
 the complete expression of the feeling, but to the complete 
 expression of the thought, including articulation, promi- 
 nence and pause. 
 
 Last, the teacher can give attention to ease and grace, 
 to art in the expression, aiming to secure from the student 
 the maximum of effectiveness with the minimum of 
 effort. This is achieved by "frequency of rendering, by 
 seeking for variety of rendering, and by criticism in re- 
 spect to things overdone, or not adequately done, or left 
 undone." 
 
 If the teacher will approach the tone drills with true 
 enthusiasm it will be found that the work is quickly 
 productive of desirable results. He will notice in the 
 student greater facility of responsiveness, less self-con- 
 sciousness and more abandon, a greater capacity for 
 emotional concentration and intensity, a better co- 
 ordination of the expressional organism, and a fuller 
 appreciation of the true scope and importance of oral 
 expression. Incidentally there will be a quickening 
 of the imaginative power, and, in a greater or less degree, 
 according to the amount of drill, a certain "spring and 
 brightness" that promotes both good health and geniaUty. 
 
 The teacher should never forget the great stress that 
 is placed upon feeling by the master psychologists, that 
 they all insist that a quickened power to feel and to 
 respond means an increase in physical, intellectual, moral 
 and spiritual power. 
 
 The student having been drilled upon the colloquial 
 examples, the next step will be to drill upon parallels from 
 the classical. The classical examples need not be equiva-
 
 78 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 lents in the idea and degree of feeling, but only in kind, 
 our purpose being, as explained in Part I, to impress upon 
 the student the fact that underneath the unfamiliar 
 phraseology or ideas of classical Uterature lie feelings 
 similar to his own, in other words, the purpose here is to 
 teach him to translate the classical into terms of his 
 experience. 
 
 In choosing the classical parallels we must select from 
 that author or those authors whose expression of emotion 
 is true — and this naturally leads us to select the major 
 portion, if not all, from Shakespeare. He of all poets 
 is real in his feehng. Also his lines are usually objective- 
 spoken to a listener. The classical parallels should be 
 placed immediately below the colloquial as follows:* 
 
 ADMIRATION: 
 
 Colloquial. 
 
 a — O, look at those lovely roses! Look at them! 
 
 b — I never listened to such beautiful music in all my lifel 
 
 The purity of it! the sweetness of iti 
 c — ^What a magnificent sunset! Isn't it glorious I 
 
 Classical. 
 
 d — What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! 
 how infinite in faculty; in form, and moving, how express 
 and admirable! in action, how like an angell in appre- 
 hension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the 
 paragon of animals! Shakespeare, Hamlet, ii, 2. 
 
 AMAZEMENT: 
 
 Colloquial. 
 
 a — Gone to be married. Married! Well, did you ever! 
 
 b — What! Our club beaten? It's impossible. Beaten? I 
 can't believe it. 
 
 c — ^What? The society will lose its charter? The members 
 will be turned out? Disgraced? I am amazed! 
 
 Classical. 
 
 d — What! fifty of my followers at a clap! 
 
 Within a fortnight? Shakespeare, King Lear, i, 4. 
 
 ♦See the author's "Natural Drills in Expression with Selections" for 
 complete list of tones with both colloquial and classical examples.
 
 THE TONE DRILLS. 79 
 
 e — Gone to be marriedl Gone to swear a peace! 
 
 False blood to false blood joined! Gone to be friends! 
 Shall Le'uis have Blanch? and Blanch those provinces? 
 
 Shakespeare, King John, iii, 1. 
 ANGER: 
 
 Colloquial. 
 a — You cur! Strike that little boy again and I'll thrash 
 
 you on the spot! 
 b — Angry? Who wouldn't be angrj'? He called me a thief. 
 c — Keep calm? I'll not keep calm; do you think I shall see 
 my honor attacked and not resent it? 0, you — you — . 
 
 Classical. 
 
 d — Villains! you did not so, when your vile daggers 
 Hack'd one another in the sides of Caesar: 
 You show'd your teeth like apes, and fawn'd like hounds, 
 And bow'd like bondmen, kissing Caesar's feet; 
 Whilst . . . Casca like a cur, behind, 
 Struck Caesar on the neck. O you flatterers! 
 
 Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, v, L 
 
 In the practice of the classical drills the teacher will 
 call attention to the fundamental emotional similarity to 
 the colloquial example, but, at same time, will seek 
 for the distinctive expression that the classical may 
 demand. Sometimes it is advisable to refer the student 
 to the Shakespearian context.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DOMINANT TONES. 
 
 Concurrently with the practice of the Colloquial Drills 
 (or thereafter as the teacher may elect), will come the 
 reading by the student of selections which have dominant 
 tones, that is, selections where the student in respect to a 
 particular emotion is kept longer on the wing than in the 
 colloquial drills. The purpose here is to make the student 
 more familiar with the particular feeling and to develop 
 the power to sustain it for any required period. 
 
 Making these selections will involve a good deal of 
 research and great care on the part of the teacher. The 
 broader the knowledge of literature, the more effective, 
 of course, will be the choice. Also, there must be kept 
 in view the needs of the students, and therefore, selections 
 should be made from poetry, drama and oratory. 
 
 The variety of tones will not be so great here as in the 
 case of the brief tone drills. There is not the same need, 
 and, if there were, literature does not always furnish 
 sustained examples. However, some fifty to sixty tones 
 can be illustrated. Selections can be found for: 
 
 Explanation, geniality, assertion, gayety, interrogation, solem- 
 nity, indignation, admiration, argument, affection, command, 
 calmness, appeal, awe, reproof, comparison, contrast, challenge, 
 modesty, boldness, determination, encouragement, advice, climax, 
 frankness, excitement, indifference, love, contempt, pity, ridicule 
 grief, sarcasm, joy, gloom, aspiration, irony, soothing, warning, 
 sublimity, bitterness, condemnation, meditation, conviction, 
 
 80
 
 DOMINANT TONES. 81 
 
 hatred, horror, belittling, adoration, remorse, exultation, despair, 
 malediction, confusion, gasping, moaning, uproar, cunning.* 
 
 As illustrations of Explanation we can find examples 
 in Victor Hugo ("The Battlefield of Waterloo"), Edgar 
 Allan Poe ("A Cottage"), Thomas Huxley ("A Piece cf 
 Chalk"), WilHam Shakespeare ("Othello's Defence"); for 
 GeniaUty we can find examples in Hawthorne ("A Rill 
 at the Town Pump"), Talmage ("Agreeable People," 
 "Big Blunders"), also in Dickens, Mark Twain, Shake- 
 speare; for Assertion, selections from George W. Curtis, 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson; for Solemnity, selections from 
 Edward Everett, William CuUen Bryant, Abraham 
 Lincoln; and so on throughout the complete list of tones.* 
 
 It will be seen that this method of compilation results 
 in a choice from Hterature that is truly comprehensive. 
 The teacher has the satisfaction of knowing that the 
 student who effectively covers these selections has had 
 a course in the expression of feeling that is thorough, a 
 course that does not confine itself to a few emotions, but 
 affords drill in all phases of feeling. 
 
 In the arrangement of the selections for the use of the 
 student, three principles may guide us, that of proceeding 
 from the easy to the hard, that of variety, and that of 
 classification according to kind of emotion. The writer 
 prefers an arrangement which recognizes ease with variety 
 and in his "Natural Drills in Expression with Selections" 
 uses the order given in a preceding paragraph. 
 
 The study of each selection should be maintained until 
 the pupil can render the feeling with the degree of intensity 
 and for the length of time required. 
 
 As soon as the pupil begins to show a sure grasp of a 
 given tone, both in the colloquial and classical examples, 
 and in the illustrative selections, the author has found it 
 
 ♦See the author's "Natural Drills in Expression with Selections" in 
 which are to he found selections illustrative of all the tones mentio.icf!.
 
 82 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 desirable, as the next step, to have the student prepare 
 a one hundred to two hundred word original composition 
 in which he developes an idea demanding the same tone 
 in delivery as that demanded by the drill and selection 
 he has studied. This composition having been passed 
 upon by the teacher, is returned for improvement if 
 needed. If satisfactory or when made so, the student is 
 then asked to read it aloud, the teacher insisting upon the 
 pupil giving the true tone. Thus, the student, by this 
 exercise, is made to read aloud the product of his own 
 pen and to do so with the proper emotional expression. 
 In this way the pupil is drilled in the effective rendering 
 of his own composition. 
 
 Next the student is asked to extemporize the topic, 
 being allowed, however, to follow the main line of his 
 composition. Here, again, the teacher will insist on the 
 tone being true to the sentiment. 
 
 When several studies of this nature are mastered, the 
 teacher can then demand a written composition in which 
 there will be found naturally, and in sequence, a variety of 
 tones, as for instance, Joy, Admiration, Gayety. Here, 
 also, the composition can be read aloud, then extempor- 
 ized, always insisting upon the expression of the feeling. 
 
 The final step is impromptu work. The student is given 
 (or chooses) a topic demanding a given tone (as, topic- 
 Joy; tone- Joy), which then and there, foroneto two minutes, 
 must be developed orally. Again the teacher will seek 
 for the true expression of the particular feeling demanded. 
 
 The pedagogic value of the method here developed has 
 proven most marked. By the steps that have been 
 briefly outlined the student is taken through every phase of 
 reading and speaking that will be demanded of him through- 
 out his career. In social, business or professional life he 
 must either read his composition (or that of others),
 
 DOMINANT TONES. 83 
 
 extemporize, or be impromptu, and by the process we have 
 outUned, he learns in a way he never can forget that his 
 greatest effectiveness will be when he expresses not only 
 the thought but also the feeling; that if the emotional 
 attitude toward the thought is one of gayety, the tone of 
 the speaker must be that of gayety, if indignation, the 
 tone must be indignation, and so on throughout the entire 
 expressional field. 
 
 Of actual work by students along these lines the author 
 offers a few examples. After practice upon the Tone 
 Drills and the selections illustrative of Gayety, one student 
 submitted as his original one minute composition upon this 
 tone, the following: 
 
 Hello, Jim! Hello, Bob! isn't this a grand old morning for 
 Thanksgiving! Let's go for an outing, and take a ramble over the 
 hill through the woods and down to the river. Hurrah! Hurrah! 
 Good for you old boy John! We'll have the time of our lives. Bob, 
 get your gun. Jim, call the dog, and we'll be off in a jifTy. Here 
 Tracy! Here Tracy! Run ahead! Listen boys! Listen! That's 
 Tracy down in the woods already. Come on boys! Come on! 
 Run! Run! 
 
 Another student this: 
 
 The ground is covered with snow, just nice for snowballing! 
 Let us go out and have a game. Hurry up you slow poke! Let 
 us side up and see who wins the battle. Now ready! Don't throw 
 too hard. Oh, what fun this is! Smack! crack! stars! Look 
 out there! that was a hard one. Ouch! Stand like a wall! Throw 
 well! Hit your man! They're going back, hang to them! Let 
 them have a full volley I Now they are running! The battle is won! 
 Hurrah! Hurrah! 
 
 As illustrative of the tone of Admiration one student's 
 
 composition was: 
 
 The garden was beautiful. Here and there was a fountain gush- 
 ing forth in gorgeous sprays. Sweet scented roses of all species and 
 varieties were to be seen, some white, others red, and still others pink; 
 some large, some small, some in full bloom and others about to open 
 their eyes to the dawn of day. Rich with fragrance the delicate
 
 84 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 violet peeped out like the stars of heaven, the daisy and the buttercup 
 smiled upon the scene and the velvet pansies richer in color and 
 charm than the most delicate silks of the Orient, mingled in profusion 
 with the other tenants of this soul inspiring garden. 
 
 Where is the land, this side of paradise, so beautiful, so grand, 
 so magnificent and so inspiring as the land of flowers! 
 
 As his Composition illustrative of the Tone of Awe a 
 student handed in the following: 
 
 Have you ever stopped to realize how full of awe is death. 
 The crape on the door, commands reverence for the pale and silent 
 body within. Everytliing is as quiet and stUl as night! All about 
 you is sadness. In the coffin, calm and peaceful, motionless and 
 rigid, rests the body that only yesterday wasfuUof lifeand animation. 
 
 The minister with the bible in his hand offers up prayer for the 
 departed soul or tries to console the family in their sad bereavement. 
 The pall-bearers carry the casket with solemn steps to the hearse. 
 The grave is reached; the casket is lowered into the grave; a few 
 handfuls of dirt, and all is over. As we wend our sad way home- 
 ward, little do we know whose turn is next, we know not what minute 
 we will be called to depart. So go the rich, and the poor, the great 
 and the lowly. Death knows no preference. Every one should 
 so live that, when his time comes, he is prepared to go to his 
 eternal rest. 
 
 For his original work covering the tone of Excitement: 
 The other afternoon while I was walking along one of the down 
 town streets, I was startled by a terrific explosion. Another violent 
 blast and a gush of flame leaps out of the window of a large factory 
 down the street. I hastened to the fire, the street was alive with 
 people. All of a sudden the surging sea of humanity is terror 
 stricken by the sight of a little girl, in the top story window, shouting 
 and screaming for help. 
 
 Where is the fire department! Why don't they come to the 
 rescue! Has any one turned in the alarm! A clanging is heard in 
 the distance, nearer and nearer comes the ringing of the bells, 
 louder and louder grows the clatter of horses hoofs, presently the 
 fire engines burst in on all sides. The horses foaming and frothing 
 at the mouth dash into the crowds — What a terrible pusliing and 
 scrambling and struggling to get out of the way of the horses. "Look 
 out for the horses!" "Make room for the firemen!" "come from a 
 thousand voices. "Save the girl!" shout the frightened spectators.
 
 DOMINANT TONES. 85 
 
 "To the rescue," "the girl! the girll save the girl!" "Ladder to 
 the roof!" cries the captain. Tweiitj' mighty hands seize the ladders 
 — ^up-up-up they go. 
 
 Another's composition to illustrate tone of Joy. 
 
 O! The joys of Springtime! Nature puts on a new garb, a glorious 
 garb! The vales are decked with flowers, the bluffs are adorned 
 with forests, the brooks ripple down the hillsides, and the air is filled 
 with melodiovis songs of birds. And our hearts are in harmony 
 with the surroundings. Dull sloth is shaken off and our whole 
 being is permeated with new hopes, new faith, and new aspirations. 
 
 And for Admiration: 
 
 I never beheld such a beautifid woman in all my life! Long 
 and eagerly had I searched for my ideal. This lady steps upon the 
 scene. I almost fall prostrate. Propriety alone saved me from 
 exclaiming aloud — "There she is!" O! Those lovely eyes, that 
 sweet expression, those beautiful tresses, that angel's form! He is 
 a stone who can remain unsmitten having beheld such a being! She 
 is a beauty, a paragon, an angel! 
 
 It will be seen from these examples that the practice 
 by these students, upon the Tone Drills and their illus- 
 trative selections, resulted in a vivid appreciation of the 
 particular feeling. Of course, the foregoing work is from 
 capable students, but it has been found that all students, 
 in greater or less degree, develop this expressional 
 appreciation.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TONAL ANALYSIS. 
 
 At intervals throughout the preceding work there can 
 be given exercises in tonal analysis or Toning. By Toning 
 is meant the noting down by the student of all tones 
 demanded in the effective expression of a selection. This 
 requires that the teacher choose selections from poetry 
 and prose characterized by frequent change of tone. For 
 initial work may be mentioned such selections as Hemans' 
 "Bernardo del Carpio," Tennyson's ''Lady Clare/' "The 
 Defence of Hofer," Byron's "Waterloo." 
 
 An excellent example for the first assignment is the 
 poem on William Tell, which begins: 
 
 "Place there the boy," the tyrant said; 
 
 "Fix me the apple on his head. 
 
 Ha! rebel, now! 
 
 There's a fair mark for your shaft; 
 
 To yonder shining apple waft 
 
 An arrow." And the tyrant laughed. 
 With quivering brow 
 
 Bold Tell looked there; his cheek turned pale; 
 
 His proud lips throbbed as if would fail 
 Their quivering breath. 
 
 "Ha! doth he blanch?" fierce Gesler cried, 
 
 "I've conquered, slave, thy soul of pride." 
 
 No voice to that stern taunt replied, 
 All mute as death. 
 
 86
 
 TONAL ANALYSIS. 87 
 
 As an example of a method of tonal analysis, the author 
 gives an excerpt from his comment on this poem, in his 
 "Natural Drills in Expression with Selections:" 
 
 Before proceeding with the analysis of part of this poem it must 
 be clearly understood: 
 
 (a) We are considering the feelings, not the thoughts. 
 
 (b) The phraseology set down as describing the states of feeling 
 is not the only phraseology that could be used. 
 
 (c) The analysis is not the only analysis. It is given as a 
 practical illustration of the scope and power of the tone principle 
 in the study of literature for the purpose of interpretation. 
 
 (d) Conception does not necessarily demand that the particular 
 feeling or its tone shaU be written down. A student will often 
 know the feeliqg aright, but be unequal to describing it in words. 
 
 (e) Writing down the feeling, however, insures greater accuracy 
 and will give splendid mental training. The student will then know 
 that he knows. 
 
 Coming now to the analysis, it is first necessary to determine 
 the United Aim. After carefully reading the poem we conclude 
 the author intends that every word shall in some way contribute 
 to telling the story of William Tell and the apple — Dominant Thought 
 and from the viewpoint of sympathy with Tell — Dominant Feeling. 
 This, then, is our United Aim which we shall use as our guide and 
 arbiter. 
 
 "Place there the boy." 
 This is spoken by the tyrant, and evidently to one of his soldiers. 
 The feeling here, the state dominating Gesler, is one of command; 
 and we so note. 
 
 "the tyrant said." 
 This is the author himself speaking. What is the feeling here? 
 P'irst we must refer to our United Aim. This decrees that the 
 poet intends to exhibit sympathy for Tell. Then the feeling will be 
 one of indignation. By this is shown our opinion of the tyrant in 
 placing the boy's life in peril. We manifest sympathy for Tell and 
 hatred for Gesler. 
 
 "Fix me the apple on his head." 
 The feeling here, the state dominating Gesler, is one of command. 
 
 "Ha! rebel, now!" 
 This is Gesler to Tell. The words "ha" and "now" tell us of what?
 
 S8 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 Exultation. Gesler says here in reality. "At last, you expert 
 shooter, I've a chance to take the pride out of you." 
 
 "rebel" 
 Plainly this is spoken with contempt. 
 
 "There's a fair mark for your shaft;" 
 Here Gesler does not mean %\hat he says. He knows the mark is 
 not fair but most unfair. Irony is the state, colored with taunting. 
 
 "To yonder shining apple waft an arrow." 
 This is evidently delivered in a tone of command. 
 
 "And the tyrant laughed." 
 Here we must think a moment. Does the author intend that we 
 shall utter these words with the feeling accompanying ordinary 
 explanation, or does he desire something more? Does he ask us 
 to suggest on "laughed" the sarcastic, tantalizing way in which 
 Gesler laughed, or, again, does he wish us to show indignation at the 
 fact of the laughing, or, yet again, does he desire to convey to the 
 listener amazement that Gesler could actually exhibit glee at his 
 devilish scheme, or, still again, does he intend indignation to ac- 
 company delivery of "the tyrant" and amazement on "laughed?" 
 
 Here is a variety of possibilities; how shall we decide? We have 
 agreed that the poet intends as part of liis United Aim, sympathy 
 for Tell, hatred of Gesler. Would not the feeling here be indig- 
 nation, and also amazement bordering on horror, that a man com- 
 mands a father to shoot a son and laughs at it? The words might be 
 paraphrased colloquially thus, "And would you believe it, the 
 wretch actually had the fiendishness to laugh." Applying this 
 to the author's words, we have "And the tyrant" given with indig- 
 nation, "laughed" with amazement. It may be argued that this 
 analysis is too subtle, that one state only would underlie these 
 words; but if a story teller is intense, deeply in earnest, this variety 
 of emotion will be warranted and natural. It is asked, would not 
 "laughed" take a tone suggestive of Gesler's particular taunting 
 way, and the answer is that Gesler's fiendish proceeding would surely 
 focus the attention more upon the awfulness than upon the manner. 
 
 "With quivering brow 
 
 Bold Tell looked there; his cheek turned pale; 
 
 His proud lips throbbed as if would fail 
 
 The quivering breath." 
 
 Is this the ordinary calm description? No, for the situation is too 
 
 unusual, too intense for that. The feeling here is deep concern. 
 
 "Ha, doth he blanch?"
 
 TONAL ANALYSIS. 89 
 
 Here we have fierce exultation. 
 
 "fierce Gesler cried." 
 Here, explanation tinged with indignation at Gesler. 
 
 "I've conquered," 
 Fiendish exultation. 
 
 "Slave," 
 Contempt here. 
 
 "Thy soul of pride." 
 Here, exultation and contempt. 
 
 "No voice to that stern taunt replied — 
 "All mute as death." 
 Is this calm narration? or sympathy? or awe? The occasion, surely, 
 is too vital to tell it colloquially. Pity might creep in, but the 
 stronger drives out the weaker, the mind is above all swayed with 
 the atmosphere of hush, stillness and concern that envelops the 
 occasion. Plainly the feeling is one of awe. 
 
 Tonal Analysis is of great pedagogic value because it 
 compels the student to make clear to the teacher his 
 conception of the feeling in a selection both as a whole 
 and in detail. Also when time does not permit the oral 
 test it enables the teacher to have before him positive 
 proof that his class assignments have been studied. These 
 tonal analyses may be criticised by the teacher, either 
 first and then handed back to pupil, or they may be made 
 a class exercise, each pupil correcting his own paper (or 
 that of another student if advisable), and then handed in 
 for the teacher's inspection. 
 
 Following are examples of actual work of students in 
 Tonal Analysis^
 
 90 
 
 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 
 7 
 
 /C/i^**^''''-**^*^^^-^'-*/' ^?Y^^ 
 
 C^f-z^z. 
 
 
 ^-£«<-«<^ 
 
 / 
 
 ^^, 
 
 ^^6--e<. 
 
 
 
 « ' •> • <r « 
 
 ♦— •.--»-«-'*'^*-^ 
 
 >&3» x^=^^;*--^ 

 
 TONAL ANALYSIS. 91 
 
 
 
 .^-«*itf^^^<|-«<»c<;-»'<^^<3«/y^--»'S*^, 
 
 v^^sC^A 
 
 S^oO. 
 
 V 
 
 
 In the actual rendering of a selection when there is a 
 failure to give the correct tone the student should be 
 questioned as to the feeling, and if he correctly states it, 
 and still fails to render it — he should then be asked to 
 reduce the idea to terms of his own experience emotionally 
 in accordance with the Colloquial drills. This usually
 
 92 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 is adequate. If, however, he is unable to do this, then, 
 and then only, should the teacher directly aid him. Con- 
 stantly the student should be trained to see the emotional 
 significance of the idea he is expressing.
 
 PART III. 
 THE EXPRESSION OF THOUGHT.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PROMINENCE AND PAUSE. 
 
 For the effective expression of thought as distinguished 
 from feehng there must be recognized and applied three 
 symbols, Prominence, Articulation and Pause. Articu- 
 lation (which includes Pronunciation), gives to sounds 
 singly or combined their differentiation — words, Promin- 
 ence gives to words their relative importance, and Pause 
 indicates their connection. Stating it broadly, Articula- 
 tion is the symbol of individuality. Prominence the symbol 
 of value and Pause the symbol of relationship. These 
 three symbols are tangible quantities. They may be 
 understood and applied by even the elementary student, 
 and as naturalness and po wer in the expression of thought 
 is dependent upon their adequate recognition the teacher 
 should make such recognition an especial concern. 
 
 With respect to Pause, the teacher by oral example 
 will show the pupil how the varying length of silences in 
 speech indicate to the listener the kinship of words, how, 
 for example, a longer pause after "deep" than after the 
 other words in "deep and dark blue ocean" tells us that 
 the ocean was deep, and of a dark blue, how the longer 
 pause coming after dark, makes the ocean a blue ocean 
 that is deep and dark, and how the longer pause after 
 "blue" makes it an ocean deep and dark blue. The teacher 
 will emphasize, also by oral illustration, how this variation 
 in pause really marks the words off into phrases or groups, 
 
 05
 
 96 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 and he will point out and illustrate that the groups in 
 intelligent spontaneous utterance are in reality all the 
 words necessary to one another to make a definite idea or 
 definite part of an idea as "It will rain," definite idea, 
 " 'It will rain' John remarked," definite parts. 
 
 While in the main, these groups are marked off by 
 punctuation, there is usually a number left to the student's 
 judgment. The teacher will choose selections containing 
 a goodly number of unpunctuated groups and will have 
 the students indicate them, sometimes orally, and some- 
 times by written exercise. 
 
 It will be seen that the special function of grouping is 
 to aid in making the thought inteUigible. It joins and 
 separates words by the law of relationship so that the 
 Hstener will have less difficulty in grasping the idea as a 
 whole, and, it may be asserted, that that grouping is the 
 best which, in the shortest time, most makes clear the 
 meaning. 
 
 If the function of grouping is clearness that of Promin- 
 ence is vividness. Prominence may be defined as that 
 particular phase of utterance which makes a word or 
 words stand out. Its effect upon the listener is that of 
 added importance; he understands that the idea conveyed 
 in the words or phrase made prominent is of greater value 
 than that in the word or words given with less prominence. 
 Prominence is usually attained by increased force, but 
 sometimes it may be attained with less force. The 
 essential characteristic is vividness by contrast. 
 
 Analysis of selections with reference to prominence 
 should be carried on simultaneously with the group analy- 
 sis; in fact it will be found that exercise in prominence is 
 largely a matter of the determination of the relative value 
 of the groups. For this twofold analysis the author has
 
 PROMINENCE AND PAUSE. 97 
 
 found no better example for initial work, than the story 
 of Belshazzar's feast in Daniel, fifth chapter. 
 
 The standard of test in respect to what should or should 
 not be made prominent, is, of course, the intent of the 
 author — what does the WTiter or speaker seek most to 
 convey, and what word or words are indispensable to the 
 conveyance of this essential thought. The application of 
 this test can be illustrated by the opening lines from 
 Hamlet's "Instruction to the Players:" 
 
 "Speak the speech I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trip- 
 pingly on the tongue; but, if you mouth it, as many of our players 
 do, I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines." 
 
 What is to Hamlet most vital in the foregoing sentence? 
 What is it he wants the players to fix deeply in their 
 minds and moreover to practically apply? The answer 
 must be to "speak the speech trippingly on the tongue." 
 Hamlet could leave out all the rest of the sentence and yet 
 convey his desire to the players. The remainder simply 
 elaborates, makes plainer, the main idea. Thus "speak 
 the speech" and "trippingly on the tongue" demand the 
 most prominence in the sentence. "As I pronounced it 
 to you," "if you mouth it," "I had as lief the town crier 
 spake my lines," are the groups that demand the secondary 
 prominence. "I pray you" and "as many of our players 
 do" are the least important, almost unnecessary. 
 
 There are a number of other phases of Pause and 
 Prominence than those considered here. These are dis- 
 cussed and illustrated, in a practical way, in the author's 
 "Natural Drills in Expression with Selections."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ARTICULATION. 
 
 With regard to Articulation it is the experience of the 
 author that excellence in this field is most quickly attained 
 by the use of the principle of Comparison and Contrast. 
 The confusion of the sound t or d for th, of s for z, zh for 
 sh, V for w and so on, is best remedied by placing before 
 the student in juxtaposition the confused sounds, and also 
 words in which these confused sounds appear. 
 
 Next in importance to this principle of comparison and 
 contrast in securing correctness and finish in articulation 
 comes drill in accent. By this is meant that there is 
 selected a series of words whose accented syllable contains 
 the fault of the student, and in the utterance of these 
 words these accented syllables are attacked vigorously. 
 
 The application of these principles can be seen in the 
 author's "Natural Drills in Expression with Selections," 
 from which the following is an illustration: 
 
 DRILLS ON SELECTED CONSONANTS.* 
 T, Th, D. 
 
 t as in toot, 
 th as in thick, myth, 
 th as in though, smooth, 
 d as in did. 
 
 •From "Natural Drills in Expression with Selections" in which work 
 complete drills are to be found. 
 
 98
 
 ARTICULATION 
 
 99 
 
 Errors in Pronunciation: 
 
 t sometimes incorrectly sounded like d in dun and fad. 
 
 d sometimes incorrectly sounded like t in tin and fit. 
 
 th in thick and myth sometimes incorrectly sounded 
 like th in smooth and though. 
 
 th in though and smooth sometimes incorrectly sounded 
 like th in thick and myth. 
 
 Distinction Drill: 
 
 (a) sooth, soothe; bath, bathe; both, booth; breath, 
 
 breathe; thank, than; think, then; thatch, that. 
 
 tin, din; ten, den; tot, dot; tart, dart. 
 
 Utter the following vigorously: 
 
 (b) 
 thin, tin, din 
 than, tan, Dan 
 thank, tank, dank 
 those, toes, doze 
 thread, tread, dread 
 thigh, tie, die 
 the, tee, dee 
 their, tare, dare 
 thicket, ticket 
 theme, team, deem 
 then, ten, den 
 thick, tick, Dick 
 
 (d) 
 not thatch but thatcheth 
 not tether but tethereth 
 not theorize but theorizeth 
 not thicken but thickeneth 
 not thieve but thieveth 
 not thin but thinneth 
 not thirst but thirsteth 
 not thrash but thrasheth 
 
 (c) 
 dead, debt, death 
 heed, heat, heath 
 shed, sheet, sheath 
 need, neat, beneath 
 had, hat, hath 
 ladder, latter, lather 
 bode, boat, both 
 ore, oat, oath 
 pad, pat, path 
 broad, brought, broth 
 rod, rot, wroth 
 hard, heart, hearth 
 
 (e) 
 to the two that thatcheth 
 to the two that tethereth 
 to the two that theorizeth 
 to the two that thickeneth 
 to the two that thieveth 
 to the two that thinneth 
 to the two that thirsteth 
 to the two that thrasheth
 
 100 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 not thread but threadeth to the two that threadeth 
 not threaten but threatenethto the two that threateneth 
 not throw but throweth to the two that throweth 
 not thrill but thrilleth to the two that thrilleth 
 
 not thrive but thriveth to the two that thriveth 
 not throb but throbeth to the two that throbeth 
 not throttle but throttleth to the two that throttleth 
 not thrum but thrumeth to the two that thrumeth 
 not thrust but thrusteth to the two that thrusteth 
 not thwart but thwarteth to the two that thwarteth 
 not thunder but thunderethto the two that thundereth 
 not thwack but thwacketh to the two that thwacketh 
 Accent Drill: 
 
 (a). Tutored, tortured, tattered, tittered, tettered, tot- 
 tered, torrid, torrent, abated, abetted, attainted, attuned, 
 attired, tautology, tabouret, taciturn, tact, tactics, tanta- 
 mount, tertiary, tether, strait, tincture. 
 
 (b). Didactic, death, defeating, dedicate, dedication, 
 deodorize, data. 
 Sentences: 
 
 (a). To do the truth daily try to think the truth. 
 
 (b). To dare, to do, to die. 
 
 (c). Two duties do. 
 
 (d). He ate edible tamarinds. 
 
 (e). They threaten to not abate one jot or tittle. 
 
 (f). To think the thought is theoretically to tell the 
 thought, though this thinking the thought telleth not the 
 tale thoroughly. 
 
 (g). Theophilus Thistle, the successful thistle sifter, 
 thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his 
 thumb; see that thou thrust not three thousand thistles 
 through the thick of thy thumb.
 
 APPENDIX.
 
 METHOD OF STUDY AND PRACTICE OF EX- 
 PRESSION.* 
 
 METHOD OF STUDYING A SELECTION. 
 
 1. Determine the United Aim: 
 
 (a). The Dominant Thought. What does the 
 selection aim to show, prove, tell, etc.? 
 
 (b). The Dominant Feeling. What is the emo- 
 tional attitude of the author (or character) 
 towards the Dominant Thought? 
 
 2. Determine the Groups. What words are closely related? 
 
 3. Determine the Ideas (and Their Words) that Demand 
 
 (a) Prominence, (b) Pause. 
 
 4. Determine the Tones in Which the Various Ideas Should 
 
 Be Delivered. What are the various feelings in the 
 selection and what tones will best show these? 
 
 5. Make the Ideas Yours. Understand with absolute 
 
 clearness every idea in the selection. 
 
 6. Make the Feelings Yours. Exercise the imagination 
 
 upon every idea. Go into your own experience 
 and see if the emotion has not been yours in some 
 simple form. 
 (Groups may be indicated by parentheses, prominent 
 words by underlining, tones by marginal notes.) 
 
 METHOD OF PRACTICING DELIVERY. 
 
 1. Have a listener. If impracticable, imagine one. 
 
 •From "Natural Drills In Expression with Selections." 
 
 103
 
 104 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 2. Tell ideas, not words. 
 
 3. Intensely desire to have the idea grasped by listener. 
 
 4. Aim to convey to the listener the feelings in the 
 selection. Manifest vividly the true feeling toward the 
 ideas expressed.
 
 II. 
 
 EXAMPLE OF METHOD OF ARRANGEMENT OF 
 SELECTIONS, SUGGESTED IN PART II* 
 
 TONE OF ADMIRATION. 
 
 (See Tone DrUl No. 1.) 
 [The tone of Admiration proclaims the speaker's great 
 dehght or pleasure in the person or thing contemplated. 
 It has a tinge of Amazement.] 
 
 The Ice Storm. 
 
 MARK TWAIN. 
 
 After all, there are at least one or two things about 
 New England weather (or, if you please, effects produced 
 by it), which we residents would not hke to part with. If 
 we had not our bewitching autumn foliage, we should still 
 have to credit the weather with one feature which compen- 
 sates for all its bullying vagaries — the ice-storm — when a 
 leafless tree is clothed with the ice from the bottom to 
 the top — ice that is as bright and clear as crystal; every 
 bough and twig is strung with ice beads, frozen dew-drops, 
 and the whole tree sparkles, cold and white, hke the Shah 
 of Persia's diamond plume. 
 
 Then the wind waves the branches, and the sun comes 
 out and turns all these myriads of beads and drops to 
 prisms, that glow, and hum and flash with all manner of 
 colored fires, which change and change again, with incon- 
 
 ♦Taken from the author's "Natural Drills in Expression with Selections." 
 
 105
 
 106 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 ceivable rapidity, from blue to red, from red to green, and 
 green to gold; the tree becomes a sparkling fountain, a 
 very explosion of dazzling jewels, and it stands there the 
 acme, the chmax, the supremest possibility in art or nature 
 of bewildering, intoxicating, intolerable magnificence! 
 One cannot make the words too strong. 
 
 Month after month I lay up hate and grudge against 
 the New England weather; but when the ice-storm comes 
 at last, I say: "There, I forgive you now; the books are 
 square between us; you don't owe me a cent; go and sin 
 some more; your Httle faults and foibles count for nothing; 
 you are the most enchanting weather in the world." 
 
 God and Beauty. 
 
 RICHARD S. STORRS, JR. 
 
 How perfectly replete is God's mind with all the laws 
 and types of beauty. 
 
 We go into a collection of flowers and fruits, like those 
 which we often see exhibited in the city or populous 
 village, and there observe the innumerable varieties of 
 color and of form assembled before us. Crimson, purple, 
 scarlet, violet, every possible shade and tint of the green, 
 the purest white, the richest, most velvety dark-blue or 
 black, pearl color, gold color, lilac, vermillion, shades that 
 melt into and are lost in each other, shades that are far 
 too delicate to be defined by the relatively coarse apparatus 
 of words — all are here, in inexhaustible richness, in seem- 
 ingly inextricable confusion and medley, yet in really 
 absolute proportion and harmony. Very often several 
 are combined in one flower; and always when combined, in 
 most beautiful, even musical, agreement and concord. 
 The cup of the blossom is of white, edged with crimson; 
 the petals are of scarlet, drooping gracefully out of their 
 silver sheath; and even these are tufted and crested at the
 
 EXAMPLE OF METHOD 107 
 
 end as if by a patient, assiduous tastcfulness that could 
 not let them go, with a golden finish. 
 
 We try to make the flower immortal and almost pine 
 because it is not. We would stop, if we could, the steady 
 and silent wheels of time, before they crushed the fragile 
 glory. God will not let the flower live because he has 
 another yet nobler thought, of more complete beauty, 
 which he would show us. He hangs around such sights of 
 beauty the stately grace and majesty of the earth — its 
 woods and plains, its streams and seas, the sunshine flash- 
 ing over all, the sunsets gorgeous in their pomp of pillared 
 amethyst, opal, gold. He pours the beauty of the moon- 
 light, even upon a resting world, weird and fantastic, yet 
 lovely as a dream. He spreads the infinite canopy of the 
 night, and touches it everywhere with dots of splendor. 
 He makes each season a moving panorama of sights and 
 sounds, of brilliant gleams or fragrant odors, full, constant- 
 ly, of beauty to him who studies it. 
 
 He does not do this for the observation of man alone, 
 remember; he does it for the utterance of his own interior 
 and spontaneous thought. The whole creation teems thus 
 with beauty, because his own mind teems with it ever- 
 more. He fills the forest depths, which no man sees, with 
 foliage, yearly reproduced and yearly lost, age after age; 
 with blossoming vines; with brilliant and tuneful birds; 
 with grasses and mosses, all delicate and all transient. He 
 paves the sea itself with shells, and edges the coasts with 
 coral reefs, and makes the fish, which no man sees except 
 through some strange violence of storms, a very mirror 
 of every tint most sumptuous and splendid. In the midst 
 of the forests, in the depths of the solid structure of the 
 tree, he hides the curling and delicate grains which art 
 laboriously searches out and displays. Amid rough rocks 
 he drops the diamond; under the rude and earthly shell,
 
 108 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 he spreads the sheen of precious pearl; around gray cliffs 
 the modest harebells wreathe their necklace at his com- 
 mand. The tiniest insect is covered over with beauty, 
 his wings inlaid and plaited with gold, his breast and crest 
 tipped with silver and pearl, the infinitesimal lines of his 
 eye burnished beyond all human art! 
 
 And then God goes to other worlds, with his united 
 creative energy, and there he erects a still different struc- 
 ture. He lays the very foundations differently, of masses 
 and proportions, that he may build the whole edifice anew, 
 and may spread with the same divine prodigality another 
 series of inimitable decorations. 
 
 The Vale of Cashmere. 
 
 THOMAS MOORE. 
 
 Who has not heard of the Vale of Cashmere, 
 
 With its roses the brightest that earth ever gave, 
 Its temples, and grottos, and fountains as clear 
 
 As the love-lighted eyes that hang over their wave? 
 Oh to see it at sunset, — when warm o'er the Lake 
 
 Its splendour at parting a summer eve throws. 
 Like a bride, full of blushes, when lingering to take 
 
 A last look of her mirror at night ere she goes! — 
 When the shrines through the foliage are gleaming half- 
 shown. 
 And each hallows the hour by some rites of its own. 
 Here the music of prayer from a minaret swells. 
 
 Here the Magian his urn, full of perfume, is swinging, 
 And here, at the altar, a zone of sweet bells 
 
 Round the waist of some fair Indian dancer is ringing. 
 Or to see it by moonlight, — when mellowly shines 
 The hght o'er its palaces, gardens, and shrines; 
 When the water-falls gleam, like a quick fall of stars. 
 And the nightingale's hymn from the Isle of Chenars
 
 EXAJIPLE OF METHOD 109 
 
 Is broken by laughs and light echoes of feet 
 
 From the cool, shining walks where the young people meet, — 
 
 Or at morn, when the magic of daylight awakes 
 
 A new wonder each minute, as slowly it breaks, 
 
 Hills, cupolas, fountains, called forth every one 
 
 Out of darkness, as if but just born of the Sun. 
 
 When the Spirit of Fragrance is up with the day, 
 
 From his Haram of night-flowers stealing away; 
 
 And the wind, full of wantonness, woos like a lover 
 
 The young aspen-trees, till they tremble all over. 
 
 WTien the East is as warm as the light of first hopes, 
 
 And Day, with his banner of radiance unfurled. 
 Shines in through the mountainous portal that opes, 
 
 Subhme, from that Valley of bliss to the world! 
 
 Cleopatra's Barge. 
 
 WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE, 
 
 The barge she sat in, hke a burnish'd throne, 
 
 Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold; 
 
 Purple the sails, and so perfumed that 
 
 The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver, 
 
 Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke and made 
 
 The water which they beat to follow faster, 
 
 As amorous of their strokes. For her own person, 
 
 It beggar'd all description: she did lie 
 
 In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold of tissue, 
 
 O'er-picturing that Venus where we see 
 
 The fancy out- work nature: on each side her 
 
 Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids, 
 
 With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem 
 
 To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool. 
 
 And what they undid did. 
 
 Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, 
 
 So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes,
 
 110 THE TONE SYSTEM. 
 
 And made their bends adornings: at the helm 
 A seeming mermaid steers: the silken tackle 
 Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands, 
 That yarely frame the office. From the barge 
 A strange invisible perfume hits the sense 
 Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast 
 Her people out upon her; and Antony, 
 Enthroned i' the market-place, did sit alone, 
 Whisthng to the air; which, but for vacancy, 
 Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too, 
 And made a gap in nature. 
 
 i — Antony and Cleopatra, ii., 2.
 
 III. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR TOPICS FOR SPEECHES WITH 
 DOMINANT TONES* 
 
 I. Admiration: 
 
 1. The garden was beautiful. 
 
 2. The music was beautiful. 
 
 3. The sunset was beautiful. 
 
 4. The scenerj'- was beautiful. 
 
 5. It was a beautiful picture. 
 
 6. She vv^as a beautiful woman. 
 
 7. "Washington. 
 
 8. Ul3'sses Grant. 
 
 9. The United States. 
 
 II. Affection: 
 
 1. Lincoln wins our affection. 
 
 2. Children are lovable. 
 
 3. Mother. 
 
 4. Sister. 
 
 III. Indignation: 
 
 1. Child Labor is shameful. 
 
 2. Bribery deserves condemnation. 
 
 3. The assassin. 
 
 IV. Aversion and Disgust: 
 
 1 . Drunkenness is disgusting. 
 
 2. Laziness should be shunned. 
 
 3. The sneak. 
 
 4. Prejudice. 
 
 *From the author's "Effective Speaking." 
 
 Ill
 
 112 THE TONE SYSTEM 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII 
 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 XL 
 
 XII. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Awe: 
 1. 
 2. 
 
 Death is awful. 
 The Universe. 
 
 
 Condemnation, solemn: 
 
 1. Thoughtless actions are to 
 
 2. Unkind words. 
 
 be condemned 
 
 Condemnation, angry: 
 
 1. Reckless automobiling deserves condem- 
 
 nation. 
 
 2. Wilful misrepresentation by the press. 
 
 3. The non-enforcement of laws. 
 
 . Contempt: 
 
 1. The coward deserves our contempt. 
 
 2. The hypocrite. 
 
 Courai 
 1. 
 2. 
 3. 
 
 ge: ■ 
 Live your convictions. 
 Bear up under misfortune. 
 Grit. 
 
 
 Defiance: 
 
 1. Tyranny should be defied. 
 
 2. We should assert our rights. 
 
 
 Joy: 
 1. 
 2. 
 3. 
 
 Spring is full of joy. 
 
 Good news. 
 
 The joy of living. 
 
 
 Emulation: 
 
 1. Aim high. 
 
 2. Ideals. 
 
 
 [. Dread: 
 
 1. A plague is to be dreaded. 
 
 2. A flood. 
 
 3. An earthquake. 

 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR TOPICS 113 
 
 4. Ci\il war. 
 
 5. Anarchy. 
 
 6. Panic. 
 
 XIV. Encouragement : 
 
 1. Every cloud has a silver lining. 
 
 2. Steady push wins. , \ 
 
 3. Never say die. ^^A*/ ^^f^f^ - • 
 
 XV. Gloom: 
 
 1. It was a gloomy day. 
 
 2. The future of the drunkard is dark. 
 
 XVI. Excitement: 
 
 1. There was great excitement at the fire. 
 
 2. A race. 
 
 3. A baseball game. 
 
 XVII. Uproar: 
 
 1. There was great uproar at the meeting. 
 
 2. A storm, 
 
 3. A battle. 
 
 XVIII. Gayety: 
 
 1. There was great fun at the picnic. 
 
 2. He was full of fun and frolic. 
 
 3. A romp. 
 
 XIX. Generosity. 
 
 1. He exhibited great self sacrifice. 
 
 2. Giving to the needy. 
 
 XX. Grief: 
 
 1. His failure in business caused great grief. 
 
 2. The loss of a dear friend. 
 
 3. The year-old orphan. 
 
 4. The mother's loss of her only child.
 
 114 THE TONE SYSTEM 
 
 XXI. Horror: 
 
 
 1. Shipwreck has its horrors. 
 
 
 
 2. Torture. 
 
 
 
 3. CannibaUsm. 
 
 
 
 4. The horrors of war. 
 
 
 
 5. Dehrium tremens. 
 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Denunciation: 
 
 1. Cheating deserves denunciation. 
 
 2. The tyranny of monopoly. 
 
 3. The confidence man. 
 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Love: 
 
 1. Our mother deserves our love. 
 
 2. One's sweetheart. 
 
 3. One's vdfe. 
 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Mahce: 
 
 1. May evil come to evil doers. 
 
 2. The "hold-up." 
 
 3. The traitor. 
 
 
 XXV. 
 
 Mirth: 
 
 1. The incident was mirthful. 
 
 2. Pranks. 
 
 3. Fun. 
 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Modesty: 
 
 1. He possessed true modesty. 
 
 2. The modesty of Lincoln. 
 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 Omination: 
 L There are signs of a great storm. 
 
 2. The day of reckoning. 
 
 3. Judgment day. 
 
 
 XXVIII. Pain. : 
 
 
 
 1. That course will break your mother's 
 
 heart
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR TOPICS 115 
 
 2. Injuring your country. 
 
 3. Ruining your children. 
 
 XXIX. Pity: 
 
 1. The poor have many sorrows. 
 
 2. The uncared for. 
 
 3. The Wind. 
 
 XXX. Rage: 
 
 1. He slandered a defenseless woman. 
 
 2. Torturing the innocent. 
 
 XXXI. Regret: 
 
 1. You have caused unnecessary suffering. 
 
 2. Your unintentional misrepresentation has 
 
 caused a great deal of trouble. 
 
 XXXII. Remorse: 
 
 
 1. 
 
 You have ruined an innocent man. 
 
 XXXII] 
 
 _ , 
 
 Ridicule: 
 
 
 
 I. 
 
 The fop is ridiculous. 
 
 
 
 2. 
 
 Superstition. 
 
 
 
 3. 
 
 The number thirteen. 
 
 
 
 4. 
 
 Friday. 
 
 
 
 5. 
 
 Ghosts. 
 
 
 XXXIV 
 
 , 
 
 Sadness : 
 
 
 
 1. 
 
 It was a sad death. 
 
 
 
 2. 
 
 The sad hours. 
 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 Sarcasm: 
 
 
 
 1. 
 
 The gentleman showed 
 sion (?)." 
 
 great "condescen- 
 
 
 2. 
 
 He showed great "loyalty (?)." 
 
 XXXVI 
 
 , 
 
 Scorn: 
 
 
 
 1. 
 
 The bribe giver deserves 
 
 our abhorrence. 
 
 
 2. 
 
 The grafter. 
 
 
 
 3. 
 
 The hypocrite. 

 
 116 
 
 THE TONE SYSTEM 
 
 XXXVII. Solemnity: 
 
 1. There is something solemn about the riddle 
 
 
 of hfe. 
 
 
 2. The death watch. 
 
 iXX 
 
 :VIII. Sublimity: 
 
 
 1. The ocean is sublime. 
 
 
 2. The Heavens. 
 
 
 3. The vast mountain ranges 
 
 XXXIX. Warning: 
 
 1. Overconfidence is dangerous. 
 
 2. The dangers of the hour.
 
 Natural Drills in Expression with Selections. 
 
 By ARTHUR EDWARD PHILLIPS, Author of "Effective Speaking," "The 
 
 Tone System," etc.. Director, Department of Public Speaking, the 
 
 Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at 
 
 Chicago; Principal, Phillips School of Oratory, Chicago. 
 
 PARTIAL CONTENTS. 
 The value of the Tone Drills, the Tone Drills, Developing Specific 
 Powers of Portrayal, General Drills on Tones, Tone Drills for Vocal 
 Development, Interpretation, Toning a Selection, Thought in Ex- 
 pression, Drills in Prominence, English Pronunciation, Articulation, 
 Vocal Development, Vocal Drills, Breathing Exercises, Bodily 
 Development and Responsiveness, Method of Study and Practice of 
 Expression. STUDIES IN DOMINANT TONES, Selections from 
 Poetry, Drama and Oratory, covering over iijty phases feeling, mak- 
 ing a complete course in expression. STUDIES IN VARIETY OF 
 TONE, STUDIES IN PAUSE, Pause and the Infrequent, Pause and 
 Involved Construction, Pause and Long Sentence, Pause and the 
 Picture, Pause and the Unusual, Pause and Leading Statement, 
 Pause and Large Content, Pause and Thought Emphasis, Pause and 
 Silent Reply, Pause and Lapse of Time, Pause and LTnsupported 
 Statement, Pause and Impressiveness, Pause and the Gathering 
 and Control of Emotion, Pause and the Subsistence of the Emotion. 
 STUDIES IN PROMINENCE. Word Prominence, Recurrent 
 Prominence, Group Prominence, Prominence of Parts to Whole, 
 Prominence and Interest, Prominence and Imitation. VARIETIES 
 OF PAUSE AND PROMINENCE, EXPRESSION and the GEN- 
 ERAL ENDS, Clearness, Impressiveness, Belief, Action, Entertain- 
 ment. SELECTIONS, including such representative authors as 
 Addison, Arnold, Bancroft, Beecher, Bryan, Burke, Byron, Chan- 
 ning, Chatham, Corneille, Curran, Curtis, Dickens, Eliot, Emerson, 
 Everett, Fenelon, Fox, Grattan, Hazitt, Headley, Hemans, Henry, 
 Hillis, Hugo, Hood, Ingersoll, Junius, Lincoln, Lytton, MUton, 
 Moore, Morley, Poe, Scott, Shiel, Southey, Storrs, Story, Talmage, 
 Tennyson, Twain, Webster, some thirty-five selections from Shake- 
 speare. 
 
 SOME OF THE NEW FEATURES. 
 The Tone Drills, Colloquial and Classical, The Tonal Method 
 of Interpretation, The Method of Study by Dominant Tones, The 
 Phases of Pause, Expression and the General Ends. 
 
 THE NEWTON COMPANY, Chicago.
 
 Effective Speaking. 
 
 By ARTHUR EDWARD PHILLIPS, Author of "Natural Drills 
 pression," etc., Director, Department of Public Speaking, the 
 Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran 
 
 in Ex- 
 
 Church at Chicago; Principal, Phillips 
 School of Oratorj-, Chicago. 
 
 THIS "WORK IS AN EXPOSITION OF THE LAWS OP EFFECTIVENESS IN THE 
 
 CHOICE OF ALITERIAL IN SPEECH WITH EXAMPLES AND EXERCISES. 
 
 IT HAS BEEN ADOPTED BY REPRESENTATIVE SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 
 
 THROUGHOUT THE NATION. 
 
 "In 'Effective Speaking,' a practical classroom textbook by 
 Arthur Edward Phillips, the problem of a book that will meet the 
 demands of the student has been solved. 
 
 " 'Effective Speaking' presents practically the essentials of effec- 
 tiveness in all departments of speaking, whether it be impressiveness, 
 entertaiiunent, convincingness, or persuasion. The training of the 
 judgment in the use of the psychological principles that govern suc- 
 cess in speech has been the aim of Mr. Phillips. The book is in no 
 way experimental, since aU the principles advanced have been applied 
 by the author in his professional work and by the student and man 
 of affairs. Even for those not directly interested in the work of 
 public speaking, the reading of the volume, aside from the exercises, 
 is of interest." — Chicago Journal. 
 
 " 'Effective Speaking' is the first practical classroom textbook 
 on how to prepare and make an effective address. Mr. Phillips' work 
 is destined to replace every other textbook on the subject in every 
 progressive teacher's classroom. — S. H. Clark, Professor of Public 
 Speaking, Universily of Chicago. 
 
 " 'Effective Speaking' is a real contribution to the literature of 
 the subject. It is, I think, the most unique analysis of Public Speak- 
 ing since the time of Quiutilian. — //. B. Gislason, bistructor in Debate 
 and Oratory, University of Mintiesota. 
 
 "I find 'Effective Speaking' the most practical and helpful 
 text-book I have ever used. It is so very plain and practical, so 
 definite and psychological, that it is a pleasure and an inspiration to 
 teach with it." — Florence Sherwood-Wood, Instructor in Oratory, 
 Syracuse University. 
 
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