is to the body. Indeed, a full mind demands this relief in expression,
lest the strain become too great.

The daily newspaper and the magazines should not be allowed to usurp the
place of conversation. If the art of talking is rapidly dying out, as
some assert, we should do our share to revive it. We may not again have
the wit and repartee, the brilliant intellectual combats of those other
days, but we can at least each have a cultivated speaking-voice, an
interesting manner of expressing our ideas in conversation, and a
refined pronunciation of our mother tongue.




A TALK TO PREACHERS


The aim of one who would interpret literature to others, by means of the
speaking voice, should be first to assimilate its spirit. There can be
no worthy or adequate rendering of a great poem or prose selection
without a keen appreciation of its inner meaning and content. This is
the principal safeguard against mechanical and meaningless declamation.
The extent of this appreciation and grasp of the inherent spirit of
thought will largely determine the degree of life, reality, and
impressiveness imparted to the spoken word.

The intimate relationship between the voice and the spirit of the
speaker suggests that one is necessary to the fullest development of the
other. The voice can interpret only what has been awakened and realized
within, hence nothing discloses a speaker's grasp of a subject so