in this department of education, both as an author and a practical
instructor, merit the highest commendation.

As the first of my recommendations, I would, at the outset, strenuously
insist on the importance of systematic vocal culture, which implies the
training of the ear to perceive the various qualities and modifications of
vocal expression, and the training of the voice to produce them. All the
different functions of the voice employed in speech should be analytically
exemplified by the teacher, and practised by the pupil, in the reading or
recitation of short passages in which they are well illustrated, such as
may be found in any good manual of elocution. This kind of teaching is to
elocution what practice upon the scale is to music, and what the practice
of the eye upon the harmony and contrast of colors is to painting.

This course of training naturally divides itself into two
departments:--first that which is mechanical; and, secondly, that which
relates to the expression of thought and emotion.


I. THAT WHICH IS MECHANICAL.

BREATHING. The human voice is a musical instrument, an organ of exquisite
contrivance and adaptation of parts. Breath being the material of its
sound, vocal training should begin with the function of breathing. Vigorous
respiration is as essential to good elocution as it is to good health. To
secure this it is necessary, in the first place, to attend to the posture,
taking care to give the utmost freedom, expansion, and capacity to the
chest, and then to exercise and develop all the muscles employed in
respiration, so that they may be habitually used with energy and power,
both in the inhalation and expulsion of the breath. Whenever the voice is