The study of Expression is one of the most important parts of elocution, as
it is the application of all the principles that form the science of
utterance. It is the ART of elocution. Expression then should be the chief
characteristic of all public reading and speaking. The student must forget
self, and throw himself entirely into the spirit of what he reads, for the
art of feeling is the true art which leads to a just expression of the
features:

"To this one standard make you just appeal,
Here lies the golden secret, learn to _feel_."

The voice under the influence of feeling, gives the beautiful colouring,
and breathes life and reality to the mental picture. Every turn in the
current of feeling should be carefully observed and fully expressed. Not
only the varied changes of the voice, however, but the indications by all
the features of the countenance, contribute a share to give a good
expression, and by far the greatest is derived from the eyes. The
management of the eyes is, therefore, the most important of all--

"A single look more marks the eternal woe,
Than all the windings of the lengthened, oh!
Up to the face the quick sensation flies,
And darts its meaning from the speaking eyes;
Love, transport, madness, anger, scorn, despair,
And all the passions, all the soul is there."

The eye of the orator, and the expressive movements of the muscles of his
face, often _tell_ more than his words, his body or his hands, and
when the eye is lighted up and glowing with meaning and intelligence, and
frequently and properly directed to the person or persons addressed, it