PREFACE.

The study of Elocution and Oratory was pursued to a very high degree by the ancients, and is therefore an old study. It was, however, so nearly lost as a distinctive branch of culture, and it received so little attention for many succeeding centuries that it may be very justly termed a modern science.

It was the original design of the author to prepare for the use of the National School of Elocution and Oratory, an outline of principles embodying his system of instruction, and to furnish the students of the institution a text for their future personal or public work. The rapidly increasing demand, however, for a more extended exposition of these principles, and for a copious collection of appropriate exercises, together with the urgent request of many students and educators throughout the country, has led to the publication of "Practical Elocution."

Now that the work has been completed, and is about to go forth on its mission, we are led to realize more deeply than ever how little of the spirit can go along with the letter-how little of the inspiration which the true teacher should impart, can accompany the monotonous lines of the printed page. We do not believe any theory can substitute for the living

presence of the teacher. The theory of Elocution can no more produce good readers and speakers than the theory of music will make good singers or experts on the instrument; yet correct principles may so direct the student away from error, and towards the truth, and may furnish to the teacher such resources in methods and exercises as would require years of time to arrange for himself.

Elocution will not substitute for intellect; neither will it furnish material for the mind any more than gold will buy material. It will not provide thought. It will not even provide vehicles or words, so necessary to the discussion and exchange of thought. Its work is to give principles and direction for the management of thought after it has been furnished and clothed. Knowledge is capital, only valuable as it is available, and Elocution is the great natural means of rendering knowledge available.

Spoken language may be said to bear three distinct relations to the signification of the words which enter into it.

First.-A sentiment may be so uttered as to weaken or pervert the simple meaning of the words. Wanting in the necessary force, emphasis misplaced, or modulation disregarded, the words, though possessing volumes of thought may be rendered almost void of meaning.

Second. The sentiment may be so spoken as to leave its plain meaning unaffected, neither adding to or taking from the mere signification of the words. The listener, hearing, and being familiar with the words, obtains an intellectual knowledge of the thought expressed. He is impressed with the words only to the degree that he is interested in the thought. There is nothing in the presentation to attract his attention, or that will awaken interest within him. Had he seen the words in the skeleton forms of written language, the effect would have been the same. They have been presented to his sense alone.

Third. The same sentiment may be spoken so that it shall not only express the idea indicated, but that it shall impress that idea upon the mind and heart. Under this character of

utterance we supplement the form of words with their power, investing the mere passive clay with the life-giving principle which shall send it forth an active, aggressive influence.

This we believe to be the original and legitimate design of speech. It could not have been the purpose of the Creator that this marvellous faculty should perform the service of a mere dead machine. Correct, cultivated utterance gives emphasis and spiritual effect to written language.

In the following pages the attention of teacher and student has been directed prominently to the study of natural speech as revealed by Conversation. It is believed that we may here find nature most true, however crude, and that we may obtain from her, models and inspiration for the more exalted conditions of speech. Spoken language finds its original and simplest forms in conversation.

The conditions of mind and body in ordinary conversation are best adapted for the study of our own individuality. We cannot study self when on exhibition. We dress up for strangers. We spend much time and means to prepare our bodies for distinguished company, not always with the most happy effect. Sometimes it results in such a perversion of our natural appearance as to give offence rather than pleasure. So, in the expression of our thoughts, voice and manner are modified by the presence of the multitude, and sometimes, upon great occasions, they are so perverted as to lose all that is natural and impressive. Thus thousands fail of their just merit in presenting themselves to strangers. In the effort to be natural they become unnatural. In their attempt to represent themselves for what they are not, they fail to receive value for what they are. Nature may be. pruned, cultured and directed, but we cannot substitute it. I will always be stronger as myself than I can be as any one else, and as we represent ourselves most through our words, we should in our words be most true to ourselves. We should study ourselves and seek our examples from that condition where true nature is least modified. This condition we believe to be that of conversation with our intimate

friends. Conversation may be most faulty and corrupt, yet we will find in it a harmony with our own natures, and constantly recurring lights and shades of natural expression that may serve as models for study and imitation, such as we can find nowhere else in the whole range of utterance. But it is not sufficient to find the germs. They must have growth and maturity. The work of culture and development precedes the efficient use of all our faculties. Man, in the creation of his own being, is made a partner with God. We are co-workers with God in self-construction. He gives us the plastic material, with directions or laws for its use, conditioning the result of the work upon the application of those laws.

It is better to develop our own faculties, though inferior, rather than to attempt to appropriate another's. Our own will serves us better, because designed for us by the Creator, and hence in harmony with our being. God will hold us responsible for the talents He has given us. He does not ask that we buy or borrow, but demands increase through culture and development. The expression of thought and feeling, therefore, should be in the simplest and purest harmony with the elements of our individual nature. But how to find our true nature may prove our most difficult task. We have been so misdirected that there has grown upon us by observation and contamination, such a coating of manners and habits foreign to the original, and we have acted so long in sympathy with this accumulated surface that we may hardly recognize our true selves. We have so long followed the untrue that we may hardly know the true. We have so long associated with this outer that we fail to comprehend the inner. Habit has become so fixed as to constitute a second nature, and close analysis becomes necessary that we may draw the lines between our own nature and this accumulated or borrowed nature. Our first work, then, is to distinguish the true from the false, the original from the borrowed, nature from habit, that we may develop, each in himself, the original creation, rather than the warped and distorted creation of our own hands.