JUNE, 1895.

NO. 6.

YOL. XVII.

I

HAVE here a bunch of roses.

Your eye sees them and at once communicates the fact to your brain. Your brain says to itself: "Those are roses and they are red." This operation we call thinking.

Suppose the thought then comes to the mind that you would like to place these roses at the bedside of a dear friend who is ill, and as you gaze upon their beauty and freshness, suppose this idea so works upon you that, at last, you are irresistibly impelled to ask for them. Now, this irresistible tendency, this impulsive sensation, is clearly more than simple thinking; it is, in fact, the effect of thought, and we distinguish it from thinking by calling it feeling.

Well, then, you have had thoughts and feeling in regard to these roses, and you are at a point when you wish to do something more,-you wish to convey these thoughts and this feeling to me. You want to make known to me the thoughts that you see the roses, that they are red, and that you would like to possess them, and you want to make known the feeling that you would like to possess them very much indeed.

Now, you can make known all this in three simple ways:

You can make signs with your
Copyright, 1895, by Edgar S.

hands, and eyes, and head, and other parts of your body; that is, by action.

You can make certain sounds with your tongue, teeth, lips, larynx, pharynx, and related organs; that is, by voice.

Or, again, you can mark down on paper a combination of letters; that is written language.

me:

With the third way, written language, as a direct medium of conveying thought and feeling to others, we have here nothing to do. That is the business of the author. We have, however, a very great concern with written language as a means by which thought is conveyed to us. To go back to the roses. Suppose you write on a slip of paper: "Speak to the teacher and say these words for Please give those roses to Miss King; she wants them to take to a dear friend of hers who is ill. O give them to her!'" This note you hand to a friend. Then it would be the business of that friend to make known by voice and by action, or by both, your thoughts and feeling in regard to those roses. He would require to speak your written wish with all the power and feeling you intended it to have. Writtén language, then, in this sense, has to be considered.

Werner. All rights reserved.

Now, these illustrations, I trust, have made apparent what it is our intention to discuss. We are to deal with the conveying of thought and feeling, either our own or that of others, by means of voice and action, and we are to consider the most effective way of doing it. This is the art of expression.

I am very anxious that you shall understand the sense in which I am using the words "thought," "feeling," "voice," and "action."

Throughout these talks, unless I expressly state to the contrary, I intend you to understand that:

By thought is meant any and all ideas of which the brain is susceptible.

By feeling is meant all sensation whether allied with or separate from an idea.

(I have already indirectly shown the difference between thought and feeling, as I use the words, but I will give one more illustration. The cry of a new-born babe on being pinched is the result of feeling, but it is not associated with any idea. Contrariwise, when you say that twice two are four, that is a thought, but there may be no feeling with it. Taking these with the former illustration, we see that both thought and feeling may come either from within or from without, and that thought may be born of feeling, or feeling may be born of thought.)

By voice is meant all sounds uttered by the vocal mechanism, whether it be a hoarse whisper, a coarse grunt, a sweet coo, or any other musical or unmusical sound.

By action is meant all movements of the body and its parts-walking to and fro, raising and lowering the arms, opening and shutting the eyes, wrinkling the face, all change of posture; in short, all manner of visible human movement.

Whether these definitions tally with physiology and psychology is outside the question here. I am

simply making plain the sense in which I use them.

With these definitions in view, it is apparent that the conveying of thought and feeling by voice and action covers a wide field. Elocution and acting naturally come within its scope; so does oratory in part, and from these it reaches out and down, finding a resting-place only at ordinary conversation. Singing, you perceive, falls within its limits; but except in so far as diet and exercise have a relation, it will not be here dealt with.

Back of all else lies diet. To get the best work out of our human machinery it must be in perfect order. Then it must take into its system, its boiler, if you will, that kind of fuel which best produces that which it consumes. But in suggesting diet, it must be remembered that no two human organisms are exactly alike. For instance, strawberries are considered a most excellent food, yet I have a friend who, if he dares to eat this luscious fruit, pays the penalty in a rash appearing upon his body. Clearly, then, there cannot be any exact catalogue of food and drink set down that will or will not agree with all people. Each person must study his own temperament and decide for himself. But he must keep in mind the end in view. That is to say, he who uses the voice and body much in public or private speaking must take into his system such food and drink as will best renew and develop the muscles and nerves that bear the brunt of the work.

It would be an almost interminable task to enumerate, in detail, every food containing the elements valuable for strengthening the nerves and muscles. I will, however, give a few of the most important: Whole wheat, Indian corn, oats, beef, mutton, fat bacon, beans and peas well cooked, the yolk of hard-boiled eggs, fruits like the grape, the orange, the

peach, the plum. A most excellent strengthening beverage is grape wine, also orange wine. A beaten-up egg is very valuable in cases where quick effect is desired. These foods are

especially recommended because they contain valuable mineral salts, phosphorous, sulphur, fat, oil, or albumen.

There is one other thing to be remembered. Besides partaking of nerve and muscle-foods, the actor, the public speaker, the elocutionist, must take into his system such foods as he finds develop in him an energized nature, so that he will have that vigor and activity so essential to all human work in its best form.

If you find yourself feeling bright, cheerful, full of energy, nay, almost inclined to jump over chairs and tables, rest assured you have found a diet that is perfectly suited to you. If, on the other hand, you feel slothful, heavy, irritable, something is wrong with your diet.

Always remember that what you eat may affect your nerves. Take pickles into your system and if they do not agree with you, look out for dyspepsia. Very soon you will find. yourself snapping and snarling at everybody, thereby spoiling your own good name and making others miserable. If you are one of those fortunate individuals with whom everything agrees, who have perfect power of assimilation, then all right. Don't trouble your head about diet. But if you are not, then duty says study what will and what will not agree with you, keeping always in view the development of those parts of the system which are most drawn upon in your particular calling.

One other point. As a general rule, a plain, simple diet is the best. You are then less liable to disarrangement of your system. No matter where you are traveling, you can usually get oatmeal, bread and butter, eggs, meat and water. But if your daily diet consists of fricasseed

chicken, Spanish olives, boiled lobster, Welsh rarebit, Mumm's Extra Dry, and so on, you may frequently be in places where you cannot get such delicacies, and at once your mind and body are troubled for lack of their accustomed food. Try, therefore, to find a simple diet and one that gives the necessary strength and energy.

Next to diet comes exercise. If you would have a ruddy cheek, a sprightly step, a hearty laugh, if, in fact, you would feel that joyous intoxication of perfect health, you must take exercise. Nature has it so, and you must obey her. Yet how few do. If in a city, it is the street car, the cable, or the "L" to the office, to the theatre, to the church. Never your legs, always a vehicle. It would seem that you purposely ignored all opportunity of gaining health and strength, though nature cries against you. No wonder Americans are noted for squeaky, whining voices, puny lungs. What can be expected when true exercise is comparatively unknown? You should stop this inactivity now. You have arms and legs and you should use them. Never mind the drudgery that it may seem at first. It will not be drudgery long.

Now, what is the great requisite in the matter of exercise with a view to conveying thought and feeling? It is this: The whole body must be symmetrically developed. Then will come grace in action and intensity in voice.

Walking is an excellent exercise, as it invigorates the entire system. See to it, however, that your walk is accompanied with a brisk movement of the arms. Also, keep the mind bright. That is always essential. When too wet or inclement outside, this walking-exercise can be done in the house. Walk through the entire length of the house in the same manner as you would walk in the

street, swinging your arms, the mind as bright and the step as elastic as you can possibly make them. late Daniel Dougherty, America's most finished platform orator, used to find keen enjoyment in this exercise. He has indulged in it, in a humorous way, in the course of one of his lectures. Now, don't imagine Now, don't imagine that you are too solid and matter-offact for this kind of thing; that you will be making a fool of yourself. That is all nonsense. Take this exercise at a regular hour, and you will find your muscles will so unbend and your mind become so bright, the whole body, in fact, so exhilarated, that you will go through your lecture, your sermon, your reading, your acting, as you never imagined. you could. There will be life and vigor. The blood will have something to say in the work; the whole body will concentrate itself upon your intention.

Another excellent exercise and one that can be practiced within the limited space of even a bedroom, is this: Hum in the mind some tune of steady, flowing time, and to such tune, by a careful, harmonious movement, assume this position: Left foot flat upon the floor and weight upon it; right foot advanced and only ball of foot upon ground; head well back and inclining toward left shoulder; eyes looking upward; chest thrown out; body turned slightly to left; right knee bent and right arm. gradually unfolded by a circular motion, finishing in the direction of the front, right-hand, top corner of the room, the left arm being unfolded in a similar way and in harmony with the right hand, and finding its finish in a downward direction toward the bottom, back, left-hand corner. This supposes the room to be a cube, with you standing in the middle of the floor. Then go through the same exercise with the left arm unfolded upward and right arm downward,

transferring every attitude and motion given for the right side of the body and its members to the left, and the left to the right. Make the whole body, even to the tips of the fingers, respond. Concentrate the mind upon the movement as you hum, and you will be astonished at the grace of execution which you will rapidly attain. A suitable tune to hum is that set to these words in Gilbert and Sullivan's "Patience:" "You hold yourself like this, you hold yourself like that," etc., concluding the movement on "this."

What does this exercise develop? It develops the muscles of the upper part of the arm, those at the elbow, those at the wrist, and those at the finger-joints. We find that the chest is expanded, the neck is strengthened, as also the trunk, and even the calf of the leg. The blood courses freely through your entire frame. The voice is indirectly strengthened, and, in fact, your system enjoys throughout an creased power and invigoration.

Of course, besides these exercises, if you have the time, you can use Indian clubs, dumb-bells, chest-expanders. You can play lawn tennis, baseball, cricket. You can row and race, do anything that you find agrees with you and that you feel sure is strengthening your system, particularly that part that you must draw upon in your voice-work.

At short intervals during your exercises you should rest. The manner in which a muscle is developed will teach you this. By gentle action you excite the muscle's parts, the blood flows freely to it, and from the blood, while you rest, it takes what it wants. So rest and rest frequently. Violent exercise

no use. In fact, it does harm; it pulls down rather than builds up. Gentle exercises are all that are necessary. That marvelous example of strength, Sandow, tells us that in