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press determination or will. Speak to, not at, an audience.

b. The object,—

The object of this step is to secure directness and strength of tone.

c. The exercises,

(1) Practice the breathing exercises.
(2) Sing in a full tone lō lō lō lō.

(3) Count slowly and with great vigor from 1 to
10.

8. Tone color.

a. Directions,—

Hold in mind a joyous thought. Express that thought through tone alone. Hold in mind a sorrowful thought. Express that thought through tone alone, using only a syllable, as ah, or oh, or lo. In the same way express surprise, fear, warning, distrust, horror, content, vastness, distance, harshness, lullaby tones, cold, warmth, calm, fury, etc.

Recite passages of literature, suiting sound to sense. The shading of the voice should be very delicate and very exact.

b. The object,-

The object of this step is to suit sound to sense, or to give expression to the voice.

c. The exercises,

(1) Speak the syllable lo or oh, expressing many different shades of thought or feeling.

(2) Recite the following, and suit the sound to the sense:

"How beautiful this night! The balmiest sigh Which vernal zephyrs breathe in Evening's ear,

Were discord to the speaking quietude

Heaven's ebon vault

That wraps this moveless scene.

Studded with stars unutterably bright,

Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls,
Seems like a canopy which Love hath spread

To curtain her sleeping world."

--P. B. Shelley.

*"A heap of bare and splintery crags

Tumbled about by lightning and frost,

With rifts and chasms and storm-bleached jags,
That wait and growl for a ship to be lost.

Ribs of rock that seaward jut,

Granite shoulders and boulders and snags,
Round which, though the winds in heaven be shut,
The nightmared ocean murmurs and yearns,
Welters, and swashes, and tosses, and turns,
And the dreary black sea-weed lolls and wags;"

-J. R. Lowell.

DIVISION IV

THE ORGANS OF ARTICULATION

The organs of articulation are the lips, teeth, tongue, and hard and soft palate.

Clearness of enunciation depends upon the strength and precision of position of these organs in forming the elementary sounds.

Every exercise in reading or speaking should be, indirectly, an exercise in enunciation.

* By permission of the publishers, Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

PART IV

GESTURE

THE cultivated body, as an agent of expression, is an invaluable means of conveying thought. Action should never call attention to itself. The body should be so trained that no one will think of the gestures of the speaker while listening to a discourse. There should be such harmony between mind and body that gesture will illuminate and reenforce thought.

Gesture may be defined as a motion of the head, trunk, or limbs to express thought or feeling, or to enforce an argument or command.

The agents in producing gesture are the muscular system and the nervous system.

The peculiar function of the muscles is the power of contraction. They contract whenever stimulated, and are therefore the motor power of the different parts of the body. The cerebrum is the originator of nervous force. All emotion originates here. The thought or feeling thus originated is reflected in the sympathetic nervous system, which in turn affects the spinal cord, and through its nerves the spinal cord now stimulates the muscles. These, contracting, cause action of the body, or gesture. To cultivate expression of the body the muscles must be trained to flexibility, firmness, steadiness, and harmony of When the body is so trained and aroused,

movement.

there will be muscular response, or gesture. true, every artistic gesture, must be thought.

Back of every

The exercises of Part Fourth are arranged in the following groups: Division I, Relaxing Exercises; Division II, Poising Exercises; Division III, Principles of Gesture; Division IV, Responsive Gesture Exercises.

DIVISION I

RELAXING EXERCISES

The object of this set of exercises is to free the muscles of the body so that it will be perfectly flexible.

1. Exercises for the limbs.

a. The arms and hands.

(1) Relaxation of the arms, front.
(a) Description,-

Take the weight on the balls of both feet. With hands prone (palms downward) and relaxed, raise the arms to the horizontal position, front. Relax the arms, letting them fall lightly and rapidly to the sides. Repeat.

(b) The counts,—

Weight on balls of the feet,

Arms horizontal, front,

Relax arms,

Arms horizontal, front,

Relax arms.

(2) Relaxation of arms at the sides.

(a) Description,

With hands prone and relaxed, raise the arms to a horizontal position at the sides. Relax the

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(b) The counts,

Arms horizontal at sides,

Relax arms. Repeat.

(3) Relaxation of the arms by pivoting at the ankles.

(a) Description,

Pivot the body at the ankles, first to the right, then left, right, left, front.

Move so rapidly

that the arms are thrown outward.

(b) The counts,

Pivot right,

Pivot left,

Pivot right,

Pivot left,

Pivot front.

(4) Vibration of the hands.

(a) Description,

Raise the forearms to a horizontal position front, the elbows being just below the belt line, the forearms parallel to the floor, and the hands supine (palms upward). By energy from the upper arm, make the hands vibrate. The hand should be open and relaxed during this exercise.

(b) The counts,

Forearms horizontal, 2, 3, 4,

Vibrate hands, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.

(5) Relaxation of the wrists.

(a) Description,—

Keep the forearms in the position of the pre

vious exercise.

Turn the palms downward.

By

energy from the forearms, shake the hands rapidly up and down during eight counts, shaking the hands twice to each count.

(b) The counts,

Forearms horizontal, 2, 3, 4,

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