ment of a complete idea. When the attitude toward the audience is one of interrogation, the voice slides up or down in pitch to indicate to them the notion that an answer of this or that sort is wanted. Note the upward slide in "Are we to stand idly by in this crisis?" and the downward slide in "Who is so base as would be a bondman?"

4. Application.-All the inflections take care of themselves if the speaker is well prepared in his thought. In the paragraph above we have not enumerated all the various inflections known to technical elocution, but we have given enough to show that inflections flow naturally from the relationship which the ideas about to be expressed hold in the mind of the speaker. His attention should not be on inflections; it should be on ideas.

But one may well look carefully to the normal pitch of his voice. Inflections are variations above or below the normal pitch or average key in which a man speaks. It is wise to cultivate a fairly low pitch. If the speaker has learned how to breathe correctly and he is calm and selfpossessed during delivery, it is very probable that his pitch will be low. By this we do not mean to advise the assumption of a ponderous double bass. We merely wish to warn against the irritating high pitch with which many speakers annoy their auditors. Listen carefully to your voice and determine if it has a good middle pitch. If it is too shrill, practice for a lower pitch. The higher the pitch, the more tension on the vocal cords and the sooner the voice gives out; the lower the pitch, the greater the relief and possibility of sustained effort.

Some speakers, especially those of the cart-tail variety, have an annoying habit of finishing every impressive statement with rising inflection. It is a sort of challenge, defying contradiction. Read these words with a strong upward inflection on the last and you will get our idea: "This candidate is the greatest patriot of the age!"

Of course the sense calls for a downward inflection. If you have fallen into any such spell-binding vices, eliminate them as soon as possible.

5. CONCLUSION

If the speaker masters breathing and control and then practices for various modulations in quality, force, pitch, and rate, he will develop a wonderful instrument for expression, a sympathetic musical accompaniment for the words which symbolize his thoughts. The expressive voice adds much to the bare vocabulary and logic of the speaker.

We no longer recommend that speeches which are expected to do real work should be memorized. But we do believe that it is well to memorize and practice the declamation of passages from the works of great orators as an exercise in modulation. Take impressive selections and deliver them as an actor would, giving every ounce of meaning to the passage that your voice can contribute. Take argumentative passages, which require careful inflection, emotional passages which call out many different qualities, earnest passages which call for varying degrees of force. In short, the practicing of matter already composed, with the purpose in view of making the most of them vocally, is a good exercise to give you easy control over all the powers of your voice. It also removes the restraint which keeps many speakers from showing their real feelings in their voices, We recommend therefore declamation for practice, and in actual delivery, attention to thoroughly prepared thought and earnestness of purpose.

ASSIGNMENT OF WORK

The written exercises in this entire lesson should be carefully worked out. Keep copies of the written exercises in your notebook.

First Day.-Read the lesson through twice and review thoroughly Lesson 7.

Second Day.-Read some book of oratorical selections and pick out one which appeals to you and which has quite a range of feeling. Then copy it and make an emotion analysis similar to the one we have made for the Lincoln's Second Inaugural. Then practice reading with the proper quality changes. Keep your mind primarily on the thought and feeling so that the quality is the natural result of your emotion.

Third Day. Take another selection and mark in the margin the proper rates. Thus use the degrees normal rate, slow rate, very slow; fast rate, very fast. The idea is to indicate what you think would be desirable rate modulations to make in consideration of the audience. Append a note describing the kind of audience to which you imagine the speech is delivered. If you can prepare an original speech, so much the better.

Fourth Day.-Practice the exercise on degrees of force. Make up a short announcement and deliver it first to ten imaginary people, then to fifty, to two hundred, to a thousand, to two thousand. This exercise should be practiced very often.

Fifth Day. Make a complete analysis of your own voice and vocal habits, noting faults. Make notes after the following items:

4. Rate (a) Normal, how many words a minute, av

erage

(b) Ability to accommodate.

5. Special faults or peculiarities...

TEST QUESTIONS

These questions are for the student to use in testing his knowledge of the principles in this lesson. They are suggestive merely, dealing largely with the practical application of the principles, and are to be placed in the notebook for future reference.

1. What is meant by elocution? Is the study of elocution of any value to the practical public speaker? Why?

2. In what respects can the speaking voice be modified? What is the purpose or function of these modulations?

Can you give a definition of quality? Of human quality? Of individual quality? Of special, emotion quality?

4. What is the physical basis of quality? Which of the two kinds of resonation walls plays the larger part in quality changes! 5. Explain why a change in quality expresses a change in emotion.

6. Do you believe that the emotion analysis of the Lincoln selection is correct? What modifications or additions could you make?

7. What is the best way for a speaker to control his quality during delivery? Should he think about quality?

8. What are the two sources of rate control?

9. Can you give the three rules selected as important in relation to rate control?

What are the two kinds of pauses? Where do the logical pauses take place?

11. Of what value is the dramatic pause?

12. What is meant by general force? What is the most common speaking fault connected with force? How can it be cured?

13. Can you get emphasis by reduced force? Is it wise to do so sometimes?

14. What is the nature of inflection? Can inflections be consciously controlled?

15. Why is it well to have a fairly low, normal, or average pitch?

LESSON 21

GESTURES

In the last lesson, we spoke of the expressive voice and its contributions to the message of the speaker. The effects of well-selected words were considered as supplemented by the modulations of the voice. But besides this appeal which the speaker makes to the ear of the audience, he also makes an appeal to the eye by his bodily attitudes, his gestures, and the expressions of his face. It is the appeal to the eye which we shall discuss in this lesson. The expressiveness of bodily postures and movements must not be overlooked, for much meaning is added to the message by them. Indeed, a single flash of the eye, a turn of the hand, a forward swing of the body, may say more than all the words in an entire address.

1. CAUSES OF GESTURES

Broadly speaking, gestures may be divided into two great groups according to the causes which start them. There may be an involuntary, natural impulse or there may be a voluntary and deliberate desire to use a gesture to supplement words. Let us explain first the involuntary gesture which almost always expresses feeling and not intellectual discernment.

We have said that a feeling of any sort, and especially a sudden emotion, consists not only of a mental state, but also of a complete adjustment of the physical organism. In anger there are the changed circulation and breathing and the tenseness of the muscles. Any move