EXAMPLES.

I'm a hopeless, unfortunate creature,
I'm tortured with sorrow and pain,
I'm twisted in figure and feature;

However, I never complain.-Stanley Wood.

Oh, my lord,

Must I then leave you? must I needs forego

So good, so noble, and so true a master?

Shakespeare.

O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son! -II. Samuel.

"Oh, dear," said Father Brown, one day,

"I never saw such weather!

The rain will spoil my meadow hay

And all my crops together."

His little daughter climbed his knee;
"I guess the sun will shine," said she.

Position.-Continued.

EXERCISE VII.

Transition of Poise.

Standing with one foot well in advance of the other, the arms hanging loosely at the sides, change the weight forward and back, always being careful to begin the movement with the hip, and to keep the shoulders as quiet as possible. Do not shuffle the feet.

Practise this exercise with the feet at various angles, until you accustom yourself to a graceful movement of the body in any direction. Be sure to look in the new direction before making a transition.

LESSON XIV.

Flexibility.-Continued.

EXERCISE III.

For Muscles of the Neck and Jaw.

(a) Holding the head erect, close the eyes as if about

Try to feel Now let the

to go to sleep. Let the jaw fall lifelessly. and look as stupid and lazy as possible. head drop forward as if the strength were gone from the muscles of the neck. After a moment, during which you should try to feel, if possible, still more lifeless about the head, neck, and shoulders, raise the head slowly, with the jaw dropped as before and carry it back as far as possible. Rest in this attitude for a moment, then repeat the exercise.

FIG. 6.

The body should assist the movements of the head by bending forward a little for the first position and back for the second, but it must not relax. The exercise is for the head and neck and for such muscles as

connect these parts with the shoulders. We must learn to control each part of the body separately before we can hope to gain command of the whole.

(b) Sway the head from side to side in the same manner as above described.

(c) Circle the head; that is, let it go from front to side, then back, then to the other side, and finally return to the front,-making the movement continuous but with the muscles as passive as possible.

EXERCISE IV.

For Flexibility of the Legs.

(a) Stand with one foot on the edge of a platform or low bench, so that the free leg Be careful to keep well poised.

FIG. 7.

hangs over the edge. Let the free leg hang until you feel all the muscles about the hip relax and the limb becomes a dead weight. Be sure that the knee and foot also are entirely passive. The body should be erect upon the strong foot in a position like that of Respect, so that the hip may be as far as

possible over the free side in order to give plenty of

room for the free leg.

(b) Standing as before, lift the free leg in front, with the knee and foot still relaxed, and then allow it to fall back lifelessly. If the muscles of the free leg are perfectly flexible, the leg will swing back and forth for a considerable time, like a pendulum. Let it come to rest of its own accord.

If this exercise is too difficult at first, practise lifting and dropping the leg while standing on the floor. Of course, the leg cannot swing to and fro but must come to rest at once. Here the poise of the body should be as in the Speaker's Position.

The Vowels.—Continued.

3. A, as in ale. This vowel has one peculiarity that deserves attention. If we speak a word like pay or may, we notice that the final sound is not that of a at all, but exactly that of long ē, thus, pāē, māē. You would find it difficult to pronounce either of these words and omit this vanishing sound or "glide," as it is sometimes called. The vanish or glide of the vowel a is one characteristic of a refined pronunciation. Before the vowel è, however, the vanish vanishes entirely, e.g., ā-erial. Be careful not to overdo this peculiarity; on the other hand, do not clip the vowel so short that the effect of the glide is lost.

4. Aȧ before r, as in care, fair, air; also heard in where, ne'er, Aaron, wear, and similar words.

5. E, short, as in ell, sell, tell; also many, bury, said, leopard, guess.

6. Ă, short, as in ăn, căn, făn; also plaid, raillery,

etc.

Notice that we are studying the sounds not merely the letters, and that in English one letter has often many very different sounds, and one sound is often represented in many different ways. E, for instance, is exactly like i in fatigue, ua in quay, ei in deceive, eo in people. I is heard in pretty, women, guinea, forfeit. Ā is heard in gauge, vein, obey. For that reason, we find it most convenient to call the sounds by their numbers rather than by their alphabetical names, thus, 1st or 2d sound, etc.

TO THE TEACHER:-These sounds follow each other in the order laid down by Prof. A. Melville Bell. From him I have also taken many of the illustrations. While no one pupil is deficient in all or many of these sounds, I have rarely found in my own experience a pupil who was perfect in every vowel. We have the testimony of no less a celebrity than Wendell Phillips to the practical value of careful drill in the elements of articulation. Occasional mistakes may be forgiven; but habitual disregard of the fundamentals of good pronunciation is inexcusable. I have not attempted to arrange the sounds in the order of their difficulty for the reason that no arrangement could be made that would answer for all or even a majority of our pupils. Special exercises should be assigned to individuals who are greatly deficient. Such may be found in the works of Bell, Monroe, and others, and in various treatises on voice. culture, stammering, etc.