THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SPEAKER AND READER. PART I.-ELOCUTION. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. IF English Grammar be truly defined as "the art of speaking and writing the English Language with propriety," then, assuredly, the practice of elocution should form a component part of the curriculum of every school and college. That such has not been the case until a very recent period, and is even now only partially so, is evidenced by the fact that among all classes of society there is no complaint more general than that of the rarity of good readers. "And how," asks a writer in a recent number of the English Churchman, can it be otherwise? The laity complain, and most justly, of the bad reading inflicted on them Sunday after Sunday. Candidates for the ministry have no proper instruction, either in public schools or universities. They enter on their professional duties with provincialisms and cockneyisms uncorrected, and positively read worse than many members of their congregation. These evils are the necessary consequence of the inadequate estimate of the end in view, and the means to be employed for its attainment." "Some take half a dozen lessons, perhaps, from a strolling player, or trust to one lecture on church reading, given by the examining chaplain at the close of the examination for holy orders! The only true mode is a regular course of instruction." As far as regards the requirements of the clergy, the evil may be cured in after life, but B it is to be feared that in many cases it is too deeply rooted to be easily eradicated. The fault lies in the general neglect in childhood or early manhood of the habit of reading aloud, and the almost total absence of any attention to teaching it in a scientific yet natural manner. Professor Charles John Plumptre, in "A Plea for the Art of Reading Aloud," thus grapples with the subject: 66 "What is the cause of this admitted neglect of the art of reading in so many schools and families? Why is it that elocution has been of late years so much disregarded as a part of education, and yet music, singing, drawing, and other accomplishments, have all received their due share of attention? One reason is, I believe, to be found in the fact that this very word, elocution, has been made a bugbear of, and has frightened away many from its study, through a completely erroneous interpretation of its meaning and character. Do not many persons imagine that the study of elocution must lead to a pompous, bombastic, stilted, or pedantic style-a style in which the artificial reigns predominant over everything that is simple and natural ? I can only say, if elocution meant anything of the kind I should be the last man to advocate its adoption in schools or anywhere else. If I am asked to define what I then mean by elocution, I think I should answer-That which is the most effective pronunciation that can be given to words when they are arranged into sentences and form discourse.' In this of course I include the appropriate inflections and modulations of the voice, the purity of its intonation, the clearness of articulation, and, when suitable to the occasion, the accompaniments of expression of countenance and action. This art of elocution, then, I may further define as that system of instruction which enables us to pronounce written or extemporaneous composition with proper energy, correctness, variety, and personal ease; or, in other words, it is that style of delivery which not only expresses fully the sense and the words so as to be thoroughly understood by the hearer, but at the same time gives the sentence all the power, grace, melody, and beauty of which it is susceptible. "Is it not strange, let me ask, when we reflect on the marvellous power which spoken language has to excite the deepest feelings of our common nature, that the cultivation of the art of speaking which once received so much attention, should afterwards and for so long a time have been almost completely neglected? We know what importance the ancient orators of Greece and Rome attached to the study of rhetoric. The prince of them all, Demosthenes, asserted that 'Delivery' (under which term is included everything that relates to the effective management of voice, look, and gesture) is the first, the second, and the last element of success in a speaker. And surely this is as true in our own day as it was in his. For even assuming that a youth has no apparent prospect of debating in Parliament, of addressing judges or juries at the Bar, or appealing on the most solemn and important topics of all from the pulpit, does it therefore follow that he need bestow no trouble in learning to speak his native language elegantly and effectively? Will he never have occasion to read aloud in his family circle, or to a company of friends, some leader from the Times or other newspaper, some chapter from a book, or some verses from a poem ? And what a difference will there be in the effect produced upon the reader and upon his audience accordingly as this is done well or ill! We are most of us in the present day accustomed to have our sons and daughters taught dancing, drilling, or calisthenic exercises, that give strength, flexibility, and elegance to the limbs—and very excellent are all such accomplishments in their way. But after all, the limbs are portions of our frames far less noble than the tongue; and yet, while no gentleman who can afford it hesitates about expending time and money in sending his son to the fencing, drilling, or dancing master, how few, comparatively, send as systematically their children to the elocution master, to be taught the full development of that which is the crowning glory of man-the divine gift of speech." That during the last few years the custom of reading before a public audience has become very general, the platform of the socalled "Penny Readings" bears ample testimony, and many and deep must have been the lamentations of a majority of the readers that they had not in their youth been taught this essential branch of a thorough English education. It is to be feared that this slipshod reading to audiences for the most part incapable of appreciat |