auditorium of a theatre to strike the auricular nerve of the auditor with a proper effect, like a bullet sent to the bull's-eye of a target from the muzzle of a gun; while sounds projected carelessly may be likened to a ball of sawdust that by atmospheric resistance is exploded and scattered, never reaching the object at which it was aimed.

By reason of the neglect of this simple part of the art of acting, we hear people, even in the middle distance of the auditorium of a theatre inquiring of a neighbor, with an apology for the intrusion,-"What did he say? I didn't hear him." Of course, the inquirer did hear but did not understand because of the speaker's imperfect articulation.

A few minutes of practice each day, in the analysis of words, that is, resolving them into their elementary sounds, and doing them with the organs of articulation, will in a short time produce most gratifying results to the artist and to his auditors. The artist may find excellent practice in analyzing the second person singular of the indicative mood, present and past tense, of

any verb in our language; e. g., "Thou trou-bl'st.' "Thou trou-bl'dst." "Thou charm'st." "Thou charm'dst."

Correct pronunciation means simply the putting together of the elementary sounds into syllables and words and accenting the syllable of a word according to the best usage of the language.

In all cultivated languages there are standard dictionaries for the study of the history, the meaning, accentuation and euphony of words.

It is true that the lexicographers differ about the meaning, the elementary sounds, and the accent of words; and the actor should therefore, and because of his position before the public, select for his authority a dictionary that gives the fullest history and the most perfect euphony to the words. The actor should, in pronunciation, be a good authority and a satisfactory reference for the patrons of his art. To be ignorant of a sufficient authority upon the question of a disputed word, is unworthy a true dramatic artist.

B

Expression

Y the use of the word "expression," in defin

ing the art of acting, we understand a result arising from combining all the elementary principles of artificial and natural language, and their presentation or sending out, for an effect, which effect should be a true, visible and auricular picture of the author's mental conceptions.

Articulation and pronunciation are merely the mechanism of expression, the absolutely necessary machinery by which the thoughts and sensations of the mind are conveyed to the sense of hearing. The more perfect this machinery, the more certain the effect of the emotion. But whether it be the rage of anger or of grief, the shout of joy, the murmur of happiness, the wail

of despair, or the merriment of laughter-whatever the emotion or the phase of emotion—it must be recognized through the factors of expression; and however great or small the dissimilarity in emotions, the difference in expression always results from a transposition of the modes of utterance, the qualities of the voice, the force of the voice, the stress, the time, and the inflections of the voice, just as the forms of grammar and the figures of rhetoric result from the position and transposition of words and phrases in a sentence. Grammar, rhetoric and logic are intellectual arts; so is acting an intellectual art; but, while in the study of the first three arts named, we are to consider only the rational processes, in acting we are to study feeling—that is, sensation as it appears by the various emotions.

Through the science of grammar, rhetoric and logic, we learn from words the true conceptions of the author; through the science of emotions we vitalize those conceptions; and by the art of acting we re-present them in dramatic charac

ters.

BY

Utterance

Y utterance we understand merely the mode of sending out the sounds made by the organs of speech.

The ef

There are seven modes of utterance. fusive, the expulsive, the explosive, the sighing, the sobbing, the panting and the gasping.

This factor of expression, mode of utterance, is heard on all sides of us, and in some of the above forms, at all hours of the day and night; so that one needs to have but small powers of observation to acquire a knowledge of it; and, with a little daily practice, one may make the imitation quite in perfection.

Each mode of utterance has its peculiar dramatic language; that is, as a factor in expression it has its own peculiar power.