Perfect articulation may be described as the delivery of words "from the lips as beautiful coins are issued from the mint: deeply and accurately impressed, neatly struck by the proper organs, distinct, sharp, perfectly finished." Once more; speak clearly, if you speak at all; And, when you stick on conversation's burrs, - Holmes. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you— trippingly on the tongue; but if you' mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief the town - crier spake my lines. – Shakespeare. CALIFORNIA VOCAL TRAINING. ARTICULATION. Imperfect articulation arises, chiefly, from errors or carelessness in the following particulars: 1. Omitting the vowel sound in an unaccented syllable; as, 'nd for and; ev'ry for ev'er-y; Sat'ur-d'y for Sat'ur-day; miz'rable for mis ́er-a-ble; neigh'b'ring for neighbor-ing, These sounds are sometimes called obscure. They should not be given so fully as the vocals in accented syllables, but care should be taken that they be not dropped. 2. Giving an unaccented vowel the sound of another vowel, improperly; as, pock'it for pocket; gar dins for gar'dens; work/mun for work/men; While these unaccented wůz for was; si lunt for silent; cur runt for cur/rent. vowels should not be so strongly brought out as the accented vowels, their own distinct sound, though obscure, should nevertheless be preserved. 3. Dropping the sound of terminal letters in a syllable or word; as, an' for and; kep' for kept; miss in' for missing; neat'es' for neat'est; wins for winds; insecs for insects. 4. Blending the end of one word with the beginning of the next; as, rock sand for rocks | and; enter dinto for entered | into; spur don for spurred | on; That these errors may be roll dit for rolled | it; avoided, drills in articula tion are placed at the head of most of the reading |