2. Present whatever you undertake to explain to your pupils in the fewest words consistent with clearness, and in the simplest manner. Prepare your lessons thoroughly beforehand, then you will be able to talk directly to the point.

3. Good methods, to the teacher who understands how to use them, are invaluable; but to those who do not, they are no better than the worst.

4. The teacher who is conscious of his inability to teach any branch successfully will not be likely to excite in the minds of his pupils a great degree of interest in the subject by any thing that he says or does.

5. Instruction in elocution must commence with plain and simple explanations-not with tedious and obscure explanations and minute verbal distinctions.

6. The teacher of elocution must be able to explain what should be done, why it should be done, and must also be able to show how it should be done.

7. Instead of poems and impassioned dramatic extracts, let the beginner make his selections entirely from prose: such passages as are easy and familiar, pure in sentiment and style, and so interesting that he can fully enter into the spirit. If he is old enough, let him write off his piece, and read it over again and again, until the language becomes in a manner his own, and let him listen with careful attention to the tones of his voice, and decide as well as his taste and understanding can aid him, whether they are natural and convey the exact meaning in the best manner or not.

8. All students of elocution should be subjected to a thorough course of discipline in vocal gymnastics. They ought to be exercised frequently in the rising and the falling slides in all their modulations, and on all those intonations of the voice which express feeling and definite meaning; they must find out for themselves how these elements of expression should be applied in all other examples except those given for illustration.

9. Attention should be given to the manner in which pupils habitually speak when they ask or answer questions, and to the way they speak when engaged in reading or elocutionary exercises. Whatever benefit pupils may derive from the regular reading or elocutionary exercises is likely to be lost by careless and faulty utterance at all other times.

10. "As we sow, so shall we reap," is not more true in a moral than it is in a material sense. If the teacher evinces a lack of interest, and is careless about his work, his pupils will become careless and indifferent. If, on the other hand, he is capable and deeply interested in his work, he will seldom fail to awaken interest in them.

11. Encourage your pupils to write out their thoughts: this will stimulate to original thought and expression. A new thought must be fully apprehended and appreciated before it can be applied.

12. We must know the subject we wish to teach. We must know what has to be done in order to teach it successfully, and we must be able to do whatever it may be necessary to do to teach it well.

13. Reduce every subject to its simplest form: one difficulty at a time is enough for any one. Proceed step by step. Be thorough: the measure of benefit derived is not in proportion to the amount of instruction given, but to the amount that is understood and appreciated.

14. The teacher of elocution must always be prepared to exemplify, by his own reading, any sentence or passage in the lesson assigned to his pupils. It is impossible to teach them how to read well without frequent illustration and example.

15. Do not attempt too much, but whatever you commence continue until the pupil understands it. If a great many ideas are presented in one lesson, they will not be distinctly remembered, much less digested.

16. Tell your pupils only that which it is most important for them to know, and which they could not find out with

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out instruction; but do not waste time in teaching them any thing that is not necessary, or any thing which they can and ought to find out for themselves.

17. Some pupils possess great imitative power and but little originality; others possess originality with little imitative ability. One person soon learns to read and declaim the thoughts of others—another never can deliver well, any but an original composition.

18. The shortest and surest way to kill out interest in reading exercises is to require pupils to read examples above their capacity to understand. Let the pieces given them to read be adapted to the capability and taste of the pupil. Insist upon the lesson being well studied before it is recited, and satisfy yourself fully that the pupil has a proper understanding of the leading ideas in it.

19. The teacher's most important duty is to stimulate thought. In proportion as a pupil understands his lesson will his mind be strengthened, his knowledge advanced, and his ability to give correct expression increased. An elocutionary exercise which does not bring the thinking faculties into vigorous activity is unprofitable, if not injurious.

20. Methods of teaching reading and elocution are various, but the one you understand best, and in which you have the highest confidence, will always reward you with the best success.

FURTHER DIRECTIONS CONCERNING THE CULTIVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE VOICE.

1. DEEP BREATHING.

The only basis upon which a full, firm, pure tone of voice can be formed, is deep and copious breathing. To do this, the chest must be well thrown out, the head erect,

and the throat and mouth opened so wide that the voice will meet with no obstruction in its course.

The great object in commencing any systematic course of instruction in vocal culture ought to be to deepen and strengthen the voice. To accomplish this the student must, in his vocal exercises, stretch the muscles about the throat and the root of the tongue, and those that regulate the action of the lower jaw, so as to form the voice lower down in the throat than he is in the habit of doing.

2. COMPASS OF VOICE.

To increase the compass of the voice, declaim short passages which require intense force on a high pitch. The pupil will discover, after the voice has been thus taxed to its highest capabilities, that it will perform its office with surprisingly greater facility and ease on the natural key, and in a lower pitch than he could reach before.

The most contracted and superficial voice may soon be made strong and flexible by this kind of exercise, and it can not be improved in any other way. If your voice is feeble, practice singing, shouting, and declaiming with the utmost force, at the top of your voice, whenever an opportunity presents itself, and it will soon acquire sufficient strength and resonance.

3. ON CHANGING THE PITCH.

Whenever, on changing the pitch or increasing the force, the voice runs into a thin, aspirated, guttural, or disagreeable tone of any kind, stop at once, and rest until you feel perfectly at ease. Then carefully begin again in your conversational pitch and tone of voice. Above every thing else, be sure you keep the tone pure and resonant.

4. ON OPENING THE MOUTH.

The chief difficulty the student will experience in many of the vocal exercises will be that of keeping the throat and mouth wide enough open. Unless the student is very mindful of the conditions to be observed, he will gradually close his mouth before the word is finished; the inevitable consequence of which is a smothered, imperfect utterance. A liberal opening of the mouth is a condition absolutely necessary in giving the voice the full effect of round, smooth, and agreeable tone.

5. SUBDUED TONES.

Habitual speaking and reading in a very loud tone disqualify the organs of speech for executing the soft tones with facility; yet the voice is greatly assisted in its efforts to acquire the more subdued tones, by being subjected to the most energetic vocal discipline and in the highest pitch of the voice. These intensive exercises expand and deepenthe voice, rendering it more flexible and mellow, and bringing it more completely under the control of the will.

6. VOCAL EXERCISE PREPARATORY TO READING OR SPEAKING IN PUBLIC.

A beneficial influence is exerted on the voice by the most vigorous and sustained exercises upon the elementary sounds, and by reading and declaiming with the utmost force consistent with purity of tone immediately before retiring at night. The organs of speech are thus rendered flexible for exercise on the succeeding day. Even an interval of only an hour or two between the preliminary exercise and the subsequent effort, will in most cases afford the organs of speech time to rest and resume their natural

state.