All in an instant, a fierce eye of fire shot out from behind the cape, and sent a long, brilliant pathway quivering athwart the dusky water. The coughing sound grew louder and louder, the glaring eye grew larger and larger, glared wilder and still wilder. A huge shape developed itself out of the gloom, and from its tall duplicate horns dense volumes of smoke, starred and spangled with sparks, poured out and went tumbling away into the farther darkness. Hear the mellow wedding bells! What a world of happiness their harmony foretells! What a liquid ditty floats To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats Oh, from out the sounding cells, How it dwells On the future! how it tells To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells! -Poe-The Bells. THE VICE OF DISARTICULATION. Thus far our vocal gymnastics have afforded the discipline which gives such precision and energy of organic action as results in the clear and satisfactory presentation of syllable and word values. Many of the exercises even exaggerated the conditions involved. We are seeking distinctness, however, not for its own sake, not as an end in itself, but for the sake of the message and the audience. Even in the enunciation of the text, we 'must acquire and beget a temperance that shall give it smoothness.' Words and syllables should be pronounced so as to be recognizable without effort on the part of the listener, but should not be pronounced 'with the utmost distinctness', except in the case of especially emphatic words. Excepting these, the words of a group should, in general, be articulated, or jointed, like the syllables of such a word as indivisibility. In such frequent and familiar phrases as, at all, it is, it isn't, don't you, did you, etc., the collocation is practically a word, with a single accent, and should be so spoken. The inner terminal and initial articulates should closely joint the syllables together, and nicety of syllabic boundary is a vice, not a virtue. Of late years, an almost religious solicitude to keep the words of such phrases from running together is a characteristic of the speech of many of the disciples of 'culture'; exhibited especially by young women who have dwelt under the influence of the departments of English and 'expression' in high schools and in colleges for girls. The usage is utterly at war with natural and artistic utterance and with the genius of the English tongue. It falsifies the end and aim of speech, by thrusting into prominence the word units,-properly constituents of a larger whole, so that each unit claims distinct attention on its own account; while the aggregate unit-the phrase unit-the item of real and only importance, loses its identity, because it is presented disorganized and piecemeal, instead of as an organic whole. The phrase is not neatly and deftly articulated as a living entity, but disarticulated into fragments of a carcass. The phrases, don't you, won't you, did you, can't you, should you, would you, could you, etc., when spoken colloquially, become, and properly, dōn'chŭ, wōn'chů, dí'jů, etc., or, dōn'choo, wōn'choo, di'joo, etc. There should not be the smallest hiatus between the words, such as the fad of the day dictates, don't ê-oo, won't ê-oo, did ê-00, ǎt' all', etc. Even in more formal public utterance, these and similar phrases should be spoken with easy, graceful smoothness, rather than with studied and affected preciseness. At all should be spoken as a word of two syllables, accented on the second; and the t should be regarded, not as the final consonant of the word at, but as the middle consonant, jointing the two words into one. The point here insisted upon is well illustrated by the long established usage in the case of the phrase, it is. Sometimes it is abbreviated, it's, as often, perhaps oftener, 'tis. In the latter form, it no longer exists as an uttered syllable, and, in order to identify the phrase, its remainder, t, has become, of necessity, initial to the word is; but 'tis passes current for it is as readily and as legitimately as does it's. When it is, full form, is strongly emphatic, with is the seat of emphasis, the natural and proper tendency is to lengthen and strengthen the mute hold of t and to intensify the explosive opening of the following vowel, so that the phrase sounds exactly as if spelled it-tiz'. In Hamlet's reply to his mother,— Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not seems, 'At all' the emphatic 'it is' should be thus closely welded. presents a case precisely similar, and, when emphatic, should be pronounced at-tall'. EXERCISES IN PRONUNCIATION. Every reader and speaker who wishes to form and retain the habit of clear, crisp syllabication and to acquire a mastery of the expressive utterance of words, the key to which lies in the words themselves, in their elementary composition, -should frequently and forcibly spell phonetically, and pronounce, from the following or like lists of words. At least ten minutes a day, 'rain or shine,' should be devoted to this work. All varieties of inflection, pitch, stress, loudness, quantity, and quality, should be practiced. There should be at least a few minutes of loud practice daily. No student, teacher, preacher, reader, or speaker ever gets beyond the need of regular gymnastics of this sort. 1. INITIAL AND MIDDLE ARTICULATES AND ARTICULATE COMBINATIONS. Wade, wane, wail, waste, ware, wart, warm, ward, wax, weeds, ween, weal, want, went, west, weld, wide, wire, wine, wise, wight, wish, win, wind, will, woe, worn, wont, water, woo, wood, wound; ruinous, fruition, Croatia, dower, poet, Iowa, redowa, drawing, rewarded, renewing, coeval, flowing, flowers, lower, slower, go on, law of kindness. 2. Whale, what, wheeze, wheel, wheat, when, whence, whet, white, while, whine, whit, which, whist, whilst, whip, awhirl, whim, awhile, awheel. 3. Pave, pains, page, park, part, pawl, pause, pack, pat, pique, pick, pit, pigs, pigeon, pour, poke, poor, put, pound, pose; plays, plat, plait, plane, plans, plausible, pleasant, pleasing, plenary, plenty, pleasures, plies, plod, plumes, plow; pray, prawn, prank, preen, princess, primrose, price, pride, prime, prizes, prone, prose, prod, proof, prove, prunes, prisms, proud, prowl, precise, protect, preference; upper, stepping, appear, opportune, flippant, disappoint, compel, impress, composure, depletion, displeasure. 4. Bad, band, bale, bane, ball, balk, bard, bees, beams, buy, bind, build, bold, boat, boasts, bond, bonny, bought, booby, beauty, booty, boys, bound; bleed, blend, bliss, blaze, blow, blood, blew, blind, bless, blunt; brave, brawl, brand, broad, breeze, breast, bread, brag, brilliant, bronze, bruise; rubber, Robert, dabber, number, slumber, filbert, Albert, robust, embolden, rebellion, stability, arbitrament, obey, obedience, embody. 5. Mime, maim, main, mace, make, mazes, mark, Mars, march, mat, mast, mean, meet, minds, miles, met, mere, mist, mill, moan, mourn, mock, more, moor, mood, moon, muse, must, muck, mound, memorial, mimetic; amity, demur, demon, utmost, pigment, admirable, submit, summon, acme, reminder, immense, immemorial, immortal, immortality, admonish. 6. Famous, farms, fall, fawn, fiend, feast, felt, fend, fetter, fat, fact, facts, firs, fine, fight, fin, fizz, fists, foam, forge, foray, first, fix, fox, fog, forest, form, fool, foot, fume, feud, furious, fun, foist, fount, found, foul, food, facetious; flail, flames, flaunt, flaw, flat, flax, flags, flee, flit, flay, fleer, phlegm, flight, flies, flick, flora, flew, flume; fray, frames, frail, freight, franc, freeze, freak, friend, frenzy, fright, frill, frore, fro, fruit, froufrou, frown; differ, defer, confine, beautiful, infinite, suffrage, pilfer, comfit, emphasis, crucifix, interference, defile, defect, diffuse, refer, confess, reflection, refusal. 7. Vague, vain, various, variety, vaunt, vat, vent, vogue, voracious, volley, vigor, voyage, vociferous; driver, driven, |