Count each group deliberately and distinctly, holding the waist firmly outward and maintaining a smooth and constant expiratory pressure; at the end of each group, instantly relax the diaphragm, then immediately contract it, to renew the breath; pronounce the next group, as directed; relax and renew; and so on.

This is a mechanical and purposed imitation of the manner of grouping and sustaining the voice, in its unstudied conversational use. The exercise should be frequently repeated, until the renewal of the breath becomes automatic, and the command of expiratory pressure is a matter of unconscious adaptation; of conscious command, rather than of conscious effort.

WHISPER PRACTICE.

Vigorous practice of the 'articulated' whisper-so called by Mr. Murdoch-has many valuable points in its favor:a. It can be carried on without the dread of disturbing one's neighbors, or the feeling of being overheard and discussed;

b. It compels frequent pauses and renewals of breath, and so enforces attention to grouping; and it cultivates and speedily establishes breath control;

C. It tends to strengthen and round out the voice; because strong whisper demands and secures vigorous respiration and the open throat;

d. It gives command of aspirated quality, a most important emotional voice color;

e. It renders the enunciation clear and penetrating; the absence of vocality from the vowels being instinctively balanced by increased energy in the utterance of the articulates.

Perhaps no other one form of exercise produces a larger number and variety of valuable results.

HOW TO PRACTICE THE WHISPER.

Always practice the whisper on the scale of public speaking; that is, as if trying to make every syllable distinctly heard throughout a large auditorium. A well-enunciated, well-projected whisper will carry to a surprising distance; but practice as if to reach beyond possibility. Float your effusive, push your expulsive, and throw, or toss, your explosive syllables to definite points, at different distances. Your whisper may not, probably will not, reach so far as your aim; but this governing idea will induce in the organs of utterance that mode of effort that throws the voice forward and out, and develop the adjustment and action of tongue and lips that give the breath, when vocalized, the proper re-enforcement from the head cavities. This kind. of practice 'places' the voice, as it is phrased. It gives reach and clearness of enunciation, and enables you to preserve the colloquial manner in public address, with the pleasing certainty that every word reaches every ear.

Practice the whisper often, but not long at a time.

THE TIME FOR PRACTICE.

The best time for vigorous practice is midway between meals. As a rule, do not practice exercises requiring strong breathing action within an hour after or an hour before, a hearty meal.

DIRECTIONS FOR WHISPER PRACTICE.

All the following examples for whisper practice should also be frequently given in the mingling of voice and whisper called half-whisper.

The first example of each form is marked for the pauses. I do not pretend to dictate the length of the pause; only the place is suggested. To sustain a vigorous, well-projected

whisper requires more breath, and of course more ample respiration, than a correspondingly powerful vocal utterance. At each pause, then, inhale breath enough to keep up the supply; but do not take a full breath. If necessary, exaggerate the pause, but do not neglect to inhale. Beware the gasp! Begin the utterance of each successive group of a sentence as the tide of breath turns to flow outward.

EXAMPLES OF EFFUSIVE WHISPER.

In practicing the effusive whisper, there will probably be a tendency, at first, to make the accents more or less sharply staccato, or else decidedly expulsive. Try to preserve the gentle, tranquil, flowing utterance of serene meditation; accentuate and emphasize by a smooth, deliberate breathingout of the important syllables; quantity, not vehemence, is the effect you are to aim at. Do not hack or thrust the accents; simply breathe and float them out and away. If you seem perilously near the drawl, do not be frightened, so long as your ear perceives it.

1.

Yon gentle hills, 7
of untrodden snow; 7
whence icicles depend,
white and glittering spires
pure beam; 7 yon castled steep,
o'er the time-worn tower
deemeth it

Robed in a garment
Yon darksome rocks,
So stainless that their
Tinge not the moon's
Whose banner hangeth
So idly that rapt Fancy
A metaphor of peace; all
Where musing Solitude 7 might love
Her soul above this sphere
Where Silence 7 undisturbed 7 might watch alone,

So cold, so bright, so still!

form a scene 7
to lift 7
of earthliness; 7

-Shelley.

2.

3.

There is a silence where hath been no sound,
There is a silence where no sound may be,

In the cold grave, under the deep, deep sea,

Or in wide desert where no life is found,

Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound:
No voice is hushed, no life treads silently,
But clouds and cloudy shadows wander free,
That never spoke, over the idle ground:
But in green ruins, in the desolate walls
Of antique palaces, where man hath been;
Though the dun fox or wild hyena calls,

And owls that flit continually between
Shriek to the echo, and the low winds moan,-
There the true Silence is, self-conscious and alone!
-Thomas Hood.

All heaven and earth are still,--though not in sleep,-
But breathless, as we grow when feeling most;
And silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep:-
All heaven and earth are still: from the high host
Of stars, to the lulled lake and mountain coast,
All is concentered in a life intense,

Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf, is lost,
But hath a part of being, and a sense
Of that which is of all Creator and Defense.

-Byron-Childe Harold.

EXAMPLES OF EXPULSIVE WHISPER.

Effusion and expulsion are distinguished apart solely by degree of breath pressure, effusion being the effect of gentle pressure, as in the sigh, and expulsion, of strong pressure, as in the shout; so that they meet and merge at some rather indefinite point. It is sometimes difficult, therefore, to say whether a given word or group is uttered with a full effusion or with a light expulsion, so near is it to the boundary line; still, in general, the distinction is sufficiently plain.

In practicing the examples below, let the expulsive pressure on the accents be clearly heard and felt. With open

throat, shout out the groups, first in whisper, and after that is well in hand, as another exercise, in half-whisper. Inhale promptly and noiselessly.

1.

In thoughts from the visions of the night, 7 when deep sleep falleth on men, trembling, which made a spirit passed before my face, stood up.

fear came upon me and all my bones to shake. Then the hair of my flesh

2.

3.

4.

5.

-The Book of Job.

Night, sable goddess, from her ebon throne,
In rayless majesty now stretches forth
Her leaden scepter o'er a slumbering world.
Silence how dead! and darkness how profound!
Nor eye nor listening ear an object finds.
Creation sleeps. 'Tis as the general pulse
Of life stood still, and Nature made a pause,
An awful pause, prophetic of her end.

-Young-Night Thoughts.

What art thou that usurp'st this time of night,
Together with that fair and warlike form.
In which the majesty of buried Denmark

Did sometimes march? By Heaven I charge thee, speak!
-Shakespeare-Hamlet.

How ill this taper burns! Ha! who comes here?

I think it is some weakness of mine eyes,

That shapes this monstrous apparition.

It comes upon me! Art thou anything?

Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil,
That mak'st my blood cold, and my hair to stare?
Speak to me what thou art.

-Id.-Julius Cæsar.

Soldiers! you are now within a few steps of the enemy's outpost. Our scouts report them as slumbering in parties around their watchfires, and utterly unprepared for our