a teacher unsympathetic with the real needs of a learner even Shakespeare may become loathsome to him. This is a real danger.

The scientific, minute study of Shakespeare, the use of his plays for grammatical analysis, philological investigation, historical research, as now common in the high school, — belongs only to the last years of the college and to the graduate school. The proper study of Shakespeare in the high school is to feel: to read Shakespeare, see Shakespeare, play Shakespeare. This might awaken love. It must certainly result, in the high school, in a truer, broader acquaintance; in the college, in a truer, sounder criticism; on the stage, in a truer and more frequent presentation.1

A second danger. Another danger is possible in cultural study; the student, while learning to appreciate, may fail to acquire the technical power to present in adequate form the material which taste has learned to approve. The high estimate of the merit of a dainty sonnet or vigorous ballad is no guaranty of its adequate expression through voice and action. A certain amount of skill of a technical sort must be acquired, and the fundamental emotion of the true artist must be awakened. The culture process must arouse the mind, kindle the imagination, awaken the dramatic instinct, secure more or less response from the whole being. There must be present a genuine play-instinct. The student must enjoy speaking, abandon himself with gladness to vocal expression, not blindly and riotously but with a love of play such as the child feels, spontaneous, free, and genuine. "What, get up and play before an audience?" Yes! Why not? Except you become as a little child you are shut out from every worthy kingdom, and most of all the kingdom of art.

1 Parsons, in Atlantic Monthly, April, 1906.

The artistic spirit. How shall this spirit of joy in action be acquired? The usual reply to this question is, Oh, just be natural! Here is a liability to much trouble. Not one student in a thousand can follow this worn-out maxim and be right. Man is a bundle of habits, and in vocal and pantomimic expression most habits are bad. To be natural is, in most cases, to be habitual and so probably wrong. Training, the effort to secure good habits and normal action, daily and unremitted, is the price which must be paid for naturalness. This thought has been well summed up by Professor Genung in these words: "Art at its highest and nature at its truest are one."

Summary. The culture process, then, must seek to arouse a joyful appreciation. This appreciation cannot reach its flood tide except through normal conditions in voice and action. The whole body is the vocal instrument. All its powers must be organized under the centralizing control of a mind ambitious to give a service to the world, the vital motive of which shall be a joyous appreciation.

The vocational process. With this end partially or fully attained the learner may proceed to vocational work. He may desire to teach public speaking or wish to enter some profession where speaking is essential, or he may look forward to a career upon the platform as a lecturer or reader. As already pointed out, the work of such a student should be controlled by the purpose to cultivate taste and train all the faculties for service under its guidance. Without this the work is almost futile. With it vocational work becomes a matter largely of practice. Practice does not make perfect, but thorough, conscientious practice tends toward perfection. The student must have an audience upon which to exercise his talents. If he is to be a lawyer,

he must work out the problem of the address to the jury and the judge. He is likely to be called into politics, and so must study the problems of the political harangue, the legislative debate, and the after-dinner speech. He may look forward to the teaching profession, where he may be called upon to conduct institutes, lecture at Chautauqua assemblies, or engage in university extension work. So with each vocation specific practice is needed. Clinics, so to speak, must be opened, where the learner may gain proficiency in operating.

Dangers. There are dangers, already pointed out, in the culture process. These dangers are greatly enhanced in the vocational process. To repeat, the student who approaches such work without gaining the development through culture is bound to fail, or at best to attain but a partial success. By the very nature of the case his work cannot be otherwise than superficial. Before an intelligent audience exterior polish, however good, only serves to render more conspicuous interior dullness. The man without taste but possessed of skill is liable to be a blind leader of the blind. Taste, appreciation, capacity to adjust himself to any environment - all are essential to the guidance of skill. A cultivated taste is the open-eyed condition of the mind.

The adjustment to audience. Public speaking is a social function; a direct relation exists between the speaker and his audience. As the life of the body depends upon its power to adjust itself to the circumstances of life, so the life of speaking depends upon the power of the speaker to adjust himself to the varying needs of his audiences. He must be able to play upon the lyrical and intuitive nature of woman, the logical and oratoric nature of man ; and if he

has not culture, either as a result of deliberate training or otherwise, his playing is liable to produce nothing but discords. The speaker who fails of harmonic adjustment dies. He may go on speaking, more 's the pity, but there is some hope that his discordant utterances will eventually compel his retirement from the public platform. When the reader is a really beautiful young woman, whose every motion is graceful and whose voice is sweet music, this danger be-comes more subtle. The unthinking may applaud; the judicious will grieve. The greater her success, the more is true art retarded, until people of culture cry out, “Can any good come out of the study of public speaking?" Here, then, are two dangers from purely vocational work : the one for the student himself, that success without culture will mislead by effacing the highest ideal; and the second, that the whole subject will be brought into contempt. Then let the student enter upon the study of public speaking with a realization that it is a serious, lifelong business; that matter is more important than manner, taste than skill; that culture must precede calling; and that mind determines both manner and calling. The student has no call to speak to the universe until the universe has spoken to him.

Method. Experience has shown that as far as possible the student should learn by what may be called the laboratory method. He should have definite problems, the solution of which will demand serious consideration. There should be at least one piece of intensive work in connection with any course undertaken.

The inductive process. Success in acquiring power is best attained through the inductive process. Give the student a specific piece of work and by the process of

discovery through his own presentation in vocal expression let him reach the laws of good form in speaking. Coaching is liable to defeat itself and is a confession of weakness, a lack of culture in the one coached.

Summary. The two main purposes in the study of any phase of public speaking or reading are cultural and vocational. The former is primary. In the cultural process of acquiring a knowledge of the subject, taste, not skill, is the objective point; and yet voice and action, the media of mind expression, must become normal that the utterance may become natural. In the secondary process the vocational, actual practice involving the problems of specific vocations is fundamental, for skill is now the objective point. The process of work, whether cultural or vocational, should be evolutionary. The student should learn the laws underlying good work in public speaking by the inductive method of study. He should be so instructed that he will realize that learning to speak is primarily learning to think and feel. am.

Method suggested. It is not possible to prescribe a method of culture in vocal expression which will be completely adapted to the needs of all teachers and all pupils. The method suggested, however, has been tested by long use in the college classroom and has proved to be the most nearly ideal of the many which have been tried. This course is given for two hours a week throughout the year. The main purpose of the plan here advocated is to give the student a definite problem which may tax his powers to the proper limit.

The lecture recital. The student is required to prepare a lecture recital. In length it should be proportional to the time limit of the recitation hour so that at least two lectures