ence be confided, as is too frequently the case,
to one of the numerous charlatans who, as Oscar Commettant said, "_are
not able to achieve possibilities, so they promise miracles_." The
proper Classification, and subsequent Placing, of a voice require the
greatest tact and discernment. True, there are voices so well-defined
in character as to occasion no possible error in their proper
Classification at the beginning of their studies. But this is not the
case with a number of others, particularly those known as voices of
_mezzo-carattere_ (_demi-caractere_). It requires a physician of great
skill and experience to diagnose an obscure malady; but when once a
correct diagnosis is made, many doctors of less eminence might
successfully treat the malady, seeing that the recognized
pharmacopoeia contains no secret remedies.

Let the student of singing beware of the numerous impostors who claim
to have a "Method," a sort of bed of Procrustes, which the victim,
whether long or short, is made to fit. A "method" must be adapted to
the subject, not the subject made to fit the method. The object of all
teaching is the same, viz., to impart knowledge; but the means of
arriving at that end are multiple, and the manner of communicating
instruction is very often personal. To imagine that the same mode of
procedure, or "method," is applicable to all voices, is as
unreasonable as to expect that the same medicament will apply to all
maladies. In imparting a correct emission of voice, science has not
infrequently to efface the results of a previous defective use,
inherent or acquired, of the vocal organ. Hence, although the object
to be attained is in every case the same, the _modus operandi_ will
vary infinitely. Nor should these most important branches of
Classification and Production be entrusted--as is often the case--to
assistants, usually accompanists, lacking the necessary training for a
work requiring great experience and ripe judgment. To a competent
assistant may very properly be confided the preparation of Technique,
as applied to a mechanical instrument: All violins, for instance, are
practically the same. But voices differ as do faces.

The present mania for dragging voices up, and out of their legitimate
_tessitura_, has become a very grave evil, the consequences of which,
in many instances, have been most disastrous. Tolerable baritones have
been transformed into very mediocre tenors, capable mezzo-soprani into
very indiff