feelings have been melodized by culture, they will
protect him against the influence of a too artificial construction of
the verse. He will not impose variety, but he will utter humdrum verse,
as far as possible, under the conditions of his melodized feeling.

The importance of cultivating the speaking voice is quite as great as
that of cultivating the reading voice. Perhaps it is greater; for the
speaking voice has a wider and more constant influence--an influence
which is exerted in all the relations of life, an influence calming or
irritating, an influence bringing men into friendly or unfriendly
attitudes toward each other. How demulcent the effect of a gracious
voice, and how rasping that of a snappish one! 'The sweetest music,'
says Emerson, 'is not in the oratorio, but in the human voice when it
speaks from its instant life tones of tenderness, truth, or courage.
The oratorio has already lost its relation to the morning, to the sun,
and the earth, but that persuading voice is in tune with these.'

Of Emerson's own voice, the Rev. Charles G. Ames, in 'A Memorial
Address,' says: 'His speech had a subtle spell,--a charm like Nature's
own, so that he affected men like Old Honesty ... so silvery, cheery,
sane, fearless!... There was no false ring, no trick to catch applause
or to turn off attention from the message to the messenger; no _show_ of
knowledge or power or art. One might forget it all next hour, through
sheer moral inability to stay at such an unwonted altitude; but while
listening to that high discourse it certainly did seem as if we
belonged up there,--as if a man ought to make the very earth a pedestal
of honor for his feet and wear the sky about his brow as an aureole.'

How much wrath, with its evil consequences, might be averted by soft
answers! How much pleasanter an arrival at a hotel might be than it
often is, if the slapdash clerk in the office had a voice better attuned
to a courteous reception of a guest! or an arrival in New York, from
abroad, if a custom-house official knew how to ask, in a civilized way,
'What's in that box?' The question is often asked in a way which has a
decidedly indurating effect upon the conscience of a traveller, in
regard to dutiable things he may have brought with him. How afflicting
the chaotic clatter of high-pitched voices, at a reception, or an
evening party! A room jam-full of standing people, 'unaimed prattle
flying up and down' (true conversation is out