advance. Garcia expected to bring about a great
improvement in the art of Voice Culture. His idea was that the voice can
be trained in less time and with greater certainty by mechanical than by
imitative methods. As for the inherent falsity of this idea, that has
been sufficiently exposed.

So soon as the theory of mechanical vocal management began to find
acceptance, the old method yielded the ground to the new idea. That this
occurred so easily was due to a number of causes. Of these several have
already been noted,--the readiness of the most prominent teachers to
broaden their field of knowledge, in particular. Other causes
contributing to the acceptance of the mechanical idea were the elusive
character of empirical knowledge of the voice, and the unconscious
aspect of the instinct of vocal imitation. No master of the later
transition period deliberately discarded his empirical knowledge. This
could have been possible only by the master losing his sense of hearing.
Neither did the master cease to rely on the imitative faculty. Although
unconsciously exercised, that was a habit too firmly fixed to be even
intentionally abandoned.

Public opinion also had much to do with the spread of the mechanical
idea. Teachers found that they could get pupils easier by claiming to
understand the mechanical workings of the voice. In order to obtain
recognition, teachers were obliged to study vocal mechanics and to adapt
their methods to the growing demand for scientific instruction.

No master of this period seems to have intentionally abandoned the
traditional method. Their first purpose in adopting the new scientific
idea was to elucidate and fortify the old method. Every successful
master undoubtedly taught many pupils who in their turn became teachers.
There must have been, in each succession of master and pupil, one
teacher who failed to transmit the old method in its entirety. Both
master and pupil must have been unconscious of this. No master can be
believed to have deliberately withheld any of his knowledge from his
pupils. Neither can any student have been aware that he failed to
receive his master's complete method.

Let us consider a typical instance of master and pupil in the later
transition period. Instruction in this case was probably of a dual
character. Both teacher and pupil devoted most of their attention to the
mechanical features of tone-production. Yet the master continued to
listen closely to the student's