what they work for, but have no right to expect
to sing or speak effectively by inspiration, any more than the athlete
to win a race because he is born naturally fleet of foot or with a
quick intelligence. In each case the ideas are converted into
performance, the results attained, by the exercise of neuro-muscular
mechanisms. I am most anxious that it shall be perceived that this is
the case, that the same laws apply to voice-production as to running
or any other exercise. The difference is one of delicacy and
complexity so far as the body is concerned.

It will be understood that I speak only of the technique. For art
there must be more than technique, but there is no art without good
methods of execution, which constitute technique. The latter is
nothing more than method--manner of performance. Behind these methods
of performance, or the simplest part of them, there must be some idea.
The more intelligent the student, speaker or singer, as to his art and
generally, the better for the teacher who instructs scientifically,
though such intelligence is largely lost to the teacher who depends on
tradition and pure imitation. In the present work I shall be so
concerned with the physical that I shall be able only to refer briefly
to the part that intelligence and feeling play in the result.

The qualifications for the successful treatment of vocal
physiology--that is, such a discussion of the subject as shall lead to
a clear comprehension of the nature of the principles involved, and
place them on a practical foundation, make them at once usable in
actual study and in teaching--such qualifications are many, and, in
their totality and in an adequate degree, difficult to attain. After
more than twenty years of the best study I could give to this subject
in both a theoretical and a practical manner, I feel that I have
something to say which may be useful to a large class, and, so far as
I know, that is my reason for writing this book.

For myself music is indispensable. The one instrument we all possess
is a voice-mechanism. I am one of those who regret that so little
attention is paid, especially in America, to pleasing and expressive
use of the voice in ordinary conversation. Yet how much pleasure
cannot a beautiful speaking voice convey! The college undergraduate
rarely finds vocal study among the requirements, in spite of the fact
that the voice is an instrument that he will use much more than the
pen. The truth is, the