eech. We shall find that in
learning to support the tone we have gone far toward securing that
freedom; but the habit of years is not easily overcome, and every time
you have spoken without proper support of breath you have _forced_ the
tone _from_ the _throat_, by tightening the muscles and closing the
channel, thus making conditions which must now be reformed by steady,
patient effort. Yet it is not effort I want from you now; it is _lack_
of effort. It is _passivity_; it is _surrender_. I want you to relax
all the muscles which govern the organs concerned in converting the
breath into tone and moulding the tone into speech, all the muscles
controlling the throat and mouth, including the lips and jaw. I want
utter passivity of the parts from the point where the column of breath
strikes the vocal cords to where, as tone, it is moulded into the word
"No." Surrender to the desire to utter that word. Concentrate your
thought on two things: the taking of the breath and the word it is to
become. Now, lying down, or sitting easily, lazily, in a comfortable
chair, or standing leaning against the wall, with closed eyes, surrender
to the thought "No," and, taking a breath, speak. Still hard and
unmusical you find? Yes, but I am sure not so hopelessly hard as before.
What shall we do to relax the tense muscles, to release the throat and
free the channel? At the risk of being written down a propagandist, in
the ranks of the extreme dress-reformers, I shall say, first of all,
take off those high, tight collars. Again, as with the corset, it is a
case of a misfit rather than too tight a fit. If your collar is cut to
fit, it need not be too high nor too tight for comfort, and it will
still be becoming. You want it to cling to the neck and keep the line.
Cut it to fit, and it will keep the line; then put in pieces of
whalebone, if necessary, or resort to some of the many other devices now
in vogue for keeping the soft collar erect, but don't choke yourself,
either by fastening it too tight or cutting it too high. But how simple
it would be if we could relax the tension by doffing our ill-fitting
corsets and collars. Alas! the trouble is deeper seated than that.

It is an indisputable and most unfortunate fact that nervous tension
registers itself more easily in the muscles about the mouth and throat
than anywhere else. So, if we live as do even the children of to-day,
under excitement, and so in a state of nervous tension, the habit o