vowels is lost, and their distinguishing qualities are obscured;
and with unnoticed frequency our consonants are either dropped or
amalgamated with one another. Yet, while amendment in these matters
is to be striven for, there is nothing that the teacher who wishes
to establish habits of orthoepy has to be more watchful in guarding
against, than bestowing upon his pupils an affected or mincing
utterance, all the more ludicrous and objectionable, it may be,
in that a certain set of words are pronounced with over-nicety,
while almost all others are left in a state of neglected vulgarity.

Too frequently the study of oral reading is pursued with reference
solely to the prospective public use of the art in the declamation of
prepared passages; and the elocution-master's science has been brought
into some discredit by wide discrepancies between the performances of
his pupils in their well-drilled and often hackneyed selections and
their ability to read unfamiliar pieces at sight. It is quite true that
voice culture is greatly aided by the close study and frequent rendering
of selections suitably chosen for the elocutionary difficulties which
they present; but it should never be forgotten that good reading, the
sort of reading which the schoolmaster should above all else endeavor to
make his pupils proficient in, implies the ability so to read a plain
account, a story, an oration, a play, or what not, _at sight_, with
absolute correctness as to pronunciation, with such clearness of
articulation and appropriateness of sentence utterance as will make it
perfectly audible and intelligible to one's auditors, and with such
suitable and impressive intonations as will put them in full possession
of those emotions which may be said to be the essence or spirit of the
piece;--and, moreover, to do all this with pleasure to one's hearers and
with ease to one's self. Now as comparatively few readers are ever
required to read in public, and as in the home-circle everyone ought to
read, it is plain that the first duty of the teacher of elocution is to
develop in his pupils a mastery of such a style of reading as is
appropriate to small audiences; and, _then_, if he have time and
opportunity, to extend and amplify the practice of his art so as to fit
such as are capable of fuller mastery of it to appear before greater
audiences. For though all voices are capable of being much improved
through cultivation, few only can be adapted to the requi