Alabama state intelligencer., 1831-08-06

by the child; we suppose, of course, that the
 auditor is not allowed to observe the features
 of the person who speaks.
 In this case the man has performed the part
 of vantriloquist, in so far as he initiated ac- curately the accents of the child; but the a,l- ditor could not long be deceived by such per l formance. If the man either hid his face or turned his back upon the auditor when he was exhibiting his imitation, a suspicion would 1 immediately arise, the auditor would attend more diligently the circumstances of the ex- hibition, and would speedily detect the impo- sition. It is absolutely necessary, therefore, the ventriloquist shall pHssess another art, namely, that of speaking without moving his | lips or the muscles of his face: how this is eff fected, and how the art is acquired, we do not certainly know; but we believe that it is accomplished by the muscles of the throat, assisted by the action of the tongue upon the palate, the teeth, and the inside of the lips all of them being movements which are per fectly compatible with the immutabllity of | the lips themselves, and the absolute express | sicn of silence in the countenance. The sounds thus uttered are nee essarly of adifferent cha racter from those which are produced by the | organs of speech when unimpeded, and this very circumstance gives double force to the deception, especially when the ventrilo- quist artfully presents the contrast to his au- ditor by occasionally speaking with his natu- ral voice. If he carries in his hand those inn portant personages Punch and Judy, and makes their movements even tolerably re- sponsive to the sentiment of the dialogue, the spectator will be infinitely more disposed to refer the sounds to the lantern jaws and the timber lips of the puppets than to the conjuror himself, who presents to them the picture of absolute silence and repose.
 MT Dugald Stewart, who has written an in teresting article on ventriloquism in the ap- pendix to the third volume of the "Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind," has, we think, taken very imperfect view of the subject. He not only doubts the fact, that ven |trioquists possess the power of fetching voice from within, but Che cannot conceive what aid the ventriloqust could derive in the exercise of his art from such an extraordinary power,i if it were really in his possession. He express es himself "fully satisfied, that the imagina- tion alone of the spectators, when skilfully managed, may be rendered subservient in a considerable degree to the purposes of the vantriloquist;" and he is rather inclined tc think, that "when seconded by such powers of imitation as some mnics possess, it is quite sufficient to account for all the phenomena of ventriloquism of which we have heard"
 From these observations 1t would appear, that MT Stewart had never witnessed these feats of the ventriloqust where his face is dis tinctly presented to the audience-a case in which he must necessarily speak from with in. But independent of this fact, it is very obvious that there are many limitations, espe- cially those of the cries of particular animals, and of sounds of high pitch, which cannot
 
 of utterance, but which require for their pro duction that very faculty, of which MT Stew art d"ubts the existence. Such sounds are necessarily produced by the threat, without requiring the use of the m uih ard lips and the deception actually depends on the differ cnce between such sounds, and those which are generated by the ordinary modes of ut terance.
 The art of ventriloquism, therefore, consists in the power of initiating all kinds of sound, not only in their ordinary character, but as modified by distance, instructions, and other causes; also in the power of executing those
 limitations of muscular exertions which can not be seen by the spectators But these powers, to whatever degree of perfection they may be possessed, would be of no avail if it were not for the incapacity of the ear to dis tinguish the directions of sounds-an incapa- city not arising from any defect in the orgah
 itself, but fro::: the very nature of sound If sound were propagated in straight lines, like light, and if the ear appreciated the direction of the one, as the eye does that of the other, the ventrioquist would exercise in vain all the powers of imitation and of internal utterance. Even in the present constitute Il of the ear his art has it's limits, beyond which he must be cautious of pushing il, unless he calls to his aid another principle, which, we believe, has not yet been tried. In order to explain this, we shall analyze some of the most common feats of vcntrilcqusm. When M. Fitzjames initiated the watchman crying the hour in the street, and approaching nearer and nearer the house, till he came opposite the window sash and asked the hour, which was imme- diately answered in the same tone, but clearer and louder; and upon shutting the window, the watchman's voice became less audible, and all at once very faint, when the ventrilo- quist called out, in his own voice, that he had turned the corner; now, as the artist was sta toned at the window, and as the sound from real watchman must necessarily have entered by the window, the difference between the two directions was considerably less than that which the car is unable to appreciate. Had the ventriloquist stood at the window, and tried to make the sound of a watchnian's voice enter another window, he would have failed in his performance, because the difference of the two directions was too great. In like manner, when M. Alexandre introduced boy frcm the street, and made him sing from his stomach the song of Malbrook, he placed his hand as near as possible to the boys chest, under the pretence of listening, whereas the real object of it Was to assimilate as much as possible the true and the fictitious dire ction of the sounds. Had he placed the boy at the distance of six or eight feet, the real singer would have been soon detected.