The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1906-06-27
THE ART OF READING IN PUBLIC.

to be studied like the other arts Not that we
need trouble ourselves with the complicated rules
met with In books on elocution. These SEEM
Tor the most part, so embarrassing that L do not
wonder at Archbishop Whatelys advice to cast
rules to the wind and go by nature. But there
Is one art which must previously be acquired bv
all who would read with least fatigue to them
selves and with most qualification to their hearers
1t is indeed practiced unconsciously by all good
readers, and that is the art OF breathing We must
learn to breathe, both inhang and exhanp
through the nose, not through the mouth This
simple rule must be practiced until it becomes
habitual, till 1t is done unconsciously, naturally
automatically. The breathing is to be done
through the nostrlls (Which to us what the
gills are to fish, the speaking only through the
mouth 1h1s, too, will secure from the dys-
phonia clericorum, clergyman's sore throat
Then again, must be careful not to talk
through the teeth Some people speak with the
mouth almost shut. They seem afraid to open
their mouths. The result is that their words are
smothered in the birth Neither must we speak
from our throat. Some people who have fair,
natural voice in ordinary conversation, the mo-
ment they begin to read aloud adopt an artificial
talsetto, dlscharging the voice by of the
palate. This is almost as Objectionable as the
nasal twang which is distressing to cultivated
ear. L have heard it said of such man HE
has a voice like corn-rake." The voice should
not have its origin in the mouth; certainly not in
that part of it which is called the palate. 1t
should be produced from the chest pectore alb
mo And to this end it is necessary to hold
oneself erect
Another to be guarded against is the trick
OF dropping the voice at the end of a sentence
1hls is one OF the most irritating things to lis
tener A learned layman once told me that at
the church he went to- all they heard of the Com
mandments Thou shalt not" What it was
that they not to do was altogether SUPPRESS
ed. The voice should always be sustained to the
end. The last word of the sentence should be- if
anything, a little louder than the rest The next
paragraph may sometimes with advantage begin
III lower key. What a relief it sometimes is
when man who has been speaking at too high
pitch drops into his natural tone.
AS l am dealing with cautions, l may venture
on one more We must be guard against
jerks, jerking out words. Some men seem
to have engine their insides, and shoot out
their words at you out of a cataput. The syll-
ables ought to succeed another in an even
flow; not in a series of jerks, but in a series of
waves, velut unda supervenit undam. AS to the
rate OF reading, l would recommend in this as in
so many other things, the golden mean We must
be neither too fast nor too slow We must neith-
drawl gable The former perhaps was
our danger in former times, but now the regulator
seems to have been pushed rather too far towards
Fast" Some men profess to do this what
they call principle. In a church which l once had
occasion to visit the result was not edifying. The
Gospeller added to the acoustic difficulties occa-
stoned by his low tone and rapid rate of utterance
by also turning from the people when he began
to read what was, presumably, for their edifca-
ton
The "art of rhetorical pointing" or punctua-
ton to which you refer, includes what must al
ways be supplied by every intelligent person in
reading aloud, short pause; about half the dura-
ton of a comma. 1t seems pity that have
such stop. After all, Hamlet's instruction to
the players is a compendium of the art. 1t shows
both how to do it, and how not
Good reading of Sacred Scripture is simply the
result Of understanding and feeling what one
reads. The who is profoundly impressed
with the trnth Of what he is reading md has