individual instinct or caprice: all therefore who design to teach the art of reading must sooner or later adopt it. Will the influential instructors of Philadelphia be the last? If this city were not the place of my birth and residence, I would take upon me to answer- -No.

The objections first made to 'the Philosophy of the human voice' were against its utility; now the cry among the learned is, that it is too difficult. Too difficult! Why, all new things are difficult; and if the scholastic pretender knows not this, let the annals of the trades instruct him.-Just one century has elapsed since that common material of furniture -mahogany, was first known in England. It is recorded that Dr. Gibbons, an eminent physician of that period, had a brother, a West India captain, who took over to London some planks of this wood, as ballast. The Doctor was then building a house; and his brother thought they might be of service to him. But the carpenters finding the wood too hard for their tools, it was laid aside for a time as useless. Soon after a candle-box being wanted in his family, Dr. Gibbons requested his cabinet maker to use some of this plank which lay in his garden. The cabinet maker also complained that it was too hard. The Doctor told him he must get stronger tools. When however by successful means, the box was made, the Doctor ordered a bureau of the same material; the color and polish of which were so remarkable, that he invited all his friends to view it. Among them was the Duchess of Buckingham, who being struck with its beauty, obtained some of the wood: of which a like piece of furniture was immediately made for Her Grace. Under this influence the fame of mahogany was at once established; its manufacture was then found to be in nowise difficult; and its employment for both use and ornament has since become universal.

The master-builders of science, literature and eloquence, declared the Philosophy of the human voice' to be too hard for their studious energies; and threw it aside as useless. But a few humble cabinet makers of learning having, some

how or other, got stronger tools, have already made the box; are under way with the bureau; and are only waiting for the authoritative influence of some leader of oratorical fashion, -to produce a general belief in the simple truism that—I

WE WISH TO READ WELL, WE MUST FIRST LEARN HOW.

Philadelphia, June 26, 1833.

INTRODUCTION.

THE analysis of the human voice, contained in the following essay, was undertaken a few years ago, exclusively as a subject of physiological inquiry. Upon the discovery of some essential functions of speech, I was induced to pursue the investigation; and subsequently to attempt a methodical description of the various vocal phenomena, with a view to bring the subject within the limits of science, and thereby to assist the purposes of oratorical instruction.

By every scheme of the cyclopædia, the description of the voice is classed among the duties of the physiologist; yet he has strangely neglected his part, by borrowing the small substance of his knowledge from the fancies of rhetoricians, and the dull authority of grammarians. It is time at last for physiology, of right and seriously, to take up its task.

In entering on this inquiry, I resolved to defer an express refererce to the productions of former writers, until the influence of nature over the ear should be so far established, as to obviate the danger of adopting unquestioned errors, which the strongest effort of independence often finds it so difficult to avoid. Even a faint recollection of school instruction was not without its forbidding interference, with my first endeavor to discover, by the ear alone, the hidden processes of speech.

After obtaining an outline of the work of nature in the voice, sufficient to enable me to avail myself of the useful truths of other observers, and to guard against their mistakes, I consulted all accessible treatises on the subject, particularly the

European compilations of the day, the authors of which have opportunities for learned research not enjoyed in this country. Finding, on a fair comparison, that the following history of the voice represents its nature more extensively and definitely than any received system, I am induced to offer it to the public. Many errors may be found in it; but if the leading points of analysis, and the general method be not a copy from nature, and do not prompt others to carry the subject into practical detail, I shall forever regret the publication.

It becomes me, however, to remark, that as this work has not been made up from the quoted, or controverted, or accommodated opinions of authors, I shall totally disregard any decision upon its merits, which is not the result of a scrutininizing comparison with nature herself.

The art of speaking well, has, in most civilized countries, been a cherished mark of distinction between the elevated and the humble conditions of life, and has been immediately connected with some of the greater labors of ambition and taste. It may therefore appear extraordinary, that the world, with all its works of philosophy, should have been satisfied with an instinctive exercise of the art, and with occasional examples of its supposed perfection, without an endeavor to found an analytic system of instruction, productive of more multiplied instances of success. Due reflection, however, will convince us, that even this extended purpose of the art of speaking, has been one of the causes of neglect. It has been a popular art; and works for popularity are too often the careless product of mediocrity. The renowned of the bar, the senate, the pulpit, and the stage, applauded into self-confidence, by the multitude that surrounds them, cannot acknowledge the necessity of improvement: for the rewards that await the art of gratifying the general ear are in no less a degree, encouraging to the faults of the voice, than the approving judgment of the million is subversive of the rigid discipline of the mind.

Physiologists have described, and classed the organic positions by which the alphabetic elements are produced. This

has been done by the rule, and with the success of philosophy. On other points their attempts have not been so satisfactory. In investigating the subject of Intonation, that is, the movement of the voice in regard to its Pitch, they have not designated by some known or invented scale, the modes and degrees of such movements; and thus furnished the required and definite detail in this department of speech. They have rather given their attention to such questions as these:whether the organs of the voice partake of the nature of a wind or stringed instrument;-how the falsette is made;and whether acuteness and gravity are formed by variations in the dimensions of the glottis, or in the tension of its chords. In their experiments they have removed the organs from men and other animals, and have produced something like their living voices by blowing through them. They have carefully inspected the cartilages and muscles of the larynx, to discover thereby the immediate cause of intonation, whilst they were ignorant of the very modes and degrees of that intonation. In short, they have tried to see sound, and to touch it with the dissecting knife—and all this, without reaching any positive conclusion, or describing more of the audible effect of the anatomical structure, than was known two thousand years ago.

The Greek and Roman rhetoricians, and writers on music, recorded their knowledge of the functions of the voice. They distinguished its different qualities by such terms as hard, smooth, sharp, clear, hoarse, full, slender, flowing, flexible, shrill, and austere. They knew the time of the voice, and had a view to its quantities in pronunciation. They gave to stress, under its form of accent and emphasis, appropriate places in speech. They perceived the existence of pitch, or variation of high and low and were the first to make an exact and beautiful analysis on this subject. They discovered two modes of ascent and descent in Pitch; one by a continuous rising or falling slide, which they called Concrete sound: the other by a discontinuous movement, or a skip in ascent or descent, which they called Discrete sound..