8. Time is the duration or measure of sound. With regard to individual syllables, it is called quantity, and means the duration of sound heard on each,-as the long quantity or short quantity of a syllable. When the simple term quantity is employed, long quantity is understood.

Time also relates to the rapidity or slowness of utterance in the succession of any series or aggregate of words. Thus, a sentence is said to be uttered in quick, slow, or moderate time.

Time has relation, also, to pauses, either between words or groups of words; also, to rhythmus, or the musical measure of speech.

9. Elocution may then be defined as the art of so employing the Quality, Pitch, Force, Time, and Abruptness of the voice as to convey the sense, sentiment, and passion of composition or discourse in the fullest and most natural manner, and at the same time with the greatest possible gratification to the ear.

The first acquisition of the student in the order of systematic study, must be a knowledge and control of the voice-producing mechanism. The next, a similar knowledge and mastery of the vocal elements as elements, previous to any attempt to execute their more difficult combinations in the consecutive utterances of language.

CHAPTER II.

Mechanism of the Voice Considered in its Practical Relations to Vocal Culture.

10. THE organic production of voice naturally invites our attention first; but the details are too extensive and too minute to warrant my here entering upon them specifically, and belong more properly to the domain of Anatomy and Physiology. I will present, however, a very brief outline of the process by which the breath of life is digested into sound and articulate speech,-thus becoming audible soul, endowed with the power of generating thought and feeling, and creating the visible results of action.

The production of all vocal sound requires, in the first place, a full supply of the primary element of vocality, atmospheric air, to be taken in by the respiratory organs, and then furnished to the vocal apparatus. By muscular expansion and contraction, a certain quantity of blood, at each pulsation of the heart, is carried to the lungs, and there vitalized by the oxygen contained in the air. This air passes from the mouth to the trachea, or wind-pipe, through the glottis and larynx, and thence through the bronchial tubes to the minute air-cells of the lungs. Having there performed its life-giving function, it passes out through the same organs in a decomposed state, and it is this seemingly useless breath, which, in its passage to the outer air, constitutes the material for the formation of that glorious gift, the human voice.

11. The acts of Inspiration and Expiration, together constituting respiration, or breathing, which alternately fill and empty the minute cells of the lungs, is mainly impelled by the muscles of the abdomen, acting upon the more immediate agent of the breathing process called the Diaphragm, a very strong muscle, arched in shape, upon which the lungs rest, and which forms a partition between them and the abdominal organs. The arch of this muscle contracts in inspiration, pressing the abdominal organs downward and outward, and thus making room for the increased body of the inflated lungs. In expiration, the muscle recovers its former position, thus pushing or pressing against the lungs, and driving the air out. It has been figuratively termed the bellows of the vocal organs.

12. A specific muscular action, involving many complications, produces an elevation and depression of that cagelike structure, composed of the ribs and breast-bone, which contains the lungs, in order that those spongy bodies, when filled to their utmost capacity with the inspired air, may be accommodated with corresponding room.

The contraction of the muscles of the chest, acting in sympathy with those of the abdomen and diaphragm, control the movements of respiration, which are involuntary in the mere act of breathing, but comparatively voluntary in expelling the air in the different forms of vocality and articulated aspiration.

13. The Larynx is composed of a number of different cartilages, attached together by muscles, and forms a continuation to the tube of the trachea. It communicates with the throat by the glottis, a small membranous or muscular fissure, the edges of which constitute the vocal chords or lips of the glottis. The glottis is sometimes called the mouth of the larynx, or inner mouth. The glottis may be opened or closed at will, except in coughing or sneezing, when its muscles obey the nerves of respiration.

When the breath is forced out by an act of volition, through the aperture of the glottis, without agitating the vocal chords, there is no vocality, only an audible sound of hard breathing or aspiration.

But when the chords are more or less moved by the air expelled, and thrown into vibration, vocal sound is produced. The sound thus produced by the vibration of this delicate muscular organism of the vocal chords, fills the sonorous cavern at the back part of the mouth called the Pharynx, and reverberating through the cavities of the head and chest, and striking against the soundingboard, as it may be termed, of the roof of the mouth, at last issues from the lips a perfected result of nature's handiwork, to be made as plastic as the potter's clay, and shaped to the various purposes of use and beauty in language.

14. The entire apparatus of human speech may be divided into two classes of organs. These are: (1) The Vocal organs, or those portions of the organic system employed in the production, admeasurement, and variation of voluntary, tunable sounds. These are common to man and to the lower animals. (2) Articulative organs, or those portions and members of the mouth and larynx by which we superadd to the tunable impulses of sound, the phenomena of elemental and verbal utterance, and which are peculiar to the human species.

Spoken language is the result of the consentaneous action of the vocal and the articulative organs. Independently of the lower jaw, whose motions contribute to distinct utterance, and the nasal passages, the articulative organs are six in number. Four of them are active; viz., the tongue, the uvula, the lips of the mouth and the lips of the glottis or vocal chords,-the last belonging to both the vocal and articulative organs. Two are passive; viz., the front teeth and the gums.

15. The thoughts, emotions, and passions of the human. being acting upon the organic mechanism of the breath, of vocality, and of enunciation, excite each to method and force of action; and those sounds of the voice are produced peculiar in form and duration, altitude or depression, force or softness, in their varied degrees, to the thought, emotion, or passion to be expressed.

16. If speech be regulated by a knowledge of the structure and functions of the organs which it employs, and of their relation to other parts of the body according to the laws of exercise and rest, there never can be any inconvenience for want of breath, any straining of the voice, any bronchial or pulmonary irritations resulting from even their most active and energetic exercise. A true system of vocal culture must be based upon such knowledge, and comprehend a consequently intelligent training of the muscles of the voice-making mechanism, with a view to voluntarily exercise and energize the functions of each; and it must advance by degrees until the student can trust this mechanism to perform whatever labor he imposes without conscious volition, but through a subtle sympathy with, rather than an order from the brain.

17. It is not necessary, though it is desirable, to understand the anatomy and physiology of the organs in minute detail, but the student must at least know and realize what organs produce or directly influence important vocal effects.*

A knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the entire vocal mechanism, however, can not be too accurate and comprehensive in the case of those who undertake to teach the subject of Elocution. For such knowledge, the teacher is referred to books and lectures devoted exclusively to the anatomy and physiology of the voice. For plates and description of vocal organs, see "Vocal Culture," by Rev. Francis T. Russell.