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FOR

SCHOOLS, COLLEGES, CLERGYMEN, LAWYERS,

ACTORS, ETC.

BY

MRS. F. TAVERNER GRAHAM.

UNIV. OF

A. S. BARNES AND COMPANY,

NEW YORK AND CHICAGO.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by

A. S. BARNES & CO.,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

H

INTRODUCTION.

THAT

HAT the Art of Reading will "come naturally" is a common fallacy, with which we almost constantly delude ourselves. Even if it were true, it would offer little encouragement to those who appreciate the beauty and importance of the art; for some method of reading is always taught, and as this is extremely likely to be radically wrong, all chance of attaining a strictly natural style of reading is destroyed at an early period of the pupil's career by errors of instruction and the contagion of bad example.

In point of fact, however, Elocution is both a science and an art-resting on positive laws, founded in the nature of things; and, as in the case of any other art or science, these laws never come by nature, but must be mastered by study and practice. The master must have spent hours and days in careful research and patient delineation of the most insignificant natural points; he must have familiarized himself with all science that bears even remotely on his art; otherwise he exposes himself to the danger of introducing incongruities into his work, and of committing blunders, which will be apparent at once to the trained observer. Sculptors, for instance, are obliged to study anatomy, in order to avoid the mistakes they would perpetrate were they ignorant of the distriM41722

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