able even to be present. At one time there were four hopelessly disabled men on the Board of one of our smaller colleges, that was struggling for a precarious perpetuity. Twenty or thirty members constitutes an unwieldy body; and increases the "no quorum probabilities. In fact our colleges cannot escape the necessity of calling into action the best informed, best business men of the alumni; in the very prime of their lives. They should never be elected for a term of years to exceed ten. The faculty should be plastic to the times; but above all the trustees. Trustees should be required to visit the institution at stated periods; hold their councils in its Halls; be open to the appeals or statements of the heads of teaching departments; or vacate their seats by the very fact of such neglect. A non-resident, non-visiting, non-interested board of officials is disastrous. Bank accounts of presumable length; generosity even; and soundness of belief, cannot compensate for ignorance of the college and absence.

The history of our colleges has shown that whenever any institution has proved its ability to front well with the age, and to grapple with the advanced problems of the times, money has not been lacking to furnish the material power. In many cases the difficulty seems to be timidity to venture forward. There is need of very positive trust in the popular sentiment. The people soon outgrow the old in education, as in art and industries; they are quick to detect the best of the times. "Nothing venture, nothing have," is a rule that we cannot afford to overlook. A million without enterprise-educational enterprise-is soon wasted. One half our smaller colleges have formed a habit of living "from hand to mouth." The benevolent dare not trust them with their funds, because it is justly desired by every one that his money shall accomplish a maximum of good.

Subterfuges to conceal the lack of progressive enterprise do not any longer secure the desired results. It is quite too easy to grant degrees of honor. They are already as common as martial titles. in the South West. Competition has very nearly covered the field. Doctorates are a drug. The ablest men either refuse them altogether, or are ashamed to receive them of the lesser institutions.. Denominational appeals are seldom of any real value-more often are a serious detriment. There is not a strong denominational college or university in existence that does not mainly rely for its patronage on its teaching ability; its breadth rather than its nar

rowness. A college that is not broad enough for all real scholars cannot rally its alumni. A small college must also have a local constituency; this can almost never be of an exclusive or sectarian sort. A college that belongs to a church must also in some way belong to the people; and they must so feel the relation.

The problem confronting our smaller colleges is not only a difficult one to solve, but it is growing more complex. The tendency is to grow up a number of larger institutions, with constantly increasing facilities, while other institutions, some of them once relatively prominent, remain at a standstill. The relative power and rank of these smaller colleges is lower than it was a quarter of a century ago. The alumni are rallied with more difficulty. What is to be their future?

VOICE

VOICE CULTURE IN SCHOOLS.

DR. Z. RICHARDS, WASHINGTON, D. C.

DICE is the utterance of sounds, by the use of the vocal organs; and it is peculiar to the human family; though almost all animals have sound organs.

Speech is the utterance of sounds, which represent names, thoughts and ideas; and it is peculiar to human beings alone.

The vocal organs are located in the larynx, or upper part of the wind-pipe, or trachea. The laryngeal, or vocal organs, are chiefly the vocal chords, which are a peculiar arrangement of membraneous ligaments, stretched across the larynx, in such a way, that when the air is forced from the lungs, through the larynx, the chords are made to vibrate, like the strings of a violin; and produce the sounds of the voice.

By an all-wise providence, the muscles of the larynx, and of the mouth, are so made, that they can modify, and vary the sounds as they issue from the mouth.

There is hardly any faculty of the human body which shows more conclusively, that our bodies are the product of an all-wise designing mind, than the vocal organs. Here, the small, delicate membranes, in the larynx, not an inch long, can be so vibrated, that by the variation of their tension one fifth of an inch, two octaves, or more, in a man's voice, or twelve full tones, in the diatonic scale, and 24 distinct semitones can be given.

The voice has been so trained, that the cultivated ear can distinguish five variations in each semi-tone; thus making the voice capable of 120 distinct sounds, by varying the tension of the vocal chord one fifth of an inch.

This shows that one of these 120 sounds, or tones, with almost innumerable modulations, can be made distinct to the human ear; results which are infinitely beyond all human skill.

Thus far we have had reference to vocal tones in music; but as vocal tones in language or in reading and speaking, are of much more practical importance to humanity, than those in music, it is very important that all our youth should thoroughly understand the nature and use of all the elementary, vocal sounds of our language.

Of course, these vocal sounds are produced by the same organs as the musical sounds; but differ from them, by the modulations which they receive from the muscles of the larynx, and of the mouth. They are, however, greatly modified and improved by culture and proper use; quite as much, as are musical sounds.

This culture should be given by the instruction received in the exercises of reading and of speaking; when the subjects of enunciation, articulation and pronunciation, should be thoroughly mastered.

True enunciation is, so to speak, the diatonic scale of good reading and speaking. Until the sounds of this scale are fully mastered, no one can become a good reader and speaker, or a good talker; any more than he can become a good singer without mastering the scales of music.

It has been said that a certain American aspirant for a thorough musical education crossed the Atlantic, to avail himself of the skill and training of one of Europe's best singers.

For the first year, his singing teacher kept his pupil upon the sounds of the musical scale; but at the end of the year, the pupil hinted to his master that he would like to begin to read music; when his teacher said to him, he must continue his training upon the sounds of the scale.

At the end of the second year, the pupil said to his teacher, "Surely, I ought to begin to read music, now, if I ever do." But his teacher coolly replied, "You must practice the sounds of the scale, one year longer."

The somewhat disheartened pupil resumed his tasks upon the scale, for another year; and at the close, he said, "Now, surely, I ought to begin to read music."

The master replied, "You can now read any kind of music. I have finished my instructions: go back to your country, and be not afraid to take up any kind of music."

So far as the use of the human voice is concerned, in reading or speaking, it would be a blessing to all who are obliged to listen to the English language, if all our youth were obliged to go through a similar training in the elementary sounds of our language.

If the present imperfect, barbarous oral use of our language, in almost all our schools of learning, and elsewhere, is ever to be laid aside, and a thorough training of the voice substituted, which will make oral reading and speaking intelligible and agreeable, or what it ought to be, some method of voice culture must be adopted by which perfect enunciation, articulation and pronunciation in the use of the elementary sounds is to be taught and mastered by teachers as well as pupils.

At present, it is safe to say that not one teacher in fifty is sufficiently master of all the elementary sounds to teach and exemplify them, as they never do exemplify them correctly, when they talk, or read in the presence of their pupils.

The essential requisites, in good oral reading and speaking, are, first, distinctness of utterance; second, good modulation, proper emphasis and correct pronunciation.

Distinctness of utterance requires correct Enunciation, perfect articulation and good pronunciation to which we have heretofore referred.

There are about 41 distinct, simple and compound sounds, easily recognized in the formation of English words. By a free and rigid analysis of English words, some investigators make more than 41 sounds, and some make less; but the 41 sounds are sufficient to meet all the demands of our English language.

During the first efforts of the child in learning to speak, he should be accustomed to hear every word, so uttered as to impress every elementary sound, necessary to its perfect pronunciation upon his ear.

At the same time, he should be required in the school, to enunciate every sound, in every new word which he learns by imitating his teacher until he is able to properly enunciate every one of the

41 sounds as soon as his eyes rest upon the letter, or letters which represent the sound.

By a regular practice of this kind, exemplified by the teacher, children can learn to give these sounds more readily and more accurately, than they can learn the musical sounds of the scale.

Bear in mind, that this teaching and practice should be kept up regularly and often, until the pupil gives good evidence of ability to master every sound without aid.

After the pupil has acquired some skill in imitating elementary sounds and word sounds, or pronunciation, he should be regularly exercised in articulating, or joining the sounds as they may be required in words and syllables. Any word, of more than one elementary sound, will furnish an exemplification.

To secure perfection in articulation, which is absolutely necessary for good reading and speaking, there is hardly any method more effective than that of analyzing each word into its true elementary sounds, and then of synthetizing or re-constructing the word, with the same sounds articulated.

In teaching the first lesssons in reading, this exercise should be continued with all new words, until the sounds, in each word, will be suggested at sight, as readily as any note in any part of the musical scale will suggest its right sound.

Let it always be understood, that at regular intervals, while the pupil is receiving this voice-training, other necessary branches of learning should be just as carefully taught. Still, it should be ever borne in mind, that the voice is one of the most wonderful, and most important of all our physical faculties; and that, as it has, heretofore, been almost entirely neglected, in all our schools, it should now have a fixed and prominent place in every elementary school as next in value to good moral training.

As distinctness of utterance, or of enunciation and articulation, important as it will always be, is somewhat mechanical in its execution, and makes no large demand upon the mental powers, the vocal powers should always be cultivated with special reference to the intellectual powers.

Hardly less important than distinctness, is the proper modulation of the voice.

In the utterance of language, as a general thing, the manner in which the voice is modulated, indicates very decisively the reader's or speaker's appreciation of the meaning of the language