The actor being thus kept down to the level of humanity, on the points of thought and feeling; the Baconian method of working out truth, by observation, proceeds to the manner of expressing them. This is shown in the person, the countenance,

and the voice.

Spiritualism has never gone so far, as to assume the mystical direction of personal Gesture. The exalted, the downcast, the averted, the assenting and dissenting head: the hasty, the dignified, and the starting step, the fixed, and the supplosive foot with the chironomy of the arm, in its unnumbered meanings, are all, in their consonance of character and expression with the countenance, and the voice, no more than obvious muscular movements, taught by nature and experience, and exercised with propriety and taste.

In the countenance, the Baconian eye of observation sees nothing in character and expression, but physical form and movement, together with the smooth and the wrinkled, the white and the red; all so plainly associated with their respective thought and passion, that your dog, happily freed from Platonic fancies, in a moment understands them in your face. But here the actor begins to raise his 'Perturbing Spirit;' and not contented with nature's own physical sufficiency for his sentimental wants, and which, if left to itself, would accomplish all his face is fit for, only forces it to the distortion of electrifying looks,' by throwing his soul' into his eyes, and nose, and mouth, and brow; and perhaps, in violence to the just expression of wellclosed lips, even into the grinning of his very teeth.

And what does the Baconian observer find in the Actor's voice? He hears that some of his words are of longer quantity than others; some more forcibly pronounced; some are harsh, others smooth; some acute, others grave: in short he hears, not in his soul's ear, but physically hears, the Modes of quality, force, time, abruptness and pitch, with their various forms, degrees, and practical distinctions, detailed throughout this work; by one, who though perhaps estimated but as a pupil of a lower Form, in the Baconian school, is yet happy in its present, and looks with hopeful patience to its future tasks. But with

all these phenomena within hearing, and only unrecognized because unnamed, the Platonic Thinker, seeking something above vulgar sensation, has by imaginary 'movements of the spirit' and figments of occult causes,' not only prevented his own spontaneous perception of the vocal phenomena, but worse still, has so far contributed to obtund,-as fictional habits generally do-both sense and intellect, as not to let him listen, much less attempt to understand, when told by others, the Expression of Speech is only one part of measurable and describable physical

nature.

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Upon all that has been said, perhaps some of those who would degrade the Fine Art of Acting, to a level with the visionary psychology of our poetic Young Ladies, may ask if we have not given a too prosaic, or matter of fact,' account of the material and formal causes of this art? What is to become of the actor's grandeur, pathos and grace, if they are to be deduced from physical, and not from spiritual causes? We answer, that with those sentiments within him, the proper use, whether from nature or education, of the physical means for vocal and personal expression, will, under our observative system, display those sentiments with more uniformity, and consequently with more force for the expression not depending on the individual caprice of visionary personations, will have a more invariable character, and therefore be more clearly and generally understood. To me however, the reason is not apparent why the soul of poetry, under the fancies of Identity, should be brought into StagePersonation, more than into any other art. Why should not the Sculptor, Painter and Architect, when they studiously, and choicely complete their designs, and then practically execute them with propriety and taste, claim to have this mysterious light of poetical inspiration? We once heard of a Frenchman, who never could have made a certain miniature shoe, but in 'a moment of enthusiasm.' And it has long been a by-word of the concentrative influence of a Sheffield work-shop, that a button-maker, as a 'glaring instance' of Identity, does in time become a very Button. And such notions are no less unintelligible of an Actor than of him.

The Fine Arts are reputed to be sisters; and they are of one family, so far as they draw their being from one source of knowledge and of principles, in the mind: but any attempt to wed two of them into one, would be quite new and strange to nature, and a very odd idea among themselves. Somebody once made a doubtful metaphor, in calling Dancing, the 'poetry of motion.' It wants just as much, the clear picturing of a true and consistent trope, while it is altogether out of place, in serious discourse, to speak of the Poetry of the Stage. It has had too, the effect on unthinking Actors, and on Critics who should think, to turn their attention, from the assignable merits of the art, by confusing that attention with the mysticism of its present condition; and to encourage the weak-minded, to gossip with others, as well as to enter into their own reveries, about the 'magical and dreamy influence of passion.' If poetry, flimsy, spirit-woven poetry I mean, belongs to the Action of the Stage, then with the reciprocity of a metaphor, we might say-the Action of the stage belongs to poetical soaring, even in its transcendental flights; which is absurd.

Let me ask one question of the dramatic mystagogue, whether critic or actor; for if not of one party, they would soon go their way from each other. Whence does the poet, yes emphatically for this case, the Poet,-who being a participantspirit in stage Identity, should in his own art be a bright example, whence does he draw the thoughts and sentiments, with their grandeur, pathos, and grace, that the actor in his cloud of idealism, has only at second hand, to express? Ask the Homers, the Virgils, the Shakspeare, the Milton, the Thomsons, the Popes, and the Cowpers, in their various schools: and from their unmystified delineation of nature and of life, their analogies, all drawn at last, from that physical nature alone, not poetically sung, but clearly spoken to the ear in vivid representation of the objects of every other sense, and learn how they have become to us,-through the recognized exactness of their bright and exalted pictures,-the Baconian philosophers of fiction, and the great 'Secretaries' of nature and art; recording with illuminated faithfulness, the history of existing, and of

possible, but not of pretending truths. They copied, each in his own hand, what was, and what had been: and set down even what might be, with the clearness of a waking and a written thought. Let then the infatuated aspirant of Stage-Personification, who thinks we have been too prosaic about his Genius, learn through his poetic Masters, from whom he must draw the whole or it would only be the pantomimic-soul of his enacting, how they performed their parts of grandeur, pathos, and grace, through all the breadth and depth of passion: without any real nightly visits of the muse ;' with no extacies' of the Delphian Tripod; no 'stirring the waters of the soul' to a state of poetic Identity; but on a humble seat perhaps, and without enchantment, drawing their 'goodly thoughts' and natural sentiments, from life and books, and things unwritten; with the privilege of exalting the realities of nature to perfectional degrees of the beautiful, and the sublime.

HERE I finish the history of the speaking voice. I have therein, as the reader may perceive, pretended to record no anecdotal wonders: no magnifying traditions of how far Whitfield could be heard: no prodigies of earliest infant speech: no ultra case of a stammerer, who could not be even heard at all: no echo past counting; nor ventriloquism past belief. I have paid more respect to the reader, than to invite him on to serious knowledge, by the detail of wonderful and 'startling' facts; but have endeavored to set before him, an instructive story from nature; whose wisdom being the highest of all generalities, is, if it admits the term, a single wonder, uncompared.

It has been my design throughout this work to subject nature to a studious examination; and by the simple but sufficient rule of the senses, to unfold her supposed mysteries with philosophic precision. How far this has been accomplished, the intelligent reader must determine: with that allowance for minor errors, which the historian of nature has perhaps, in an arduous task like this, a right to claim, and which the liberal and reflective critic, who may have been told of the inscrutable intonations of speech, will not refuse.

Those to whom the subject of Elocution, in its higher meaning, is new, will receive this history without prejudice; and though they may not have occasion for its practical rules, will still admire the beautiful economy of nature, in the structure of speech. Those who have spent a life of labor, by the little light, as yet set up in the art, and who are too proud or dull to take on a new mind, with the advancement of knowledge, will at least learn from this essay, the deficiencies of the old scheme of instruction, even though they may not admit that these deficiencies are here supplied. If the development now offered, were a mere addition to the art, persons of this last class might be able to discover traces of their former opinions, and thereby have some reason for admitting it. But finding here, the history of what may seem to be a new creation, they may reject it altogether, because they cannot recognize the definitions, divisions, rules, and illustrations of their familiar school-books of elocution.

However Philosophy and Taste may admire the Wisdom and Beauty in the Natural system of the voice, which we have endeavored to describe, it is to be regarded as a curiosity only, if it does not lead to some Practical application. I have therefore endeavored, on the unalterable foundation of our physiological history, to establish a system of directive principles, and of elementary instruction.

If we draw an inference from prevalent opinions, we must believe, the varying styles of a good elocution are endless; for every one with self-satisfaction thinks he reads well, and yet all read differently. There is however, under a varied application of just principles, but one style of reading-well: and we now have our warrant from a knowledge of the voice, to show, that nature herself, and not the usage of the school, will furnish in every case, the effective principles of that only style.

Without some acknowledged principles in Elocution, there can be none of that fellowship in method which so powerfully assists in the advancement of an art. Although nature may have ordained certain sounds as signs of thought and feeling, yet differences in practice tend to confound her purposes and weaken her authority. If some uniform system of the voice be insti