"In a certain sense all writing may be called Visible Speech, because letters are the visible forms by which the sounds of speech are conventionally expressed. But the sense in which I use the term is very different. Speech consists of certain movements of the throat, the tongue, and the lips; and in different countries the same letters are associated with a different set of movements, or the same movements are associated with different sets of letters; so that you may know the letters perfectly in connection with one language, and vet be unable to pronounce them in any other language. Visible Speech consists of writing, which depicts the actual movements of the organs of speech, and thus, in whatever language you may have learned the alphabet of the system, you can pronounce the sounds of any other language at sight of their symbols, although you may never have heard the sounds produced. The Visible Speech letters represent the Organs of Speech and all their modes of action; and as the same organs are common to all men, and the effect of every action is the same in all mouths, the letters have a universal meaning, which is independent of dif ferences of language or conventional associations.

"In this respect, the Visible Speech letters resemble musical notes or arithmetical numbers. Like musical notes, they have a uniform value in relation to sound in all countries; and, like the Arabic numerals, they have an absolute value in relation to meaning in all languages. For example, the letter which represents the English sound of L directs the reader to raise the point of the tongue against the palate, and sound the voice over the sides of the tongue'; and the letter which represents the sound of M consists of parts which express to the eye the practical direction, 'close the lips, and sound the voice through the nose.' It is therefore obvious that, however variously these directions might be put in words in different languages, the effect of following the directions will be precisely the same in all mouths in every country.'

SOME OF THE EARLIER BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS ON VISIBLE SPEECH ARE OUT OF PRINT, BUT THE FOL LOWING WILL BE SENT ON RECEIPT OF LIST PRICE:

LETTERS AND SOUNDS. with an Exposition of the Principles of Visible Speech. By A. M. Bell. Reprint of a lecture delivered before the members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. at the Montreal meeting, 1882. Paper, 1 sheet. 18 x 24, 10 cents. A clear and interesting presentation. "In teaching physiological letters we shall be planting the germs of advantages which will be reaped in every period of life. The aptitude of children for the formation of sounds and the plasticity of their organs of speech would undoubtedly lead to a degree of excellence in vernacular utterance and of versatility in the use of foreign sounds which is at present exceptionally rare." Professor Bell believed that children can be taught to read accu rately and properly by means of these symbols in a fraction of the time required with common letters.

VOCAL PHYSIOLOGY AND VISIBLE SPEECH. A Popular Manual. By A. M. Bell.

Third edition. 59 pages, 5 x 7, board. 50 cents. Presents a complete view of the actions of the vocal organs and the resulting elements of speech, the symbols being used to depict the various motions and positions of the organs. "The elementary sounds exhibited in Visible Speech are all real varieties to the ear, and no system can be complete that does not take cognizance of them."

CLASS PRIMER OF ENGLISH VISIBLE SPEECH. For Communicating the Exact Pronunciation of the Language to Native or Foreign Learners and for Teaching Children and Illiterate Adults to Read in a Few Days. By A. M. Bell. 8 pages. 71⁄2 x 10%. Paper, 10 cents. Contains only diagrams. illustrations, and reading exercises, without any explanations aside from the captions and sub-captions.

VISIBLE SPEECH. THE SCIENCE OF UNIVERSAL ALPHABETICS. Self-interpreting Physiological Letters for the Writing of All Languages in One Alphabet. By A. Melville Bell. Inaugural edition, 1867. Illustrated by numerous tables, diagrams, and examples, including 20 fullpage plates. 158 pages, 7 X 10. Paper, $1.25; cloth. $2. A complete explanation of Visible Speech, its use and its value. These symbols are based upon and portray the actual movements of the organs of speech. "Each organ and each mode of organic action concerned in the production or modification of sound has its appropriate symbol. and all sounds of the same nature produced at different parts of the mouth are represented by a single symbol turned in a direction corresponding to the organic position."

IN

ENGLISHE SICHTBARE-SPRACHE ZWOLF LEKTIONEN. The German edition of English Visible Speech in Twelve Lessons. By A M. Bell. 80 pages, numerous illustrations, 6 x 72 Board, 50 cents. Each lesson consists of a teacher's page, a page of illustrations, a page of words and sentences in symbols, and a key to each line of symbols: also universal vowel tables, all in German or symbols.

PRONUNZIA INGLESE VISIBLE INSEGNATA IN DODICI LEZIONI. The Italian edition of English Visible Speech in Twelve Lessons. By A. M. Bell. 80 pages, numerous illustrations, 6 x 72. Board. 50 cents. Just as the German edition enables Germans to obtain a correct pro. nunciation of English words. so these English words and sentences in symbols in the Italian edi. tion makes it possible for the Italian to correctly pronounce English words. Though the instructions are in German in the German edition and in Italian in this edition. the exercises in both books are entirely in Visible Speech symbols, and thus form excellent exercises for English-speaking teachers and students.

A Key to the Melville Bell Symbols will be sent free to any address by the Volta Bureau. 1601 35th St. N. W.. Washington, D. C.. the publishers of all of the late Alexander Melville Bell's books.

Volume 20

Number 2.

NCE upon a time the Sphinx asked this question: What is the secret of

success?

"Push!" said the Button.

"Never be led!" said the Pencil. "Take pains!" said the Window. "Always keep cool!" said the Ice. "Be up to date!" said the Calendar. "Never lose your head!" said the Barrel.

"Make light of everything!" said the Fire.

"Do a driving business!" said the Hammer.

"Aspire to greater things!" said the Nutmeg.

"Be sharp in all your dealings!" said the Knife.

"Do the work you are suited for!" said the Chimney.

In this witty little modern fable, if we stop to think about it, there lies a thought which may be a valuable suggestion in answering a similar question which is so often asked of the lip-reading teacher, namely, "What is the secret of lip-reading success?"

The Button, the Pencil, the Window, the Glue, each found the secret, not in looking about and hunting for the roads that others had traveled, but in facing his own problem squarely and saying, "What must I do to succeed?"

If the Glue had tried to push and the Button to stick-but isn't that just what some people try to do? It never enters

their heads that much of the failure in whatever they undertake to do can be traced to the fact that they only look about over the roads that others have traveled instead of facing their own prob-. lem squarely and saying, "What must I do to succeed?"

Let us take a group of ten to fifteen hard-of-hearing adults. They resemble the responses in our fable-no two alike; no two have the same ability; no two have the same disposition; no two have had the same experience; and yet they all stand before the same question, “What is the secret of success?"

"Mrs. X. makes a good lip-reader because she is always so cheerful. If she fails a few times, she's always ready for the next trial. I'm always so depressed when I fail. It seems so hopeless," says Student No. I.

Now isn't it very plain, my good reader, that this student will never make a success of it unless he changes his attitude? He has found the very key that will open the door leading to his success, but instead of using it he is going to try to "get there" some other way. What is the secret of success for this sort of a pupil? Be cheerful and cultivate a hopeful spirit.

"Mr. Y. makes a good lip-reader. He has a wonderful power of concentration. I can't keep my mind on anything long enough," says Student No. 2, in utter discouragement. Could he have put the reason for his failure any plainer than by

laying bare the fact that the fault lies within himself? What is the secret of success for this sort of a pupil? Cultivate the habit of concentration and watch yourself improve day by day.

"Mrs. Z. makes such a good lip-reader. If she only catches a few words, her mind. is able to connect the words and form the thought which the speaker wishes to convey. If I miss a word, it upsets me so that I forget all I did read," says Student No. 3. If he sees that he cannot become so good a lip-reader as Miss Z. until he has overcome that nervous fretting over every little syllable, why doesn't he make that his supreme effort? What is the secret of success for this sort of a pupil? Put more emphasis and thought into what you DO get, and what you DON'T get will lessen from day to day.

If you were an art student, eager to make a success at landscape painting, and your teacher said that your work was very praiseworthy except your clouds, would you go about telling people, "I could become a fine landscape artist if I could only paint clouds." What would you be more likely to do? Wouldn't you paint clouds and clouds and clouds, so that that one thing would not be the stumbling block in your whole career? Why not adopt some such plan in your lip-reading study? There are very few people who are utter failures. Put more time and thought into the removing of the obstacles that prevent your success rather than standing before them in despair or trying to "get there" by going around them.

Methods are the means the teacher uses to instruct the pupil in the necessary fundamentals of the subject in hand. A teacher can so arrange a method that she can give a definite course of lessons in a definite amount of time; but why should any student expect to become a "finished product" from just, as we say, having "covered the ground?"

Newspaper articles and advertisements are often misleading. They tell of the marvelous results in lip-reading which are often more discouraging than encouraging, for the hard-of-hearing reader is

aware of the fact that such a goal is unattainable for him. This does not mean, however, that we should not hear of these results. On the contrary, they are very valuable, especially to the teachers, but not as an advertisement. It gives one the impression of a patent medicine: "I have tried your remedy and am pleased to testify," etc., and perhaps some of us would be more inclined to word our testimonial in the spirit of the old farmer who was asked to tell what a certain medicine had done to cure a boil on his neck. "I have taken three bottles of your remedy," he wrote. "My neck has almost disappeared, but the boil is still there."

But, to come back to seriousness. Isn't it of the greatest importance, after all, for the teacher to try to put her pupil into the right attitude for tackling the subject? Half the battle is won if the pupil begins to face his own problem squarely.

I am almost inclined to put this still stronger: One-half of the secret of success is in the mastering of a good method; the other half of the secret is the mastering of the individual difficulty which the pupil realizes he must overcome himself.

A great mistake that a beginner is apt to make is this: He expects to make too great progress at once. He soon begins to read the lips of his teacher fairly well and is discouraged because he cannot read the lips of everybody else. He forgets he is only a beginner. Trained

teachers are, of course, the easiest to read, for they have studied phonetics and give the correct positions and movements of the organs of speech.

He forgets that no two people move their lips exactly alike (or, to be more correct, some people hardly take the trouble to move them at all), and yet he is discouraged because he has not mastered it all at once!

Did you ever hear a beginner at the piano or violin who can play to you the first sonata he has memorized feel discouraged because he cannot play all the sonatas by all the composers? No, in