The removal of all interference or direct local control of the parts above the larynx, gives absolute freedom of form and action; and when the form and action are free, articulation becomes automatic and spontaneous.  When all restraint is thus removed, the air current comes to the front, and we secure the important condition of high placing.  Furthermore, under these conditions, when the air current strikes the roof of the mouth freely, it is reflected into the inflated cavities, and there is heard and felt, through sympathetic vibration of the air in the cavities, added resonance or the wonderful reinforcing power of inflation:  in this way is secured not only the added resonance of all other cavities, but especially the resonance of the chest, the greatest of all resonance or reinforcing powers.

When the voice is thus freed under true conditions, it is possible to arouse easily and quickly the mental and emotional power and vitality of the singer.  In this way is aroused that which I have called the singer’s sensation, or, for want of a better name, the third power of the voice.  This power is not a mere fancy.  It is not imagination; for it is absolutely necessary to the complete mental and emotional expression of the singer, to the development of all his powers.  This life or vital force is to the singer a definite, controllable power.  “Various terms have been applied to this mysterious force.  Plato called it ‘the soul of the world.’  Others called it the ‘plastic spirit of the world,’ while Descartes gave it the afterward popular name of ‘animal spirits.’  The Stoics called it simply ‘nature,’ which is now generally changed to ‘nervous principle.’” “The far-reaching results of so quiet and yet so tremendous a force may be seen in the lives of the men and women who have the mental acumen to understand what is meant by it.”  The singer who has developed and controlled “the third power” through the true conditions of voice, never doubts its reality; and he, and he only, is able to fully appreciate it.

The development of all the above conditions depends upon one important thing, the education of the body; upon a free, flexible, vitalized body.

ARTICLE SEVEN.

The influence of right bodily action.

In art, as in all things else, man must be under the law until he becomes a law unto himself.  In other words, he must study his technique, his method, his art, until all becomes a part of himself, becomes, as it were, second nature.  There is a wide difference between art and artificiality.  True art is based upon Nature’s laws.  Artificiality, in almost every instance, is a violation of Nature’s laws, and at best is but a poor imitation.