The “Evolution of Expression” does not offer art criteria by which the work of an orator is to be measured; it presents rather a system of education by which one may attain the plane of art in expression.  The teacher or student who desires a formulation of laws which afford a standard of art criticism is referred to the four volumes of “The Perfective Laws of Art,” the text-book succeeding the “Evolution of Expression.”

The author wishes to express his sincere gratitude to George N. Morang & Co., to Bobbs-Merrill Company, and to Houghton, Mifflin & Co., for their courtesy in allowing him to reprint in this volume selections from their publications.

THE WHOLE.

The colossal period.

The body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body.—­St. Paul.

How good is man’s life, the mere living!  How fit to employ All the heart and the soul and the senses forever in joy!

—­Browning.

CHAPTER I.

ANIMATION.

(Note.—­Let the teacher and student remember that the headings of the chapters name effects rather than causes, signs rather than things signified.  They are not, therefore, objects of thought for the student while practising; they are finger points for the teacher; the criteria by which he measures his pupil’s development.)

Reading is a communication of thought; a transference of ideas from one mind to other minds so as to influence their thinking in a definite manner.  The process is distinctively communicative, involving two parties, speaker and audience, equally indispensable.  As well might the student of manual training attempt his work without materials, to paint without paper or canvas, carve without wood or stone, model without clay, as the student of expression to read or speak without an audience.  For this reason in all his private practice as well as class drill, the student should hold in mind an audience to whom he directs his attention.  The office of the teacher is to hold constantly before the pupil these two mental concepts, his thought and his audience, or his thought in relation to his audience.  The pupil must be taught to respond to the author’s thought as to his own, and at the same time he must be inspired with the desire to give that thought to others.  In his endeavor to awaken other minds his own will be quickened.  This mental quickening reports itself in animation of voice and manner.  Herein is illustrated a fundamental law of development; what we earnestly attempt to do for another that we actually do for ourselves.  The constant endeavor of the teacher, therefore, must be to inspire the pupil to serve his audience through truth, the truth of his discourse.  His attempt to gain the attention of his hearers and to concentrate their minds on this truth will secure such concentration of his own mind as will stimulate his interest, and interest is always vital.