THE VOICE.

INSTRUCTION L.

BODIES.

A KNOWLEDGE of bodies is necessary, if we would gain a clear insight into the nature of the human voice.

A BODY.

We saw the

Bodies are all around us. They waited upon our entrance into the world. They were near the cradle. blazing fire. We heard the tick of the old clock. These are bodies. A body is any thing known by the senses. may name the bodies in this picture.

You

A SOUNDING BODY.

The sun shines brightly. The clouds sail along like ships. It is twilight. The farmer's boy is driving the cattle to the brook. Hark! It is the moaning of the wind. Again! It is the crack of his whip. The sun, the clouds, the wind, and the whip, are bodies. The wind and the whip are sounding ones. A sounding body is one making sound. It does so by its tremblings, which are extended through the air to the ear, and through it to the brain, where they produce on the MIND the sensation called sound. A clock is an instance.

yes! Can you tell me what you hear? Its color? No.

Its hardness? No. Its coldness? No. What then? I do not know. Touch it as it rings. How it trembles! You hear its tremblings. When they cease, sound ceases. I strike this string. Touch it. It trembles. I pull it back to a. You see how it trembles or vibrates. The tremblings of sounding bodies are all we hear. When they are in this state, they produce sounds.

The ear is affected by sounding bodies. Light affects the eye; smell, the nose; flavors, the tongue; but the tremblings of sounding bodies, the ear. I hear them. The deaf hear not.

The ear is the organ by which we know sounding bodies. Here is the sense of hearing. It is a wonderful organ. The mouth, a, gathers up the tremblings of sounding bodies. They are carried to the drum of the ear, b, and from that, through tubes and bones to the brain, where they produce sounds.

INSTRUCTION LII.

SOUND.

Do you remember the crack of the whip, the moaning of the wind, and the sounds of the bell and string? You looked for them in the whip, the wind, the string, and the bell. You found only tremblings, only sounding bodies. The sounds! Where? Within you?

Sound is a sensation produced by the tremblings of a sounding body. The finger moistened in water, and rubbed along the edge of a tumbler, causes it to tremble and to produce sound. It comes to the ear, the organ of hearing, and through it produces the sensation, called sound.

INSTRUCTION LII.

VOICE.

The voice! It is the finest and richest of all sounds. It

is something more. Hark! It is the sound of the harp. The fingers of Duncan are upon its strings. They tremble to his touch. Ah, there is voice! He sings the Exile of Erin. These tremblings may be seen in a string.

Voice is living sound, produced by the living organ, called the organ of voice. It is wonderful in song: it is powerful in speech.