for others, there must be pauses, and greater intensity and vividness of each conception. An idea must not only be understood, but must also be vividly felt in order to be told so as to arouse interest in others. Expression does not call for a change in the actions of the mind, but simply for accentuation. Thinking for expression is the same as thinking at our desk, except that each leap of the mind is more accentuated, and each act of attention more prolonged; this tends to awaken the impulses, and to enable the mind to perform the additional act of suggesting it in words. The mind must conceive the ideas more vividly, and this vivid image is secured by giving preparatory attention to each thought. The less familiar the subject, the larger the audience, the more important the ideas, the longer will the mind be stayed upon the successive ideas, and the more regularly will it make these leaps.

We find this same difference between reading an extract for ourselves, and trying to read it to others. In reading to ourselves, the apprehension of the words is first, and then that of the thought; in reading to others, we grasp each phrase, and its underlying idea, before giving it expression. Reading to others, unless it is a mere calling of words, is much slower; for the pulsations of the mind are more pronounced. We always desire to read an extract to ourselves before reading it aloud, in order to become familiar with the steps which the mind must take in reproducing the thought, to convey it to another.

These two elements of thinking, attention and transition,staying the mind upon one idea, and then leaping to another, must both be accentuated in reading or speaking; but the first of these is the more apt to be slighted. The mind is apt to skim along, as in musing, without definite concentration. More faults of reading and speaking are due to uttering the words without first conceiving the idea, than to any other cause. The mind often merely takes the words, and completely identifies the ideas with these arbitrary signs. To such an extent is this

sometimes carried that thinking is destroyed. The mere pronouncing of words is not expression. Words must be given; but words alone, or mere talk for talk's sake, are the emptiest of all things. A mere continuity of words in utterance is, in fact, the most effective way to destroy thinking. Whenever there is a mere continuous stream of words, there cannot be a continuity of thought. The more intensely a man is thinking, the more closely are the words united into groups, and the more clearly are the pulsations of the mind revealed. When there is mere continuity of words, the mind is simply skimming and drifting, but not thinking; the definite attention, the strong pulsations, the progressive transitions, are all absent.

These actions, however, are dependent upon each other; for it is found that the more vividly one idea is taken, the more definitely will the mind advance to another idea. The most important step in reading is the grasping of the first idea. The idlest mind, when once started, will think: attention is easily applied where interest is awakened. The grasping by the mind of the first idea, the lingering over it,-awakens interest, brings the powers of the mind into play, and stimulates another idea. If there is a vagueness and confusion at first, it is difficult for the mind afterwards to overcome such drifting over indefinite images. When the association of ideas is once established, continuity of thought is the result.

Here, then, are the fundamental requisites of reading and speaking, in accordance with the laws of nature and the human mind: impression must precede expression; the act of thinking must be accentuated; there must be developed the power to pause and hold the mind upon one idea, until a conception arises so vivid as to create a response. True expression is primarily based upon this mental action.

The first step that is required for the improvement of expression in accordance with these facts, is to take some simple extract, penetrating through the words to the successive

ideas, and holding the mind upon one. When this has been given, then grasp another. The mind must take before it can give; thought and feeling must determine expression. Expression must be simply transparent thinking. To improve expression, therefore, thinking must be made stronger. No superficial rules, no aggregation of artificial tricks, can ever furnish substitutes for the living act of thought. The mind must step firmly from idea to idea, and lead another mind along its own road. Though images may be different in different minds, this progression of thinking is similar in all men. The fact that all minds think according to the same law, makes human language possible; and the accentuation of the rhythmic element of thinking makes expression effective.

In reading extracts aloud, the aim at first must be not so much to read in a given way, as to think and enjoy, and to find the normal actions of the mind. Live in the enjoyment of one complete idea at a time, then give it, and so on, idea after idea. Let us take, as an example, an extract from Wordsworth, read it slowly to ourselves first, and watch what our minds do.

5 IN youth, from rock to rock I went, from hill to hill in discontent, of pleasure high and turbulent, most pleased when most uneasy; but now my own delights I make, my thirst at every rill can slake, and gladly Nature's love partake, of thee, sweet Daisy.

Thee, Winter in the garland wears that thinly decks his few gray hairs; Spring parts the clouds with softest airs, that she may sun thee; whole Summer-fields are thine by right; and Autumn, melancholy Wight ! doth in thy crimson head delight when rains are on thee. In shoals and bands, a morrice train, thou greet'st the traveller in the lane; pleased at his greeting thee again; yet, nothing daunted, nor grieved if thou be set at naught, and oft alone in nooks remote we meet thee, like a pleasant thought, when such are wanted.

Be violets in their secret mews the flowers the wanton Zephyrs choose; proud be the rose, with rains and dews her head impearling! thou liv'st with less ambitious aim, yet hast not gone without thy fame; thou art indeed, by many a claim, the Poet's darling.

Wordsworth.

If we read this extract to another, we do not merely pronounce the words, putting before our minds a quantity of rules and modes of execution; on the contrary, we create every scene and idea, and go through an experience similar to that of Wordsworth. In reading such an extract, the mind naturally lives in each successive idea, gives it for its own sake, with only subordinate attention to what is passed, or what is to come. We feel primarily the force of a specific idea; the idea, however, being a part of a thought with relation to the other ideas.

6 WE wander'd to the Pine Forest that skirts the Ocean's foam;
The lightest wind was in its nest, the tempest in its home.
The whispering waves were half asleep, the clouds were gone to play,
And on the bosom of the deep the smile of Heaven lay;

It seem'd as if the hour were one sent from beyond the skies
Which scatter'd from above the sun a light of Paradise!
We paused amid the pines that stood the giants of the waste,
Tortured by storms to shapes as rude as serpents interlaced,—
And soothed by every azure breath that under heaven is blown
To harmonies and hues beneath, as tender as its own:
Now all the tree-tops lay asleep, like green waves on the sea,
As still as in the silent deep the ocean-woods may be.
We paused beside the pools that lie under the forest bough;
Each seem'd as 'twere a little sky, gulf'd in a world below;
A firmament of purple light, which in the dark earth lay,
More boundless than the depth of night, and purer than the day-
In which the lovely forests grew as in the upper air,

More perfect both in shape and hue than any spreading there.
There lay the glade and neighboring lawn, and through the dark
green wood

The white sun twinkling like the dawn out of speckled cloud,
Sweet views which in our world above can never well be seen,
Were imaged by the water's love of that fair forest green:
And all was interfused beneath with an Elysian glow,
An atmosphere without a breath, a softer day below.

Shelley.

For another illustration, take the above extract from Shelley. The mind first creates and rests upon the 'pine forest;' next 'the wind;' then the 'tempest.' Here is something more

complex: the wind is shown to be in a certain condition by the use of the word which brings up a subtle comparison, and hints at an idea by imagery. This also applies to the tempest, the waves and the clouds; but, through them all, we find the mind stopping a moment in the enjoyment of one picture or conception, and then leaping to another. We find also that where there is not this staying of the mind, there is little enjoyment on the part of the reader or hearer.

Problem II. Read a short selection with a simple sequence of ideas, study the action of the mind and then read it aloud and accent the pulsations of the mind.

Another helpful exercise is to tell a story. Concentrate the mind definitely upon each idea, each picture in the mind, and then step decidedly to the next one. Take some Folk-lore tale, a narrative poem, such as the "Lady of the Lake," or a play of Shakespeare's, and give the argument in a few words. Children like stories, because the sequence of ideas is so simple that their minds proceed from picture to picture without difficulty. Narrative and descriptive poems are the most popular for the same reason: each image is the result of easy or spontaneous association. The more profound an extract, the more subtle the attention which is required to secure adequate conceptions. Such poems are not enjoyed until the faculties that conceive such pictures are awakened and trained.

There are few good story-tellers. The ideas are allowed to drag, or are given confusedly, each successive one not being sufficiently vivid, or the order of ideas being imperfect. Much depends upon the preparation. All that is usually needed is to arrange the special points in proper order; and then, in giving the story, simply to live in each idea, and move regularly from one to another. This practice will do much to enable the student to use the mind normally in the presence of others. "To think upon the feet" is a fundamental requisite, not only of expression, but of all success in life.