ELOCUTION.

Evening Star, Issue 3617, 25 September 1874, Page 2

ELOCUTION.

To the Editor. Sia,—The following remarks in a recent work by “A Cambridge Man” are appllcable at the present time in Dunedin ; “ We see in our public schools a master for every department of science and knowledge ; there I 8 hP *P this cesp.jct. !fhere are also '-ih some schools drilling-toasters and teachers df gymnastic exercises. ■ We think there ought also to be a master of elocution in every school—one whose time should be mainly etnployed in teaching the pupils how to read properly, and how to discipline and train their voices. In the infant just beginning to articulate, you will observe evety inflexion that is recognised in the most accurate treatise on elocution. You will observe, further, an exact proportion in its several cadences, and a speaking expression in its tones. I fi »y. w il| obeervp these things in almost pvery infant; Select a dozen men—men df education, erudition-rash -them to read a piece of animated conversation ; you will bo fortunate if you find one in the dozen that can raise or depress his voice, inflect, or modulate it, as the variety of the subject requires. What has become of the inflexions the cadences, and the modulation of the infant? They have not been exercised—they have been neglected—they have never been put into the hands of the artist, that he might apply them to their proper use ; they have been laid aside, spoiled, abused ; and ten to one, they will never be good enouch for anything.” *. It i 8 related of the celebrated William Pitt, that when a child he was in the habit of reciting before his father, the Earl of Chatham, who jwell knew the value of an easy delivery, and by whom his faults were corrected. Much of the excellence of style of the future statesman was ascribed by his admirers to these early 1« ssons. Surely our leading public men are sufficientl v impressed with the value and importance of elo utionary training to insist upon it feature in the public Schools. Dunedin, September 24.