ut they very soon become flat by repetition,
then they grow jaded, are more and more neglected and pass away
altogether. From their rising to their setting the arc is very
short--about five years seems to be the limit of their existence, and no
one regrets them. We do not seem to be in a happy vein of development at
present as to the use of words, and these short-lived catch-words are
generally poor in quality. Our girl talkers are neither rich nor
independent in their language, they lay themselves under obligations to
anyone who will furnish a new catch-word, and especially to boys from
whom they take rather than accept contributions of a different kind. It
is an old-fashioned regret that girls should copy boys instead of
developing themselves independently in language and manners; but though
old-fashioned, it will never cease to be true that what was made to be
beautiful on its own line is dwarfed and crippled by straining it into
imitation of something else which it can never be.

What can be done for the girls to give them first more independence in
their language and then more power to express themselves? Probably the
best cure, food and tonic in one, is reading; a taste for the best
reading alters the whole condition of mental life, and without being
directly attacked the defects in conversation will correct themselves.
But we could do more than is often done for the younger children, not by
talking directly about these things, but by being a little harder to
please, and giving when it is possible the cordial commendation which
makes them feel that what they have done was worth working for.

Recitation and reading aloud, besides all their other uses, have this
use that they accustom children to the sound of their own voices
uttering beautiful words, which takes away the odd shyness which some of
them feel in going beyond their usual round of expressions and extending
their vocabulary. We owe it to our language as well as to each
individual child to make recitation and reading aloud as beautiful as
possible. Perhaps one of the causes of our conversational slovenliness
is the neglect of these; critics of an older generation have not ceased
to lament their decay, but it seems as if better times were coming
again, and that as the fundamentals of breathing and voice-production
are taught, we shall increase the scope of the power acquired and give
it more importance. There is a great deal underlying all this, beyond
th