no more scientific than kicking the cat out of the way
if she gets under your feet.

Any one who has learned the elements of psychology or philosophy knows
that everything exists first as idea. The real universe is the one that
exists in the mind of the creator. The real man is the part of him that
thinks. To hold that the body thinks or acts is equivalent to saying
that Gray's "Elegy" was in the pen with which the poet wrote.

To a natural scientist the only real thing is what he can see, therefore
he bases his faith on what he conceives to be matter; but if we study
the great ones--Oswald, Huxley, Grant, Allen, and the like, we find that
they have long ago reached the conclusion that there is no such thing as
matter. According to Schopenhauer the world is idea, and this so called
material environment is thought objectifying itself.

Vocal teachers, like the members of other professions, are not
altogether immune to an attack of intellect, and at such times the
thought that they are doing something scientific is particularly
agreeable.

The only study of science that can benefit any one is the study of
causation, and causation cannot be cognized by the physical senses. We
never see, hear, feel, taste, or smell cause. What we see or hear is
effect. Causation is mental. Natural science is dealing with phenomena,
with effect not cause. A regular recurrence of phenomena may establish a
so called natural law, but the law is that which caused the phenomena,
"Law is force" says Hegel, and it is therefore mental. We are told that
the law of the earth is its path around the sun. This is not true, the
law of the earth is the mind which makes it revolve around the sun. If
we would learn the nature, activity, and cause of anything we must look
for it in _mind_ not in matter. For this reason the process of voice
production is _psychologic_ not physiologic. When a pupil sings, what we
hear is _effect_ not cause. If he is doing all manner of unnecessary
things with his lips, tongue, larynx, etc. what we see is effect and the
cause is in wrong _mental_ concepts. The thing which caused the tone is
_mental_, the force which produced it is _mental_, and the means by
which we know whether it is good, or bad is _mental_.

Of this we may be sure, that the tone the pupil sings will not be better
than the one he has in mind. _A tone exists first as a mental concept,
and the quality of the mental concept determines the quality of the
ton