he Future._) Clara Kathleen Rogers is even
more emphatic in her statement: "Not to exercise our sense of hearing is
to rob it gradually of the habit of acting at all; whereas, if we keep
it in exercise, it will daily grow readier, finer, more acute, more
analytical, and the ear will serve as an ever more effective medium of
reaction on the will." The following remark of the same writer points
unmistakably to an understanding of the evil results of the attempt to
sing mechanically: "If the singer's attention is directed to any part of
the vocal instrument, or even to its motor, the breath, his sense of
sound, and his perception of either the beautiful or the bad elements
in sound, will grow fainter and fainter." (_The Physiology of Singing._)

As for the purpose of cultivating the sense of hearing, this is also
pointed out by several prominent vocal theorists. One of the latest
exponents of the traditional method of instruction was Stephen de la
Madelaine, who remarks: "The first need of the voice is to be guided in
its exercise by an ear capable of appreciating naturally its least
deviation." (_Theorie complete du Chant_, Paris, 1852.)

One of the most recent authoritative writers on voice culture, Dr.
Mills, speaks at length of the necessity of guiding the voice by the
sense of hearing. "We cannot too much insist on both speaker and singer
attending to forming a connection between his ear and his mouth cavity.
He is to hear that he may produce good tones, and the tones cannot be
correctly formed if they be not well observed. To listen to one's self
carefully and constantly is a most valuable but little practised art.
The student should listen as an inexorable critic, accepting only the
best from himself." Dr. Mills touches on the psychological features of
the connection between voice and ear. "There can be no doubt that the
nervous impulses that pass from the ear to the brain are of all sensory
messages the most important guides for the outgoing ones that determine
the necessary movements." Summing up the matter of ear-training and
vocal guidance Dr. Mills says: "The author would impress on all students
of music, and of the voice as used in both singing and speaking, the
paramount importance of learning early to listen most attentively to
others when executing music; and above all to listen with the greatest
care to themselves, and never to accept any musical tone that does not
fully satisfy the ear." (_Voice Productio