e audibility we should aim at is a pleasant and attractive audibility.
It is a great thing to be easily heard; which of us does not know the
combined physical and mental labour of listening to a sermon, or a
speech, which only reaches us indistinctly? But it is a greater thing to
be pleasantly heard; heard so that the listener finds nothing to tire
and repel in the utterance. Here, of course, different voices give very
different advantages; but there are some common secrets, so to speak,
which all--who will make a sacred business of it--may profitably and
effectively use. Above all, there is the secret of quiet naturalness;
the watchful avoidance (do not forget this) of tricks and mannerisms in
delivery;[30] the watchful cultivation of the sort of utterance which we
should use in an earnest conversation on grave subjects, with only such
differences as are suggested by _the size_ of the place in which we
speak. Of some other "common secrets" I shall speak when I come to the
question of style and phrase.

[30] I have known a sermon which in matter and style were really
excellent made, to some hearers at least, almost unendurable by the
accident that the preacher had got the habit of (needlessly) _clearing
his throat_ at the end of almost every sentence.

FIND A CANDID FRIEND.

How shall we best work upon such hints? Very largely, by the use of the
plainest common-sense and every-day observation on our own part. But
largely also by trying to find some friend, equally kind and candid, who
will help us "to hear ourselves as others hear us." For myself, after
twenty-five years, I welcome more and more gratefully every such
criticism as the occasion presents itself. Let the Curate ask his Vicar
to tell him without mercy if his utterance, his articulation, is clear;
if his manner is natural; if his preaching is or is not easy to listen
to in these respects. And let friend ask friend; let pastor ask
parishioner; let husband ask wife!

GOOD ENGLISH.

There are other directions in which we must cultivate attractiveness.
There is English style. Here, again, gifts differ widely in detail, yet
there are common secrets open to common use. It is open to every one to
avoid, on the one hand, an ambitious, long-worded style; on the other, a
style which many young men of our time are in more danger of
patronizing--the slovenly, shapeless style, in which the Queen's English
is very "freely handled," and into which the broken English of