important part of the brain so far as the
highest mental processes are concerned. This complexity is greater in
man than in other animals.]

[Illustration: FIG. 55. A nerve-cell from the outer rind of the great
brain (cortex cerebri), much magnified. (Schaefer.)]

3. In all practice it is ever to be borne in mind that the end, even
in an exercise, is artistic. Tones of that quality only which is the
best possible to the singer at the time are to be produced, and
everything else must yield to this.

4. No wise trainer ever allows his charges to go on a racing track and
at once run a hundred yards at the highest possible speed. Such a
course would be against all sound knowledge and all the best
experience. Hence the question of _piano_ and _forte_ practice answers
itself; the singer should never begin any exercise _forte_, but either
_piano_ or _moderato_--as to which depends on the individual. Some
persons can only after long study produce really good tones _piano_;
such if not most persons should, of course, begin practising with
moderate force.

Certainly, the voice-user should, in order to gain volume, gradually
increase the vigor of his practice, but exactly how to do this, and to
what extent daily, are questions in which the advice of a sensible and
experienced teacher is of great value, though the principle on which
that opinion should be founded is clear enough.

5. The questions as to the total amount of time to be devoted to
practice in a single day, and as to whether practice should be
continued day after day for weeks and months without interruption,
must be decided by the condition of the student, and not by any
arbitrary opinion. Some individuals and some racers have a capacity
for steady work not possessed by others, and happy are they; but there
are others who go on by spurts, and such natures are often capable of
reaching lofty artistic heights, if they be wisely managed. They need
much the same sort of care as a very fleet but uncertain race-horse,
and they are often a source of disgust to themselves and of worry to
their teachers; but they in some cases get far beyond what the more
steady ones can attain to, while others are so unsteady without being
talented that they are a trial, and a trial only, to all concerned.
Such people should, even when clever, not be encouraged in their
vagaries, but brought gradually and tactfully under a stricter
discipline.

6. "Hasten slowly" applies to all music