the life
of an artist. The uninterrupted pursuit of one thing, without the mind
and spirit being fed from other springs, can be good for no human
being. The specialist who is only a specialist will never reach the
very highest point. The artist must seek sources of inspiration and
mental nutriment outside of his own line of thought, or he will suffer
professionally and in his own spirit.

The reader will by this time understand why the author considers that
for one who would be an artist to enter on his public career without
the fullest mental equipment and vocal training is an exceedingly
unwise course. Technique should be acquired before an aspirant to
success steps on a public stage or platform, and this is exactly what
is so seldom done in these days, and why we have so few singers,
actors, and public speakers of the highest rank. Many, very many, know
what they wish to express, and, in a sense, how to express it, but
they have neither the formed voice nor the control of that voice by
which their ideas are to be embodied. Let no one delude himself into
the belief that technique will be learned in public; such is rarely,
if ever, the case. Expression, style, etc., may come to the vocalist
or speaker all the more readily if he occasionally goes before the
public; but that such may be so, he must first have voice and
technique. It is because of the neglect of this training for the
acquirement of technique that so many naturally good voices are of
little practical use for the public, and this explains why the ranks
of the professions are crowded with inferior artists, if, indeed,
artists they may be called.

The _isolation_ of the dramatic and musical artist from his fellows
generally is a great evil. Much that society complains of in the
lives of artists would never exist but for this isolation, in spite of
the fact that the artistic temperament is so moody and so impulsive,
so little regardful of ordinary conventionalities. That it is so is
partly the fault of society. It is quite true that because of
journeying, rehearsals, etc., the travelling artist has little time to
meet the members of the community in private life; but this state of
things could be mitigated were society and the artists themselves
convinced that for any class of people to live in little hives, wholly
separated from their fellows, must be unfortunate for them and
society. Artists as men and women are practically unknown to the
world, though t