t no heart in her singing!" "Tremendous
temperament, but no technique!" "She moves me profoundly, but oh, what a
method!" "Her instrument is flawless, but she leaves me absolutely
unmoved." Have you ever heard such comment, or made such comment, or
been the subject of like comment? Diagnosis of the case, whether it be
yours or another's, should be the same--lack of poise in expression,
producing the undesirable effect upon the auditor of no emotion at all,
or of unintelligent emotion. To determine just what we mean by
intelligent emotion is our first problem for this study.

An experience I had in visiting a class in interpretation in a
well-known school of oratory some years ago will illustrate the point.
The selection for interpretation was the prelude to the first part of
_The Vision of Sir Launfal_.

"And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays; ..."

The work was well under way when I entered the class-room. My entrance
did not disturb the expression on the face of the student who was "up
before" the class. A Malvolio smile was never more deliciously
indelible. I thought at first my request to see some work in
interpretation had been mistaken and I had been ushered into a class in
facial gymnastics. Then I concluded that Mr. Lowell's poem was being
employed as text for an exercise in smiling. Finally the awful truth
came upon me that this teacher of interpretation was seriously
attempting to secure from her pupils an expression which should suggest
the spirit of the June day by asking them to assume the outward sign of
joy known as smiling. The result was a ghastly series of facial
contortions, which left at least one auditor's day as bleak as the
bleakest December. No intelligent feeling can be induced in interpreter
or auditor by assuming the outward sign of an inward emotion. Some of
you are recalling Mr. James's _talk to students_, on the reflex theory
of emotion, and are being confused at this point. Let us stop and
straighten out the confusion. Mr. James says:

"Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go
together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct
control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is
not.

"Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spontaneous
cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfu