As we have
compared sight with touch, let us also compare it with hearing, and
consider which of the two impressions, leaving the same body at the
same time, soonest reaches its organ. When we see the flash of a
cannon there is still time to avoid the shot; but as soon as we hear
the sound there is not time; the ball has struck. We can estimate the
distance of thunder by the interval between the flash and the
thunderbolt. Make the child understand such experiments; try those
that are within his own power, and discover others by inference. But
it would be better he should know nothing about these things than that
you should tell him all he is to know about them.

We have an organ that corresponds to that of hearing, that is, the
voice. Sight has nothing like this, for though we can produce sounds,
we cannot give off colors. We have therefore fuller means of
cultivating hearing, by exercising its active and passive organs upon
one another.

The Voice.

Man has three kinds of voice: the speaking or articulate voice, the
singing or melodious voice, and the pathetic or accented voice, which
gives language to passion and animates song and speech. A child has
these three kinds of voice as well as a man, but he does not know how
to blend them in the same way. Like his elders he can laugh, cry,
complain, exclaim, and groan. But he does not know how to blend these
inflections with the two other voices. Perfect music best accomplishes
this blending; but children are incapable of such music, and there is
never much feeling in their singing. In speaking, their voice has
little energy, and little or no accent.

Our pupil will have even a simpler and more uniform mode of speaking,
because his passions, not yet aroused, will not mingle their language
with his. Do not, therefore, give him dramatic parts to recite, nor
teach him to declaim. He will have too much sense to emphasize words
he cannot understand, and to express feelings he has never known.

Teach him to speak evenly, clearly, articulately, to pronounce
correctly and without affectation, to understand and use the accent
demanded by grammar and prosody. Train him to avoid a common fault
acquired in colleges, of speaking louder than is necessary; have him
speak loud enough to be understood; let there be no exaggeration in
anything.

Aim, also, to render his voice in singing, even, flexible, and
sonorous. Let his ear be sensitive to time and harmony, bu