Hints on Expression.
Expression consists in so modulating the voice by means of the different degrees of pitch, force, rate, and rhetorical pause, as to perfectly convey every shade of meaning contained in the sentiment; in other words, it is painting with sound. As perfect a picture can be conveyed to the ear by means of voice as to the eye through color; and in order to utilize this life-coloring of modulation in reading, you must first acquire a thorough conception of the meaning of the author; try to place yourself in sympathy with the sentiments you are to utter, adopt them and put them into your own words, notice how you express them, what degrees of force come natural to them, what pitch and slides, degrees of rate, what pauses between words and upon words best bring out their meaning, and then take up again the author’s words, and try to give them as nearly as possible like your own; you will find the battle is half won. One of the greatest obstacles in the way of giving true expression is the presence of the printed page before the eye. The words are repeated one after the other mechanically, while the thoughts are perhaps upon another subject. An artist cannot paint a picture without first drawing it in his mind; so we cannot paint a word picture unless its impression is made upon the brain; hence the key to expression consists in understanding what you read.
A future number will contain directions for the remedy of unmanageable voices.
—F. Lizzie Peirce.