The state of mind which will project the tone is that of reciprocity, that is, concentrating the mind upon persons in a distant portion of the audience, as if receiving from them and giving to them, thus establishing a sympathy between the speaker and the hearer. This will project the tone without noise. The mental effort of a speaker should be to draw his audience nearer that they may hear, rather than to place his mind exclusively on sending his voice to a great distance. This effort to draw the hearers nearer will give the voice carrying quality without interfering with its naturalness and sympathy.
=_VOCAL TECHNIQUE AS ILLUSTRATED IN THE FIRST AND SECOND VOLUMES OF THE EVOLUTION OF EXPRESSION._=
The doctrine of evolution is one of the latest, and if well understood, and looked at from a sufficiently high point of view, appears the grandest of all the revelations which science has given. The theory applied to organic being is substantially this: there is, potentially, in every organism a higher manifestation. Its evolution is secured by the relation of its organic tendency to its environment.
In taking a limited or superficial view of the doctrine of evolution, some have been led to look at matter as the only environment. It is this which has made the age materialistic. We are hardly aware of the extent to which this tendency to materialism biases and influences us in regard to religious and secular education. Those who have the most faith in God and His providence are scarcely conscious of how much they are affected by the prevailing thought that material environment alone shapes and influences the development of individuals and the destiny of the human race. If we recognize that the spirit of God is our most immediate environment, the study of evolution is safe.
This view is suggested even by the study of physical science. The scientist, in his analysis of matter, ascertains that it is divisible into molecules, and that nothing is an absolute solid. Each molecule has a sphere of its own, in which it acts separately, and, in a certain sense, independently of other molecules, and vibrates as freely as oscillates the pendulum of a clock. You say, “The pendulum of a clock has room to oscillate.” This is equally true of each molecule; it has room to vibrate without interfering with other molecules or preventing them from vibrating. All the molecules that compose a certain substance are rushing toward each other; but a sacred sphere encloses each, thereby establishing its eternal separateness. This revelation of science of the eternal separateness of molecules points to the silent sea of Thought which encloses every molecular island. What is this silent sea of thought but the presence of Deity? If He encloses every molecule, does He not surround the human soul? Is it unscientific to say, in the language of scripture, “In Him we live, and move, and have our being”? Whither shall I go to escape His presence? “If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uppermost parts of the sea, even there Thy hand shall lead me and Thy right hand shall hold me.” If we take a sufficiently broad view, science itself will lead us up the shining way to where we shall recognize His presence on the throne of the universe.