Reading Aloud

The possession of the marvelous and intricate faculty of articúlate speech seems no inore miraculous to the unthinking than do the eternal varieties of eating, drinking and sleeping. Yet the former is arbitrary and conventional, the invention of rnan - perhaps not confined to him, if Professor Garner of monkey speech f ame is to be believed - while the latter are natural, absolute common, and the sine qua non of existence. The office of speech - the celebrated French diplomat to the contrary notwithstanding - is to convey thought. How important, then, that this vehicle of thought transference, this common carrier of ideas, this carriage laden with the most delicate and elusive of burdens, nothing less than the very essence of the soul - perishable freight, indeed- should be carefully watched and developed to its highest and best capacity. The comparative ease with which the average individual may be taught to express the thoughts of hirnself or others in an intelliget, intelligible, even pleasing fashion, makes it seein almost criminal to neglect such a vast possible addition to the general good. In none of the arts - for reading is not only an art, but the noblest of them all - does general information, education