of a sentence, that being the natural expression of the language of a petition or request. Take the familiar instance of the Lord's Prayer. How many times have you heard it read correctly anywhere or by anybody? I will give it you, as it should be read artistically, according to the rules already suggested. Compare it with your own habitual reading. I mark it as before. Our FATHER- -which art in heaven- -hallow'd be Thy -Thy KINGDOM come- -Thy WILL be done on

name

earth as it is in heavenbread--and forgive us that trespass against usbut deliver us from EVIL

-Give us-day by day—our daily our trespasses-as we forgive them -And lead us not into temptation-Amen.

I could say much about the reading of the services of the Church, but the subject does not properly belong to these letters, which are addressed to you as a law student, who must be able to write and read well, in order to speak well; and therefore I pause here.

LETTER XXV.

DRAMATIC READING.

I HAVE reserved this for the last, because it includes all the rest. By the term "Dramatic Reading" I do not intend merely the reading of drama, but reading dramatically whatever is dramatic, whether it be or be not a drama in name or form. There is scarcely any kind of composition that does not contain something dramatic, for there are few writings so dull as to be unenlivened by an anecdote, an episode or apologue, a simile or an illustration, and these are for the most part more or less dramatic. Wherever there is dialogue there is drama. No matter what the subject of the discourse—whether it be grave or gay, or its object be to teach or only to amuse, -if it assume to speak through any agency other than the writer in his own proper person, there is drama. As, in music, we have heard Mendelssohn's exquisite Songs without Words, wherein the airs by their expressiveness suggest the thoughts and feelings a poet would have embodied in choicest language and married to such music, so there is to be found in literature drama without the ostensible shape of drama, as in a narrative

whose incidents are so graphically described that we see in the mind's eye the actions of all the characters, and from those actions learn the words they must have spoken when so acting and feeling.

Moreover, drama belongs exclusively to humanity. It attaches to the "quicquid agunt homines." It is difficult to conceive, and almost impossible to describe, any doings of men that are not dramatic. All the external world might be accurately painted in words, without a particle of drama, though with plenty of poetry; but, certainly, two human beings cannot be brought into communication without a drama being enacted. Their intercourse could only be described dramatically, and that which is so described requires to be read dramatically. Of this art, the foundation is an accurate conception of the various characters, and the perfection of the art is to express their characteristics truly, each one as the personage in question would have so spoken, had he really existed at such a time and in such circumstances. The dramatist and the novelist conceive certain ideal personages; they place them in certain imaginary conditions; then they are enabled, by a mental process which is not an act of reasoning but a special faculty, to throw their own minds into the state that would be the condition of such persons so situated, and forthwith there arises within their minds the train of feelings and thoughts natural to that situation. It is difficult to describe this mental process clearly in unscientific language, but it will be at once admitted that something very like it must take place before Genius, sitting in a lonely room, could give probable speech and emotion to creatures of the imagination. That is the dramatic art of the author, and, because it is so difficult

and rare, it is the most highly esteemed of all the accomplishments of authorship.

For the right reading of dialogue very nearly the same process is required. You must, in the first place, comprehend distinctly the characters supposed to be speaking in the drama. You must have in your mind's eye a vivid picture of them, as suggested by the author's sketch in outline. Next, you must thoroughly understand the meaning of the words the author has put into their mouths, that is to say, what it was those words were designed to express. This fancy portrait will suggest the manner of speaking; and then, clearly comprehending the meaning of the words, you will naturally utter them with the right tones and emphasis.

As the great author, having conceived a character and invented situations for it, by force of his genius, and without an effort of reason, makes him act and talk exactly as such a person would have acted and talked in real life; so the great actor, mastering the author's design, rightly and clearly comprehending the character and learning the words it is supposed to speak, gives to them the correct expression, not as the result of a process of reasoning, but instinctively, by throwing his mind into the position of the character he is personating. So does the good reader become for the moment the personages of whom he is reading, and utters their thoughts as themselves would have uttered them. The reader must be the actor without the action.

Until you have attained to the ready use of this faculty of personation, you cannot be a good reader of dialogue ; but it is a faculty capable of cultivation, and certain to improve by practice. Bashfulness is a very frequent cause of failures that are supposed to result from appa

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rent lack of the faculty itself. Almost every reader shrinks at first from reading in character. He fears failure; he wants the courage to break down and try again; he is scared by his own voice, and has no confidence in his own capacities.

But I desire to impress upon you that dialogue must be read dramatically, or it had better not be read at all; and, that there may be no tendency to read it otherwise, make it a rule from the beginning of your practice of the art to read dramatically, whatever the book in your hand, and in however unsatisfactory a manner you may do so at first. Persevere, and you will be able to measure your improvement almost from day to daycertainly from week to week; and, as you advance, your courage will grow too, and you will not only speedily learn how dialogue ought to be read, but you will acquire the confidence necessary to read it rightly.

Dialogue is the very best practice for students of the Art of Reading. Nothing so rapidly and effectually destroys personal mannerisms. In other readings, it is yourself that speaks, and you speak according to your habits, which are more likely to be bad than good. But in dialogue you speak, not as yourself, but as some other person, and often as half-a-dozen different persons, so that you are unconsciously stripped of your own mannerisms. You must infuse into your style so much life and spirit, you must pass so rapidly from one mode of utterance to another, that the most inveterate habits are rudely shaken. Dialogue is not only excellent practice for yourself, but, well read, it is the most pleasant of all forms of composition to listen to. It never wearies the ear by monotony, for the tones of the voice change with every sentence; nor the mind by