Arthur Burrell Clear Speaking and Good Reading

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. This is no doubt granted; but the art requires more. It requires the preservation and careful train ing of that elegance of voice which Nature bestows on almost all of us. This sounds ridiculous. The voices of some of our friends, as we mentally run them over, are harsh, commonplace, affected, strident, feeble, fluffy, sloppy, grating, silly. There is no end to the epithets by which we can describe other people's voices; but,surely such epithets may be applied only to some voices. And these some were they always harsh and commonplace? Was there not a time when they were restrained, sweet, and pathetic? Are they not sometimes restrained, sweet, and pathetic still? And of other voices, as we mentally run them over - what words are too beautiful to describe them? Stirring and enthusiastic voices; soft and persuasive voices; mysterious, penetrating.