Approval and tenderness should be shown by the modulations of the voice. Long, abrupt inflections express the excitement resulting from the discovery that the child has fallen into the stream, "Dismay! Help." Then observe the sarcastic reference to human selfishness, and, in tender contrast to the action of the bystanders, old Tray is introduced, followed by the remarks of the on-lookers and their patronizing description of the dog's conduct. Notice that the quotation is long, and that the point of view of the careless bystanders is preserved. The spirit of these bystanders is given in their own words until they laugh at old Tray's pains and blind instinct in fishing up the child's doll from the stream. Now follows the real spirit of bard the third, who portrays the sympathetic admiration for the dog. "'And so, amid the laughter gay,'" requires a sudden change of key and tone-color to express the intensity of feeling and the general appreciation of the mystery of "a mere instinctive dog." The poem closes with an example of the cold, analytic spirit of the age, that hopes to settle the deepest problems merely by experiment. "'By vivisection, at expense, Of half-an-hour and eighteen pence, How brain secretes dog's soul, we'll see!'" The student will soon discover that the monologue is not only a new literary or poetic form, but that it demands a new histrionic method of representation. The monologue should be taken seriously. It is not an accidental form, the odd freak of some peculiar writer. Browning has said that he never intended his poetry to be a substitute for an after-dinner cigar. A similar statement is true of all great monologues. A few so-called monologues on a low plane can be understood and rendered by any one. Every form of dramatic art has its caricature and perversion. Burlesque seems necessary as a caricature of all forms of dramatic art and so there are burlesques of monologues. These, however, must not blind the eyes to the existence of monologues on the highest plane. Many monologues, though short and seemingly simple, probe the profoundest depths of the human soul. Such require patient study; imagination, sympathetic insight, and passion are all necessary in their interpretation. X. ACTIONS OF MIND AND VOICE The complex and difficult language of vocal expression cannot, of course, be explained in such a book as this, but there are a few points which are of especial moment in considering the monologue. All vocal expression is the revelation of the processes of thinking or the elemental actions of the mind. The meaning of the expressive modulations of the voice must be gained from a study of the actions of the mind and their expression in common conversation. While words are conventional symbols, modulations of the voice are natural signs, which accompany the pronunciation of words, and are necessary elements of natural speech.