To set myself up in judgment regarding these important issues, or to place my judgment over that of so many eminent persons in the past as well as the present, may appear to be a presumptuous, rash, bold, and almost unwarranted undertaking. It is not my fault, however, that there should be such utter confusion existing in these matters; that no one should have ever succeeded in reducing this chaos to any kind of order; that I am the heir, so to say, to this condition of affairs; the trustee to this inheritance, who is to make use of it to the best advantage of all that are interested. Nor is it my fault that, not by dint of superior endowments, or any other qualities of a superior order, but simply through the discovery of the dual nature of the voice, I should have obtained an insight into, a mastery over, these matters never before enjoyed by any man. Yet there seems to be a disposition on the part of some persons to throw blame on me for these facts; in place of furthering, to suppress, this knowledge; in place of probing and investigating, to assume that it is simply the outcome of a somewhat more than lively imagination. It appears to me that this is partly done in the interest of the vast literature on these subjects now in existence, which will become obsolete and valueless as soon as the _truth_ in matters of the voice has been established. I dare say this simple fact, "We breathe and speak through the œsophagus in conjunction with breathing and speaking through the trachea," for _real_ knowledge, is worth all of the entire literature on the voice, as a science, now in existence. The science of the voice, as I understand and am trying to explain and establish it, is one not so much of mechanical issues, though they have their share in it, as one in which the spirit, this heretofore unapproachable issue, performs the greatest and most vital part. It is a question of life, and every issue and every agency governing life are involved in it. How vast a science this science of the voice therefore is, can be better imagined than at once fully comprehended. I am far from being able to present it in all its aspects, but shall endeavor, as I have already partly done, to continue to give a general outline of it. It will take time and patience for any one to acquire this knowledge, but the reward will be more than commensurate. To superficially obtain it from others is not sufficient; one must learn to know it of one's own knowledge. It is an academic study, embracing many sciences. A person must enter into it with his whole being if he wants to get hold of the spirit thereof and be truly benefited thereby. He must identify himself with this knowledge, must become part and parcel thereof, or it must become part and parcel of him. When this is done, true teachers of the voice will arise, for here is a chance for greatness to assert itself. It will be death to all hackneyed knowledge and charlatanism.