So many have spent year after year upon the difficult and "fruitless" endeavor to study the motions of the larynx; while here is an opportunity plainly before every one's eyes to study, without effort, the most interesting phenomena in voice production. We must be obliged to seek for a thing high and low before we deem it worthy of our attention. [Illustration] THE HUMAN VOICE What is the voice--a spirit, or "an expiratory current of air set into vibration by purely physical agencies"? It does not seem to me to be either, but something which is of the nature of both: our dual nature, embodied in the sounds of speech; our body and soul joining hands to produce the miracle of the voice. Regarding the materialistic view quoted above, which is held by most of the investigators, who make the larynx their _point d'appui_, I think that if there is anything in our composition or emanating therefrom that is _not_ produced by "_purely_ physical agencies," it is the voice. In my opinion there is nothing purer, more "spiritual," in the world than a beautiful voice. Did you ever _see_ a spirit? Perhaps not. But you have often _heard_ one. You hear them daily, hourly, constantly; other spirits as well as your own--the spirits represented by the voice; the soul incorporated in the sounds of speech. When you converse, it is soul to soul; when you hear an anthem sung, it is the soul of the singer to the soul of the universe. The soul reveals itself most prominently through the voice when there is anguish in it, or joy; tears or laughter; love or hate. An attempt to get at the truth in matters of the voice is an attempt at getting at the truth in matters of life. If you will tell me _all_ that a vocal sound is, I will tell you what your soul is. To examine into the anatomical construction of the larynx, to watch it physiologically and learn to understand the motions of the vocal cords in their relation to vocal sounds, is not much more than looking at the dial of a clock (a simile already used, but worth repeating). The movements of the hands will give you _no_ cue to the construction of the intricate works hidden behind the face of the clock. Nor will the careful examination and observation of the "dials" which serve the voice of the œsophagus in the same manner as those of the larynx serve the voice of the trachea, measurably increase the knowledge of vocal phenomena. I do believe, however, that, inasmuch as the movements of the replica, the frænum, and the vocal lip fit into and complement those of the larynx and its vocal cords, and vice versa, lessons of great benefit to the knowledge and the improvement of vocal utterance may be learned, _after_ we have once begun to understand what these movements imply. That we cannot now derive any benefit from the observation of these motions is due to the fact that they are _reflex_, _involuntary_, _uncontrolled_ and _uncontrollable_ by the will. Or, as Mme. D'Arona expresses it: