The joyous tones are the bright tones.  Develop them by exercise.  Practise your voice exercises in an attitude of joy.  Under the influence of pleasure the body expands, the tone passages open, the action of heart and lungs is accelerated, and all the primary conditions for good tone are established.

More songs float out from the broken windows of the negro cabins in the South than from the palatial homes on Fifth Avenue.  Henry Ward Beecher said the happiest days of his life were not when he had become an international character, but when he was an unknown minister out in Lawrenceville, Ohio, sweeping his own church, and working as a carpenter to help pay the grocer.  Happiness is largely an attitude of mind, of viewing life from the right angle.  The optimistic attitude can be cultivated, and it will express itself in voice charm.  A telephone company recently placarded this motto in their booths:  “The Voice with the Smile Wins.”  It does.  Try it.

Reading joyous prose, or lyric poetry, will help put smile and joy of soul into your voice.  The following selections are excellent for practise.

REMEMBER that when you first practise these classics you are to give sole attention to two things:  a joyous attitude of heart and body, and bright tones of voice.  After these ends have been attained to your satisfaction, carefully review the principles of public speaking laid down in the preceding chapters and put them into practise as you read these passages again and again. It would be better to commit each selection to memory.

    SELECTIONS FOR PRACTISE

    FROM MILTON’S “L’ALLEGRO"

    Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee
    Jest, and youthful Jollity,
    Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles,
    Nods and Becks, and wreathed Smiles,
    Such as hang on Hebe’s cheek,
    And love to live in dimple sleek,—­
    Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
    And Laughter holding both his sides.

    Come, and trip it as ye go
    On the light fantastic toe;
    And in thy right hand lead with thee
    The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty: 
    And, if I give thee honor due,
    Mirth, admit me of thy crew,
    To live with her, and live with thee,
    In unreproved pleasures free;

    To hear the lark begin his flight,
    And singing, startle the dull Night
    From his watch-tower in the skies,
    Till the dappled Dawn doth rise;
    Then to come in spite of sorrow,
    And at my window bid good-morrow
    Through the sweetbrier, or the vine,
    Or the twisted eglantine;
    While the cock with lively din
    Scatters the rear of darkness thin,
    And to the stack, or the barn-door,
    Stoutly struts his dames before;