them is large or small, far off or near, whether its movements are gentle or violent.  When once the air is set in motion, it is subject to repercussions which produce echoes, these renew the sensations and make us hear a loud or penetrating sound in another quarter.  If you put your ear to the ground you may hear the sound of men’s voices or horses’ feet in a plain or valley much further off than when you stand upright.

As we have made a comparison between sight and touch, it will be as well to do the same for hearing, and to find out which of the two impressions starting simultaneously from a given body first reaches the sense-organ.  When you see the flash of a cannon, you have still time to take cover; but when you hear the sound it is too late, the ball is close to you.  One can reckon the distance of a thunderstorm by the interval between the lightning and the thunder.  Let the child learn all these facts, let him learn those that are within his reach by experiment, and discover the rest by induction; but I would far rather he knew nothing at all about them, than that you should tell him.

In the voice we have an organ answering to hearing; we have no such organ answering to sight, and we do not repeat colours as we repeat sounds.  This supplies an additional means of cultivating the ear by practising the active and passive organs one with the other.

Man has three kinds of voice, the speaking or articulate voice, the singing or melodious voice, and the pathetic or expressive voice, which serves as the language of the passions, and gives life to song and speech.  The child has these three voices, just as the man has them, but he does not know how to use them in combination.  Like us, he laughs, cries, laments, shrieks, and groans, but he does not know how to combine these inflexions with speech or song.  These three voices find their best expression in perfect music.  Children are incapable of such music, and their singing lacks feeling.  In the same way their spoken language lacks expression; they shout, but they do not speak with emphasis, and there is as little power in their voice as there is emphasis in their speech.  Our pupil’s speech will be plainer and simpler still, for his passions are still asleep, and will not blend their tones with his.  Do not, therefore, set him to recite tragedy or comedy, nor try to teach declamation so-called.  He will have too much sense to give voice to things he cannot understand, or expression to feelings he has never known.

Teach him to speak plainly and distinctly, to articulate clearly, to pronounce correctly and without affectation, to perceive and imitate the right accent in prose and verse, and always to speak loud enough to be heard, but without speaking too loud—­a common fault with school-children.  Let there be no waste in anything.

The same method applies to singing; make his voice smooth and true, flexible and full, his ear alive to time and tune, but nothing more.  Descriptive and theatrical music is not suitable at his age——­I would rather he sang no words; if he must have words, I would try to compose songs on purpose for him, songs interesting to a child, and as simple as his own thoughts.