SEED THOUGHTS FOR SINGERS.
BY
FRANK HERBERT TUBBS,
Musical Director, New York Vocal Institute.
colophon
NEW YORK,
FRANK H. TUBBS, 121 WEST 42D STREET.
1897.
Copyright, 1897, Frank H. Tubbs.
PREFACE.
There are times when one feels that he must turn from himself and receive suggestion, if not direct instruction, from some one else. Originating thought is more difficult than is the taking of other thought. By delving below the thought received we learn to originate. It is not necessarily an admission of weakness, that we turn to another, for busy life uses up our mental energy and throws us into mental inactivity. It is at such times that we turn to books and teachers.
Thought is a substance which, as such, is only in our day being fully investigated. It is the expression of an idea and is the direct cause of all action. The slightest movement is made possible only through thought on perceived or unconscious mental activity. The more thoroughly directed actions are the expression of considered thought. Habit and movement by intuition are expressions of undirected thought. Changing from the latter condition to that of planned or considered action makes all action stronger and more definite. The thinking man becomes the leader of men.
"Seed-thoughts" are such as produce other thoughts. Hardly have we reached the realm of ideas. It is a step—not long, yet well-defined—from thought to idea. This little volume does not propose to take that step. It is content to stop, in all modesty, at that place. Its suggestions are sent out to busy teachers and students to lodge in mind as plantings in good mental soil. That they will take root, spring up and bear fruit, is fondly hoped. What the harvest of thought in others may be is idle to speculate upon, but the hope exists that there may be two or three times the amount used in planting when all shall have been gathered in. In this hope the "Seed-thought" is sent on its mission.
121 West 42d Street,
New York.
| INDEX. |
| CHAPTER I. | —Success. | 11 |
| CHAPTER II. | —Desultory Voice Practice. | 27 |
| CHAPTER III. | —Alere Flamman. | 43 |
| | Every one Can Sing, 43; Sustain Perfectly, 44; Care of Body, 45; Friends Can Help, 48; Renew Thought, 49; Speaking and Singing, 50; Associates, 51; Purity of Method, 52; Mental Recovery, 53; Profession or Trade, 53; Heart and Intellect, 54; Time Ends Not, 55; Power of Thought, 56; Nature Seldom Jumps, 58; Be Perfect, 59. | |
| CHAPTER IV. | —Perfect Voice Method. | 63 |
| CHAPTER V. | —A Paper of Seeds. | 79 |
| | Analyze Songs, 79; Fault Finding, 80; Recover from Mistakes, 80; Songs for Beginners, 81; Criticism, 82; Wait for Results, 83; All Things are Good, 84; Little Things Affect, 85; Musical Library, 86; Change of Opinions, 87; Reputation Comes Slowly, 88; Study Poetry, 89; Mannerisms Show Character, 90; Provide for the Young, 91; There are no Mistakes, 93; Regularity, 94; Assert Individuality, 96; Educing, 97. | |
| CHAPTER VI. | —Cuneus Cuneum Trudit. | 101 |
| | Vocal Tone, 101; True Art is Delicate, 104; Words and Tone Should Agree, 105; Preparation for Teaching, 108; Experience, 111; Before an Audience, 112; Come Up Higher, 113; Crude Voices Express no Emotion, 114. | |
| CHAPTER VII. | —Ambition. | 119 |
| CHAPTER VIII. | —Music and Longevity. | 137 |
| CHAPTER IX. | —Activity. | 147 |
CHAPTER I.
SUCCESS
"I am what I am because I was industrious; whoever is equally sedulous will be equally successful." Bach.
"To steer steadily towards an ideal standard is the only means of advancing in life, as in music." Hiller.
SEED-THOUGHTS
FOR SINGERS.
I.
SUCCESS.
A few decades ago a clumsy, lank, raw-boned boy roamed over the hills of the State of Ohio. He was not marked with the talent of many, nor was he noted for anything in particular except, perhaps, an aptness in "doing sums." Bare-footed, and with scanty clothing, he appeared at a school in a village near his home and begged admission. At first he was refused. Persistence overcame the opposition and he entered, becoming in a short time by his application, the leading spirit in the school. The course of study there being completed, he went to an office across in Delaware as a clerk. That year, the Representative to Congress from Delaware, when about to appoint a youth to enter the Naval Academy at Annapolis, announced a competitive examination. The country lad competed and secured the prize. Friends whom he had made raised funds for the necessary uniforms. At the end of his course a good appointment in the navy followed. Visits to various countries gave him command of three languages. A change to shore duty permitted him to study law. At a recent courtmartial trial at Brooklyn he served as advocate for the Government so acceptably that he has been offered and has accepted, membership in one of the largest law firms in New York. The change from the rough lad to the cultured advocate indicates success.
On a bench in an old-fashioned shoe shop sat a young man working at his trade. A singing teacher, passing along, noticed the rich voice of the young man, singing as he worked. The teacher inquired where he sang in church and if he sang in public. Learning that the young man sang no-where, had had no instruction or education, and lacked even the clothes necessary to a respectable appearance, he interested himself in the youth and lived to see him become the leading oratorio basso of America. Success! You will say these two had great natural gifts, all their faculties, and had friends. Another case: A boy at six, was left as a result of scarlet fever, stone blind. Nor has he since seen a ray of light. A necessary faculty to success gone, is it? To-day that young man is one of the best musicians and singers; getting $1,500 for his choir singing. Success.
There is within each and every one that ability and prime element, which, properly commanded and developed, COMPELS success. But few understand themselves or realize the power within them. Without comprehension of what is within, no start toward success can be made. A reason for absence of comprehension lies in the fact that but one side of self is ever seen, and that side is the grosser one. The body—a head, a trunk, arms and legs. These we see with our physical eyes and call the object, man. We incline to think if these parts are comely, well shapen, strong, beautiful, the possessor may march on to success. "Trust not to appearance." Were the body the root of all things, or of especial worth, the race would be to the swift, the fight to the strong. But that seen, felt, heard, is not the real self. Within the body, as a dweller and a motive power, is the ego, the real self. It is that and that only which can be developed and which possesses those attributes, compelling, bye and bye, success. It is that which must, to some degree, be understood. Be the body what it may, the real self has the power of expression and improvement. That real self will be spoken of as the ego, and its power considered.
There enters into existence at birth or early in life an indefinable something. We term it soul, spirit, mind. When we meet or associate with a person, in a short time we recognise that mind. At first we may notice the body or even the dress and be influenced by it. In time we see back of that outward covering and see the mind behind it. After, we forget the body in the acquaintance with the mind. A homely person becomes illumined with new life. A beauty loses attraction. We have learned to know the ego in our acquaintance. That ego we come to know as all there is of the acquaintance. A dozen bodies in the dissecting room of the medical college are almost exactly alike. More alike than are the suits of clothes cast off last year by a dozen men. The ego from a dozen men will have small point of resemblance. The ego has so many characteristic elements that it makes possibility of development, throughout the years allotted to man while passing over the earth's crust, into ANYTHING. The body is the home of the ego and the tool for its development and action. Train the body to ability to respond to the demands of the ego, and keep it healthful, and no more can be done with it. For now nothing more need be said of the body. In speaking of the cause of non-success, limited success or disaster, reference to it will be made.
Attributes of mind lead always in the direction of progress. Ego, mind, real self, is God within us. "He breathed in his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul." That "breath of life" is God. That cannot tend downward. The attributes of God are the attributes of the ego. Love, thought, sympathy, ambition, helpfulness, desire for refinement, culture, expansion—these are such attributes. Is any mind lacking these? If we say yes, look within ourselves and see if they are lacking in us. Accord the same faculties or attributes of mind to each of our fellow men. These attributes cultivated will cause growth of the ego as surely as it is that God liveth and we are in Him. But this growth makes the ego greater and by its reaching out after the things of the world and taking them to itself, produces that which we term success. Understand, then, the ego. Grow it. Reach and possess. These attributes are the forces within each and these forces are the elements of success.
But, asks one, what is the bearing of this on our study and on our singing. It has been plain to me as a teacher, and it grows stronger every year, that all success in singing arises from a comprehension of the ego within us, and the cultivation of these attributes bearing directly upon singing and music. Three only of those attributes may be considered now.
First,—ambition. What would you become? Yes, a musician and singer. Consult one who knows your body better than you and enough of your mind to judge well, and if he says you may become one, plan your life work to making your ambition gratified. Aim high. But few persons lack the capacity of singing well. The goal of most is that, to sing well. At home only, it may be. For friends, and for self-pleasure. Others would become professional artists. Aim at the highest and best. No ambition is too high and, provided we will cultivate the ego, no ambition will remain ungratified. Do not be modest in expectancy. Nothing is too good or too high, too great or too noble for the God within us. Therefore plan large things.
Second—thought. Having planned a broad campaign and having resolved on faithfulness, bend the thought toward the result. Now, thought is not the subtle nonentity we let ourselves consider it. The text of a book recently examined is, "Thoughts are things." Thought is an emanation of the ego; a messenger of the mind. We shoot thoughts out by the thousands and millions. Generally we fly them at random. If they strike a mark we gain a result. Stop shooting them at random, aim correctly, hit the mark each time and each thought brings a result. Pure thought, the thought from the ambitious ego, is upward, and when centered, concentrated on the plan which ambition has prompted, it carries that plan onward—upward—to the end, success. Concentration of thought, say you? Do we not have it? Let me ask you to fix the thought on one object five seconds. Tear this paper slowly from end to end and think of nothing else while doing it. Probably the thought during the five seconds will embrace a dozen things besides the act of tearing. Of what paper is made, how far apart the lines are, be the texture fine, how much does it cost, some other paper bought last week, where you bought it, the salesman who served you, what a frightful rainy day that was, how you caught cold and what a scolding you got at home for being out—a long way from the act of tearing. The first thought is lost. Concentrate. Acquire the habit of concentration. In nothing more than in thinking should we say, "Do one thing at a time." Concentration of thought makes steady growth of the plan of ambition's suggestion and moves it on to success.
Third—expression. Every growth produces another. Emerson says in substance that the end of every act is but the beginning of another. It used to be said that if a man made $5,000 he was sure to become rich—meaning that the money invested and reinvested, and added to by constant earning, would surely bring wealth. Every growth of attribute of mind, be it of those mentioned or of others, develops possibilities of further growth. Love, a powerful attribute of the ego, first circles in the home, then expands into the circle of friends, then reaches the business, society, the world. One begins by caring for the want of a hurt bird or other pet. He ends by raising and healing mankind. One quietly slips a few pennies into the hand of an unfortunate. He ends by being a philanthropist. One speaks a kind word. He ends by raising the fallen. These, you see, touch upon sympathy, helpfulness. Each attribute expands. Have you followed? Isn't this true? How, then, about desire for refinement? If the others expand, will not that? A noble thought, an association with the pure in art, and beauty in poem, story, song, sky, flower, but leads us to another even more beautiful. Each touch of beauty, of docility, of refinement, expands that line of our ego, and we feel ourselves raised, drawing nearer and nearer that great Mind, and keeping us more and more in that grace which passeth all understanding. The end must be success in our plan. Mental growth means more power to grasp and wrest from circumstances and the world itself, successful prosecution of the plan which ambition framed. Successful prosecution means ultimate success.
In mind I hear some one say, this is good theory and a beautiful picture. What of it is practical enough for my mind. Let us turn for a few minutes to a darker side and then again to the brighter, and see if a practical word does not exist for each. What prevents success, and is there false success?
A few minutes ago I spoke of the bodies which the ego inhabits. Those bodies possess attributes and faculties. St. Paul said once that he would be out of the body and be in the spirit; meaning, as I believe, that he would rather live in the ego, and not be hindered by the body. The body must be fed and clothed. It has appetites. Appetite grows, requiring more delicacies, higher spiced and richer food, and perhaps more food. Clothing takes much attention, and develops pride and vanity. Has not each said many a time, "If I but had time to attend to study and did not have to attend to my clothes, my food, and take the time to earn money for them, I could do so much"? True, but the body is here and if these things are not done, the ego would have no home in which to stay. The care of the body is necessary. Cannot, however, even these necessary demands be somewhat reduced for the sake of attending to the ego within, more fully? If not, cannot the appetite and the pride, which, after all, give no satisfaction when all is done, be so held in check by care and reasonableness that the demands of body will not grow upon us? After all, those necessary demands of body, grown abnormal, or into the unnecessary, are not so bad as other attributes of body. Laziness! Light gossip! Fretting! Uncleanness! Disease! These things can't be part of the ego, for the real man is the "breath of life"—God. They must be of body. They are the things which play havoc with our time, our energy, our thought. It is a commonly accepted belief that man must be now and then on the sick bed. That commonly-accepted belief is slowly but surely disappearing before the fact that the body only becomes diseased as it is neglected, overfed or attacked by bacillÆ. If a plant dies we look for the worm at its root, or the insect on the leaf. If it has had good soil, earth and sun, we expect it to flourish. The body is the same material—dust. Attend it, not abuse it, and except from contagion it will serve us without disease. Solomon said, "Know thyself." Maybe he meant know to care for the body. When this is done the ego is allowed its chance to go to success. Without it, the body, full of appetite, pride, hatred, laziness, envy, fretfulness and disease, weighs with compelling force, the ego down to earth. Instead of success follows failure. Emancipate the ego from the body before even planning. This body and this alone can cause failure. A success arising from a pretty face, a good figure, graceful dancing, agile singing and trifling speech is false success and is worse than failure. How about circumstances and their influences? Surroundings. They surely effect us. Yes, but just so surely as the ego throws off the lower self, within the body, and resolves to rise, just so quick will the circumstances and surroundings begin to change. Just so fast as the ego develops its attributes just so fast will appropriate circumstances and surroundings for its further growth open. Like begets like. Water seeks its level. Seek low things on bodily planes and low friends will surround you. Like is with like. Raise yourself a peg and you will find those with whom you can follow. Your old associates will not go with you, and some will call you mean and cry, "Come back," and try to pull you back. Bid them adieu and go higher. New surroundings are there and will make a place for you in them. The past becomes a stepping stone and if you have cleared the ego of your own body, you will rise again. Like draws like. The new friends, the new town, the new music, the new activity will lend you their aid to go higher. Clear yourself at each step of the weight brought on by body and circumstances will seem different. "God helps him who helps himself." Those who would pull back are by our very inertia cast off. We rise to success.
The thousand things which might be well said in connection with the subject must be left. Recapitulation and application to the individual singing student show these:
1st. Plan, and concentrate thought on its execution.
2d. Cultivate the real self and not permit the shell or body to dominate.
3d. By that command of the self, win friends and compel success. That which conduces most toward success is even disposition and geniality. These grow into kindly independence which develops for us experience.
How long, ask you, will it take to become an artist? No one knows. Two minds differ—in fact, no two are alike. A few months suffice to make the crudest student an adept singer; or rather, is time enough to make him sing as well as his mind wishes. From that time on the voice grows better only as the mind grows and comprehends how to further use the voice. So, then, as soon as one can sing so as to acceptably please friends, it is a duty which the pupil owes himself to sing for those whom he pleases. The effort gives him experience and prepares him to meet the next circle. As the ability grows, seek to sing before greater artists, and with the best singers. The time will come—it may be one year, two years, three years, or even more—when it is best to go before the best artists of the world and secure their commendation and their co-operation (silently it may be) to further for you the prosecution and completion of your pre-arranged plan regarding your music. What matters it how long this takes. Life is, if you are using it aright, a perfection of a plan of existence which will end only when we pass over the River. A portion, more or less long, used in making a musician and an artist, is but a part of the whole, and a development of the talent lent us by the good Father, and which we, by our effort, eventually return to Him, added to, and made beautiful because of the Heavenborn Art—music—which we have absorbed to ourselves. Nor is this all, for in the development of our own talent we have carried the whole world unconsciously upward nearest the pure, the beautiful and the true.
CHAPTER II.
DESULTORY VOICE PRACTICE.
"Nothing should be done without a purpose."
Aurelius.
"Music is never stationary; successive forms and styles are only like so many resting-places—like tents pitched and taken down again on the road to the Ideal."
Liszt.
II.
DESULTORY VOICE PRACTICE.
European schools and teachers stand aghast at what American pupils demand and at their expectations. Accustomed to the years of attention to detail and to seeing their own students willing to wait long years before good results are achieved, they naturally think the American students wild. These Americans want to do in one year what Europeans are willing to use three or four years for. Those teachers say it cannot be done and set down American students as conceited fools. While at first glance the teachers appear right, may they not be wrong? America to-day has more inventions in use, more quick ways of working in all lines of life, and can show quicker results in all lines of activity than any other nation. Methods and ways have been devised and adapted to American speed in all branches. May such not apply to study? So this item is prepared in the interest of American students, living under American conditions. It is useless to say, "we live too fast." Take facts as they are and adjust our custom to the day, place and situation.
Until within comparatively few years the plan for cultivation of the voice and preparation for song singing was to sing a few sustained tones for warming up the voice, as the saying was, and then to sing vocalizes. In the earlier stages of practice solfeggii and vocalizes of easy range and light character were employed. As these were acquired, similar ones of greater difficulty were used and as the singer gained confidence in himself and ability to sing better, the exercises were still increased in difficulty. The time employed in study extended over several years and with the result that those who had patience and perseverance became able to sing. Not one, however, in a thousand, who studied ever arrived at a point which allowed him comfort in his singing or pleasure to his hearers. That is, to the idea of a practical mind, desultory voice study. It may be adapted to the contented plodding of an old world civilization, but is not in keeping with the age of electricity or of gigantic schemes. It must be kept in mind by every one that "old things have passed away and all things have become new." The very association about us makes mind keen to rapidity of action, speaking from incisive thought. A plodder stands back while the brilliant man moves to the front. By the plodder is meant he who is willing to go slowly. By the brilliant man, he, though he may not have more native talent than the other, has by calling to his aid those commanding elements of success, moved surely and therefore swiftly, through the perplexities of every existence, to the front. Every thing which cuts off wastefulness of time becomes a weapon with which to fight perplexities. In such an active life, he who would cultivate the voice and become a musician must map out for himself a course of study which will give him the best results in the quickest possible time.
It is patent to every one who intelligently teaches that the road followed during the last few generations lacks these short roads to success. One asks, and with justice, if we have now found the royal road to learning which it has ever been said does not exist. If that means the road by which, at one bound, we reach perfection, the answer must be that no royal road has been found. There have been planned, however, ways of procedure which must shorten the trip. I know not when man first practised dentistry but this I do know, that the doctor of dental science who works on lines of even one generation back is valueless. To-day the terrors of the dentist's chair are reduced to a minimum, if not entirely removed. Photography, a science of our day, has swiftly grown to an art. I recall a photographer who in 1870 was noted for perfect work. He was so satisfied with himself and his work that he neglected to use the new ways which were being discovered. In 1880 his work was considered so bad as to be condemned by all and his studio was forsaken. Printing by the sun had not been discarded but how to use the science had been carefully advanced—wasteful and slow method discarded, and surer and better results obtained. Is a musician less keen of perception and adjustment to circumstances than the dentist and photographer? Pride rebels against an affirmative answer. Then the natural deduction is that he has learned to apply new ways and methods, by and through which he can produce surer and more beautiful results than could his predecessor in his profession. As a first step toward progress he recognised the faults of the old way and sought a change from them. The chief of the faults lay in seeking to cultivate a sound. He said in substance, then, that "since cultivating a sound is wrong I consider that no such thing as sound exists. It cannot be perceived by any of the senses. It cannot be seen, tasted, smelt, felt, or even heard." (Parenthetically, it may be said if one takes exception to the latter statement, that proof is given of the truth if one sings into a phonograph. The singer cannot recognise what the instrument sounds back as his voice. Others may recognise it but he cannot. The hearing of my voice by another, no matter how much he may tell me about it, does not show me how it sounds, and I must conclude that I cannot hear it.) Since none of the five senses can bear upon sound, for cultivating it, sound, or tone if you wish to call it so, is worthless. This then which the old teachers watched for years, was intangible, and to watch it to-day and to try to form singers by manipulating so subtle a thing, produces wastefulness, and desultory practice. Go to the foundation. What produces voice? Vibration of air reservoirs. What governs the air and gives the vibration? Muscle. What are muscles, where are they, how can they be managed? They are contained within the portion of the body between the waist and the eyes, and form, while used in voice production, about all of that portion of the body, and they can be managed by the understanding and command of the mind. The general understanding of vocal anatomy, and the positive control of that anatomy that it may do just what the will demands is the foundation of voice practice. Such positiveness makes possible the rapidity of vocal development akin to the surety of the dentist's art and the certainty of the photographer. The prime fault of old methods is, at one stroke, cut away. A new growth on the foundation appears.
Many musical journals discuss methods, Italian, French, German. Even wonder if we will ever have an American method. Such discussion is waste. There is one method. All schools build on it. He who understands it best and is surest in teaching it, gives best result and is the best teacher. He, the best teacher, is such only when he applies his mind to each and every act of his pupil and banishes for the time being every other thought from mind. In a proper lesson every minute is used thoroughly. No sixty seconds can be thrown away. The mind of the teacher alert to the necessity of his charge makes every minute tell. With this as a preamble, turn to the pupil who is by himself to avoid desultory practice.
You have a voice. Every one has. Yours, you know, is a very good one. You want (not, would like) in the quickest time to make it do just what you conceive a fine singer should do. Then, know what is to be done, understand how to do it, and do it. The boys say "One to make ready, two to prepare, and three—." But you stand around making ready, preparing so long. Why? Do you know what is to be done? Ask the teacher, and don't let him evade positive instruction. Garcia, when asked the cause of Jenny Lind's great success, replied "She never tried to do anything 'til she knew how. More than once she has come to my house of an evening and said 'I did not fully understand what you told me to-day. Will you explain it again?' After that she never needed to be told again." At a lesson understand what is taught. Don't pretend you do when you do not. After going home from each lesson, write in a book kept for that purpose what has been said at the lesson. Read that book often. This will fix in mind, as well as preserve for reference, the instruction, and make sure the understanding of it. Then it is for you to do it. Once the pianist played scales by the hour to limber the hand; now he thinks only of the muscle which causes each finger to strike, and makes that muscle work at once. What formerly took months to do he now does in days. Desultory practice is avoided. A teacher in a certain city complained that another teacher got pupils by advertising quick method. Cut off desultory practice, apply mind where brute force has formerly held sway, and quick method is the result.
One reference to complaint brings others to mind. The most precious commodity known is time. Twenty-four hours only in a day. How little and how valuable. Yet if all is conserved, how much and how great. Masonic instruction divides the day into three portions; one for our usual avocations, one for good of self and family, and one for refreshment and sleep. So much for instruction. Can some wasteful acts of life be reduced or eliminated, that we may economize time, and what is better, form habit of utilizing all of the precious commodity? What a lesson one can draw on these elevated trains. Each morn, a man (one man, or how many think you?) enters and finds a seat. Immediately he is into his newspaper. A half hour later he gets out, having arrived at his station. What has happened? He has read the newspaper. No, he hasn't read the newspaper. Ask him what he has learned. He can't tell you. One item, two, three, perhaps—and these of little value. That is not reading. It is cursory glancing, desultory and wasteful. Stop it. Thirty precious minutes gone. A glance at a paper (provided one knows the general make-up of the paper he reads) tells him all in it of value. Six minutes is enough, except when something of unusual moment is to be read, and that doesn't happen once a month. The other twenty-four minutes should go into some other purpose. A book, magazine, play, or even silent thought will give value for the twenty-four. At night, on the way home, the man skims through an evening paper. Almost one hour of the twenty-four thrown away. Compute the amount of educational advancement possible to this city were the hundreds of thousands of hours thrown away daily to be used in progressive study or thought. You and I help to waste, do we?
The command of the mind is the underlying need of the student. It has come into thought that should one apply himself every minute to some work that he would fatigue and wear out. He could not stand it. Wrong. The mind cannot wear out, even if it can fatigue. Rest is the opposite of unrest, and unrest is equivalent to fatigue. The superficial reading or skimming, shifting of thought through the thousand objects which come before the mind gives the unrest and through it, the fatigue. Stop the unrest, and let rest abound. Rest comes through definite change of work. The man who leaves his office, rushes to mountain and farm, sees new scenes, faces, customs, eats new food, rides, fishes, swims, climbs and dances, is the one who comes back rested. There has been no unrest, but radical change. The first assistant engineer of the New York aqueduct was to me at one time an object of astonishment. It was said of him, "When he works, he works; when he plays, he plays; whatever he does it is for the time all in the world to him." At that time he held an important engineering position, was an officer in a military organization, secretary of a yacht club, active in church society, leader in literary circles in classic Boston and never was rushed. The change of work was the secret of it all. Rest came by turning out of mind what did not pertain to the act then in hand. Every act was new. Of a certain minister it is said "He can do more in ten minutes than most men do in a day." His church has fifteen hundred members and his Sunday school a larger number. Calls, sermons, the sick, weddings, funerals, the poor (for he had four charity societies), his family, young people's societies,—yet he has time for all and he sees callers, more in one week than you and I do in a year. How does he do it? What you and I waste time upon, he does not. No gossip, worry, standing before a mirror, dozing over dinner, or unrest for him. Vary the monotony a little and find rest. Don't fear doing too much. Wear out, if need be, but don't rust. It is the busy man who has lots of time. Do you want advice, a helping hand? Avoid the lazy man, for he has no time for you. The busy man has. Why is it that the busy teacher draws the most pupils? Were he to half teach ten pupils they would leave him and no more would come. Because he can attend to forty, and that by making to each a profitable half-hour, forty more come. The half supplied teacher is less able to teach his small flock than the pushed teacher. He must turn quickly from act to act and thus keep rested, by change of scene, pupil, music and vivacity. "Can you jump immediately from a lesson to the desk and write one of your magazine articles?" asks one. Nothing easier. Fix the mind on what is to be done that minute, and do it. It makes a heaven of earth.
Instruction which is not practical is little worth. You are interested in improving yourselves vocally. To you let me plan a first step toward preventing desultory voice practice. Under four headings. Practical ones.
First.—Establish customs. The best one I know is to plan in advance to accomplish certain things. Make up the mind what you would like to do. Each night make out a little card of what is to be done next day. Probably not half the things planned will be executed, at first. What of it. Some have been done; but better, that unconscious growth which carries custom into habit will be developed and the system which will grow out of the custom of preparing the cards and attempting to work out that which was planned, will cut off more wasteful minutes than you admit are in your day. After a time it will come that all the items you write on the card at evening will not be too much to do on the following day. Compare the card of the thirtieth day with that of the first and you will find you wrote quite as many (if not more) things to do and now you can do them all, and feel no hurry and far less fatigue. Will you try that?
Second.—Give certain times each day to certain things. You can't? You can. I'll give proof you can. Having planned what is to be done the next day and allowed that custom to become habit, will develop such regularity that each hour will have its regular work and nothing will crowd it out. The system produces it. Turn a kaleidoscope. Each jarring makes new adjustment of figure. Your duty is a kaleidoscope. The proof is that every one who tries such adjustment, succeeds. The school boy knows the time of bell ringing, the hour for arithmetic, geography, etc. The train man knows the minute to be at each station. The clerk or workman is ready to stop work at a certain time. Certain theatres announce what scenes will be on at every minute of the evening. You think and would say, "But these admit of no interruption, and I may have interruptions." To which I say "These permit no interruption, and if you were as systematic, you would permit none." A friend calls at the door to see you. You waste five minutes (only five?) talking to him. Think it over. Was that necessary? Couldn't it have been said in two—one, or less? Next time, kindly, but firmly excuse yourself. If the friend thinks you snubbing, you can afford that, for the friend is a wasteful one and better be dropped than allowed to spoil you. The fault when we waste time is in us, not in the friend. A lady called recently. "Your time is valuable. I'll say in one word what I want." 'Twas said, and she went. Kind lady! To whom? Me? Not at all. She is one of the busiest women in the city and couldn't afford to give much of her time to the errand, but neatly complimented, in order to cover what some might call selfishness. Be wise. That kindly habit comes from preventing waste.
Third.—Banish every low or lowering thought. For now, for no reason except to save time, and help form habit which prevents waste. Every thought has its sure influence. Every thought of envy, hatred, jealousy, of crimes, accidents, misfortunes, sorrows, our own or those of others, is an evil. It takes time out of life and saps life-activity. Supplant it with pure and good thought. Health, brightness, pleasure, art and beauty are subjects which lift. Upward, upward, toward heaven! That must be the student's mental attitude. Enough would drag down. Cast the down view away. Look up and go up. You do not study for the purpose of going downward. Upward again to the top—and you must do it by having your thought good and pure.
Fourth.—Interest friends in your practice. Only one word about that. No one can long go in any mental work alone. Progress is mental work. Rising draws others to and with us. See a little whirlwind take up the dust. It gathers more and more until a column twenty or thirty feet high is before us. Tell father, mother, friends, those you can trust, what you hope to do and what your efforts to accomplish that, are. Seeing you in earnest they will help—with misgivings at first, may be, but they will join the column and make one with you sure.
Summary, briefly. By systematic utility, every minute contributes to progress, forming habits which prevent wasteful thought and fatigue. The customs of former years need not be followed because direct result will come from direct application of thought to study. Old world ways and past generation ideas do not belong to-day in either teacher or pupil, and, therefore, are to drop out. The wastefulness of uncertainty and evil in mind may be overcome by directness of effort until good habit crowds out the evil. The first and all important step is the plan of action. Acknowledge no limitation to growth. Love soundness, careful thought, steadfast purpose.
CHAPTER III.
ALERE FLAMMAN.
