As we turn to the part of the story relating to Gehazi, we must feel the change in the spirit and movement of the narrative. When he comes before his master we must answer as he answered and realize his attitude of mind however much we disapprove it. Then we feel sympathy for the prophet's disappointment and regret.

"And his

What are the most important clauses of all? flesh came as a little child" is one, and the very last clause when Gehazi goes out a leper. These two clauses are descriptive, but if the story is rendered properly they indicate our genuine sympathy. The first we give with something of surprise and joyous wonder. The last we give with profound regret.

This last may be called dramatic participation. Here we become ourselves; in fact, do we not become more than ourselves? Does not the instinct arise in us of the way an ideal human being would look at the scene. Do we not here rise to a higher intuition, to a realization of the ideal of our race? In fact, do we not meet here with something more than dramatic instinct? Might we not call it the epic instinct? XXIX. IMAGINATION AND TONE

THE REASON WHY

O happy birds among the boughs,
And silver tinkling brook below,
Why are you glad,

Though skies look sad?

Ah, why? And would you know?

A pleasant song to me replied;

"For someone else we sing,

And that is why the woodlands wide

With rapture 'round us ring."

O daisies crowding all the fields,

And twinkling grass, and buds that grow,
Each glance you greet

With smiles so sweet!

"And why-ah, would you know?”

Their beauty to my heart replied;

"For someone else we live;

And nothing in the world so wide
Is sweeter than to give."

George Cooper

Love lifts us to the sunlight,
Though the whole world be dark.

James Russell Lowell

When you talk about some beautiful picture or see a charming object before you, how does it affect your tone? Suppose you speak these two lines as if you were finding fault or scolding somebody, and again with loving tenderness, with joy that the words are true. What then would be the difference in your tone?

I heard the trailing garments of the Night
Sweep through her marble halls!

I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
From the celestial walls!

I felt her presence, by its spell of might,
Stoop o'er me from above;

The calm, majestic presence of the Night,
As of the one I love.

"Hymn to the Night."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

If you read genuinely, thinking and feeling each idea in turn, in this picture of Night by Longfellow, you will note not only the changes of feeling with each clause, but a decided atmosphere over the whole.

Such illustrations as these show that there is another modulation of the voice, besides touch, change of pitch and inflexion. It is a modulation of the secondary vibrations of the voice, of its over tones or resonance. You make this change only through your imagination and feeling. Though it is very noticeable to the careful observer, yet we can hardly produce it mechanically. Such change of the vibrations of the voice by imagination and feeling has been named tone color.

WHITE BUTTERFLIES

Fly, white butterflies, out to sea,
Frail, pale wings for the wind to try,
Small white wings that we scarce can see,
Fly.

Some fly light as a laugh of glee,

Some fly soft as a long, low sigh;

All to the haven where each would be,

Fly.

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Can you read this little poem by Mr. Swinburne and allow your imagination and your sense of the delicacy of the butterflies to warm and soften your tone?

Remember that the impression you receive and its expression go together, that as you pause and see with your imagination the beautiful little being your tone also softens delicately and pleasantly.

One of the best means of recognizing how quickly and easily our voices respond to our feeling is to take short lines, or poems with different emotions, and read each one genuinely. If we really feel and see things, and our imagination is awake, then each line will reveal a different feeling.

If we read the following lines all alike, then we do ‍not feel the joy of the bells in the first, tenderly and gently "go-a-maying " in the second, nor in the third do we hear the sound of the great ocean. But if we definitely realize each line we can define the feeling by the Tone Color, which is the special language of emotion.

"L'Allegro."

And the merry bells ring round.

Come! let us go a-maying as in the Long-ago.
Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll!

Hark! Now everything is still,
The screech-owl and the whistler shrill.

The shrouding of the "Duchess of Malfi."

Milton

Byron

John Webster

Under the snow-drifts the blossoms are sleeping,
Dreaming their dreams of sunshine and June.

I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows:
Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine,
With 'sweet musk roses and with eglantine.

William Shakespeare

We rest in peace where they, sad-eyed,

Saw peril, strife, and pain;

Theirs was the nation's sacrifice,

And ours the priceless gain.

Loud wind, strong wind, sweeping o'er the mountains,
Fresh wind, free wind, blowing from the sea,
Pour forth thy vials like streams from airy fountains,
Draughts of life to me.

SONG OF THE FAIRIES

By the moon we sport and play;
With the night begins our day;
As we dance the dew doth fall;
Trip it, little urchins all!
Step as light as flies the bee,

Two by two, and three by three,

And about go we, and about go we!

Whittier

Dinah Mulock Craik

John Lyly

Can you imagine a troop of fairies and dance as they dance? Imagine yourself as free and nimble, as sprightly and airy, and give the little song with beautiful, tender tones?

Observe that not only do we in imagination trip lightly and easily and move on our feet with the fairies, but our voices take a lower pitch and become soft and gentle.

THE CHESTNUT BURR

The wind cried aloud to the chestnut burr,

"Open, come open to me!"

And he blew with his might

Till the burr shook with fright,

But never a bit opened she.

Then the sun smiled down on the little green burr,

66

"Please open," he coaxed, to me!"

And he shone so warm,

That the burr in alarm

Hid under the leaves of the tree.

Jack Frost came hurrying down the hill.
66 Ho, ho, ha, ha!" laughed he.
And the burr laughed back

Till her brown sides cracked;
Then out fell the chestnuts three.

Christine H. Hamilton

Observe the difference between the way the wind spoke to the chestnut burr and the way the sun spoke. Also the joyous laughter of Jack Frost. Observe that when we read it sincerely and heartily our voices change too, with the wind and sun and frost. We give the command of the wind. We speak of the sun with great affection and love, while Jack Frost comes laughing heartily.

In reading, as we pass from one picture to another, there is a change in our feeling, which makes a change also in what we call the color of the voice; that is to say, the quality of the voice changes, every vibration becoming more sympathetic.

Now the sun is sinking in the golden west;

Birds and bees and children, all have gone to rest;
And the merry streamlet, as it runs along,
With a voice of sweetness sings its evening song.
Cowslip, daisy, violet, in their little beds,
All among the grasses, hide their heavy heads;
There they are, sweet darlings! sunk in happy dreams,
Till the rosy morning wakes them with its beams.

Author not known

In this passage, passing from the sunset, to the "birds, and bees, and children," you perceive a slight difference, and especially when you go on to the streamlet. There is a very subtle change in passing from one picture to another.

This difference is due to the pictures in the mind. If you see the word "birds" without seeing anything else, your voice will not be changed; it may even grow harder. But if you feel the sunset and the trees all in sympathy with one another, the streamlet's song blending with the robin's, and allow yourself to enjoy all of these things sympathetically, then your tone will tell of them. All hardness will disappear, and your voice will be mellow and will seem to vibrate with the spirit of the whole scene.

We have seen that attention is more deliberative than