Barring incurable physical defects--and few are incurable nowadays--the whole

matter is one of will. The catalogue of those who have done the impossible by

faithful work is as inspiring as a roll-call of warriors. "The less there is of

you," says Nathan Sheppard, "the more need for you to make the most of what

there is of you."

 

_Articulation_

 

Articulation is the forming and joining of the elementary sounds of speech. It

seems an appalling task to utter articulately the third-of-a million words that

go to make up our English vocabulary, but the way to make a beginning is really

simple: _learn to utter correctly, and with easy change from one to the other,

each of the forty-four elementary sounds in our language_.

 

The reasons why articulation is so painfully slurred by a great many public

speakers are four: ignorance of the elemental sounds; failure to discriminate

between sounds nearly alike; a slovenly, lazy use of the vocal organs; and a

torpid will. Anyone who is still master of himself will know how to handle each

of these defects.

 

The vowel sounds are the most vexing source of errors, especially where

diphthongs are found. Who has not heard such errors as are hit off in this

inimitable verse by Oliver Wendell Holmes:

 

Learning condemns beyond the reach of hope The careless lips that speak of