FREE Public Domain Works

Expressive Voice Culture - Jessie Eldridge Southwick

We may forget what we are doing, but we must be able to know, or there will be nothing worth while to forget! The danger of the mechanical idea—the extreme technician's notion that the sign is enough—is that the person may become an automaton and inhibit the power of real feeling in himself; and though he may perform admirably and win the applause of some critics who love form unduly, he fails in the great issue and wins only superficial success or fails utterly, without seeing why. The real experience has a magnetism of its own and will win above mere technicality whenever it has the opportunity. 

Slips of Speech - John H. Bechtel
 

Pet Words Avoid pet words, whether individual, provincial, or national in their use. Few persons are entirely free from the overuse of certain words. Young people largely employ such words as delightful, delicious, exquisite, and other expressive adjectives, which constitute a kind of society slang.

Society for Pure English, Tract 3
 

Many writers on English pronunciation are accustomed to pour undiscriminating censure on the growing practice of substituting for the traditional mode of pronouncing certain words an 'artificial' pronunciation which is an interpretation of the written form of the words in accordance with the general rules relating to the 'powers' of the letters. This practice is especially common among imperfectly educated people who are ambitious of speaking correctly, and have unfortunately no better standard of 'correctness' than that of conformity with the spelling.

Putnam's Word Book- Louis A. Fleming
 

Putnam's Word Book A Practical Aid in Expressing Ideas through the Use of an Exact and Varied Vocabulary (Aka Synonyms, Antonyms, and Associated Words)

The Renaissance of the Vocal Art - Edmund Myer
 

In art, as in all things else, man must be under the law until he becomes a law unto himself. In other words, he must study his technique, his method, his art, until all becomes a part of himself, becomes, as it were, second nature. There is a wide difference between art and artificiality. True art is based upon Nature's laws. Artificiality, in almost every instance, is a violation of Nature's laws, and at best is but a poor imitation.

The World's Best Orations, Vol. 1 - Various
 

Our days have not fallen on the common chances of mortal life. We have been set to bequeath a story of marvels to posterity. Is not the king of Persia, he who cut through Athos, and bridged the Hellespont, he who demands earth and water from the Greeks, he who in his letters presumes to style himself lord of all men from the sunrise to the sunset, is he not struggling at this hour, no longer for authority over others, but for his own life? Do you not see the men who delivered the Delphian temple invested not only with that glory but with the leadership against Persia? While Thebes— Thebes, our neighbor city—has been in one day swept from the face of Greece—justly it may be in so far as her general policy was erroneous, yet in consequence of a folly which was no accident, but the judgment of heaven.

Voices for the Speechless- Edited by Abraham Firth
 

The compiler of this little book has often heard inquiries by teachers of schools, for selections suitable for reading and recitations by their scholars, in which the duty of kindness to animals should be distinctly taught.
 

Composition-Rhetoric - Stratton D. Brooks
 

Narration consists of an account of happenings, and, for this reason, it is, without doubt, the most interesting of all forms of discourse. It is natural for us all to be interested in life, movement, action; hence we enjoy reading and talking about them. To be convinced that there is everywhere a great interest in narration we need only to listen to conversations, notice what constitutes the subject-matter of letters of friendship, read newspapers and magazines, and observe what classes of books are most frequently drawn from our libraries. 
  

Delsarte System of Oratory- Various
 

Gesture must always precede speech. In fact, speech is reflected expression. It must come after gesture, which is parallel with the impression received. Nature incites a movement, speech names this movement. Speech is only the title, the label of what gesture has anticipated. Speech comes only to confirm what the audience already comprehend. Speech is given for naming things. Gesture asks the question, “What?” and speech answers. Gesture after the answer would be absurd. Let the word come after the gesture and there will be no pleonasm.