Mr. Copeland's Lecture.

Last evening in Sever 11, Mr. C. T. Copeland lectured very delightfully to a large audience, on "The Art of Reading."

The arts of recalling and speaking he said have been too much neglected of late. It is no credit to a person to speak well, but it is a disgrace not to.

Is not the fear of disgrace sufficient reason to make any one learn the correct use of his mother tongue. To read much and intelligently is to speak well; the result cannot be helped.

But there are people who say that there is no need to teach reading; others that it cannot be taught, and others yet that it ought not to be. The last of these objections is urged by those who have seen unsatisfactory results; but this is simply because the instruction is not carried far enough It is nonsense to say it can't be taught, because a reader is both born and made, both elements are almost invariably essential. And as to the first objection, surely nothing is more grievous than to see a tolerable reader who is not helped further.

But the most serious difficulty in the way of our reading, or speaking really well, is the fact that we are Anglo-Saxons, or rather, perhaps, Americans. In England there is a standard to which almost every one subscribes. In Scotland and Ireland this is less so, while in America there is almost an entire absence of such a standard, while France, through her Academies, is ahead of all other nations in this particular. If we are so behind, what better place is there to perfect our language and to set a standard than here at our University, where so many opportunities are offered by the English departments.

In spoken as in written English, clearness, force and elegance must be striven for. Brea hing has much to do with clear speech and also conduces much to is forcibleness. Mechanical exercises in teaching are to be avoided. Surely reading Shakespeare's works gives abundant opportunity for the practising of all sounds, and the reading of novels, helps much in giving a resonant and delicate modulation of tone. Artificiality must be strictly avoided, though it is admissable in painting, sculpture and other arts. No man reads without its having an effect on his voice; he cannot speak well without a book education, namely, reading at large.

Mr. Copeland then read very charmingly a few selections, from. Stevenson, Shakespeare, Browning and Thackeray.