“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Think what an estimate the Bible puts upon the “Word!” The Word, which is the fruition of the soul in manifestation, is used as a symbol of the relation of Jesus Christ to the Father. The Word is represented as being the Truth, the Life, the Creative Energy, and the Being of God Himself. Man’s word, when he lives truly, is but an expression, a moving out upon the world, and upon the hearts of others, of the love, the truth, the worship of his soul.
True words, then, are not sounds separate from the spirit; they are the incarnated soul. I would never teach voice, I would never teach oratory, if words were not, in their true nature, Divine things, if they were not forms of the spirit and of the soul!
=_ORGANS THAT PRODUCE, REINFORCE, AND GIVE RESONANT FORMS TO THE VOICE._=
The human voice is that sound, caused by the vibration of the vocal cords in the larynx and reinforced by the resonant chambers, which reports the physical and mental states of man.
Voice is caused by the contraction of the muscles of expiration, which brings sufficient pressure upon the lungs to drive the air from them out between the vocal cords, thus causing their edges to vibrate, thereby throwing the column of breath into such rapid vibration as to produce sound.
Larynx, (Including Vocal Cords), Lungs, Muscles of Respiration.
The larynx is the principal organ of voice. It is situated in the front of the neck, and forms the prominence sometimes called “Adam’s apple”; it also forms a part of the anterior boundary of the pharynx. At the upper part it has the form of a triangular box, with one angle directly in front. It is composed of nine cartilages moved by muscles, and lined with mucous membrane. Six of its cartilages are in pairs; three are single. The three single cartilages are the thyroid, cricoid, and epiglottis; the three pairs are the arytenoid, cuneiform, and cornicula laryngis. The larynx is sometimes called a music-box; from it proceeds the sound called voice.
[Illustration: =SIDE VIEW OF THE LARYNX AND TWO RINGS OF THE TRACHEA.=]