Page:Memoirs of Hyppolite Clairon (Volume 1).djvu/69

 tress of the faculty of managing her intonations, of extending or repressing her sounds as the sense may require, susceptible of every species of modulation, she expresses each verse in all its native charms and dignity; while the other, whose organs are defective, is obliged to speak slow, in order to be understood; or if she speaks fast, to give utterance to inarticulate sounds. The precision, the harmony, the elegance, the strength, the force, of the language and sentiment,—all are destroyed.

If we call to our mind all the actors and actresses who have appeared upon the stage, we shall find that the defect of which I am speaking is incompatible with great talents. A fine figure, or