THERE is a physical basis of good language. We do not expect a stoop-shouldered, thin-chested man to speak with a resonant voice. We go further, and trace the nasal twang, the muffled tone, sometimes the hesitating delivery, to bad physical habits or defects. The teacher of elocution tries his best to wipe out these habits and overcome these defects, and by building up the weak points, to restore what was at first a natural heritage. But the home might have more easily attained better results by preventing the evil.
All children, almost without exception, have at first clear voices. They spoil their voices through indulging evil passions,—anger, sullenness, peevishness,—and by contracting diseases through neglect of the body. Moreover, the evil traits of character which spoil the voice are often induced, and always aggravated, by wrong physical habits, so that all bad voice may, in a measure, be referred to bad living.
The dirty boy and the slovenly girl have little regard for the beauties of language. Physical dirt and disorder are kin with moral grime. Bad grammar and bad diction may have some of their cause in clogged liver, impure blood, and fevered brain.
With all our efforts, if we fail to produce a happy condition of mind because we neglect the health of our children, we shall have our labor lost. Depressing physical conditions induce fretful expression of feelings, while a state of health gives natural fruit in outward happiness. It is imperative that the child be given its rights in natural life. Sunshine, fresh air, sleep, bodily cleanliness, good food at proper times, occupation,—these are the prerequisites of health.
And cheerfulness, the fruit of all these conditions, has much more to do with the faculty of speech than many think. A clear brain and quiet, steady nerves enable their possessor, whether man or boy, to keep control of thought and word. The restraint and choice of expression which the cultured literary man exercises, is possible only through control of the nerve-centers, whose equilibrium is so easily overthrown by adverse physical conditions. An undigested meal, a dirty skin, a blood-supply uncleaned by copious drafts of oxygen,—any one of these is enough to upset the ordinary child's good nature, and to make him fretful, peevish, and uncontrollable. In nervous children it may often be noticed that the postponement of the daily nap for even an hour brings on an attack of reckless mischievousness and a boisterousness which can not be controlled. Again, a lack of occupation often induces a vandalism generally expressed in action, but having its counterpart in words.
To begin with the baby, there is often laid in infancy the foundation for future disability. Every normal baby breathes through its nose, and will continue to do so if it does not contract a cold. The clogging of the nasal passages makes the child breathe through his mouth, and starts those troubles in the throat and the nasal cavity which result later in huskiness or nasality of tone, and in imperfection of enunciation. Colds should be wholly avoided from babyhood through childhood, and always. Many persons, however, invite colds for the baby in trying to guard against them, and with wraps and avoidance of fresh air and infrequency of bathing, make him most susceptible. Barefootedness and bareheadedness and thin clothing are considered dangerous things; and so they are if the baby has been living in a hothouse.
As the child grows, his greater independence somewhat emancipates him from this evil bondage, and betrays him into another. The baby gets his daily bath; the five-to-ten-year-old boy and girl, except perhaps in summer, wait a week. Every child should regularly have his morning bath, or rub at least, his exercise with the tooth-brush, and a filling of the lungs with fresh air, either by a run or by breathing exercises. Trouble, indeed, it is, until it becomes a habit, to give such close attention; but the child, from the time he is three or four years old, may be taught to do the work for himself. The consciousness of absolute cleanliness which the treatment gives has more influence upon the thought and the speech than most parents imagine. It quiets and strengthens the nerves, and invigorates the mind, making them able to resist the assaults of passion to which otherwise they would surely succumb.
A non-stimulating diet and regularity of eating have great effect upon speech. The absence of irritating substances in the system which the one favors, and the self-control and system which the other teaches, have their effect upon the life, which is reflected in the speech. Difference of natural temperament in children first makes advantage or disadvantage; but given equality in this, it will be observed that the boy who feeds at home upon pickles, preserves, and cakes, loves the role of slangy swaggerer, while his seat-mate who was spared these abominations is able to see some beauty in the life of Isaac. The girl who brings lunches to school because her mother says she is still too young to fast from breakfast till dinner, and who finds many a stray penny to spend at the candy store, is the girl who finds it too hard to study her grammar, or to take note of the good example of her teacher's language.
We may grant it to be true that healthful living is not the greatest factor in the teaching of language, but the fact that its powerful aid is not even recognized by many teachers and parents is cause enough for emphasis to be laid upon it here. Thus we may say that we need not expect our children to learn to speak with the gentleness and the power of Jesus, before knowing the conditions of the life which he has taught, and embracing them for ourselves and our children, cultivating self-control, self-denial, and self-sacrifice.