Inner voice

“ The Emotive Qualities give the affectionate voice; Self-Esteem gives the confident voice; Approbativeness gives the voice of affectation and conceit; Combativeness gives the "let me alone" tone; Destructiveness gives the "get out of my way" note; Cunning and Acquisitiveness give the tone of deceit and flattery; and so on, through the entire scale. In studying voices it will help you to ask "What Qual [Pg 200] ity or Qualities produce this voice?" in each case. Study the voices of those whose characteristics you know, and then apply the experience to others whose characteristics are unknown. ”

“ As evolution progresses, however, he grasps matters on the lower lane much more fully, and finally takes them entirely into his own hands, and at that stage he knows both himself and others, and his voice within us becomes for us the Voice of the Silence. ”

“ As the voice of each individual comes from within him, and as each individual locates certain feelings in organs which are as a rule inside the body, the perceptions are regarded as forming an inner world. ”

“ For us now in this lower consciousness it is the voice of the ego; when we identify ourselves with the ego it is the voice of the spirit; when we reach the spirit it is the voice of the monad, and when in the far-away future we identify ourselves wholly with the monad it ill be the voice of the LOGOS ”

“ He seeks each of us by the inner voices and emotions in our hearts and minds, by those strange whisperings which sometimes we hear, by the suddenly upstarting convictions of duty and truth which sometimes, without manifest occasion, flash across our hearts. ”

“ We know that certain mental attitudes will produce the corresponding physical expressions of a smile, a frown, an open hand, a clenched fist, an erect spine or bowed shoulders, respectively. We also know that certain feelings will cause the eye to sparkle or grow dim, the voice to become resonant and positive or to become husky and weak; according to the nature of the feelings. ”

“ Things which are brought to our consciousness from the exterior world and in a direct manner—through our senses—may be said to be of a material nature; while those which come to us indirectly—through our inner consciousness—may be said to be of spiritual origin. The clearness of our visions naturally depends upon the clearness of the impression still remaining upon the tablets of the brain. The more stirring the event in the first instance, the deeper and more lasting, of course, the impression. ”

“ But the men and women whose lives are aimless reverse their fates. Our bodies are known, and answer in this world to such or such a name,—but as [Pg 48] to our inner selves, with real and awful meaning our walking bodies might be labeled, "An unknown man sleeps here!" ”

“ And all these requisites—the physical state, the understanding, and the large heart—seem to centre in the expression of a well-trained voice,—a voice in which there is the minimum of body and the maximum of soul. ”

“ Because we hold these two views of life, the animal’s view and the spirit’s view, we seem to hear two voices crying in our hearts when we consider things: the voice of the Body and the voice of the Soul. ”

“ Whistling to keep up courage is no mere figure of speech. [Pg 16] On the other hand, sit all day in a moping posture, sigh, and reply to everything with a dismal voice, and your melancholy lingers. If we wish to conquer undesirable emotional tendencies in ourselves, we must assiduously, and in the first instance coldbloodedly, go through the outward movements of those contrary dispositions which we wish to cultivate. ”

“ When the like sound is made by another, we ascribe the like feeling to him; and by a further consequence we not only ascribe to him that feeling, but have a certain degree of it aroused in ourselves: for to become conscious of the feeling which another is experiencing, is to have that feeling awakened in our own consciousness, which is the same thing as experiencing the feeling. Thus these various modifications of voice become not only a language through which we understand the emotions of others, but also the means of exciting our sympathy with such emotions. ”

“ The mask or "make up," of personality, by which men may read each other's character, is evolved and developed from the instinctive physical expression accompanying thought, feeling and emotion. Just as the frown accompanying the feeling of annoyance or anger will, if repeated sufficiently [Pg 40] often, become fixed upon the countenance of the man, so will all of his general thoughts, feelings and emotions register themselves in his manner, gait, tone of voice, carriage and facial expression. ”

“ You may train your countenance, your words, your gestures to hide the feelings, but the voice rebels against constraint, it takes its subtle inflexions from your inmost thoughts—the sweetest of voices may have cruel cadences, and is cold and blank when the heart remains unresponsive. ”

“ Thy energy divine!
Inform and fill this languid heart,
And make thy purpose mine.
Thy voice is still and small,
The world's is loud and rude:
Oh, let me hear thee over all,
And be, through love, renewed! ”

“ In this treatise I shall consider the human voice as the natural reporter of the individual, his character, and his physical and mental states. I am not considering the individual in any narrow sense, but in the sense of his entire being—body and mind.
Modern research shows that the mind affects all parts of the body,—the brain most immediately. I would not be understood, however, to imply that the brain thinks, or that any part of the body thinks; but that the soul uses the body in this world as a medium through which to manifest its thoughts, emotions, and purposes. ”

“ The soul knows what tones to employ for the purpose of communicating its own activities to other souls. The impulse of the soul constructs the form of the tone which communicates its thought to the audience. There is no such thing as true voice which soul has not formed. The proper study of the voice is a study of the manifestations of the soul. Life is rich and valuable if we live from the interior. Life is disappointing, life is the blasting of all highest hopes, life is the shatterer and annihilator of all ideals, if we live not from the soul. ”

“ This voice, or this murmuring sound of the waters, is an overflowing so abundant as to fill the soul with good, and a power so mighty seizing upon it as to seem not only the sound of many waters, but a most loud roaring of thunder. But the voice is a spiritual voice, unattended by material sounds or the pain and torment of them, but rather with majesty, power, might, delight, and glory: it is, as it were, a voice, an infinite interior sound which endows the soul with power and might. ”

“ We are men, I who speak, I am a man, and to men I speak, and utter the sound of my voice. I convey the sound of my voice to men’s ears, and by the sound of my voice I somehow through the ear lay up understanding also in the heart. ”

“ Then one of them roused—himself, for it was a man, or a boy with something of a man's soul: roused himself, and his voice began, at first with unrecognisable words rolling over the low slaty glassiness of the water, and rolling about, till that first melody of soft low flowing notes, all but filled with the rolling volumes, was hidden away. And another voice, a woman's, or a girl's with something of a woman's soul, answered softly and sweetly. ”

“ While looking upon his countenance, radiant with a serene energy, while listening to his voice, the tone of which has, so to speak, the accent of goodness, we see that the soul has remained entire in the half-destroyed covering. ”

“ The soft, starlit voice might touch an over-eager soul with calm; to the soul distressed, the strong voice would come like a great noon-tide wind, impelling it towards the height where the sun dwelt, and all the fountains of the day. ”

“ When the spirit, which is the source of all spirits, arouses the sweetness of the soul, a voice comes from there, which is the source of all voices, and disperses all forces to the four corners of the world. ”

“ Allow no thrust of anger to ruffle it. Intensify it with determination. Strengthen it with courage. Give it dominion and power. When other voices are hot and spuming around you, keep your voice cool. Never allow your voice to become dull, dubious, uncertain, shrinking, or hollow. Voice tones that are round, rhythmic, full measured. Have a serene and reposeful voice. Look at what you speak. Reflect your soul in your voice. Let the manner of your voice be calm, smooth, collected, but energized with positive forces. Have a cheerful voice, a voice that makes one think of sunshine and smiles. ”

“ Latterly two voices have come to me, one affirming that I was right in my prejudice that all durable verse should have content as well as form, should have meaning as well as sound—though in closest union with the sound,—that, in short, the poet should be a thinker as well as a craftsman; an emotional thinker, of course, if that term be permitted, but not a mere clairaudient wielder of words. And then I heard a voice which bid me forget all that and list to
Long breaths, in a green and yellow din. ”

“ Yet it is at the command of a voice that one finds oneself proceeding—a voice exhorting, suppliant, prophetic, simulating stridency, sentimentalizing, and dwindling at recurring moments to a bewildered whisper of inquiry. Never, no never, touching for more than a fleeting second that subtle art of restraint and aesthetic arrangement which we have come to associate with the most distinguished writing. ”

“ The voice was that of a mind, reaching out through vastness and into my own thoughts.
"You are not alone," the mind-voice said, and it was what I had been waiting to hear. "You are one with all good things. The door you have been seeking is open. You have only to walk through." ”

“ Above us, or below us, or around . . .
Perhaps we name it Nature’s voice, or Love’s,
Tricking ourselves, because we are more ashamed
So own our compensations than our griefs:
Still, Life’s voice!—still, we make our peace with Life. ”

“ O, how wonderful is the human voice! It is indeed the organ of the soul! The intellect of man sits enthroned visibly upon his forehead and in his eye; and the heart of man is written uponhis countenance. But the soul reveals itself in the voice only; as God revealed himself to the prophet of old in the still, small voice; and in a voice from the burning bush. The soul of man is audible, not visible. A sound alone betrays the flowing of the eternal fountain, invisible to man! ”

“ ON MODULATION. (59) FROM LLOYD. 'T is not enough the voice' be sound and clear',
'T is modulation' that must charm the ear.
When desperate heroes grieve with tedious moan,
And whine their sorrows in a seesaw tone,
The same soft sounds of unimpassioned woes,
Can only make the yawning hearers doze.
The voice all modes of passion can express
That marks the proper word with proper stress:
But none emphatic can that speaker call,
Who lays an equal emphasis on all. ”

“ But if his eye is set on the things to be done, and not on the truth that is still taught, and for the sake of which the things are to be done, then the voice grows faint, and at last is but a humming in his ears. His health and greatness consist in his being the channel through which heaven flows to earth, in short, in the fulness in which an ecstatical state takes place in him. ”

“ It is plain that the natural voice is an index to the character. If the imagination and soul are cultivated, the voice will gain in richness and fulness. If, in reading that which expresses the sublime, noble, and grand, the imagination is kindled, the voice will express by its vibrations the largeness of our conception. This full, rich voice is called the orotund ”

“ The voice under the influence of feeling, gives the beautiful colouring, and breathes life and reality to the mental picture. Every turn in the current of feeling should be carefully observed and fully expressed. Not only the varied changes of the voice, however, but the indications by all the features of the countenance, contribute a share to give a good expression, and by far the greatest is derived from the eyes. ”

“ 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! ”

“ All the voices of his body called to him to lie still, but the voices of the spirit, those higher, nobler promptings from which no man, to the glory of the breed from which he sprung, can ever quite escape, were stronger yet. ”

“ For example, the amount and character of thinking done while we read determines the rate of utterance; the purpose or motive of the thought and its completeness or incompleteness are indicated by an upward or downward slide of the voice; the nervous tension expresses itself in a certain key; the physical and mental energy, in a certain power or volume of the voice; and the character of the emotion is reflected in the quality. ”

“ The living human voice, with a countenance and manner corresponding, constrains us to weigh what is said, shoots through us like a stroke of electricity, will not away from our memory, and haunts our very dreams. ”

“ Their voice is as highly developed as their power of movement. Theirs is no chirping or whistling, no whining or howling; on the contrary, they utter many different sounds expressing the mood of the moment, and quite intelligible even to us. Comfort or discomfort, desire or satisfaction, good-will or ill-will, love or hate, indifference or anger, joy or pain, confidence or mistrust, attraction or repugnance, affection or dislike, submissiveness or defiance, but above all any sudden emotion, such as fear or horror, find adequate expression, comparatively limited though the voice may be. ”