The Normal Record. April 1896

              THE NORMAL RECORD.
thing for any teacher is that which makes
more of a man of him. Chemistry may be
made a means of culture, culture in the
highest sense. Exploding a bubble of hydrogen and oxygen gives an idea of the tremendous force that holds together the elements in a drop of water, and every drop is
held together by the same force. Multiply
this force by the number of drops on the
planet whose surface is three-fourths water,
and there begins to dawn upon the mind the
fact that it is in the presence of power
greater, than it has ever before contemplated.
This power works in a certain way; it invariably acts so that eight-ninths of water
shall be oxygen and one-ninth hydrogen.
Water is only one of the many substances of
the planet; and every one reveals just as
wonderful play of forces, the same marvellous conformity to order, the same absolute
exactness. Every quivering tissue, every
breath exhaled, every blade and leaf, every
rock beneath your feet, is what it is because
of the harmonious working of these affinities.
HaO does mean more than xyn; it begins
to unfold the world. The earth was not made
a long time ago and left finished; it is being
made before our eyes, now; and we are finding out some of the ways in which this is
being done.
The same elements that exist to-day
existed '' before the foundations of the
earth were laid", possessed the same affinities; and so the never-ending cycles of change
have been going on through the ages, building up the rocks, which have been disintegrated into soil, quickening the soil with
what "climbs to a soul in grass and
flowers"; and these in turn have been taken
up by sentient forms that, under the thrill of
life, transmute chemical affinity into heart
throbs. Has the student imagination? Let
him try to sweep back through the aeons and
picture the world as it has risen, stage after
stage, and witness the part played by chemical affinity in this building. Has he vision?
Let him look beneath this vortex of changing
forms to find the great laws in accordance
with which the world is still moving on, let
him see that there is no such thing as dead
matter, but that this universe is the manifestation of a Presence that fills it to the
farthest limit and thrills it to the last atom.
Is there music in his soul? Then let him
awake to the profound harmonies that surge
round and sweep through him. Does the
student suppose that studying chemistry
moans putting things into test tubes to get
colors and odors and then writing formulas
about them? This is to be done and observations are to be made, but he will come to
see that these are of no value until interpreted, and are not interpreted unless ho
looks through and a great way beyond his
experiment, and sees that what is before him
represents what occurs everywhere on the
globe whenever proper conditions prevail,
and occurs on a vastly larger scale. By and
by, ho will see that science does not materialize spirit, but spiritualizes the material.
These higher attainments of thought will bo
attended by spiritual delight; this deeper
insight into nature will give a stronger and
more enduring devotion. There will come
times when the student may well simply look
and wonder, times when he may consider and
bow the head.
Music in the Normal.
E.  M.   WILSON.
Second Paper—The Voice.
Of all musical instruments, the human
voice is the most difficult to study, and to get
under control. The physiology of the voice
is but imperfectly understood; and yet science
and the laryngoscope have given us many
facts with reference to the vocal cords in
tone-production, and also concerning the
action of the larynx, the organ by which the
singing voice is produced. The larynx is a
cartilaginous box forming the upper extremity of the trachea, which again is the
upper portion and beginning of the bronchial
tubes. These tubes extending downward,
enter the lungs, and here make infinitesimal
subdivisions, around which cluster the constituent parts of the lungs, which form the
bellows for the supply of air necessary to the
performance of vocal functions. Above, the
larynx opens into the throat, and the cavities
of the pharynx, mouth, nose and its accessory
cavities, which constitute the resonator for
vocal vibrations made within tho larynx.
The vocal cords or bands, two membranous
folds composed of innumerable elastic fibres
extending in part parallel to each othe*-, and
in part interwoven in various directions with
each other, are   placed   within  the larynx,