FALSE TONE! (Sol Wilson – Mrs. Eddy’s “fine instructor in reading”)

Julie Swannell

One of Mrs. Eddy students Sue Harper Mims records the following (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy):

She said, as I recall “Now I want you to speak distinctly.  When you speak distinctly it shows your mental quality.  Speak as if you had something that you wanted the world to hear.  Speak loud and strong and distinctly.”  Her own voice is very clear.

I wonder, do we naturally speak clearly or do most of us have to learn?  When I was at school, there were lessons on reading aloud (prose and poetry) and we were tested on both.  I am so glad of those lessons.  Later, I was directed to read a couple of very helpful and inspiring texts on the topic of reading aloud: Speak for Yourself – Essentials of Reading Aloud and Speaking by Jessica Somers Driver (my copy tells me it was a gift from my mother in October 1977!), and You Can Do It by actress Emma Dunn. 
Careful study of these books has been inspiring and helpful in conducting church services, speaking publicly, at business meetings, and just participating in discussions. 

How wonderful that today one can go to Amazon (or similar online stores) to find second-hand copies of these books!

Some readers may have been elected to the position of First or Second Reader at their local Christian Science branch church and had access to a set of cassette tapes produced by The Mother Church (probably in the 1970s) called, I think, “Reading Aloud”.  They are very helpful, even though some of the information may now be outdated.  The tapes encouraged further study of the topic of reading aloud by research into current and older issues of both the Journal and the Sentinel.  This has proven to yield a treasure trove of helpful ideas. 

Reading and speaking understandingly is such an important topic, because everyone wants to be clearly understood. So it’s interesting to read in Tomlinson’s book that Mrs. Eddy said she “had a fine instructor in reading, Mr. Sol Wilson.  If there was in the reading any false tone, he would catch it and then we would catch it.”

In considering what “false tone” might mean, I thought perhaps insincerity; misinterpretation; incorrect pause, emphasis, or pronunciation; or an un-natural manner. For a comment on “tone” from Mrs Eddy, we can turn to her Message for 1900 (p. 11): “I want not only quality, quantity, and variation in tone, but the unction of Love.”

So, back to the two texts mentioned earlier.  Actress Emma Dunn published her book You Can Do It in California in 1947.  Some of the material originally appeared in The Christian Science Monitor as a series called “Thought Quality in the Voice”.  The book speaks of mental stillness, composure, poise in walking “from the center”, selflessness, and perfect rhythm that “can come only as we drop physical resistance which is always the result of mental resistance.” 

On self knowledge she shares the idea that “No one can express himself just as you do, no one can take your place.”

On “that old bugaboo” – the fear of age, she writes “We hear men and women say every day ‘What can I do at my age?  No one wants an old person in any position.’  They are right, no one wants a person who spends all his time thinking about how old he is.  The world is begging for new ideas, irrespective of age.”  She then gives a list of 10 famous people who did great things in their 70s, 80s and 90s, including Michelangelo who painted two great canvasses at 91 and Florence Nightingale who did not give up her great work for the advancement of nursing until before her death at 90.  Ms Dunn says “These men and women did not run away when the world told them they were too young or too old.  They listened for ideas.”  A fascinating book.

Ms Driver, who studied with Emma Dunn,  suggests, in her book Speak for Yourself – Essentials of Reading Aloud and Speaking: “Reading aloud is ..a science based on laws.  Contrary to general opinion, words grouped together into sentences for the purpose of giving an idea, take on a certain pattern in pure reading.  With an understanding of the laws of reading you are able to give the full meaning of the words, ..

“An executive in a government electronics laboratory attended a course of my lectures.  He said some of the leading scientists of the country were at work in that laboratory.  They often prepared papers on their discoveries which were of world-wide interest.  These papers were read to a select group, but the reading was so poor that it was impossible to grasp the substance of the thought....He gave these men some of the laws of reading learned in my lectures.  They were quick to apply them because they found that these laws enabled them to read ideas instead of mere words.”

According to Driver there are three essentials: 1. listening; 2. valuing the idea; and 3. expressing the idea.  In the chapter on “Laws of Conversational Reading” we learn that pauses give reading a conversational character; are essential for visualisation; allow the listener to grasp the meaning; and do not mean the slow saying of words.  Also that visualisation brings the right length of pause.

"Through clear valuing of the ideas that unfold from the written words, the reader has an unerring and automatic gauge for the length of the pause, but when he allows his attention to wander he loses this control.”

I love that we are told to value the vowel sounds, and to value verbs, but to rarely emphasize the verb to be. 

Incorrect: The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you.

Correct: The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you.

Incorrect: The eyes of all wait upon thee.

Correct: The eyes of all wait upon thee.

Incorrect: Come unto me all ye that labor.

Correct: Come unto me all ye that labor.

Most importantly, we are instructed in the art of introducing new ideas.  To do this, we must watch carefully for new ideas in our text.  “Every word which brings a new thought should be introduced with a positive tone.” 

I love that heeding the instructions in these two books gives me much greater insight into what I’m reading and I often find that reading the weekly Bible Lesson aloud (even if I’m not currently a Reader at church) lifts the passages into new light.