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ONe great misbecomingnesse (it seemes he was apt to fall into, concerning the tone of his voice, whose pitch he could not readily governe, but it would be sometimes higher, and sometimes lower; which it seemes was not, but upon his first en∣trance upon his speech, where earnest∣nesse to speake, made chance Arbiter
of his voyce; for otherwise, what he de∣livered together, he ended in the same Key as he begun: so that I see not but this which seemes to be the onely defect this Art cannot remedie, might by his ob∣servation have been rectified; but per∣chance he was not come to that point of perfection; for if he could discerne the pitch of anothers voyce, and know it to be the measure of that motion that ap∣peared to him: one would thinke, with little difficulty he might have made that note his copie; yet were not this pos∣sibly to be remedied, because he heares not himselfe; it were not so great a blemish to this Art, since many men who have their hearing cannot moderate their voyce; and Gracchus was forced to use the pipe of a Moniter to tune his, when Earnestnes had transposed it out of all moderation. And they that are but Sur∣dastri, because they heare not themselves, are guilty of speaking unproportionably loud: his error in this point was not so great as to destroy the audible articula∣tion of his voyce, for had his voyce in other distinct kind been drawn extreame small, or extreame great, it could not have
been articulate, for, as the advancer of Learning saith, articulation requireth a Mediocrity of sound: for that the ex∣treame small sound confoundeth the arti∣culation by contracting; and the great sound by dispersing. And although a sound articulate already created, will be contracted into a small crannie; yet the the first articulation requireth more Di∣mension: we doe not heare of any other misbecomingnesse, or that he spake through the Nose, as Deafe men usually doe; which Aristotle imputes to their vitiated lungs, which compells Deafe men to utter their voyce vehemently, whereupon their voyce breakes out at their Nostrills. And so Deafe men speake through the Nose; But it seemes this affection is more peculiar to those who are accidentall deafe through some disease; and therefore I like the other cause of Deafe mens speaking through the nose, which Cassius gives us in his Pro∣blems; which is, that through that dis∣ease which makes them Deafe, they are constrained to dilate their Nostrills, whence they dilated, the breath of their voyce, breakes out at their Nose.