But how do we draw in a breath? Ah, that is another question. We sometimes speak of taking air into the lungs, as if we took hold of it and pulled it in; but that is not the way it is done. We simply make a place for it, and the air itself is pushed in by its own weight. It is in making this place for the air that we use so many

muscles.

Nearly all of the muscles of the trunk, from the hips to the throat, are used in breathing. Those of the loins and sides, back and chest, and also of the diaphragm, which is a sort of partition passing across the body and shutting the organs of the chest from those of the abdomen, all these take part in breathing.

First, they spread themselves out so as to make room for the air. Put your hand on your body, draw in a long breath, and you will feel the muscles swelling. The air rushes in and fills every space that it can reach. The more room it has to fill, the better. That is one reason why tight clothes are not healthful; they do not allow us to swell out our bodies and take in all the air that we need.

When the lungs are filled with air, and the air has taken all the bad matter from the blood, then we want to drive it out again. So we draw the muscles together, and that squeezes or forces the

air out. Now, put your hands upon your sides, take in a long breath, and see how the muscles swell. Then breathe it out, and see how they are drawn together.

All this is breathing, you will say, and not talking. That is true; but, so far, you do the same things in talking that you do in breathing. This action of the muscles in breathing goes on without our thinking or knowing anything about it. The air enters the lungs without making any noise, and goes out as quietly; but, if we wish, we can use certain other muscles, so that the breath, when it goes out, will make a noise, which we call voice.

There are in the throat two cords, or strips, called vocal cords, over which the breath passes. If we wish, we can draw these so tight that when the breath passes over them they will vibrate and produce a sound. Did you ever make a noise by blowing upon a blade of grass or a thin piece of rubber? Well, voice is caused in very much the same way. But the blade of grass and the piece of rubber each make only a single sound, while the human voice can make many thousands of different sounds.

There are, therefore, many organs used in making voice besides the vocal cords and those used in breathing. So notice again, as you are speaking, and see if you cannot tell what other organs you use. There are the palate, at the top of the throat, and

the teeth, which change the direction of the breath and the character of the sound it makes. There are the lips, which shut it off or let it pass, and, by the form we give them, make new sounds continually.

The shape of the mouth has much to do with the quality of voice; but the one organ which more than any other causes the different sounds which we make with our voices, is the tongue. Try it and see. Try to hold your tongue still, and see how impossible it is to talk. So much does the tongue have to do with making voice that people sometimes speak as if it were the only organ used for that purpose.

The very words we use are often called tongue, as when we say "Hans's mother tongue is German," meaning that German is spoken in his mother country.

We say "John uses bad language," meaning that he speaks words that he ought not to speak. Or we say that "Henry's language is correct," meaning that he uses the words that he should use. language means the same thing as tongue.

But

So that, from this one little organ which is in our mouths, men have named all that they speak. The apostle James, in the Bible, says, "The tongue can no man tame," meaning that it is very hard for us not to say what we should not.

We study language, or the tongue, in school more than any other branch, because it is necessary for us to be able to use some language in order to express our thoughts to one another. You know that language is one of the gifts that people have which beasts do not have; for, though beasts have tongues, they cannot use them to pronounce words. So you need to have very great respect for your tongue. Use it so as not to disgrace it.

XIV. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

HAT language do you speak?

WHA

Most of us

speak the English language. This means that the words we use are English words. This book is written in the English language. Most of the

books that we use in school, or that we shall read, are written in the same language.

The English language is spoken in England; it is the language of the English people. But it is spoken in many other countries besides England, as in America and Australia. Can you tell why we in America speak the language that is spoken in England rather than that which is spoken in Germany or France, or rather than a language of our

own?

As you probably know, when Columbus discovered America, he found here savages like the Indians of our Western plains. They had their own language, but it was a savage tongue. In time, many people came from the different countries of Europe, - from England and Ireland, from France and Spain, from Italy and Germany, and from many other lands, to live in this new country which Columbus had discovered.

They all spoke the languages of the different countries from which they came; and so, for a long time, the Spanish language was spoken in one part of what is now the United States, the French in another, and the English language in still another.

But, after a while, the French and the English colonists had a war, in which the English were successful; so their language was made that of all the country which they owned. Besides, most of the people who fought against England in the war of the Revolution were themselves English, and spoke the English language.

So that the thirteen colonies of the new country, when they became the United States, all spoke the English language; and when, later, that portion of the country where Spanish was spoken became part of the United States, the English speech became the language of these people also.

In this way English came to be the language which