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in part, on the personal habit, as well as the momentary feeling, of the man.

A studied variety of oratorical action is an impediment rather than an aid to good effect; as it detaches the attention from the subject to the manner of the speaker, and betrays a false conception of the nature of gesture, which should ever be regarded but as a mode of giving freer and truer vent to the heart. The influence of even the profoundest study of the principles of gesture, should be a thing unsolicited at the moment of speaking,—a result on habit not a trick of art,—a thing of which the speaker is himself, at the time, unconscious, but into which he naturally falls by an intuitive and unstudied effort of his mind. The act of speaking should ever proceed without one separate thought of elocution or of gesture, or any other reference whatever to mere manner. No tone of the voice, no action of the arm, can be true, that is a distinct object of attention, apart from its prompting sentiment. Preparatory practice itself should ever be conducted in the spirit of this unquestionable fact; and such matter only should be selected for exercises, as presents thought in vivid and inspiring forms, those which naturally prompt or suggest the appropriate modes of accompanying action.

Gestures introduced merely because they are graceful, constitute a class of faults which hardly requires notice, even in the form of censure; the primary object and aim of all true action being to enforce, not to decorate, sentiment. True grace is never other than incidental; it does not exist apart from genuine earnestness.

Gestures which are mimetic, or merely imitative of outward effects, instead of being suggestive only, form another of the class of puerile faults, which only perverted taste or deficient judgment can prompt. Some speakers plead for such modes of action, because of their graphic and dramatic power, and their startling effect on rude and uncultivated minds. But such practices, even in the pulpit, cannot be cleared of the charge of pandering to the low and the vile in taste, and of desecrating what the human heart should ever

regard as holy. The stare and the laugh of unreflecting hearers, are a poor compensation to the preacher, for the sacrifice of personal dignity, on his own part, and of reverence for truth, on that of his congregation.

The minor faults of gesture are chiefly the following:

Ill-timed action, which does not keep time' with emphasis, but either runs before or lags after it; the frequent use of the left hand in gesture; the incessant use of both hands whether the breadth or the warmth of a sentiment authorize it or not; using one or two gestures exclusively, which are perpetually recurring to the eye; allowing gestures to cross the speaker's body, or to terminate with a rebound, in the pugnacious style of popular debate; the frequent placing of the hand on the heart, when no personal feeling of the speaker is implied.

The character of gesture, in connection with the different forms of discourse, as didactic or oratorical, was alluded to in a preceding page. Attention is due, also, to the effect produced on gesture by the different parts of the same discourse. Thus, the opening sentences, being usually of an explanatory and didactic character, may need little or no accompaniment of action; the illustrative and argumentative portions of a sermon may justly require a more animated and varied style of gesture; and the concluding application, or appeal, may properly call for the highest forms of poetic and oratorical eloquence, in action as well as in language. A well-composed discourse may not happen to be constructed on such a plan as literally to require these gradations of effect in manner. But every well-written composition, and every well-spoken address, are always progressive in character, and leave on the mind the impression of a climax of sentiment and style.

The appropriate postures of devotion, are a subject on which too little attention is commonly bestowed by the occupants of the pulpit. The clasped hands, and the shut eyes, and the bent body, are obviously not alike applicable to all points of a devotional exercise. They have nothing in common with the feelings which ought to pervade the bosom of

the worshipper in the sublime and inspiring acts of adoration and praise they do not belong to intercession: they are appropriate only in confession and supplication. Every strain of devotion has its appropriate tone, from the swelling notes of adoration and praise, to the breathings of a broken and contrite spirit: each of these, if it issues from the heart rather than from habit, has its natural expression in posture and action the former prompts the erect attitude and the upraised vertical hands of awe, reverence, and blessing; the latter, the bent frame, the drooping head, and the folded hands of self-abasement. Supplication and entreaty raise the head and clasp the hands in earnestness; petition and intercession extend the arms in the mood and attitude of reception; thanksgiving proffers the gratitude of the heart, as a tribute at the throne of Mercy, with open hands, and downward inclination of the arms, in front of the body.A very common error in the form of action adopted in the benediction, at the close of public religious services, makes the minister apparently solicit a favour of the congregation, instead of presenting himself as, imploring a blessing on them. The false effect arises from the hands being held supine instead of prone, in the act.

The reading of the Scriptures and of hymns, is, in the practice of some clergymen, accompanied by expressive gesture. This habit seems to be founded on a mistake. The process of elocution is, in both these cases, one of strict reading, not of speaking. It is one which calls, therefore, for audible, not visible expression. Such, at least, is the association connected with the custom in Anglo-Saxon communities, in most parts of the world. The Oriental and the European continental style of reading, with the full effect of gesture, is, perhaps, the truer method, if we settle the question affirmatively that vivid reading comes as near as possible to vivid speaking; (and we admit the principle so far as the management of the voice is concerned ;) but the prevalence of general custom, with us, associates a subdued and repressed style with the reverence due to the Bible and to the offices of wor

ship; and nothing but a singular ardour of temperament, and a recognized peculiarity of personal habit, can render an opposite practice generally tolerable. In this, however, as in other questions of expression, the natural eloquence of strong feeling, is sometimes successful in breaking through the usual restraints of custom.

The common distinctions of gesture, implied in the terms 'didactic,' 'declamatory,' and 'poetic,' may suggest useful hints to the student, in connection with the different modes of action appropriate in the delivery of a discourse. 'Didactic' gestures include the slight uses of the open hand and the discriminative finger, in moderate emphasis; ‘declamatory' action implies the wide sweep and bold descent of energetic emphasis; and 'poetic' gesture includes the characteristic loftiness of epic description, the impassioned vividness and fervour of lyric emotion, and the graphic and abrupt effects of dramatic style. A high-toned prose composition may demand, in delivery, the use of all these forms of action; as its matter and its style may partake of all the corresponding characteristics of effect.

The genuine eloquence of inspired feeling acknowledges no arbitrary limitations. But the subduing and chastening influences of judgment and taste, ought to mould every tone, look, and action, of sacred eloquence.

The Rudiments of Gesture, imbodied in the American Elocutionist, will furnish to students more extensive instruction in the elementary details of this branch of the subject; and Austin's Chironomia, (copies of which are accessible at the libraries of some of our public institutions,) will be found to contain a fund of information upon it, enriched by every aid of learned research and graphic illustration.

MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES

IN

READING AND SPEAKING.

ENGLISH ORATORY.-Addison.

[This and a few of the following pieces may be read as examples of didactic style. But they are introduced thus early on account, chiefly, of their suggestive character, as regards the formation of style in reading and speaking.]

MOST foreign writers, who have given any character of the English nation, whatever vices they ascribe to it, allow, in general, that the people are naturally modest. It proceeds perhaps from this our national virtue, that our orators are observed to make use of less gesture or action than those of other countries. Our preachers stand stock still in the pulpit, and will not so much as move a finger to set off the best sermons in the world. We meet with the same speaking statues at our bars, and in all public places of debate. Our words flow from us in a smooth, continued stream, without those strainings of the voice, motions of the body, and majesty of the hand, which are so much celebrated in the orators of Greece and Rome. We can talk of life and death in cold blood, and keep our temper in a discourse which turns upon everything that is dear to us. Though our zeal breaks out in the finest tropes and figures, it is not able to stir a limb about

us.

I have heard it observed more than once, by those who have seen Italy, that an untravelled Englishman cannot relish all

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