One may be in possession of all the elements of the most effective and graceful system of gesture, and yet fail in applying them to practice. The gesture may be varied, graceful, and appropriate; and yet fail of its legitimate effect, from being too frequent or too violent. An important general precept may be given in regard to both these errors, viz. :-that the orator should never for a moment seem tc lose his self-possession, or to forget the respect due to the audience whom he is endeavoring to instruct or persuade. Constant action of such a character as to attract any attention, is not required even on the stage. Dr. Gregory says of Garrick,-" He used less action than any performer I ever saw." The orator then may well put himself on his guard against all excess both as to frequency and violence. By so doing, he will preserve his own dignity and secure the respect of his audience, at the same time that he will be able to keep the command of himself. With only moderate gestures, accompanied with moderate tones of the voice, the passions of the speaker can never get beyond his control..

1. To be more particular, gesture should be in accordance with the character of the speaker.—With the actor, the character may be assumed; and the action may thus vary as the assumed character varies. The orator, except when for a moment he would personate another, always appears in his own-his true character; and he should use caution never to transcend the standard of manly decorum which he deems suitable to himself. This standard however should be fixed with reference to the age of the speaker, and to his position in society;-more vivacity and variety being allowed in the young speaker than with one who is aged, or in the pleader at the bar than with the judge on the bench. Within this outermost limit of propriety fixed

by the speaker's idea of decorum, there are many stages. The gesture of the same speaker may then vary with his feelings, never transcending them, even though he supposes them below the interest of his subject. The voice also, as the best index of the feelings, should do much to regulate the action. If it be languid and dull, it will be in vain to attempt any thing like energy or brilliancy in the action. So also the sentiment and the style of the language employed may determine the frequency and energy of the action, within the limits prescribed.

2. The orator should adapt his style of gesture to the character of his audience. This is so obvious as scarcely to need illustration. An address to a popular assembly admits a boldness of action, which would be considered entirely out of place in one delivered to a prince, or in an argument before a bench of judges. The animated popular harangue admits a style of gesture bordering on the very extreme limit to which decorum allows the speaker to proceed.

3. The orator should vary his style of gesture, with the objects of his address.-Abstract reasoning and demonstration have nothing to do with oratory; and just so far as the speaker makes his address to the understanding alone, so far inay he discard all the aids of rhetorical action. The syllogisms of the logician, mere naked evidences of facts, and law arguments, would be examples of appeal to the understanding alone; and any considerable action would in these cases be entirely out of place. Facts, statistics, the details of calculation and finance, evidence, law, and logical deductions, occupy a prominent place at the bar and in the business of legislation; and just so far as these exclude appeals to the feelings, and to the heart, gesture is unimportant. Only that of the most limited kind is called into requisition. Of the same character also are those ser

mons or portions of sermons in which the doctrinal points of Christianity are discussed and explained, where fidelity and precision are chiefly requisite.-But if persuasion be the object, as in most appeals from the pulpit, as on many occasions which arise in the senate, and as is generally the case, when the advocate wishes to influence the opinions of a jury, then will the orator use more graceful, more flowing, and more various gesture. Feeling and imagination constitute the only basis of gesture. In the absence of these, it follows, then, that action should be wholly intermitted. This may occur with a transition in the sentiment, in the very midst of a discourse, and after the hands may have been fully employed in action. Such intermission of gesture is usually preceded by a paragraphic rest. All action of the hands and arms may likewise be intermitted during a burst of rapid utterance, or in the expression of deep and overwhelming emotion, as in despair and inconsolable grief. In the one case, the gesture cannot be effectually applied, for want of time for the preparatory movements; and in the other, the soul seems, in giving expression to its wo, to disdain all art, relying solely on the tones of the voice and the expression of the countenance, sometimes even refusing the aid of words. Action would be as inappropriate at such times, as its absence would be in giving utterance to the active passions.

A more particular application of some of these principles to the different parts of a discourse will be presented in the next section.

SECTION II.

OF GESTURE AS CONNECTED WITH THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF A DISCOURSE.

ALL discourses are not alike in their structure and arrangement; hence no technical rules can be laid downsuch as can be applied by the speaker in any instance without thought and reflection. But yet, all discourses have a beginning and an end, and consist mainly of an introduction, of narrative or explanation, of argumentation, of appeals to the feelings, and of a conclusion. These are not all found in all discourses; nor do they always occur in the same order. In orations, sermons, lectures, and even popular harangues, indeed almost everywhere except in deliberative bodies where the speaker is well known, and may have previously addressed his fellow members on the subject in hand, there will be with rare exceptions something like an introduction, more deliberate and unimpassioned than that which follows; and a conclusion, differing somewhat from that part which has preceded. If the discourse has been mainly argumentative, then the conclusion or peroration may, and generally will, be the most impressive part. If, on the contrary, it has consisted mainly of an exciting appeal, the conclusion may partake rather of the nature of an address to the judgment, lest the audience should too suddenly forget why they had been moved.

In no speech, or discourse, does the orator change his own character, in the sense in which an actor may do it. Yet in a practical and very important sense he may change his character. As a reasoner, engaged in the more deliberate parts of his discourse, he sustains a relation to his audience quite different from that which he bears, as the

exciter of their passions and the mover of their hearts. Consistency of character does not then demand a perfect uniformity in the gestures of the orator. Neither does the real character of an audience change in any very literal sense, during the delivery of a discourse; and yet practically there is a change. Two distinct assemblies can scarcely differ more, than the same audience when curiously listening for the first time to the opening accents of a speaker's voice, and when again they sit absorbed in thought, their judgments convinced by his reasonings, and their feelings swayed and moved in perfect sympathy with his own. If we refer to the objects of the address, it is the same. Almost Almost every discourse has, or should have, some leading object in view; and yet this is perfectly consistent with a series of subordinate objects-extending from the first effort to conciliate the feelings of those whom the speaker addresses, onward to the last impression which he would leave on the minds of his audience.-No one of the principles, then, developed in the last section, requires that the gestures be uniform throughout a discourse.

Of the matter of the introduction to a discourse, it is not my purpose to speak. But, obviously, the introduction should have for its object to conciliate the audience, to bespeak their favor, to secure their attention, or to prepare them to receive the impression the speaker wishes to make. In an introduction, these objects may all be united; nor can any of them be better secured than by an air of simple modesty on the part of the speaker. No mark of respect should be overlooked. The low pitch and the small volume of voice heretofore recommended are indicative of such respect; and his entire action should accord with this feeling. The eye should rather be downcast, than staring; the countenance should be composed; and as to gesture,