Gefture. GESTURE, confidered as a just and elegant adaptation of every part of the body to the nature and import of the fubject we are pronouncing, has always been confidered as one of the most effential parts of oratory. Its power, as Cicero obferves, is much greater than that of words. It is the language of nature in the ftricteft fenfe, and makes its way to the heart, without the utterance of a fingle found. Ancient and modern orators are full of the power of action; and action, as with the illuftrious Grecian orator, feems to form the beginning, the middle, and end of oratory. Such, however, is the force of cuftom, that though we all confefs the power and neceffity of this branch of public fpeaking, we find few, in our own country at least, that are hardy enough to put it in practice. The most accomplished fpeakers in the British Senate are very faulty in their use of action, and it is remarkable that those who are excellent in every other part of oratory are very deficient in this. The truth is, though the reason of action in speaking is in the nature of things, the difficulty of acquiring the other requifites of an orator, and the ftill greater difficulty of attaining excellence in action, (which after all our pains is less esteemed than excellences of another kind); thefe, I fay, feem to be the reafons why action is fo little cultivated among us: to this we may add, that fo different are national taftes in this particular, that hardly any two people agree in the just proportion of this fo celebrated quality of an orator. Perhaps the finished action of a Cicero, or a Demofthenes, would fcarcely be borne in our times, though accompanied with every other excellence. The Italians and French, though generally esteemed better public speakers than the English, appear to us to overcharge their oratory with action; and fome of their fineft ftrokes of action would, perhaps, excite our laughter. The oratory, therefore, of the Greeks and Romans in this point, is as ill fuited to a British auditor, as the accent and quantity of the ancients is to the English language. The common feelings of nature, with the figns that exprefs them, undergo a kind of modification, which is suitable to the taste and genius of every nation; and it is this national tafte which muft neceffarily be the vehicle of every thing we convey agreeably to the public we belong to. Whether the action of the ancients was exceffive, or whether that of the English be not too fcanty, is not the question: those who would fucceed as English orators muft fpeak to English tafte; as a general must learn the modern exercife of arms to command modern armies, and not the difcipline and weapons of the ancients. But though the oratory of the moderns does not require all thofe various evolutions of gefture which was almoft indifpenfable in the ancient, yet a certain degree of it must neceffarily enter into the compofition of every good fpeaker and reader. To be perfectly motionlefs while we are pronouncing words which require force and energy, is not only depriving them of their neceffary fupport, but rendering them unnatural and ridiculous. A very vehement addrefs pronounced without any motion but that of the lips and tongue, would be a burlefque upon the meaning, and produce laughter; nay, fo unnatural is this total absence of gefticulation, that it is not very easy to speak in this manner. As fome action, therefore, muft neceffarily accompany our words, it is of the utmost confequence, that this be fuch as is fuitable and natural. No matter how little, if it be but akin to the words and paffion; for if foreign to them, it counteracts and deftroys the very intention of delivery. The voice and gefture may be faid to be tuned to each other; and if they are in a different key, as it may be called, difcord muft inevitably be the confequence. An awkward action, and such as is unfuitable to the words and paffion, is the body out of tune, and gives the eye as much pain as difcord does the ear. In order, therefore, to gain a juft idea of fuitable action and expreffion, it will be neceffary to obferve that every paffion, emotion, and fentiment, has a particular attitude of the body, caft of the eye, and tone of the voice, that particularly belongs to that paffion, emotion, or fentiment: thefe fhould be carefully ftudied, and practifed before a glafs when we are alone; and before a few friends, whofe candour and judgment we can rely on. good piece of compofition fhould be then felected, and every period or sentence be marked with that paffion, emotion, or fentiment, indicated by the words, that the eye in reading may be reminded of the paffion or fentiment to be affumed. These paffions and emotions we Some fhould exprefs with the utmoft force and energy we are able, when we are alone, that we may wear ourselves into the habit of affuming them eafily in public. This forcible practice in private, will have the fame effect on our public delivery, that dancing a minuet has on our general air and deportment. What Pope fays of writing is perfectly applicable to action in ora tory. True eafe in action comes from art, not chance, To defcend, however, to a few of those particulars, to which it feems the most neceffary to attend; it may not be improper to take notice, that in reading much lefs action is required than in fpeaking. When we read to a few perfons only in private, it may not be ufelefs to obferve, that we fhould accuftom ourselves to read ftanding; that the book fhould be held in the left hand; that we fhould take our eyes as often as poffible from the book, and direct them to those that hear us. The three or four laft words, at least of every paragraph, or branch of a fubject, fhould be pronounced with the eye pointed to one of the auditors. When any thing fublime, lofty, or heavenly, is expreffed, the eye and the right hand may be very properly elevated; and when any thing low, inferior, or grovelling is referred to, the eye and hand may be directed downwards: when any thing diftant or extenfive is mentioned, the hand may naturally describe the distance or extent; and when confcious virtue, or any heartfelt emotion, or tender fentiment occurs, we may as naturally clap the right hand on the breaft, exactly over the heart. In fpeaking extempore, we fhould be sparing of the use of the left hand, which may not ungracefully hang down by the fide, and be fuffered to receive that small degree of motion which will neceffarily be communicated to it by the action of the right hand. The right hand, when in action, ought to rife extending from the fide, that is, in a direction from left to right; and then be propelled forwards, with the fingers open, and eafily and differently curved: the arm fhould move chiefly from the elbow, the hand feldom be raised higher than the fhoulder, and when it has defcribed its object, or enforced its emphasis, ought to drop lifelefs down to the fide, ready to commence action afresh. The utmost care must be taken to keep the elbow from inclining to the body, and to let the arms, when not hanging at rest by the fide, approach to the action we call a-kimbow; we must be cautious too, in all action but fuch as defcribes extent or circumference, to keep the hand, or lower part of the arm, from cutting the perpendicular line that divides the body into right and left; but above all, we must be careful to let the ftroke of the hand which marks force, or emphasis, keep exact time with the force of pronunciation; that is, the hand must go down upon the emphatical word, and no other: Thus in the execration of Brutus, in Julius Cæfar: When Marcus Brutus grows fo covetous, |