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utterance of a single sound. "Gesture is nature's language, and makes its way to the heart without utterance of sound.'

By study, a process of analysis, as it were, goes on, which, by its effect on your audience and ease and comfort to yourself, should make you freely acknowledge that acting can be taught, that "art is but nature better understood." Therefore, what to observe and avoid must be the subject of incessant study. Of all well-educated people who desire to make the best of themselves by following the just and elegant adaptation of every part of the body, gesture appeals to none so directly or so strongly as to the would-be actor or orator. To them it cannot be denied it is all important, because of the striking effects and admiration it produces. Ruskin advises that "artists should be fit for the best society but keep out of it." Yet who can deny that gesture is also advantageous and important in distinguishing the particular characteristics belonging to each branch of study, i.e. the pulpit, the bar, the Legislature, the stage, and platform. Common-sense should (but does not always) tell us they must never rudely break in upon and clash with one another. Different styles and methods belong to each, and the period and characteristics of each style should be carefully remembered and kept clear and distinct, so that the classic comedy of a past epoch may not be acted with the fashionable variations and styles of to

In that brilliant comedy, Divorçons (Facciamo Divorzio), of Victorien Sardou, the gifted actress Signora Eleonora Duse, as Cyprienne, is alternately bored, romantic, and frantically jealous, and all by signs and gestures.

day, nor the Roman tragedy brought "up to date," with the flippancy and frippery of modern methods.

Fashion is ever an inexorable law, but we should not allow the fashion of the day to distort art itself. It should intensify and improve it in its various periods, dominating only the style that it itself creates and represents. Art should remain the same, and we should never allow its noble powers to be subordinated to the variations, caprice, and fantasy of fashion.

The theatre is the temple of living art, but the principles that guide, improve, assist, and benefit are the same, used in different ways, to illustrate, adorn, and enforce all discourses.

The Italians and French employ much more gesture than the English; the children of those nations that express with their hands, follow the examples surrounding them, exercising only the imitative faculty. It must be remembered that that is the custom of their country, practised sympathetically and simultaneously with the every-day art of expressive and imaginative delivery. We notice the objectionable redundancy and futility of gesture generally in the immature and bad artist of those countries; while in the experienced and finished artist gesture becomes what it should be, a graceful aid and accompaniment of speech, in harmonious perfection, and an expressive power even without it.

In employing such bodily movements as are suited to the taste and genius of a nation, we must be guided, of course, by a cultivated discretion.

Some action is absolutely necessary in effective speaking; the choice and application belong entirely to

oneself. The possession of a great gift, however, does not always imply that we must make perpetual use of it. Knowledge of propriety and effect tells us it is not always necessary to employ gesture because it is ready for use, and is graceful and expressive. The cultivated artist employs little gesture, and does not waggle his head, body, and limbs. He does not "saw the air" too much, but lets his face and attitude speak the emotions of his mind. In the art of expressive gesture, repose "speaks volumes." We are taught to moderate our actions, when and how to "saw the air" and distinguish all our movements by grace and agility. In order to gain a just idea of suitable action and expression it is necessary to remember that every passion, emotion, and sentiment has a particular attitude of the body, and physiognomical expression, which should be carefully studied and practised with force and frequency in order that we may wear ourselves into the habit of assuming them with perfect ease.

"True ease in action comes from art, not chance,
As they move easiest who have learned to dance."
-Pope.

I would impress on the student the fact that all modifications of the attitude and motions of the body depend upon the promptings and co-operation of the mind, and should answer the inflections of the voice. They should strike with force upon the senses and understanding of your hearers, and wherever we speak, the power, warmth, and pulsation of a gesture should carry the point.

Now, all this constitutes a great and necessary

study worthy of the arduous labours of everyone destined for the stage or a public career. We need not expend much time and attention upon the instincts and immediate impulse of feeling over which we have little control, as the lachrymal glands that spasmodically extract real tears, the operations of the diaphragm which create gay and cheerful ideas; the fear and anxiety that involuntarily pale the cheek; the shame and modesty that make it crimson. But the infinite utility of gesture accompanying vocal expression for all branches of public life is to me self-evident; and in representing the illusions of the mimic world gesture is of primary importance. The convictions of vision are as necessary as the convictions of speech, for gesture should be to the deaf what speech is to the blind.

POSITION OF THE BODY, FEET, AND
LOWER LIMBS.

In this treatise I confine myself to the important subject of gesture, which we construe to embrace the many and various positions of the body, motions of the arms, expressions of the face, in fact, everything but speech concerning the head, face, shoulders, torso, arms, hands, fingers, lower limbs, and feet.

Now, in speaking to the deaf we know the eye must be satisfied, convinced, and pleased. To attract its approving attention, therefore, the walk is of primary importance, and must be good and characteristic, together with the position at the end of it.

Practise first the ordinary walk which belongs to a person of sanguine temperament; for in the psychological treatment all characters require we must be influenced and governed by temperament. The principal temperaments are:

1. THE SANGUINE.

2. THE NERVOUS.

3. THE BILIOUS.
4. THE PHLEGMATIO.
5. THE LYMPHATIC.

All persons possess their separate characteristics dictating and regulating their actions from head to foot. The foundation of all good style is a natural, easy carriage; firm, erect, manly, and free from the hips.

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