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ELEMENTS OF GESTURE.

SECTION I

On the Speaking of Speeches at Schools.-WALKER.

ELOCUTION has, for some years past, been an object of attention in the most respectable schools in this country. A laudable ambition of instructing youth, in the pronunciation and delivery of their native language, has made English speeches a very conspicuous part of those exhibitions of oratory, which do our seminaries of learning so much credit.

This attention to English pronunciation, has induced several ingenious men to compile exercises in elocution, for the use of schools, which have answered very useful purposes; but none, so far as I have seen, have attempted to give us a regular system of gesture, suited to the wants and capacities of schoolboys. Mr. Burgh, in his Art of Speaking, has given us a system of the passions; and bas shown us how they appear in the countenance, and operate on the body; but this system, however useful to people of riper years, is too delicate and complicated to be taught in schools. Indeed the exact adaptation of the action to the word, and the word to the action, as Shakespeare calls it, is the most difficult part of delivery, and, therefore, can never be taught perfectly to children; to say nothing of distracting their attention with two very difficult things, at the same time. But that boys should stand motionless, while they are pronouncing the most impassioned language, is extremely absurd and unnatural; and that they should sprawl into an awkward, ungain and desultory action, is still more offensive and disgusting.What then remains, but that such a general style of action

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be adopted, as shall be easily conceived, and easily execu ted; which, though not expressive of any particular passion, shall not be inconsistent with the expression of any passion; which shall always keep the body in a graceful position, and shall so vary its motions, at proper intervals, as to see the subject operating on the speaker, and not the speaker on the subject. This it will be confessed, is a great desideratum; and an attempt to this, is the principal object of the present publication.

The difficulty of describing action by words, will be allowed by every one; and if we were never to give any instructions, but such as should completely answer our wishes, this difficulty would be a good reason for not attempting to give any description of it. But there are many degrees between conveying a precise idea of a thing and no idea at all. Besides, in this part of delivery, instruction may be conveyed by the eye; and this organ is a much more rapid vehicle of knowledge than the ear. This vehicle is addressed on the present occasion; and plates, representing the attitudes which are described are annexed to the several descriptions, which it is not doubted, will greatly facilitate the reader's conception.

Plate I, represents the attitude in which a boy should always place himself when he begins to speak. He should rest the whole weight of his body on the right leg; the other, just touching the ground, at the distance at which it would naturally fall, if lifted up to show that the body does not bear upon it. The knees should be straight, and braced, and the body, though perfectly straight, not perpendicular, but inclining as far to the right as a firm position on the right leg will permit. The right arm must then be held out, with the palm open, the fingers stright and close, the thumb almost as distant from them as it will go; and the flat of the hand neither horizontal nor vertical, but exactly between both. The position of the arm, perhaps will be best described, by supposing an oblong hollow square formed by the measure of four arms as in plate I, where the arm, in its true position, forms the diagonal of such an imaginary figure. So that if lines were drawn at right angles from the shoulder, extending downwards, forwards and sideways, the arm will form an angle of forty-five degrees every way.

en to keep the hand open, and the thumb at some distance from the fingers; and particular attention must be paid, to keeping the hand in an exact line with the lower part of the arm, so as not to bend the wrist, either when it is held out, without motion, or when it gives the emphatic stroke. And, above all, the body must be kept in a straight line with the leg on which it bears and not suffered to bend to the opposite side.

At first, it may not be improper for the teacher, after placing the pupil in the position, (Plate I) to stand some distance, exactly opposite to him, in the same position, the right and left sides only reversed; and, while the pupil is speaking, to show him, by example, the action he is to make use of. In this case, the teacher's left hand will correspond to the pus right; by which means he will see, as in a lookinggla, how to regulate his gesture, and will soon catch the method of doing it by himself.

It is expected the master will be a little discouraged, at the awkward figure his pupil makes, in his first attempts to teach him. But this is no more than what happens in dancing, fencing, or any other exercise which depends on habit. By practice the pupil will soon begin to feel his position, and be easy in it. Those positions which were at first distressing to him, he will fall into naturally; and, if they are such as are really graceful and becoming (and such it is presumed are those which have been just described) they will be adopted, with more facility than any other that can be taught him.

SECTION II.

On the Acting of Plays at Schools.-WALKER.

THOUGH the acting of plays, at schools, has been universally supposed a very useful practice, it has, of late years, been much laid aside. The advantages arising from it have not been judged equal to the inconveniences; and the speaking of single speeches, or the acting of single scenes, has been, generally, substituted in its stead. Indeed, when we consider the leading principle, and prevail

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