handkerchief; the sand gains on him more and more. He feels that he is being swallowed up. He howls, implores, cries to the clouds, despairs. Behold him waist deep in the sand. The sand reaches his breast; he is now only a bust. He raises his arms, utters furious groans, clutches the beach with his nails, would hold by that straw, leans upon his elbows to pull himself out of this soft sheath; sobs frenziedly; the sand rises; the sand reaches his shoulders; the sand reaches his neck; the face alone is visible now. The mouth cries, the sand fills it - silence. The eyes still gaze, the sand shuts them night. Now the forehead decreases, a little hair flutters above the sand; a hand comes to the surface of the beach, moves, and shakes, disappears. Sinister effacement of a man. SECTION IV. PLANES OF GESTURE There are three Planes of Gesture, - (1) the Plane of Equality, (2) the Plane of the Superior, and (3) the Plane of the Inferior. The approximate angle occupied by each of these planes is shown in Fig. 19. Plane of Plane of Plane of FIG. 19 I. PLANE OF EQUALITY The Plane of Equality is the plane of direct address. Its range vertically is through an arc of about thirty degrees, with the shoulder as a center. It is the normal zone in which men deal with their fellow-men. Gestures of ordinary conversation, description, didactic thought, calm reasoning, ordinary public address, and direct appeal are in the Plane of Equality; in fact, most gestures occur in this plane. Sentences illustrating the Plane of Equality. (1) Within our territory stretching through many degrees of latitude and longitude we have the choice of many products and many means of independence. — Story. (2) Do we mean to submit to the measures of Parliament, Boston-Port Bill and all? — Webster. (3) Welcome, Icilius! Welcome, friends! - Knowles. (4) Have I not cause enough for anger? — Halm. 2. PLANE OF THE SUPERIOR The Plane of the Superior is the plane of the ideal, of the imaginative and the poetic. It is called by some the elevated plane. Gestures range through an arc of forty or fifty degrees above the Plane of Equality. Sentiments of hope, beneficence, benediction, patriotism, triumph, liberty, and appeals to Heaven or Deity require gestures in the Plane of the Superior. Sentences illustrating the Plane of the Superior. (1) Some to the common pulpits and cry out "liberty, freedom and enfranchisement." - Shakespeare. (2) "Good speed!" cried the watch as the gate-bolts undrew, Speed," echoed the wall to us galloping through.” --Browning. (3) Judge, O you gods, how dearly Cæsar loved him. (4) Forbid it, Almighty God! — Henry. Shakespeare. 3. PLANE OF THE INFERIOR The Plane of the Inferior is the plane of the debasing. Its range is through an arc of forty to fifty degrees below the Plane of Equality. Gestures putting down the bad, the low, the vile, or the contemptible culminate in this plane. Malevolence, hate, revenge, gloom, despair, horror, and aversion are enforced by gestures that conclude in this plane. Sentences illustrating the Plane of the Inferior. (1) Out of my sight, thou demon of bad news. Aldrich. (2) I'll force out his last drachma. O, I'll not rest until I've had revenge. Halm. (3) O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! — Shakespeare. (4) Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the Duke.— Shakespeare. Selection illustrating the Planes of Gesture. NOTE. Analyze the following selection and apply gesture in accordance with the reasons set forth for the use of the different Planes. GALILEO EDWARD EVERETT There is much in every way in the city of Florence to excite the curiosity, kindle the imagination, and gratify the taste; but among all its fascinations, addressed to the sense, the memory, and the heart, there was none to which I more frequently gave a meditative hour during a year's residence, than to the spot where Galileo Galilei sleeps beneath the marble floor of Santa Croce ; no building on which I gazed with greater reverence than I did upon that modest mansion of Arceti: villa once, and prison, in which that venerable sage, by the command of the Inquisition, passed the sad, closing years of his life. Of all the wonders of ancient and modern art, statues and paintings, jewels and manuscripts, the admiration and delight of ages, there is nothing I beheld with more affectionate awe than that poor little spyglass through which the human eye first pierced the clouds of visual error, which from the creation of the world had involved the system of the universe. There are occasions in life in which a great mind lives years of rapt enjoyment in a moment. I can fancy the emotions of Galileo, when, first raising the newly constructed telescope to the heavens, he saw fulfilled the grand prophecy of Copernicus, and beheld the planet Venus crescent like the moon. It was such another moment as that when the immortal printers of Mentz and Strasburg received the first copy of the Bible into their hands, the work of their divine art; like that when Columbus, through the gray dawn of the 12th of October, 1492, beheld the shores of San Salvador; like that when the law of gravitation first revealed itself to the intellect of Newton; like that when Franklin saw, by the stiffening fibers of the hempen cord of his kite, that he held the lightning in his grasp; like that when Leverrier received back from Berlin the tidings that the predicted planet was found. Yes, noble Galileo, thou art right, "it does move." Bigots may make thee recant it, but it moves, nevertheless. Yes, the earth moves, and the planets move, and the mighty waters move, and the great sweeping tides of air move, and the empires of men move, and the world of thought moves, ever onward and upward, to higher facts and bolder theories. The Inquisition may seal thy lips, but they can no more stop the progress of the great truth propounded by Copernicus and demonstrated by thee, than they can stop the revolving earth. Close, now, venerable sage, that sightless, tearful eye; it has seen what man never before saw; it has seen enough. Hang up that poor little spyglass; it has done its work. Not Herschel nor Rosse have, comparatively, done more. Franciscans and Dominicans deride thy discoveries now, but the time will come when from two hundred observatories in Europe and America, the glo. rious artillery of science shall nightly assault the skies; but they shall gain no conquests in those glittering fields before which thine shall be forgotten. Rest in peace, great Columbus of the heavens like him scorned, persecuted, broken-hearted! In other ages, in distant hemispheres, when the votaries of science, with solemn acts of consecration, shall dedicate their stately edifices to the cause of knowledge and truth, thy name shall be mentioned with honor. SECTION V. THE LEGS With reference to the Triune Nature the Leg is divided as follows: 1. The Foot and Ankle belong to the Mental zone of the leg. The foot taps the floor in impatience or irritation, twists about in confused thinking, picks the steps, finds the path, and gives direction to the punt of a ball. cance. 2. The Lower Leg and Knee are Emotive in general signifiThe knee bends in prayer or supplication, bows in submission, and shakes in strong emotion. The weak-kneed person lacks moral strength. 3. The Upper Leg and Hip correspond to the Vital nature. While the foot gives direction, the heavy muscles of the thigh give strength to the punt of a ball, to walking, running, or leaping. SECTION VI. POSITIONS AND ATTITUDES Viewed from the standpoint of the Triune Nature, the Positions and Attitudes are classified as follows: NOTE. We shall treat only those positions and attitudes which are essential to public speaking and most used on the rostrum. |