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the breast, the left drops unmoved, the eyes are fix-ed upon the person addressed; sometimes both hands the breast.

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Shame in the extreme, sinks on the knee, and covers the eyes with both hands.

Grief arising from sudden and afflicting intelligence, covers the eyes with one hand, advances forwards and throws back the other hand..

Attention demanding silence, holds the finger on the lips, and leans forwards, sometimes repressing with the left hand.

Distress when extreme, lays the palm of the hand upon the forehead, throws the head and body back, and retires with a long and sudden step.

Deliberation on ordinary subjects holds the chin, and sets the arm a kimbo.

Self-Sufficiency folds the arms, and sets himself on his centre.

Pride throws back the body, holds the head high, and nearly presents forward his elbows a kimbo.

Melancholy is a feeble and passive affection: it is attended by a total relaxation of the nerves; the head hangs to the side next the heart, the eyes turned upon the object, or if that is absent, fixed on the ground, the hands hanging down by their own weight without effort, and joined loosely together.

Anxiety is of a different character, it is restless and active, and manifest by the extension of the muscles the eye is filled with fire, the breathing is quick, the motion is hurried, the head is thrown back,, the whole body is extended. Like a sick man, the sufferer tosses incessantly, and finds himself uneasy in every situation.

These are some of the most obvious simple and complex significant gestures.

The Grace of Action.

The grace of oratorical action consists chiefly in the facility, the freedom, the variety, and the simplicity of those gestures which illustrate the discourse..

Graceful position precedes graceful action. Graceful action must be performed with facility, because the appearance of great efforts is incompatible with ease, which is one constituent part of grace.-Freedom is also necessary to gracefulness of action. No gestures can be graceful, which are confined with external circumstances, or restrained by the mind. Variety is likewise indispensable for the maintenance of grace in rhetorical action. The iteration of the same gesture or set of gestures, however graceful in themselves, betrays a poverty in resources, which is altogether prejudicial to the speaker. They have an effect even worse than monotony of tones, which may be pardoned as arising from natural deficiency, but a fine gesture can be assumed only for ornament, and may be repeated to disgust.

But simplicity and truth of manner, if not constituting grace in themselves are inseparable from it. The gestures must appear to be used only for the better supporting the sentiments of the mind, and for no other purpose. Gestures which are manifestly contrived for the mere display of the person, or for the exhibition of some foppery, as a delicate white hand, a fine handkerchief, &c. instantly offend. Fine gestures are to be used only, when the mind is elevated, and the sentiments magnificent; and energetic gestures, when it is ardent and earnest.

To simplicity of gesture is opposed affectation; that falsehood of action, which destroys every pretension to genuine grace. The more showy and fine gestures are, unless they belong indispensibly to the subject, to the affection of the mind, and to the character of the speaker, the more do they offend the judicious by their manifest affectation. If dignity be assumed where none is found in the sentiment, pathos without any thing interesting, vehemence in trifles and solemnity upon common-place; such affectation may impose on the ignorant, but makes "the judicious grieve". Simplicity which constitutes the true grace in manners and in dress, should equally be

observed in the action of an orator. Early good instructions, with constant practice and imitation of the best models, will establish habits of graceful action, with the greatest certainty of success.

PART. I.

་་་་་ཚ་

PIECES IN PROSE.

CHAP. I.

PARAGRAPHS.

SECTION I.

EDUCATION and instruction are the means, the one by use, the other by precept, to make our natural faculty of reason both the better and the sooner to judge between truth and error, good and evil.

He who, in the same given time, can produce more than many others, has vigour; he who can produce more and better, has talents; he who can produce what none else can, has genius.

The eloquence dictated by an unfeeling heart, mistakes bombast for sublimity; rant, for strong feelings; the cant and whine of a mendicant, for the pathetic. Such a speaker may excite the admiration of some, the contempt of many,but the genuine feelings of none.

The chief security against the fruitless anguish of impatience, must arise from frequent reflexion, on the wisdom of the God of nature; in whose hand are riches and poverty, honour and disgrace, pleasure and pain, life and death.

Youth should be addressed with openness and affability; the aged, with meekness and modesty; the dull, with simplicity and perseverence; the intelligent, with perspicuity and precision; the diffident, with softness and condescension; and the stubborn, with boldness and resolution.

If we would have the kindness of others, we must endure their follies. He who cannot persuade himself to withdraw from society, must be content to pay a tribute of his time to a multitude of tyrants; to the loiterer, who makes appointments he never keeps ; to the consultor, who asks advice which he never takes ; to the boaster, who blusters only to be praised; to the complainer, who whines only to be pitied; to the projector, whose happiness is to entertain his friends with expectations which all but himself know to be vain ; to the economist, who tells of bargains and settlements; to the politician, who predicts the consequences of deaths, battles, and alliances; to the usurer, who compares the different state of the funds; and to the talker, who talks only because he loves to be talking.

The first and most important female quality, is sweetness of temper. Heaven did not give to the fair sex insinuation and persuasion, in order to be surly; it did not make them weak, in order to be imperious; it did not give them a sweet voice, in order to be employed in scolding; it did not provide them with delicate features, in order to be disfigured with anger.

To find the nearest way from truth to truth, or from purpose to effect; not to use more instruments where fewer will be sufficient; not to move by wheels and levers, what will give way to the naked hand; is the great proof of a healthful and vigorous mind, neither feeble with helpless innocence, nor overloaded with unwieldy knowledge.

Shakespeare pleases, not by his bringing the transactions of many years into one play; not by his grotesque mixture of tragedy and comedy in one piece;

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