will become a Demosthenes, nor every actor a Roscius; yet will it be admitted to be of no small advantage to have duly studied the institutes of eloquence, and to hold up to view for imitation the great models of perfection.' And although neither true grace nor consummate eloquence can be acquired by those who are totally deficient in natural qualifications, yet they to whom nature has not denied some portion of talents and dispositions may improve in both, precisely according to the degree of their application: and these last constitute a considerable proportion of the well educated amongst men. Supposing then that there are no impediments of unconquerable obstinacy to be encountered, it may be of use to the public speaker to consider the principal constituents, in which grace consists, that he may labour for their acquisition; and also to mention the principal points in which it is violated, in order that he may guard against faults.

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

9 Whatever may be said at Paris of my speech upon the bill for the reformation of the present calendar, or whatever applause it may have met with here, the whole, I can assure you, is owing to the words, and to the delivery, but by no means to the matter; which, as I told you in a former letter, I was not master of. I mention this again to shew you the importance of well chosen words, harmonious periods, and good delivery; for, between you and me, Lord Macclesfield's speech was, in truth, worth a thousand of mine. It will soon be printed, and I will send it you. It is very instructive. Chesterfield's Letters, p. 315.

Nothing can be more candid!

graceful action; of this something has been already said in the chapter on the positions of the feet.

Graceful action must be performed with facility, because the appearance of great efforts is incompatible with ease, which is one constituent part of grace. A man of great corpulency cannot bend downwards without extreme difficulty, nor run without labouring; whilst the bow of a light figure may be both profound and graceful, and in running, the facility of his motion may almost compare with the gracefulness of the flight of some birds. Since much of the facility of action consists in the due proportions of length, in the different parts of the form, those whose arms and necks are short and thick, must be void of grace; whilst the motions of those, whose limbs are long, and whose neck is well proportioned, and well set on, are generally graceful, as well from the apparent ease, with which they are performed, as from the ample space through which they pass. The motions of the former are short, unmarked, and round; of the latter the motions are flowing, decided, and distinct.

Freedom is also necessary to gracefulness of action. No gestures can be graceful, which, are either confined by external circumstances, or restrained by the mind. If a man were obliged to address an assembly from a narrow window, through which he could not extend his arms and his head, it would be in vain for him to attempt graceful gesture. Confinement in every lesser degree must be proportionably injurious to grace; thus the crowded bar is injurious to the action of the advocate, and the enclosed and bolstered pulpit, which often cuts off more than

half of his figure, is equally injurious to the graceful action of the preacher. The gracefulness of action will also be prevented, if the speaker actually suffer from the pain of a wound, or from chronic pains, which disable him from raising his arms or moving his legs, or bending his body. The sentiments which he delivers may derive considerable interest from their solidity and soundness, and from other circumstances, but cannot borrow any recommendation from the manner, since grace, the most powerful of all external additions to oratory, must be wanting, where every motion must indicate restraint and pain. But not only they, who labour under present indisposition or injury, are disqualified from graceful rhetorical action; they are also to be included in this disqualification who have been in the smallest degree injured or mutilated; whose muscles have been deranged by any permanent contraction, or who have suffered even the loss of a finger; and so on in proportion to the greatness of the injury. And it may be said almost without a figure, that the sacrifices to the Graces must consist of offerings, perfect and free from b lemish. The reason is evident. The action of the limbs can seldom be considered to originate from, and be referred solely to, their own immediate muscles. The most energetic actions of the arm arise from the muscles of the body, and the connection of the lower limbs with the trunk, is equally strict and important." In the soundness and vigour of health the muscles which are brought

10 Latera cum gestu consentiant. Facit enim aliquid, et totius corporis motus: adeo ut Cicero plus illo agi, quam manibus ipsis putet. Ita enim dicit in Oratore, Nullæ argutiæ digitorum, non ad numerum articulus cadens, trunco magis toto se ipse moderans, et virili laterum flexione. Quint B. 1025. et Cic. Orat. Cap. 18.

into action, influence involuntarily all the others connected with their motions. But if any, even the smallest of these, have suffered injury or feel pain, a consciousness seems to be imparted to the muscle originating the motion, so that it sympathetically checks its own action, lest it should distress the morbid sensibility of its associates. Rigidity or mutilation causes more laborious action of the muscle, which is deprived of its associates. Such labour or even interruption without reference to the matter of the discourse, is incompatible with grace. But if, in public speaking, the gesture should be suddenly arrested from surprise or any similar feeling, the effect may even be graceful, and will be altogether different from that which arises from bodily pain or infirmity.

Art may, however, conceal imperfections for a time, if they are not of considerable magnitude; and it may happen that gesture may be graceful, where the injured part is not called into action. Thus if the injury should be only in the lower limbs, as the arms and hands are the principal instruments of the orator, it may continue in a great measure unperceived, so long as he has not occasion to change the position of the feet; or if he deliver his oration sitting, as a judge does his charge to the jury.

This precept of Quintilian, " that the gesture of the arms shall accord with the motions of the body," is worthy of attention. And Cicero's, "manly inflexion of the sides," which Quintilian says he laid more stress upon, than upon the gestures of the hands themselves, appears to be supported by the observation of the important muscles of the trunk, which govern the motions of the arms. Without due attention to the easy bending of the trunk, the action of an orator would not be different from the rigid absurdity of a puppets motions; and if carried into extreme, it would be unsuitable to the decorum of oratorical action, and degenerate into the gesticulations and the contortions of the common pantomine.

But the restraint arising from timidity of mind, or bashfulness, is equally prejudicial to grace: it has, however, this advantage, that it may be effectually corrected by perseverance; it is usually the fault of youth and inexperience. The effect of timidity is to check the action of those muscles, which should consent and harmonize in the gesture. The arms cling to the sides, and abridge the gesture, or when the gesture, by a manifest effort, is sufficiently extended, it is precipitately retracted, the head sinks between the shoulders and droops forwards, the knees bend, and there appears in the figure a mixture at once of rigidity and relaxation; and innumerable muscles are apparently set at variance, some being relaxed, which ought to be braced; and others rigid, which ought to be perfectly at rest. The action of the arm is shortened, the preparations are retrenched, they become feeble, frigid, and as it were convulsed. In the dance, plate II. of Hogarth's Analysis of Beauty, the young lady in the second couple is a good illustration of this restraint of awkward bashfulness: the little man her partner is ungraceful from a very different cause. He appears to be ungraceful from presumption and vulgarity, which are generally hopeless and incurable. And although timidity may often fall short of grace, presumption is not the proper corrective for it; but judicious precepts followed by practice and by a just confidence in its own powers. Modesty and even timidity in the exordium of an oration are decorous and prepossessing in the highest degree; but as he advances, the speaker may with great propriety change them into a just and manly confidence in the truth and reasonableness of his own sentiments, which he desires to impress on his hearers. Such a feeling will divest him of false timidity, and give to his