ing eyes and distorted features of ungoverned and infuriated. expression. In dramatic recitation, and, sometimes, even in the intensity of lyric style, great scope is unquestionably due to emotion. But, even in these forms of expression, the judicious speaker knows how to distinguish between the breadth and force of theatrical effect, and that which belongs to the chaster style of the lecture-room or the academic platform.

SUGGESTIONS ON ATTITUDE AND ACTION.

From the prominent principles of gesture, stated in the preceding paragraphs, may be deduced the details of attitude and action, as they apply to practice and training in prose declamation and poetic recitation.

ATTITUDE. A true, firm, easy, and graceful position for public address, requires that the weight of the body should rest, principally, on one foot,-not on both feet equally. The latter posture renders the attitude of the whole body stiff and rigid, deprives the action of the arm of the free and consentaneous play of the whole muscular system, and gives a mechanical air to every motion of gesture.

The distance at which the feet should be placed, is regulated by the requirements of firmness of support and freedom of action. By a posture too wide, freedom becomes negligence and slovenliness, or the style habitually used by the seaman, as he steadies himself against the rolling of his ship. By a position too narrow, firmness becomes stiffness and primness, as in the mechanical and rigid attitude of the soldier on drill. A convenient natural measure for the distance of the feet, as required by the firm and easy and graceful support of the human body, in the standing and speaking attitude, is a width equal to that of the broadest part of the foot. Precision and nicety are not required in this matter; but a material deviation, either way, from such a standard, always incurs one of the two faults mentioned above.

The relative position of the feet, for the convenient and proper attitude of address, in public speaking, presents one foot

space

in advance of the other, at the distance mentioned, as the between the hecls, while the feet are placed with the toes turned outward so far as to create a right angle by two lines, if drawn one under the middle of the sole of each foot, and intersecting each other under the heel of the retired foot. The position may be represented thus:

Fig.1.

The shaded sole represents here that of the left foot, which for the time is supposed to bear the chief weight of the body, while the right merely supports that of the corresponding limb. The advantage of this position is that of firmness, freedom, convenience, and grace, as contrasted with the effects of the two styles already described, which might be represented, as in Fig. 2, for the former, and, as in Fig. 3, for the latter of the two.

Fig. 2.

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Fig.3.

The true position, (Fig. 1.) avoids, also, the ungainliness and inconvenience of another common crror in the position of the feet, which plants them parallel, and pointing in a line drawn straight forward from the speaker's body, thus:

In the three false positions, the weight of the body bears upon both feet equally, producing either a clumsy or a stiffened attitude of the whole body, while the true posture gives pliancy and flexibility

to the whole frame, and enables the speaker to address his whole audience—not merely the hearers immediately in front of him, but those, also, as easily, who are seated on his right and on his left, without the necessity of shifting his feet, but merely by a slight turn of the body. He thus commands, without effort, the whole sphere of his address, and secures the attention of all his audience. But the speaker who falls into any of the three faults exemplified, has cither wholly to neglect

all of his hearers seated on his right and left, and make a military wheel, or a formal turn, at intervals, to avoid the apparent neglect. The shift of position, however, either way, does little good; as it causes him to turn his back on the part of his audience from which, for the moment, he wheels away. Further, when a change of attitude is required by a bold strain of address demanding an advance of the speaker's person, the true position causes no farther change than merely the easy one of passing the weight of the body to the advanced foot, which brings the whole person forward. So when a passage of quiet expression occurs, and naturally suggests a slight receding of the whole body, no other movement is needed than merely that of leaning back, and permitting the weight of the person to rest on the retired foot. The speaker, on the contrary, who falls into any one of the wrong positions, has to go through a formal and conspicuous change of attitude, and then only to resume the inconvenient and ungraceful posture which he exhibited before.

Easy, natural, and appropriate change of attitude, at every obvious change in the current of thought,-as in commencing new heads of a subject and new paragraphs of composition,is one of the most obvious aids to freedom of manner in the speaker, and to relief of attention on the part of the hearer. A careful regard to this point, therefore, in the practice of exercises, is of great moment to the student's success in declamation; and, although but apparently a slight affair, in itself, it tells, with great effect, as a genuine trait of appropriate manner and eloquent expression. It is, in fact, a necessary accompaniment to the change of voice which naturally indicates the closing of one topic or paragraph and the commencement of a new one.

The natural language of attitude requires attention to the following considerations.

(1.) When the expression of thought is not accompanied by strong emotion, attitude naturally indicates repose, and is therefore quiet and retired, rather than active and advanced. The posture of the feet, accordingly, is that in which the

weight of the speaker's body rests on the left foot retired, as in the illustration formerly given by "Fig. 1." For the convenience of a suggestive marginal notation, of the style of a given passage, this attitude may be indicated by the use of initial letters, thus: R. f. (Right foot,) a. (advanced,) L. s. (Left supporting.)

Example.-"The acquisition of knowledge is one of the most momentous duties of early life."

(2.) Earnest address, or strong emotion, on the contrary, requires a movement forward, which throws the weight of the body on the advanced foot,-which may be suggested by initial letters, thus: R. f. (Right foot,) a. (advanced;) R. s. (Right supporting;) or, more briefly, R. f. a. s.

Example of Earnest Address. "Be assured, my young friends, that the acquisition of knowledge is one of the most momentous duties of early life. Let me entreat you, as you value your own happiness, never to neglect it."

Strong Emotion.-"Up! comrades, up!-in Rokeby's halls Ne'er be it said our courage falls!"

Attitude at the commencement of an address or of a recitation, depends, properly, on no arbitrary rule or direction, but on a due regard to the character of the composition.-(1.) If the piece opens with the expression of moderate sentiment or quiet thought, the attitude is naturally that of repose or tranquillity, mentioned before, and so continues, till, in the progress of the subject, feeling begins to glow and language becomes animated, warm, or energetic, and consequently excites action and motion. But (2.) if the opening sentiment and language of the piece is bold or impassioned, the commencing attitude is taken by a movement forward, as formerly described.

Example of calm commencement." Mr. President, it is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of Hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that Siren, till she degrades us into brutes." (R. f. a. L. s.)

Bold commencement.-" And dar'st thou, then,

To beard the lion in his den,—

The Douglas in his hall ?" (R. f. a. s.)

At the opening of a new paragraph, or the commencement of a new branch of a subject, or a new train of thought, the same principle applies as at the beginning of a piece.

Paragraph exemplifying the Retiring Movement."I will not farther encroach on the patience* of this assembly, than merely to express my thanks for the kind attention with which I have been favored."

Advancing Movement.—“Wilt* thou now, Verres, say that any thing false, that even any thing exaggerated, has been advanced against thee?"

A very common fault in attitude, in academic declamation, is the awkward habit of keeping the left foot advanced, instead of the right. The left foot may properly be advanced when the speaker is addressing a hearer or a group on his left; and the left hand may then be properly allowed the principal action. But as the right hand usually plays the principal part in gesture, as in other forms of action, the law of anatomic motion in the human body, obviously requires the natural, symmetric correspondence of hand and foot. The advance of the left foot necessarily curtails all the gestures of the right arm, in consequence of the comparative withdrawal of that arm. The Roman orator holding the long and cumbrous folds of a large part of his toga on his left arm, was necessarily subjected to this disadvantage, by the law of established custom, which did not permit him to drop this encumbrance till he came to the impassioned utterance of his peroration. But this circumstance is no plea for voluntarily incurring an impediment to freedom. of action in modern declamation. True eloquence, in its irrepressible earnestness, approaches those whom it addresses; and

*The movement of the feet, like the action of the hand, naturally accompanies the utterance of the emphatic word of a sentence, and is r strict time with its accented syllable.