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Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pith and moment,
With this regard, their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

1. What are Pauses?

QUESTIONS.

2. What rules can be given for our guidance in their use?

3. What kinds of Pauses will be required in the expression of the different styles of thought?

4. What advantage are the grammatical Pauses in Vocal Expression?

LESSON LIV.
LES

CLIMAX.

Climax is an utterance gradually increasing in Force, rising in Pitch, and increasing the rate of Movement. Sometimes a Climax will be reached by lowering the Pitch or changing the Quality, increasing the Force, and reducing the rate of Movement.

EXERCISES.

1. I tell you, though you, though the whole world, though an angel from heaven, were to declare the truth of it, I would not believe it.

2. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving, how express and admirable! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god!

3. There is Boston and Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill, and there they will remain forever.

4. But every-where, spread all over in characters of

living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heaven, that other sentiment, dear to every American heart-Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.

5. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.

6. Days, months, years, and ages shall circle away, And still the vast waters above thee shall roll; Earth loses thy pattern forever and aye;

O sailor boy, sailor boy, peace to thy soul.

7. I scorn to count what feelings, withered hopes, strong provocations, bitter, burning wrongs, I have within my heart's hot cells shut up to leave you in your lazy dignities.

LESSON LV.

ACTION.

Though it is not the object of this volume to give instruction on Action or Attitude, yet it may be well to present some suggestions on the position and movements of the hands and arm in gesture, and some hints on the expression of countenance in the illustration of the emotions and passions.

Action embraces all that part of delivery which addresses itself to the eye as distinguished from the voice, which appeals alone to the ear. It has always been considered an essential part of expression. Among the ancients Action was regarded as even more important than Vocal Utterance. It was a question in Rome whether Cicero could express more by his voice than

Demosthenes gave

Roscius could by his action. Action as the first, second, and third qualifications for an orator. Action is nature's language of expression, it is the spontaneous utterance of the heart, the true revelation of the soul. The voice may be trained to deceive, words framed to disguise or conceal our thoughts, but the glance of the eye, the movement of the hand, the shrug of the shoulder, reveal our real feelings.

Action is a universal language, it is the same among all nations, understood by all peoples. It has survived the confounding of tongues, it admits of no idiom, and is not marred by accent or brogue. The joyous greeting is the same with the Malay as the American. The savage understands the expression of anger as well as the civilized. The infant recognizes the mother's smile as quickly as the sage. Nature teaches us to use this language when influenced by emotion or passion, but art must be summoned when we wish to express a passion we do not feel. The school-boy on the playground can express anger which he feels better than Booth on the stage that which he does not feel; the mother, in her bereavement, illustrates grief better than Mary Anderson in the play; but it requires the genius of a Booth or an Anderson, cultured by art, to portray the passions they do not feel. Action is a most expressive language. It is impossible to translate a look, a gesture, an attitude, into words. The eye defies more than the tongue-the lip scorns more than language -the hand repels as words cannot.

POSITIONS OF THE HAND.

The expressiveness of Gesture depends largely on the hand. Next to the tones of the voice and the expres

sions of countenance, the hand has the greatest variety and power of expression. Sheridan says: "Every one knows that with the hands we can demand or promise, call, dismiss, threaten, supplicate, ask, deny, show joy, sorrow, detestation, fear, confession, penitence, admiration, respect, and many other things now in common use." The hand is prone when the palm is turned downward. It is supine when the palm is turned upward.

It is vertical when the plane of the palm is perpendicular to the horizon, the fingers pointing upward.

The natural state of the fingers, when the arm is hanging freely by the side, or employed in unimpassioned gesture, is that in which the hand is fully open, with the forefinger nearly straight, and slightly separated from the middle finger; the middle finger is more bent, and rests partly on the third finger, which it gently touches; the little finger is still more bent, and slightly separated from the third finger; the thumb is withdrawn about an inch from the palm, and so placed that a line from the top of it will be a little above the line of the forefinger.

Gesture.

The position of the hand, as regards the palm, most suitable to be adopted by the public speaker in unimpassioned gesticulation, is that which presents an inclination from the supine of an angle of forty-five degrees, and accompanied with a slight bend of the wrist downward, in the direction of the little finger.

In emphatic or impassioned Gesture, the hand may be closed as it is brought down.

POSITIONS OF THE ARMS IN REPOSE.

When the arms are not employed in Gesture they should hang naturally by the side.

This position, however, too long sustained, becomes tiresome and monotonous, and requires change. Where the circumstances are favorable the left hand may rest gently on a table or stand, the fingers may be placed between the buttons of the vest, or occasionally the left arm may be thrown behind the body. In various ways, the eye of the audience as well as the monotony of the position may be relieved by a nice adjustment of the body and arms.

POSITIONS AND MOVEMENT OF THE ARMS IN GESTURE.

First. In gesticulation, the arm should be free and unconstrained, the action proceeding from the shoulder rather than the elbow. The elbow should be slightly curved and flexible.

Second. The arm should be so moved that the hand will always describe curved lines instead of those which are straight and angular, except in the expression of the malignant passions when the hand moves in straight lines and the arm illustrates angles. The curve is the line of beauty, and grace in the action of the arm depends materially on the observance of this principle.

Third. The arm should not remain stationary even for a moment while out in gesticulation. It should either be kept moving preparatory to another gesture, or return to the side.

Fourth. Gestures ordinarily should not be made at a greater angle than forty-five degrees back from a horizontal line passing directly forward from the center of the breast.

Fifth. The ease and grace of the motion of the arm and hand will depend on the free use of the joints of the shoulder, elbow, and wrist. Without the free use of the wrist-joint there can be no grace.

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