tively when he obeys the law of his constitution which leads him to use his whole bodily frame as an organ of communication. He becomes impressively eloquent when the breathing thoughts come "beaming from the eye," as well as "speaking on the tongue," and "urge the whole man onward."

Our conventional modes of life, which quench or sup press expression, by withholding corporeal action, - the natural accompaniment of speech, are as faulty, in point of true taste, as they are false to nature. The very condition of eloquence in address, is, that we become sufficiently exalted by thought and emotion, to rise above such habits, and to give sentiment an expression and a character to the eye, as well as to the ear. Undisciplined habit may, it is true, carry this, as any other mode of expression, to excess. But the theory which founds on this fact a sweeping objection to the use of action in speaking, is not at all more rational than would be that which should enjoin abstinence from aliment, on the ground of the tendency of ungoverned appetite to excess in eating and drinking.

Genuine culture would prescribe in this, as in other departments of expression, a strict guard against faults of excess, no less anxiously than it would solicit and cherish the power and the beauty of appropriate and proportioned action.

Another current error on this subject of gesture, is, that it is a thing not capable of being reduced to study or systematic practice, that it is a pure result of unconscious impulse, and beyond the search of the understanding. So was musical sound thought to be, till man had the patience to observe it attentively, and trace its relations and its principles. Faithful observation of phenomena and effects, was the condition on which the beautiful, the profound science of music was constructed, and in consequence of which it became a definite and intelligible art, involving processes of systematic execution.

All expressive arts have a common groundwork of principles. Patient application discovers and defines these, and embodies them in rules. Study and practice follow, in due order; and the result is a recognized form of beauty or of power. Depth, breadth, force, truth, and grace, are each the same thing, in whatever art; be it architecture, sculpture, painting, music, poetry, or oratory. The mind which submits to the requisite conditions of patient and skillful investigation, will succeed in finding, and naming, and exemplifying them.

The great impediment to effective speaking, so far as depends on action, lies in the defective character of early education. The child is originally a model and a study for the sculptor and the painter, in the spontaneous perfection of attitude and gesture. Education, as generally conducted, does nothing to secure this natural excellence; but, on the contrary, allows it to die out of use, and even displaces it by a defective routine of mechanical habit. The awkwardness of the schoolboy, and the stiffness of the student, are proverbial. The minister in the pulpit, naturally, we might almost say necessarily,-exhibits the habitual faults of the student, to their fullest extent. His modes of life, if not counteracted by express care and due self-cultivation, lead him to a cold, reserved, ineffective, inexpressive style of action. So much so, that nothing is more frequently or more generally a subject of popular remark, than the coldness and the lifelessness of the style of speaking usually exemplified in the pulpit. In too many cases, the sacred precincts seem to be occupied by an automaton or a statue, endowed with nothing beyond the power of a mechanical articulation.

The opposite faults of excessive, redundant, or over vehement action, and of labored or fanciful gesticulation, instead of a just and manly style of gesture, are the unavoidable results of an injudicious reaction against the effects of early neglect. Judgment and taste must discharge their salutary office here as elsewhere; and for

the discipline of these controlling faculties education ought to be held responsible. The present order of affairs devolves this duty on the individual; and when we advert to the fact that, in addresses from the pulpit, more than in any other form of speaking, every look and action has an immediate and, perhaps, an abiding effect of the deepest moral character, and of the utmost moment to the objects of the sacred office, the duty of self-culture in this branch of eloquence, becomes inexpressibly important to all who are already occupied in that sphere of professional usefulness, or who are expecting to be so.

The study of that branch of elocution which consists of the visible effects of attitude and action, is sometimes erroneously suffered to settle down into an analysis of the mere details of gesture, and the application of arbitrary rules for the motions and postures of the body. Such study, it is hardly necessary to say, is worse than none, as it leads to artificial and mechanical style. Empirical directions and manual exercise, may accidentally take a right shape, in some instances, and aid in breaking up awkward tendencies of habit. But they may also take a wrong shape, and lead to the worst results of glaring impropriety. Genuine cultivation can be built on no other foundation than that of principles; and, as regards gesture, the principles of effect, if they are just and true, must, as was mentioned before, be identical with those of all other forms of expressive art.

The leading characteristics of expression, in whatever form we contemplate it, are, in the first place, perfect truth, or correspondence to nature, as opposed to whatever is factitious. Referring to this department of the subject, the student derives the important practical lesson, that all forms of action are faulty, which are merely the various phases of national, local, or personal and constitutional habit, and do not spring from the sentiment to the utterance of which they are applied. Under this head elocution classes the superabundant shrugs and grimaces

of French and Italian custom, the absence of action or the hammering gesture which mark the Englishman, the uncouth gestures of the Scotchman, the narrow, frigid, and angular action of the New Englander, the oratorical display of our Southern and the grotesque style of our Western speakers.

The whole array of artificial faults of studied manner, falls under the same general classification of violations of truth and nature.

The second prominent principle of oratorical action, is force. Weakness, in any form of attitude or action, we may pardon to woman, but we cannot to man: his prime natural attribute is force; and to that native trait we can pardon the absence of nearly every other quality; while its opposite can only produce a feeling of indifference or contempt. The vehemence of Chalmers, and the very violence of Irving, pass with slight censure, in the judgment of even critical observers, because the energy of soul which action such as theirs bespeaks, is irresistible. It becomes, in fact, an element of indescribable power. But faults such as these can be pardoned in such men only. The habitual athletic displays in which some of our own public speakers, even in the pulpit, allow themselves, savor too much of brute force, for any deep and permanent effect on the soul.

The third requisite in the position and movements of the body, as connected with public speaking, is entire freedom, not negligence or nonchalance, not a vulgar familiarity of personal habit; all of which are so repulsive to feeling, and so inappropriate in the pulpit,-yet unfortunately too prevalent; but that exemption from constraint and embarrassment, which is inseparable from manly energy and self-possession. What a correct elocution demands, is the dignity arising from repose and serenity of manner. The posture and the motions of the body and the action of the arm, when regulated by this principle, are freed from all confining or constraining nar

rowness and littleness of effect; the attitude is easy and therefore graceful; the action, liberal and flowing in its style. Nothing is more indicative of the perfect mechanism of the human frame, than the ease with which its members combine to perform any movement or action, even the most complex and apparently difficult.

The confined mode of the student's life, subjects him to a degree of muscular feebleness incompatible with freedom of action in the body and limbs. Nor do the limited forms of mechanical exercise or manual labor, even when habitually resorted to, prove an adequate preventive. The tendency of these modes of exertion, is, from the habitual reïteration of one action, which they all imply, unfavorable to the free use of the body, with that unity and wholeness of effect which an oratorical action demands, as contrasted with the style of one which is mechanical. The recreative exercises of a student whose subsequent life is to be occupied with the business of public speaking, should be free and varied, so as to impart pliancy as well as force to the body and limbs. Active and enlivening sports have, in all ages, and in every community, been recognized as an important aid to man's physical culture. Health and animation demand these as an indispensable condition of their existence, and of no class more urgently than of the sedentary and the studious, but particularly of students of theology, who are so prone to subside into inactive and enfeebling habits, — the greatest of all obstacles to free and effective speaking. Next, in importance, as an element of oratorical effect, is the principle of adaptation, the moulding of external manner and action, in consistency with the character of the subject of address, the mode of thought, and the style of language. This department of elocution is that in which, as a man of cultivated mind and accordant habit, the preacher should be comparatively perfect. Yet his daily habits incline him more than other speakers, to be uniform and monotonous, and to relinquish his style to