“In midst of danger, fear, and death, Thy goodness we adore; We'll praise thee for thy mercies past, The Bible suited to the Wants of Mankind. - Steele. 1. "Father of Mercies, in thy word What endless glory shines! Forever be thy name adored 2. "Here may the wretched sons of want Riches, above what earth can grant, 3. "Here springs of consolation rise, 4. "Here the Redeemer's welcome voice Attend the blissful sound! 5. "Oh! may these heavenly pages be 6. "Divine Instructor, gracious Lord, Teach me to love thy sacred word, And view my Saviour there!" 345 PRINCIPLES OF GESTURE. MAN, as a communicative and expressive being, naturally imparts his states of thought and feeling by visible as well as audible language. His corporeal organization is adapted to this, among the other ends of his constitution. All vivid and powerful emotions of the human breast, become legible, and are transmitted, by their ef fects on the features of the countenance, the attitude of the body, and the actions of the arm and hand. This fact is universally exhibited in the unconscious habits of childhood, and, with no less certainty, in those of manhood, when under the influence of earnest feeling. We read each other's inmost hearts in a glance of the eye, a quiver of the features, a change of hue in the countenance, a posture or a movement of the body, or a wave of the hand, more surely than in any tone or expression of the voice. It is but a superficial and narrow philosophy which leads to the neglect of that ordination of Divine wisdom, by which the law of language is written on man's exterior frame, as distinctly as on his organs of speech; and few among the numerous deficiencies of existing modes of education, are greater, or more unfavorable to the free and full development of the human being, than the general omission of such culture and training as might yield to every youth, and especially to those who are destined to the sacred profession, the unspeakable advantages resulting from a perfect command over all those natural and appropriate aids to expressive utterance, which arise from the cultivation of the eloquence of action. Man expresses himself most naturally and most effec 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 suppress 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 |