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 practise; that it is a pure result of unconscious impulse, and beyond the reach 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 practise 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 skilful 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.

Some practical hints may here be offered to the student which he will do well to follow in this branch of his study:

1. A speaker should cultivate manly grace of movement at all times.

2. The hands when not in use should be dropt at the sides.

3. The student may practise at home, but never before an audience.

4. The knees should be kept straight.

5. It is objectionable to slap the hands audibly together. 6. Gestures, if too frequent, lose force.

7. The hands should not be rested on the hips, nor placed in the pockets.

8. To rise on the toes is likely to have a ludicrous effect. 9. The proper gesture and action are largely determined by the subject and occasion.

10. All stiffness should be avoided.

11. When the arms move in curves they give the impression of ease and grace.

12. The feet must be kept firmly on the floor.

13. It is well not to use the index hand too much--this is, the hand with forefinger extended. Audiences do not like to be admonished.

14. The head and body should be moved together.

15. When the chest is held high and full, it gives manliness to the speaker's attitude.

16. The walk to the platform should be reasonably slow and dignified.

17. It is not necessary to bow, except to acknowledge unusual recognition from the audience.

18. If the chin is elevated it may give an unfavorable impression of pride or arrogance.

19. When two gestures are made in quick succession, one should, if possible, glide into the other.

20. Both arms are used for intensity, breadth, appeal, or unusual energy.

21. A change of standing position should not be made during a pause, but while speaking.

22. The manner of the speaker will best recommend itself to an audience by being modest and natural.

23. A speaker should never lean or lounge while on the platform.

24. Looking down suggests lapse of memory or shyness. 25. If a bow is used, it should be a slight bending from the waist, not from the head.

IX

ANALYSIS OF WEBSTER'S REPLY TO HAYNE

Daniel Webster, the greatest of American orators, has been described as a handsome man, of dark complexion, with large head, deeply sunken black eyes, and a stern but agreeable countenance. He was at once lawyer, advocate, debater, and orator. Carlyle called him a "Parliamentary Hercules," a great "logical fencer." His magnificence of style and argumentative force, combined with unusual dignity of manner, made him an irresistible opponent in speech or debate.

In his Reply to Hayne he had only a single night for his immediate preparation, but he afterward acknowledged that the notes for his speech had been made months before, and that Hayne could not better have fitted his address to these notes had he purposely tried. Webster subsequently said of this occasion: "I felt as if everything I had ever seen or read or heard was floating before me in one grand panorama, and I had little else to do than to reach up and cull a thunderbolt and hurl it at him."

As already suggested in this book, the student will find it profitable to study some of the great masterpieces of oratory, and we have selected for analysis the Reply to Hayne because it is regarded as Webster's most notable speech, and the greatest in American history. The speech

was made on January 26, 1830, and the occasion for its delivery was somewhat unexpected:

A resolution had been introduced by Senator Samuel Augustus Foot, of Connecticut, merely ordering an inquiry into the expediency of throwing restrictions around future sales of public lands of the United States. Into the discussion of this resolution, which lasted five months, was brought a large number of partizan pleas, tariff arguments, local jealousies, and questions of the right and wrong of slavery, and of the respective powers of the State and national governments. Recriminations, and even personalities were not infrequent; and some of the Southern speakers did not refrain, in defense of the new "nullification" doctrine, from criticism of New England Federalism as having been essentially selfish, derisive, and unpatriotic. Senator Robert Hayne (1791-1840), of South Carolina, who had been a member of the Senate since 1823, was conspicuous, in this debate, for his advocacy of the idea that a State might suspend Federal laws at its discretion; and his assertions to that effect, combined with sharp criticisms of Massachusetts, led Mr. Webster to make his famous reply. Mr. Hayne was subsequently Governor of South Carolina, at the time of the almost armed collision between that State and President Jackson, in 1832, over the nullification of tariff laws. At one time Governor Hayne actually issued a proclamation of resistance to the authority of the general government; but subsequently Congress modified the objectionable tariff provisions and the State repealed its nullification ordinance, which President Jackson's firmness had certainly made "null, void, and no law.'1

Everett tells of having seen Webster the night before apparently free in spirit and unconcerned, but "the next morning he was like some mighty admiral, dark and terrible; casting the long line of his frowning tiers far over the sea that seemed to sink beneath him," and "bearing down

1 From "Daniel Webster for Young Americans," published by Little, Brown & Company, Boston, by whose kind permission these extracts are reprinted.