GESTURE FOR READING.

6. Stand erect (yet not perpendicular) but inclining to the right, the weight of the body resting on the right leg, with the left a little in advance of it.

7. Hold the book or paper in the left hand.

8. Look at those who are hearing as often as possible: but do not loose the place, or forget the words.

9. Elevate the right hand when any thing sublime or heavenly is expressed, but let it be in time and keeping with the expression of the subject.

10. Let the right hand (the fingers being a little bent) point downwards, when any thing low or grovelling is expressed.

GESTURE FOR SPEAKING.

11. Begin as in reading, observing the same position of the body, letting the arms hang in their natural place by the side.

12. Immediately after the first word has been spoken, let the right arm be held out, the palm open, the fingers straight and close, the thumb almost as distant from them as possible, and the flat of the hand in an oblique position; but until the student shall arrive at the complete discussion of a subject, no particular gesture need be used.

13. When one sentence has been pronounced in this position, observe, in uttering the last word, to let the right hand fall suddenly to the side.

14. At the beginning of the second sentence, the body, without moving the feet, must poise itself on the left leg: the left hand must be raised as the right one was before, and continue in this position till the end of the sentence, and then drop to the side as lifeless.

15. At the third sentence, the body and hands to be as they were during the first, and so on alternately during the whole speech.

16. In every movement of the arm, keep the elbow at an easy distance from the body.

17. Let the eyes be directed to those who are addressed, excepting when the subject requires them to be raised.

18. Endeavour to enter into the sense and spirit of every passage, i. e. endeavour to feel what is expressed. This is the best guide to Emphasis, Tone, and Gesture.

19. Interrogation requires a longer pause than a period; because an answer is either returned or implied, therefore a proper interval of silence is necessary. See Gram. v. 121.

Ex. To purchase health, has gold the pow'r?
Can gold remove the mortal hour?
In life, can love be bought with gold?
Are friendship's pleasures to be sold?
No! all that's worth a wish or thought
Fair virtue gives unbrib'd, unbought.

20. In the parenthesis, lower the voice, and proceed more quickly after the parenthesis is concluded, assume the same elevation with which you began.

See Grammar, ver. 122.

Ex. Life in general (for exceptions are extremely few) is thrown away in sloth and trifling.

21. An exclamation requires an elevation of voice, and such a pause, as may seem to give room for a momentary reflection.

Ex. Fathers! Senators of Rome! the arbiters of nations! to you I fly for refuge.

22. The dash requires a pause somewhat less than a period. The pause should come upon the hearer unex

pectedly; and therefore there should be no preparatory inflection of the voice.

Ex. Here lies the great-false marble, where?
Nothing but sordid dust lies here.

To be or not to be?-that is the question.

Before we proceed to give other rules, it is necessary to observe, in order to understand a subject clearly, and recollect it faithfully, the powers of discrimination and retention are indispensably necessary.

The discrimination here required is the faculty of distinguishing the principal features of a narrative, description, or argument; so as to collect them in the mind independently of its subordinate parts.

Retention is the power of holding them in the mind after they have been thus discriminated.

We have no ideas but of persons, objects, and actions; and all we can do is to relate, describe, and reason upon them.

The faculties therefore of discrimination and retention can be employed only on narratives, descriptions, and arguments.

OF NARRATIVE.

RULE 1. Narrative is an account of events and of the persons or objects concerned in them.

2. The principal features of a narrative are expressed by nouns and verbs.-See Grammar, ver. 106.

3. Narrative includes detached events, biography, and history.

4. Detached events are single circumstances, generally preserved on account of some particular instruction or amusement which they convey, such are fables, anecdotes, &c.

5. When the principal nouns and verbs of a fable, &c. &c. are collected together, they contain its real

substance.

THE FABLE OF THE DOG AND THE SHADOW.

'A dog, crossing a little rivulet with a piece of flesh in his mouth, saw his own shadow represented in the water, and believing it to be another dog, who was carrying another piece

of flesh, he could not forbear catching at it; and was so far from getting any thing by his greedy design, that he dropped the piece he had in his mouth, which immediately sunk to the bottom, and was irrecoverably lost."

In this fable the principal nouns are-dog, flesh, shadow, water. The principal verbs are-saw, believing, catching, dropped, lost. These nouns and verbs collected together, represent, with very little assistance, the substance of the fable, thus-A dog with flesh saw his shadow in the water; believing it to be another dog, with another piece of flesh, catching at it, dropped the flesh and lost it.

6. Detached events are sometimes used to inculcate a moral principle; or opinion to which the fable or anecdote evidently leads.

Ex. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke x. 30. The moral principle inculcated is-"Go and do thou likewise."

7. Detached events are sometimes employed to illustrate the truth, or as examples of the efficacy of an opinion or principle previously stated.

Ex. One idea which is familiar to the mind, connected with others which are new and strange, will bring those new ideas into easy remembrance. Maronides had the first hundred lines of Virgil's Eneid printed upon his memory so perfectly, that he knew not only the order and number of every word, but each verse also; and by this means he would undertake to remember two or three hundred names of persons or things, by some rational or fantastic connection between some word in the verse, and some letter, syllable, property, or accident of the name or thing to be remembered; even though they had been repeated but once or twice in his hearing.

8. Detached events sometimes convey in themselves a principle or admonition; so that the object requires neither previous or subsequent explanation.

Ex. A falconer, having taken a partridge in his net, the bird begged hard for a reprieve, and promised the man, if he would let him go, to decoy other partridges into his net. "No," replied the falconer, "I was before determined not to spare you, but now you have condemned yourself by your own words; for he who is such a scoundrel as to offer to betray his friends to save himself, deserves, if possible, worse than death." In this example the principle is distinguished by italics.

9. Biography is a successive account of the events which have affected or distinguished particular individuals.

In every biographical narrative there are some peculiar circumstances, by which the person's life has been rendered remarkable. The business of the student will be to observe them, and to acquire the habit of discriminating them.

10. In biography, observe the particular qualities for which the person is admired or esteemed; and observe the instances which are given of those qualities.

In the following example, these characteristics are pointed out, by being printed in italics.

Hacho, a king of Lapland, was in his youth the most renowned of the northern warriors. His martial achievements remain engraved on a pillar of flint, and are to this day, solemnly carolled to the harp of the Laplanders, at the fires with which they celebrate their nightly festivities. Nor was he less celebrated for his prudence and wisdom, than his valour; and above all, his temperance and severity of manners were his chief praise. In his early years he never tasted wine. He constantly slept in his armour, with his spear in his hand; nor would he use a battle-axe whose handle was inlaid with brass. He did not, however, persevere in this contempt of luxury; nor did he close his days with honour. One day, after hunting the gulos, or wild hog, being bewildered in a solitary forest, and having passed the fatigues without any interval or refreshment, he discovered a store of honey in the hollow of a pine-tree; this was a dainty which he had never tasted; and being both faint and hungry, he fed greedily upon it. From this unusual and delicious repast he received so much satisfaction, that at his return home, he commanded honey to be served up at his table every day. His palate by degrees became refined and vitiated; he began to lose his native relish for simple fare, and contracted a habit of indulging himself in delicacies; he ordered the delightful gardens of his palace to be thrown open, (in which the most luscious fruits had been suffered to ripen and decay, unobserved and untouched, for many revolving autumns,) and gratified his appetite with luxurious desserts. At length he found it expedient to introduce wine as an agreeable improvement, or a necessary ingredient to his new way of living; and having once tasted it, he was tempted by little and little to give loose to the excesses of intoxication. His general simplicity of life was changed; he perfumed his apartments, and commanded his helmet to be ornamented with beautiful rows of the teeth of the rein-deer. Indolence and effiminacy stole upon him by imperceptible degrees, relaxed the sinews of his resolution, and extinguished his thirst of military glory. While Hacho was thus immersed in pleasure, the king of Norway invaded

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