(2) First and Second Positions.

a. Change from the First Right to the Second Right. Return to the First Right. Repeat several times. Keep the body erect.

b. Change from the First Left to the Second Left. Return to the First Left. Repeat several times.

(3) Second Position.

Move forward alternately from the Second Right to the Second Left in several short steps, as in ordinary walking. Halt after each step, with the weight on the forward foot. About face and retrace the steps.

(4) First Position Right and First Attitude Right.

Change from the First Position Right to the First Attitude Right. Return to the First Position Right. Repeat several times.

(5) First Position Left and First Attitude Left.

Change from the First Position Left to the First Attitude Left. Return to the First Position Left. Repeat several times. (6) First Attitude.

Move forward several steps, alternating between the First Attitude Right and the First Attitude Left. Move backward, retracing the steps.

Selections illustrating Action.

NOTE. We have chosen two selections for practice, the first oratorical, the second dramatic in character. It is believed that in the two there is opportunity for the application of all the principles of action.

NATIONAL MORALITY

HENRY WARD BEECHER

The crisis has come. By the people of this generation, by ourselves, probably, the amazing question is to be decided: whether the inheritance of our fathers shall be preserved or thrown away;

whether our Sabbaths shall be a delight or a loathing; whether the taverns, on that holy day, shall be crowded with drunkards, or the sanctuary of God with humble worshipers; whether riot and profaneness shall fill our streets, and poverty our dwellings, and convicts our jails, and violence our land; or whether industry and temperance and righteousness shall be the stability of our times; whether mild laws shall receive the cheerful submission of freemen, or the iron rod of a tyrant compel the trembling homage of slaves.

Be not deceived. Our rocks and hills will remain till the last conflagration. But let the Sabbath be profaned with impunity, the worship of God be abandoned, the government and religious instruction of children be neglected, and the streams of intemperance be permitted to flow, and her glory will depart. The wall of fire will no longer surround her, and the munition of rocks will no longer be her defense. The hand that overturns our laws and temples is the hand of death, unbarring the gate of pandemonium, and letting loose upon our land the crimes and miseries of hell.

If the Most High should stand aloof, and cast not a single ingredient into our cup of trembling, it would seem to be full of superlative woe. But he will not stand aloof. As we shall have begun an open controversy with him, he will contend openly with us. And never, since the earth stood, has it been so fearful a thing for nations to fall into the hands of the living God.

The day of vengeance is at hand. The day of judgment has come. The great earthquake which sinks Babylon is shaking the nations, and the waves of the mighty commotion are dashing upon every shore. Is this, then, a time to remove the foundations, when the earth itself is shaken? Is this a time to forfeit the protection of God, when the hearts of men are failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are to come upon the earth? Is this a time to run upon his neck and the thick bosses of his buckler, when the nations are drinking blood, and fainting, and passing away in his wrath?

Is this a time to throw away the shield of faith, when his arrows are drunk with the blood of the slain? to cut from the anchor of hope, when the clouds are collecting, and the sea and the waves are roaring, and thunders are uttering their voices, and lightnings

blazing in the heavens, and the great hail is falling from heaven upon men, and every mountain, sea, and island is fleeing in dismay from the face of an incensed God?

HAMLET'S SELF-REPROACH

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Now I am alone.

O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That from her working all his visage wann'd,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,

A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
For Hecuba!

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,

That he should weep for her? What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,

Make mad the guilty and appal the free,
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears.
Yet I,

A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing; no, not for a king,
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?

Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat,
As deep as to the lungs? who does me this?

Ha!

'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall

To make oppression bitter, or ere this

I should have fatted all the region kites

With this slave's offal. Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! O, vengeance!

This is most brave,

That I, the son of a dear father murder'd,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must, like a trull, unpack my heart with words,
And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,

A scullion!

Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! I have heard
That guilty creatures sitting at a play

Have by the very cunning of the scene

Been struck so to the soul that presently

They have proclaim'd their malefactions;

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;

I'll tent him to the quick if he but blench,

I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
More relative than this: the play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

PART III

THE SPEECH

Having studied the speaker as to his Triune Nature, his Vocal Organism, Pronunciation and Emphasis of language, and his delivery by means of the elements of vocal and actional expression, it now becomes necessary to study the speech in which he brings his message to the audience. True, he may gain much power in the use of his voice, much grace and freedom in gesture, and a clear knowledge of the philosophy of expression, and he may instruct, entertain, and even inspire his hearers by a faithful interpretation of the various illustrative selections contained in Parts I, II, and III. But the larger use of the power gained by a mastery of the foregoing principles lies in their application to that form of public speaking in which the speaker conveys his own ideas to the audience with a view to instruction, conviction, and persuasion.

We shall treat this subject under three divisions as follows: (1) the occasion of the speech and the audience who hear it, (2) the kind of speech to make and the subject or proposition to be discussed, and (3) the plan of the speech and its essential qualities.

CHAPTER I

THE OCCASION AND THE AUDIENCE

An intending speaker should first consider the occasion and object of his speech and the audience he is to address. His