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LESSON XX

For convenience we shall study the Feet Attitudes in three sections. Those attitudes in which the weight of the body is on both feet, those in which the weight is on the rear foot, and those in which the weight is on the front foot-it makes no difference whether the right or left foot be forward.

Weight on Both Feet:

1. Heels together, expresses Deference.

2. Far apart, weight on heels, Swaggering. 3. Far apart, weight on balls, Stedfastness.

4. One advanced, Hesitation.

Weight on Back Foot:

5. Front leg relaxed, Repose.

6. Front leg braced, Antagonism.

7. Front leg straight and strong leg bent, Recoil.

Weight on Front Foot:

8. Free leg relaxed, Animation.

9. Strong leg bent, Explosion.

10. Transition.

1. Deference. In the attitude of Deference, you defer to somebody else; you hold your own plans or wishes in check and allow the other person to have his way. Deference is the typical attitude of a servant:

Did you call me, Sir?

or, of one yielding himself to another's direction:

I am ready, Sir, to follow you.

or, of a man giving up his own rights to his guest:

You are welcome to my house.

Will you take a chair?

2. Swaggering. This attitude shows reckless indifference or easy-going, rather insolent carelessness:

Oh, yes I'll do it if you want me to.

I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it. They offered him a crown, yet 'twas not a crown neither, 'twas one of these coronets.

3. Stedfastness. This attitude shows that one is resolutely upholding an important truth, or a great cause. It indicates established strength, and firm foundations. The fact that a statement is true does not call for "stedfastness," it demands a certain grandeur of moral earnestness.

Three millions of people armed in the holy cause of liberty, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.

O comrades, warriors, Thracians, if we must fight, let us fight for ourselves.

Jehovah that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.

4. Hesitation. In this attitude the mind is drawn two ways at once, and cannot quite decide which to take; whether it is wise to go forward, or, safer to go back.

Listen, is that the enemy, shall we go this way or this? Well I don't know what to say.

1. Study the following selection till you understand it thoroughly.

2. Mark any cases of Deference, Swaggering, Stedfastness, or Hesitation in it.

CRIME ITS OWN DETECTOR

Against the prisoner at the bar, as an individual, I cannot have the slightest prejudice. I would not do him the smallest injury or injustice. But I do not affect to be indifferent to the discovery and the punishment of this deep guilt. An aged man, without an enemy in the world, in his own house, and in his own bed, is made the victim of a butcherly murder, for mere pay. The circumstances now clearly in evidence spread out the whole scene before us. Deep sleep had fallen on the destined victim, and on all beneath his roof. A healthful old man, to whom sleep was sweet-the first sound slumbers of the night held him in their soft but strong embrace.

The assassin enters through the window, already prepared, into an unoccupied apartment; with noiseless foot he paces the lonely hall, half lighted by the moon; he

winds up the ascent of the stairs, and reaches the door of the chamber. Of this he moves the lock, by soft and continued pressure, till it turns on its hinges; and he enters and beholds his victim before him. The room was uncommonly light. The face of the innocent sleeper was turned from the murderer; and the beams of the moon resting on the gray locks of his aged temple showed him where to strike. The fatal blow is given, and the victim passes, without a struggle or a motion, from the repose of sleep to the repose of death! It is the assassin's purpose to make sure work; and he yet plies the dagger, though it was obvious that life had been destroyed by the blow of the bludgeon. He even raises the aged arm, that he may not fail in his aim at the heart, and replaces it again over the wounds of the poniard! To finish the picture, he explores the wrist for the pulse! he feels it, and ascertains that it beats no longer! It is accomplished! The deed is done! He retreats-retraces his steps to the window, passes through as he came in, and escapes. He has done the murder; no eye has seen him, no ear has heard him; the secret is his own, and he is safe!

Ah! gentlemen, that was a dreadful mistake. Such a secret can be safe nowhere. The whole creation of God has neither nook nor corner, where the guilty can bestow it and say it is safe. A thousand eyes turn at once to explore every man, every thing, every circumstance, connected with the time and place; a thousand ears catch every whisper; a thousand excited minds intently dwell on the scene; shedding all their light, and ready to kindle the slightest circumstance into the blaze of discovery. Meantime the guilty soul cannot keep its own secret. It is false to itself-or rather it feels an irrestible impulse of conscience to be true to itself-it labors under its guilty possession and knows not what to do with it. He feels it beating at his heart, rising to his throat, and demanding disclosure. He thinks the whole world sees it in his face, reads it in his eyes, and almost hears its workings in the very silence of his thoughts. It has become his master;it betrays his discretion; it breaks down his courage; it conquers his prudence. When suspicions, from without, begin to embarass him, and the net of circumstances to entangle him, the fatal secret struggles with still greater violence to burst forth. It must be confessed, it will be confessed; there is no refuge from confession but in suicide, and suicide is confession. -Daniel Webster.

EXERCISES

Describe exercises 16-17 as clearly and vividly as you would if giving them for the first time to a class of your own. Then lead the class in practising them correctly.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Does a speaker always stand in a typical Feet Attitude? Are these types ever modified?

2. Does it matter which foot is forward in "Repose"? In "Animation?"

3. Which is more important, the position of the feet or the attitude of the whole body?

4. Form a mental picture of Deference, Swaggering, Steadfastness, etc. Do not think "feet apart" but think "swagger."

LESSON XXI

5. Repose. In this attitude one's mind is restful and comfortable, in perfect control of itself and of its surroundings. This is the normal condition; the mind is at ease, not stirred by any great thought or strong feeling. In conversation and generally in addresses, more than half the utterances will be in Repose.

But now, in this Valley of Humiliation, poor Christian was hard put to it: for he had gone but a little way before he espied a foul fiend coming over the field to meet him: his name is Apollyon.

John Maynard was well-known in the lake district as a God-fearing, honest, and intelligent pilot. He was pilot on a steamboat from Detroit to Buffalo.

He has done the murder; no eye has seen him, no ear has head him, the secret is his own, and he is safe.

My early life ran quiet as the brooks by which I sported, and when at noon I gathered the sheep beneath the shade, and played upon the shepherd's flute, there was a friend, and the son of a neighbor, to join me in the pastime.

6. Antagonism. By this we do not mean pugnacity. Antagonism is not a desire to fight, but a bracing one's-self against something unpleasant or inferior, together with a strong sense of one's own worth or even one's superiority. In this attitude one draws himself back, or draws himself up, in Dignity, in Authority, in Pride, in Scorn, or in Defiance. These of course express different degrees of antagonism. Douglas takes an extreme form of this attitude when he refuses to shake hands with Marmion.

My manors, halls and bowers shall still
Be open at my sovereign's will,

To each one whom he lists, howe'er
Unmeet to be the owner's peer.

The Praetor drew back, as I were pollution, and sternly said, “Let the carrion rot, there are no noble men but Romans."

Simpson, go below and see what the matter is down

there.

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