would either awaken contempt, or be a mere matter of course; thus a man gamboling about like a quadruped, is a proper object for ridicule; but a human being, walking, "with countenance erect," is what every one expects.

But an individual, who, without being interested in his subject, indulges in frequent and violent gestures, threshing the innocent air in the most barbarous manner, tells that of himself, that his friends would shrink from telling for him. He discloses most clearly, not only a want of feeling, but a consciousness of it; how revolting in any speaker, whose theme is one of interest, whether in the legislative hall, at the bar, or in the private circle, but especially in the occupant of the sacred desk-the minister at the altar! Let him who has witnessed such a scene, (and who has not?) take warning. The language of gesticulation is farther removed from the perverting power of the hypocrite, than the invented language. of men. It requires no extraordinary share of discernment to discover whether the gestures of the speaker have a more intimate connection with the man, than the movements of the vane upon the spire. Theatrical performers present no sound objection to this statement; for it is well known that the tears which trickled down the cheeks of Garrick, or the smiles that lit up the countenance of Foote, were not fictitious ones, but the real, scalding tears of grief, and the heart-born expressions of joy. This is the acknowledgment of almost every actor of the first class, and indeed it was remarked of one, that "he never was natural except when he acted." Let us, then, preserve natural language as its Architect gave it, that the ceremonious and sincere may not be blended in an inseparable unity.

The ancient Romans employed gesticulation to a far greater extent than we do now. They even separated speaking

and acting; and while one individual pronounced the senti ment, another made the appropriate gestures; an arrangement which seems very strange to us, but it is not so strange perhaps, as a feat which it was reserved for us moderns to perform; viz: for one individual to carry on both parts, without any obvious connection; learn to pronounce the piece first; second, the gestures; and third, so ingeniously to combine them, that an acute observer could at least determine, that it was one sentiment or another of several consecutive ones, which the particular gesture was designed to enforce.

It is recorded that Cicero, the great Roman orator, contended with Roscius, the actor, which should express a thought in the greater number of ways, the former in artificial, spoken language, or the latter in gesticulation. This shows, in a strong light, the great skill which was attained in the latter species of language.

Plays, performed without spoken language, but simply looked and acted, are called Pantomimes, compounded of two Greek words, meaning, "imitating every thing." Some individuals can convulse an audience with laughter one moment, and melt them to tears the next, without employing an audible word, but merely looks and gestures. But the days when fingers talked, and muscles moved eloquently, are almost gone by. Artificial methods of communication are making sad inroads upon the peculiar province of natural language. Inventions are multiplied almost daily, that supersede the necessity for its use, although they can never attain its elegance or power. The demonstrative or pointing pronouns furnish an apposite illustration:-Suppose you are directing the attention of a child to some objects in nature; perhaps a beautiful plain, stretching away almost to the horizon's verge, and a mountain looming up in the distance beyond. Pointing to

the former, you might say, "plain;" to the latter, and say, "mountain;" the child would understand you. Again, you might suffer your arm to hang motionless by your side, and say, "this is the plain; that is the mountain;" and you would be understood equally well, for the demonstrative supplies the place of a gesture.

No one ever mistakes a gesture which is prompted by nature; no Joseph is demanded to interpret its meaning; when a man wrings his hands convulsively, you know that he is in distress; when he claps them and dances, he says to you, as plainly as he can, "rejoice with me, for I am happy." Who needs a commentator to inform him that this man is surprised, and perhaps a little alarmed, at something, which he does not deign to tell us?

Who doubts that Shakspeare's Horatio threw himself into a similar attitude, when spying the approaching ghost before Hamlet, he cries out, "Look, my lord, it comes!" Perhaps some one, when reading, in these pages, of the proceedings of those famous dairy folks, the ants, milking their kine, and folding their herds, may, dropping the book, lift his hands, as does this worthy, and in an ecstasy of surprise and appre

J

hension, exclaim, "bless me! can this be true? Is the author sane?" It would not be strange if some person should actually be affected thus, but I hope that you will not, reader. Here comes another character:

I need not tell you that a strong feeling of aversion is indicated by the stretched out arms and averted head. It may possibly be, though I do not assert it, that this man, believing in the intelligence of animals, and in an intelligible language among them, has been listening to a tirade of ridicule against the views here expressed. Just at this fortunate moment, his patience becoming exhausted, he, with this expressive gesture, exclaims, “away with such contracted notions! Away with them!"

So great power did the ancients attain over their auditors by means of this language, when combined with artificial methods of communication, that a law was passed, forbiddingthe Roman Senators to employ it in their orations.

The proper use of gesture, sometimes produces wonderful effects. It is said that Curran, when pronouncing his eloquent speech relative to those who acted as informers to a tyrannical government, after portraying their character in all

its dark and hideous lines; representing them as disinterred from a moral grave-wrapped in the garments of corruptiontheir hearts festered and dissolved within them, appearing in the Court-room as witnesses; after he had sketched all this, with a fearful minuteness, Curran suddenly stopped. His eyes starting from their sockets, were fixed by some hidden fascination upon the opposite door; his trembling finger pointed thither, as though the very image he had just portrayed, stood before him; in a voice low and sepulchral, as if terror had disembodied it, inquired, "have you not seen when he entered, how the multitude retired at his approach? How the human mind bowed to the supremacy of his power, in the undissembled homage' of deferential horror?" The words were nothing, but the manner, the look, the gesture were every thing, and the vast concourse, already wrought up to the highest pitch, turned as one man, with a convulsive shudder, toward the door.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Deaf and Dumb-Their manual Alphabet-Mr. Gallaudet-The countenance-Passion-dialing-Connection of mind with body-Description of the Dial-The sixth sense-The facial muscles-Their names.

Having concluded what I proposed to say, of the language of gesticulation, I can only recommend it to you as worthy a far more thorough investigation, than I can even assist you to make, much less institute altogether.

In turning from this to another species of natural language,