speaking. When persistent it sometimes results in actual loss of the voice. This disease is caused by speaking with the vocal organs in a constrained position, or by faulty breathing. Clergymen who read their sermons are more subject to it than those who speak extemporaneously. It can be prevented by holding the head erect in speaking and breathing correctly, but when the disease has been contracted a physician should be consulted.

Coryza.

Coryza is the name applied to Chronic Nasal Catarrh. It usually results from a neglected cold in the head or from a series of those disagreeable attacks. The mucous membranes of the nasal passages become congested, and the secretions being retained, result in offensive discharges, and sometimes in impairment of the general health. Coryza affects speech by disturbing articulation, and has a tendency to develop or exaggerate nasal twang. With the other diseases of a chronic character which we are describing, its cure should be intrusted to the medical practitioner.

CHAPTER VI

GESTURE

Action in Public Speaking — Value of Gesture

·Classification Designative, Descriptive, Significant, Assertive, FigurativeAttitude of the Body, the Head, Limbs, and Facial Expression.

"HE public speaker finds one of his greatest aids

toppression in the appropriate position and

Action in
Public
Speaking.

movements of the body. A well-trained voice and a well-trained body in words, tones, inflections, and gesture should work in harmony to the general result-eloquence. The sign language is intelligible to all races, and it constitutes one of the simplest forms of expression. It is, therefore, most fitting that it should be made use of by the orator to emphasize or to reinforce his spoken words. The tendency to do this is instinctive and universal.

Definition.

Gesture is that part of effective delivery which expresses thought through the action of the body. Speech conveys ideas, impressions, and emotions audibly, being addressed to the ear, while gesture silently sets forth the workings of the mind to the eye. Therefore, the one is the complement of the other, and should be used in connection and harmony with it.

Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns,' he said!"

Illustration.

It is evident that by giving the appropriate gesture, as an accompaniment to the forcible expulsion of the voice, in uttering the above words of command, a vividness and power is added to the description which correct vocal technique alone could not give.

In like manner, if a clergyman delivers to his congregation an earnest warning or solemn appeal, it will lack one of the essential elements of effectiveness if his eyes are riveted to his manuscript, if his arms hang lifeless by his side, and if his hands are moved only to thumb the pages of his sermon. Gesture, perhaps, more than any other one thing, gives animation and force to public speaking.

Gesture.

That gesture is a valuable adjunct to eloquence may be inferred from the fact that it is based upon the natural attitudes and movements of Value of the body. Nervous conditions exhibit themselves in physical activities, and when the public speaker is deeply moved by conviction or affected by inward emotion, he instinctively employs gesture to aid him in impressing upon others what he feels. By means of it he appeals to the sight as well as to the hearing of his auditors, and thus reaps a double advantage from his efforts. It was Quintilian who attributed to the hand alone the power to invite or repel, to accept or reject, to give or withhold, to welcome or deprecate.

"O Rome! Rome! thou hast been a tender nurse to

Illustration.

me. Ay! thou hast given to that poor, gentle, timid shepherd-lad, who never knew a harsher tone than a flute-note, muscles of iron and a heart of flint; taught him to drive the sword through plaited mail and links of rugged brass, and warm it in the marrow of his foe:-to gaze into the glaring eyeballs of the fierce Numidian lion even as a boy upon a laughing girl!

Is it possible to think of Spartacus giving utterance to these words in the presence of his fellowgladiators, without a series of quick and vigorous gestures, born of the intense and tumultous emotions within ?

With reference to general application in the exGestures pression of sentiment, Gesture is classiClassified. fied as Conversational, Oratorical, and Dramatic.

Conversational.

Conversational Gesture is appropriate to the language of conversation, ordinary description, narThe ration, and unemotional discourse. attitude should be natural, and the ges tures should radiate from the elbow, and be confined chiefly to the forearm and hand.

"With regard to the art of all men, that of language, the chief vices of education have arisen from the one great fallacy of supposing that noble language Illustration. is a communicable trick of grammar and accent, instead of the careful expression of right thought. All the virtues of language are, in their roots, moral; it becomes accurate if the speaker desires to be true; clear, if he speaks with sympathy and a desire to be intelligible; powerful, if he has earnestness; pleasant, if he has sense of rhythm and order."

Oratorical Gesture is used in the expression of serious conviction, earnest appeal, and animated discourse. The attitude should be active,

Oratorical.

arms moving freely from the shoulder, the eyes flashing, and the face lighted with the glow of confidence and power.

"Mr. President, my object is peace. I will not pretend, like my honorable colleague, to describe to you the waste, the ravages, and the horrors of war.

Illustration.

I have not the same harmonious periods, nor the same musical tones; neither shall I boast of Christian charity, nor attempt to display that ingenuous glow of benevolence so decorous to the cheek of youth, which gave a vivid tint to every sentence he uttered, and was, if possible, as impressive as his eloquence. But though we possess not the same pomp of words, our hearts are not insensible to the woes of humanity. We can feel for the misery of plundered towns, the conflagration of defenceless villages, and the devastation of cultured fields. Turning from these features of general distress, we can enter the abodes of private affliction, and behold the widow weeping as she traces, in the pledges of connubial affection, the resemblance of him whom she has lost forever. We see the aged matron bending over the ashes of her son. He was her darling, for he was generous and brave, and, therefore, his spirit led him to the field in defence of his country. Hard, hard indeed, must be that heart which can be insensible to scenes like these, and bold the man who dare present to the Almighty Father a conscience crimsoned with the blood of His children."

Dramatic Gesture is the exponent of strong emo