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BOSTON SCHOOL-BOOK DEPOSITORY, 
 
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 that classes taught from this se 
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 Re commendations of the above Works from Individuals and . 
 
 From William Russell, Teacher of Elocution, 
 
 Feb. 5, 1838. 
 
 In a letter recently received by the Publishers, Mr. Russell remarks, — K Tt gives me great 
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 " Young Ladies' Class Book," and " First Lessons in Jllgebra." 
 
 (t I have used Worcester's seiies of Reading Books in my school ever since they were pub- 
 lished, and regard thorn as among the most valuable works of the kind with which I am ao- 
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 From Rev. James TV. Poland, Teacher of Youth. 
 
 11 Having made use of Worcester's Third and Fourth Books of Lessons for Reading, &c. 
 in my school for some time past, I feel that I can recommend them wiih perfect confidence, 
 as being superior to any that 1 have ever used, for forming correct habits in reading- At the 
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2 BOSTON SCHOOL-BOOK DEPOSITORY. 
 
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 preference." 
 
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 (Principal Mclntgre Free School,) Zanesville, Ohio. 
 
 11 We have examined Worcester's Reading Books, and think them the most useful reading 
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 early examination." 
 
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 " Worcester's Fourth Book is truly deserving of notice. The subjects and arrangements are 
 indeed excellent. His rules at the head of each chapter, and his exposition of errors, together 
 with his list of phrases, &c. all combine to render the book such an one as is needed in our 
 schools. 
 
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 dering those usually ' dry subjects ' interesting to children ; and to them it is sufficient to say, 
 that the Second Book has the same simple and attractive character as the First. 
 
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 improvement of education in its early stages, as Worcester's Primer. We are glad to see a 
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 of the intellectual and moral effect of the lessons, prevail in the present work. This hook 
 possesses peculiar excellence in regard to instruction in the art of reading." — Education 
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 schools, instead of a meie exercise. 
 
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 I. PARLEY'S ARITHMETIC 5 with numerous Engravings. 
 
 From the Principal of the Young Ladies' 1 Seminary, Exeter, JV. H. 
 11 I am sorry I have not had the benefit of ' Parley's Arithmetic * in years past. I have 
 never seen any thing hearing the name of Arithmetic half so attractive. Children will have 
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 From L. JV. Dag get, JVareham, Mass. 
 
 " Having carefully examined c Parley's Method of Teaching Arithmetic to children,' lean 
 most cheerfully recommend it to parents and teachers." 
 
BOSTON SCHOOL-BOOK DEPOSITORY. 6 
 
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 on the smallest capacity."— Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post. 
 
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 IL PARLEY'S BOOK OF THE UNITED STATES, Geographical, Political, and Histor- 
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 and executed in the best manner, expressly for this work, and Light Maps from new steel 
 
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 t' ' almost any other similar work. We refer to the continual comparisons made between 
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 t ,art of the book. It is well fitted for the school-room or juvenile library." — 
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 lie First Book of History, for which purpose it was designed by the author." — Annals of 
 I •ucation. 
 - One of his (Parle) 's) most successful efforts." — Family Magazine. 
 
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 ; I' '; a nutshell of Knowledge, and ought to be immediately and universally introduced 
 »i o fconools." — Exeter News Letter. 
 
 • One of the most useful Books, whether for instruction or amusement, we have seen for a 
 D g time, and well calculated to fiil a vacuum in the smaller works, relating to this country, 
 v jh has long existed." — Brooklyn, (N. Y.) Advocate. 
 
 f . is a eornpend of valuable instruction." — Philadelphia Saturday News, 
 
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 III. THE FIRST TOOK OF HISTORY, OR HISTORY ON THE BASIS OF GEOG- 
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 often acquired by spending three year3 in the senseless operation of committing to memory 
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 IV. THE SECOND BOOK OF HISTORY ; (comprehending the Countries of the Eastern 
 Hemisphere,) with many Engravings, and sixteen Maps, from steel plates, of the different 
 countries. 
 
 " Those who have used the c First Book of History, 5 will need no persuasion to use this 
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 V. THE THIRD BOOK OF HISTORY; by the same author and on the same plan; 
 comprehending Ancient History in connexion with Ancient Geography; with Maps and 
 Engravings. 
 
 11 This is an excellent work. It contains an admirable synopsis of the rise, progress, 
 and downfall of the Roman Empire, and is written in a familiar style, which, in connexion 
 with the many remaikable incidents which it embodies, must make it particularly interesting 
 to children." — Mercantile Journal. 
 
 From the Principal of the High School Woodstock, Vt. 
 c< I must say, that if any work upon History, of the same extent, is deserving public ap- 
 probation for its real merits, it is the ' First, Second, and Third Books of History,' by Peter 
 Parley." 
 
4 BOSTON SCHOOL-BOOK DEPOSITORY. 
 
 SULLIVAN'S CLASS BOOKS FOR SCHOOLS. 
 
 I. THE POLITICAL CLASS BOOK, designed to instruct the Higher Classes in School* 
 in the Origin, Nature, and Use of Political Power. By William Sullivan, LL. D. 
 
 " The lihrary of no citizen is complete where this work is wanting ; and if the shelf contains 
 no more than a Bible and an Almanac, the householder should not attend a town-meeting un- 
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 William Sullivan, LL. D. 
 
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 III. THE HISTORICAL CLASS BOOK ; containing Sketches of History from the begin- 
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 " It is written in a chaste and clear style and contains much valuable information. We are 
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 ty." — Hartford Independent Press. 
 
 11 This work is the most satisfactory Manual of History we have ever met with, and as 
 •uch we recommend it to our readers." — New York Mirror. 
 
 GRUND'S MATHEMATICAL COURSE. 
 
 I. AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON GEOMETRY, simplified for Beginners not 
 versed in Algebra. Part I. containing Plane Geometry, with its Application to the Solution 
 of Problems. By F. J. Grund. 
 
 II. AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON GEOMETRY, simplified for Beginnors not 
 versed in Algebra. Part IE. containing Solid Geometry, with its Application to the Solu- 
 tion of Problems. By F. J. Grund. 
 
 At a meeting of the School Committee of the city of Boston, Mr. Grujnd*s Geometry was 
 recommended as a suitable book to be used in the Public Schools. 
 
 III. ELEMENTS OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, with Questions for Review, illustrated 
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 IV. ELEMENTS OF CHEMISTRY; with Practical Exercises j for Schools. By F. J. 
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 V. POPULAR ASTRONOxMY, on a new Plan ; in which some of the leading Principles of 
 the Science are illustrated by actual Comparisons, Independent of the use of Numbers. 
 
 VI. EXERCISES IN ARITHMETIC, for Schools 3 with a Key for the use of the Teacher. 
 
 VII. EXERCISES IN ALGEBRA, for Schools ; with a Key for the use of the Teacher. 
 
 RUSSELL'S LESSONS IN ENUNCIATION. New Edition, 
 
 RUSSELL'S GESTURE. New Edition, improved. 
 
 THE CHILD'S BOTANY; with Copperplate Engravings. 9th Edition. 
 
 HOLBROOK'S GEOMETRY. Easy Lessons in Geometry, intended for Infant and Pri- 
 mary Schools, but useful in Academies, Lyceums, and Families. By Josiah Holbrook. 
 Tenth Edition. 
 
 ABBOTT'S LITTLE PHILOSOPHER. An invaluable work for Primary Schools. 
 
 THE GEOGRAPHICAL COPY-BOOK; consisting of Outline and Skeleton Maps, adapt- 
 ed to the use of Schools, with an Introduction, explaining the Nature and Use of Maps, in 
 the most familiar manner. By Wm. C. Woodbridge. 
 
 WALSH'S ARITHMETIC. The Mercantile Arithmetic ; adapted to the Commerce of 
 the United States in its domestic and foreign Relations ; with an Appendix, containing prac- 
 tical Systems of Mensuration, Guaging, and a new and improved System of Book-Keeping. 
 A new Edition, revised and enlarged. By Michael Walsh, A. M. 
 
 . NOYES'S SYSTEM OF PENMANSHIP, Containing Instructions for Writing, with two 
 lets of Copies in Large and Small hand. 
 
 In addition to the above, G. W. Palmer & Co. have constantly on hand a supply of School, 
 Classical, Music and Miscellaneous Books and Stationery, which they will sell on the most 
 reasonable terms. 
 
 Boston, Feb. 1838. 
 
<3M-^> +7?^ ^^- **=W ^f^, 
 
 RUDIMENTS 
 
 /^ GESTURE, 
 
 ' / COMPRISING f ^^"P 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF COMMON FAULTS 
 
 ATTITUDE AND ACTION. <*-?*> 
 
 7 
 
 BY WILLIAM RUSSELL. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, IMPROVED. 
 
 WITH FIFTY-SIX llNGRl^INGS. 
 
 - 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED AN 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 DESIGNED FOR PRACTICAL EXERCISE IN 
 
 DECLAMAT I ON, 
 
 CONSISTING OF A DEBATE ON THE 
 CHARACTER OF JULIUS CAESAR. 
 
 B T 
 
 JAMES SHERIDAN KNOWLES. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 G. W. PALMER & COMPANY. 
 1838. 
 

 
 $ 
 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1838, by 
 
 J. H. Jenks & G. W. Palmer, 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts* 
 
 3 5-/ 
 
 n 
 
 Printed by Wm. A. Hall & Co. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Delivery, as a combination of speech and action, 
 addresses itself to the mind through the ear and the 
 eye. Regarded as an art, it consists, accordingly, of 
 two parts, — elocution, or the regulated functions of 
 the voice, — and gesture, or the proper management 
 of the body. The following treatise is limited to 
 the latter of these branches, which has hitherto been 
 much neglected in education, to the injury, not mere- 
 ly of the general style of eloquence, but of those fac- 
 ulties of mind to which the appropriate delivery of 
 sentiment is, perhaps, the best form of discipline. 
 
 Gesture derives its existence from the necessary 
 sympathy of mind and body. It is by no means a 
 mere product of art. A sympathetic action of the 
 outward frame, in correspondence with the activity 
 of the mind, is necessarily exerted in the communi- 
 cation of thought and feeling, and results from a law 
 
8 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 of man's constitution. The repression of such action 
 may, it is true, become an habitual trait in the char- 
 acter of individuals and of nations ; so may the op- 
 posite characteristic of redundancy in gesture. Ex- 
 amples of these extremes are furnished in the rigid 
 stillness of body, which is customary in the elocu- 
 tion of Scotland; or of New England, and in the 
 ceaseless movement and gesture of the French. 
 
 to^ 
 
 Education, too, has a powerful influence on de- 
 livery. The exclusive application of the under- 
 standing, a too passive continuance of attention, or 
 a native sluggishness of habit, indulged, has a 
 tendency to quell or prevent emotion, and to keep 
 back its corporeal indications ; while the habitual 
 and unrestrained play of imagination, or of feeling, 
 impels to vivid expression in tone, and to the visi- 
 ble manifestations of attitude and action. Hence 
 the contrasts of manner exhibited in the delivery 
 of the studious, the sedentary, or the phlegmatic, 
 and that of the active, the gay, or the imagina- 
 tive ; — both of which usually run to excess, produ- 
 cing the morbid style of lifelessness and inaction, 
 or the puerile manner of mere animal vivacity. 
 
 Education, as the great agent in human improve- 
 ment, aims not at a local, or particular, but an ideal 
 and general excellence in man. Early culture, 
 therefore, should be so directed as to free the 
 
PREFACE. y 
 
 mental habits, and their external traces, from the 
 injurious influences of imperfect or erroneous ex- 
 ample, and to give the youthful powers that free 
 and generous scope, which their full development 
 requires. The standard of perfection in delivery, 
 should be farmed on no views limited merely by 
 the arbitrary customs of a community, — perhaps by 
 the corrupting influence of neglect or perversion, 
 as regards the discipline of imagination and taste. 
 The genuine style of eloquence is that, surely, 
 which gives the strongest, freest, and truest ex- 
 pression to the natural blending of thought and 
 emotion within the human breast ; — breaking 
 through all arbitrary restraint, and submitting only 
 to the guidance of reason, — or, rather, listening 
 intuitively to its suggestions. 
 
 The common errors of judgment and taste, on 
 this subject, seem to lie in the supposition that 
 thought and feeling may be separated in their 
 expression. Every day furnishes examples of 
 speakers, who, from the coldness of their manner, 
 seem to think that they can succeed in imparting 
 sentiment without emotion, — and of those, whose 
 rhetorical and mechanical warmth appears to aim 
 at eloquence by emotion not founded on thought, 
 
 The tendency of deep interest, and of earnest, 
 cordial emphasis, is always to impart impulse to 
 
10 PREFACE. 
 
 the arm, as well as to the voice. The instruc- 
 tion, therefore, or the example, which inculcates 
 the suppression of gesture, is defective and injuri- 
 ous ; as it checks the free action both of body 
 and mind. The unlimited indulgence of fancy, or 
 the ungoverned expression of feeling, on the other 
 hand, leads either to a puerile or a merely pas- 
 sionate manner, and loses the influence of intellect 
 in a false excitement of emotion. 
 
 A good delivery is that which, in the first place, 
 may be briefly characterized by the epithet manly. 
 It possesses force, — consequently exemption from 
 all forms of weakness ; — freedom, (a natural con- 
 sequence of force,) implying exemption from con- 
 straint and embarrassment. These are the first 
 and indispensable rudiments of action. Next in 
 importance, is an appropriate or discriminating 
 style, — the result of genius, or of successful dis- 
 cipline, — which adapts itself to different occasions, 
 subjects, and sentiments ; varying as circumstances 
 require, and avoiding every impropriety of manner* 
 whether arising from personal habit, or temporary 
 inadvertency and error. Last in order, and as a 
 negative quality, chiefly, may be mentioned grace, 
 or those modes of action which obey nature's laws 
 of symmetry and motion, from the intuitive per- 
 ception of beauty, and the disciplined or natural 
 
PREFACE. 11 
 
 subjection of the muscular system, to the ascend- 
 ancy of mind and taste. 
 
 These elementary principles are all that have 
 been deemed important in the instruction attempt- 
 ed in the following pages. All else, it is thought, 
 may best be left to individual mind and manner, 
 — which, if not perverted or neglected, would, 
 perhaps, render direct instruction, in any case, 
 comparatively unimportant. 
 
 The effects of accomplished oratory are to be 
 looked for from no single source : they are the 
 fruits of the whole course of mental culture embra- 
 ced in education. The end of this manual will 
 have been fully accomplished, if teachers are ena- 
 bled, by the use of it, to lay, in season, the founda- 
 tion of habit; so as to preserve the delivery of 
 their pupils from the prominent faults of uncultiva- 
 ted or perverted taste. 
 
 The rules and principles illustrated in the fol- 
 lowing pages, are chiefly drawn from that rich and 
 copious volume, Austin's Chironomia,* — but mod- 
 ified as experience has suggested, and adapted to 
 the details of practical instruction. 
 
 * The above work on Gesture, and that of Dr. Rush on the 
 Voice, afford the fullest instruction in Oratory, that has yet been 
 presented in the English, if not in any other language. 
 
12 PREFACE. 
 
 The Debate which forms the Appendix, is ex- 
 tracted from the Elocutionist of Mr. James Sheri- 
 dan Knowles, the author of Virginius. It has been 
 annexed to the principles of gesture, stated in the 
 body of the work, as furnishing appropriate mat- 
 ter for the practical application of them, in the 
 exercise of declamation. The animated style which 
 pervades this debate, renders it a highly interest- 
 ing and useful form of practice to young speakers. 
 
 The Debate was originally prepared by Mr. 
 Knowles, for the use of a juvenile class of his 
 own pupils. A few passages, containing personal 
 allusions, have, therefore, been omitted in the re- 
 print, with the view of adapting it to the pur- 
 poses of general practice. 
 
53 
 
£ 
 
RUDIMENTS OF GESTURE. 
 
 The appropriate expression of sentiment implies, 
 in addition to the exercise of voice, an effect produced 
 on the corporeal frame, — an action which is the 
 visible accompaniment of speech, and which affects, 
 in particular, the features and the limbs, and, some- 
 times, the whole body. This action is not arbitrary, 
 but natural ; and its absence produces a cold, formal, 
 rigid, or mechanical manner. Its first degree exists 
 in the involuntary motion of the muscles of the face, 
 in the change of the color of the countenance, and in 
 the involuntary actions of starting and moving, which 
 accompany various states of feeling. Its second de- 
 gree is that in which we use gesture, in a manner 
 more or less voluntary, as an additional expression 
 of meaning, or feeling, imparted by the voice. 
 
 Gesture is vivid and frequent in the expression of 
 imaginative and excited states of mind. Hence it 
 abounds in the period of childhood, and among na- 
 tions much influenced by imagination, in the forma- 
 tion of character. It differs in degree, for the same 
 reason, in different individuals, according to their 
 tendency to emotion and to imaginative expression, 
 or the reverse. But it is natural, to some extent, to 
 3 
 
26 ATTITUDE. 
 
 all human beings, as the language of feeling. It is 
 the necessary result of the connexion existing be- 
 tween mind and body, and of their mutual sympa- 
 thetic action. Of the necessity or of the value of 
 gesture, indeed, it is hardly'necessary to speak. It is 
 an aid and an impulse to the mind, both of the speaker 
 and of his auditory ; and the question is not whether 
 it should exist, but how it may be regulated so as to 
 impart appropriate meaning and emotion, — how it 
 may be called forth, when likely to be suppressed by 
 embarrassment, or withheld by morbid apathy, or 
 neglected through inattention, — how it may be guard- 
 ed from excess or extravagance, or mechanical mo- 
 notony, and acquire a mentarcharacter. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY MOVEMENTS. 
 
 Delivery consists of two parts ; — one addressing 
 the ear, through the voice; and the other, the eye, 
 by action or gesture. The latter implies a certain 
 attitude of body, as essential to it ; and hence the 
 necessity of attending, in the first instance, to the 
 attitude or position in which the speaker presents 
 himself to the eye. The characteristics of good 
 attitude are firmness, freedom, appropriateness > and 
 grace. 
 
 It becomes necessary here to advert to the manner 
 in which young speakers introduce themselves to 
 their audience ; the introductory bow being seldom 
 what it should be, a salutation of respect, actually 
 addressed to the assembly, but commonly a very 
 awkward attempt at a bow, and one so performed as 
 
INTRODUCTORY MOVEMENTS. 
 
 27 
 
 to cast down the eyes towards the floor of the room, 
 or the feet of the speaker, and to show not his coun- 
 tenance, but the crown of his head. A bow, or any- 
 other mark of respect, (except prostration,) has no 
 meaning in it, unless the eye of the individual who 
 performs it is directed to the eyes of those to whom it 
 is addressed. 
 
 In figure 1, of the engraved illustrations, the round- 
 ing of the shoulders, and the dangling or dropping 
 of the arms, are added to the above fault. 
 
 The opposite and somewhat comic effects of the 
 fault of bending the body mechanically, drawing in. 
 the elbows, and turning up the face, are represented 
 in figure 2. 
 
 The proper form of the bow, with its moderate 
 curve, is illustrated in figure 3. 
 
 The common faults of the bow and other prepara- 
 tory movements, are feebleness^ constraint, embar- 
 rassment, impropriety, and awkwardness* 
 
 POSITION OF THE FEET.t 
 
 General Remarks. It is of the utmost conse- 
 quence to observe a correct position of the feet, not 
 
 * In most dialogues, and in some very animated pieces of poetry, 
 the commencing bow should be ommitted, as unfavorable to the full 
 effect of the dramatic or poetic character of the delivery, which, in 
 some instances, requires abruptness. 
 
 t Much of the effect of gesture depends on the attitude in which 
 it is performed, and from which it seems to spring. Attitude is, in 
 fact, a preliminary to gesture, and as the character of attitude de- 
 pends chiefly on the position of the feet : this last mentioned point be- 
 comes the first in order, in practical lessons on gesture. 
 
28 ATTITUDE. 
 
 merely because an incorrect position is ungraceful, 
 but because the easy and natural movement of every 
 part of the body depends on the feet being properly 
 placed. Awkward and constrained movements of 
 the feet, and rigid, unseemly action, are inseparable 
 from a bad attitude. An easy and graceful position, 
 on the contrary, favors appropriate and becoming 
 movement, and tends to render it habitual. 
 
 The following sentiments, quoted from Austin's 
 Chironomia, may be serviceable in this place, as in- 
 troductory to details. 
 
 ' The gracefulness of motion in the human frame, 
 consists in the facility arm security with which it is 
 executed ; and the grace of any position consists in 
 the facility with which it can be varied. Hence, in 
 the standing figure, the position is graceful when the 
 weight of the body is principally supported on one 
 leg, while the other is so placed as to be ready to re- 
 lieve it promptly and without effort.' 'The foot 
 which sustains the principal weight must be so 
 placed, that a perpendicular line, let fall from the pit 
 of the neck, shall pass through the heel of that foot. 
 Of course, the centre of gravity of the body is, for the 
 time, in that line ; whilst the other foot assists merely 
 for the purpose of keeping the body balanced in the 
 position, and of preventing it from tottering.' [See 
 figs. 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th.] 
 
 1 In the various positions of the feet, care is to be 
 taken that the grace which is aimed at be attended 
 with simplicity. The position of the orator is equally 
 removed from the awkwardness of the rustic, with 
 toes turned in, and knees bent, and from the affecta- 
 
POSITION OF THE FEET. 29 
 
 tion of the dancing-master, whose position runs to 
 the opposite extreme. The orator is to adopt such 
 positions only as consist with manly and simple 
 grace. The toes are to be moderately turned out- 
 ward, but not to be constrained ; the limbs are to be 
 disposed so as to support the body with ease, and to 
 admit of flowing and graceful movement. The sus- 
 taining foot is to be planted firmly ; the leg braced, 
 but not contracted : the other foot and limb must 
 press lightly, and be held relaxed, so as to be ready 
 for immediate change and action.' 
 
 ' In changing the positions of the feet, the motions 
 are to be made with the utmost simplicity, and free 
 from the parade and sweep of dancing. The speaker 
 must advance, retire, or change, almost impercepti- 
 bly ; and it is to be particularly observed that changes 
 should not be too frequent. Frequent change gives 
 the idea of anxiety or instability, both of which are 
 unfavorable. 
 
 Errors. The common faults in the posi- 
 tion of the feet, are, 
 
 1st. That of resting on both feet equally } 
 which gives the whole frame a set and rigid 
 attitude. [See Figs. 4 and 5.] 
 
 2. Pointing the toes straight forward, 
 which, when combined with the preceding 
 fault, forms the climax of awkwardness and 
 squareness of attitude, and, even when unac- 
 companied by any other error, has the bad 
 effect of exposing the speaker's side, instead 
 3* 
 
30 ATTITUDE* 
 
 of his full front, and consequently assimila- 
 ting all his movements and gestures to those 
 of attack in fencing. [See Fig. 6.] 
 
 3. Placing the feet too close to one another, 
 which gives the whole body a feeble and con- 
 strained appearance, and destroys the possi- 
 bility of energy in gesture. [See Fig. 7.] 
 
 4. The placing of the feet too widely distant, 
 and parallel to each other, which gives the 
 speaker's attitude a careless and slovenly air. 
 [See Fig. 8.} 
 
 5. The placing of the feet at too ivide a dis- 
 tance from each other, but with the one in ad- 
 vance of the other. This is the attitude of as- 
 sumption, or of a boasting and overbearing 
 manner. It would be appropriate in the swag- 
 gering air of Pistol or of Captain Bobadil. It 
 is only through gross inattention that it can 
 be exhibited, as it notunfrequently is, on oc- 
 casions of public declamation. [See Fig. 9.] 
 
 Rule. The body should rest so fully on 
 one foot, that the other could be raised, for a 
 moment, without loss of balance ; the toes turn- 
 ed outward ; the feet neither more nor less 
 distant than a space equal to the broadest part 
 of the foot; and the relative position of the 
 feet such, that if two lines were drawn on 
 the floor, under the middle of the sole of each 
 
THE FEET. 31 
 
 foot, from the toes to the heel, the lines icould 
 intersect each other under the middle of the 
 heel of that foot which is placed behind the 
 other. [See Figs. 10, 11, 12, 13.] 
 
 This general rule is applied in detail as follows. 
 The recitation of poetry, as it gives scope to vivid 
 expression, and sometimes requires actual delineation 
 or personation, is not confined to any one, or even to 
 a few, attitudes. The position of the feet, therefore, 
 is various, as accommodated to the different passions 
 or emotions introduced in the piece which is spoken. 
 Declamation, or the delivery of common speeches in 
 prose, does not admit of any degree of representation ; 
 the attitude is that of self-possession, and of energetic 
 or persuasive address ; and the positions of the feet 
 are limited to the following : 
 
 1. The first position of the right foot, — at the 
 distance and in the relative situation mentioned be- 
 fore; the right foot is planted firmly, and supports 
 the weight of the body; the left touches the floor but 
 slightly, rising a little at the heel.* [See Fig. 10.] 
 
 2. The second position of the right foot keeps the 
 same distance and relative situation of the feet as in 
 the first, (except a slight outward inclination of the 
 left heel, for firm and easy support.) The weight of 
 the body, however, is on the left foot, which is, of 
 course, firmly placed; while the right foot rests 
 
 * This position is denominated the second, in the Chironomia. 
 But as it is usually the first m the commencement of a speech, the 
 natural order would seem to present it as the first in instruction 
 and exercise. 
 
32 ATTITUDE. 
 
 lightly on the floor, without rising from it. [See 
 Fig. 11.] 
 
 3. The first position of the left foot* is exactly as 
 the first of the right ; — the left taking the place of the 
 right, and the right that of the left. [See Fig. 12.] 
 
 4. The second position of the left is the same, in 
 all respects, as the second of the right; substituting 
 the left for the right, and the right for the left. [See 
 Fig. 13.] 
 
 Note. — The observance of these different positions will produce 
 a firm, easy, and graceful attitude, appropriate to earnest and natu- 
 ral delivery. In complying with rules, however , there should be no 
 anxiety about measured exactness, and no appearance of studied pre- 
 cision. Force and freedom, and general propriety of manner, are 
 the main points to be aimed at; grace is but a subordinate consid- 
 eration ; and strict accuracy is apt to become but a mechanical ex- 
 cellence. 
 
 MOVEMENT OF THE FEET. 
 
 Remarks. An occasional change of the position 
 of the feet, is a natural and necessary relief to the 
 speaker, in the delivery of a speech or piece of con- 
 siderable length ; it associates, also, in an appropriate 
 and agreeable manner, with the introduction of a 
 
 * Attitude as affected by the advanced foot. The ancients restrict- 
 ed their orators to the advance of the left foot. From this rule 
 modern practice deviates entirely. The best speakers, though they 
 occasionally advance the left foot, give the preference to the right, 
 and adhere undeviatingly to the rule, that when the left hand is 
 used in the principal gesture, the left foot must be advanced; and 
 when the principal gesture is made with the right hand, that the 
 right foot should be advanced, unless the use of the retired hand is 
 very brief, and soon to give place to the advanced. 
 
 Austin^ Chiron*. 
 
THE FEET. * 33 
 
 new train of thought, or a new topic of discourse ; 
 and it is the instinctive expression of energy, warmth, 
 and liveliness of manner. Without movement, the 
 speaker's body becomes, as it were, a mass of inani- 
 mate matter. Motion, when carried to excess, how- 
 ever, becomes childish in its effect, as it substitutes 
 restlessness for animation. 
 
 Errors. The principal errors in movement 
 are, 
 
 1. The pointing of the foot straight forward, 
 and neglecting to turn the toes outward in 
 advancing, by which the speaker's body is 
 partly swung round, so as to expose the side, 
 instead of the full front, and to produce the 
 awkward position and gesture mentioned 
 before, under the * second error ? in position. 
 [See Fig. 6.] 
 
 2. Moving sidelong, and, perhaps, with a 
 sliding motion, instead of stepping freely for- 
 ward. The whole manner of this change 
 resembles that of a preparatory movement 
 in dancing, but has no natural connexion 
 with speaking. 
 
 3. Advancing with a full walking step, ap- 
 proaching nearly to a stride, and producing 
 the swaggering gait mentioned in speaking 
 of the c fifth error ' in position. 
 
 4. A short, feeble, and shuffling step, as if 
 
34 MOVEMENT. 
 
 the speaker were half resisting, and half 
 yielding to, an external force applied to push 
 him forward. 
 
 5. A set and formal change of position, ren- 
 dered very apparent, and wearing the air of 
 artificial and studied manner. 
 
 6. An ill-timed movement, not connected 
 with the sense of what is spoken, but made 
 at random. 
 
 7. A motionless and lifeless posture, throw- 
 ing a constrained and rigid, or very dull as- 
 pect over the speaker's whole manner. 
 
 8. An incessant and restless shifting of the 
 feet, and perhaps a perpetual gliding from 
 
 side to side, which is unavoidably associated 
 with childishness of manner. 
 
 Rule. The movement of the feet should 
 always be performed with the toes turned out- 
 ward, (pointing towards the corner of the 
 room, nearly;) and the movement should be 
 positively advancing or retiring, and not in- 
 termediate, unless in actual dialogue, or when 
 a single speaker personates two, in imagina- 
 ry dialogue. The step should always be 
 free, and should terminate with a firm plant- 
 ing of the foot, but should never be wide : 
 half a common walking step is sufficient for 
 change in posture ; and, in changing position, 
 
THE FEET. 
 
 35 
 
 that foot which follows the other, should be 
 preserved at its usual distance from it ; so 
 that, when the step is finished, the feet are 
 still found at their former distance, and not 
 drawn close to each other, as sometimes in- 
 advertently happens in shifting position. 
 
 The motion of the feet should be carefully 
 timed, so as to occur at the commencement 
 of the parts or divisions of a speech or dis- 
 course, at the introduction of new and dis- 
 tinct thoughts, or in the expression of forcible 
 or lively emotion. The true time of move- 
 ment is in exact coincidence with emphasis, 
 and falls appropriately on the accented syl- 
 lable of the emphatic word. The voice and 
 the bodily frame are thus kept in simulta- 
 neous action with the mind. Movement, so 
 performed, never obtrudes itself on the at- 
 tention, but becomes a natural part of the 
 whole delivery. The changes of position 
 should always be made, (except only the 
 retiring movement, at the close of a para- 
 graph, or of a division of the subject,) during 
 the act of speaking, and not at the pauses; 
 and even the change of posture which neces- 
 sarily follows the bow, and opens the delivery 
 of the piece, should not be made before be- 
 ginning to speak, but along with the utter- 
 
36 MOVEMENT. 
 
 ance of the commencing clause. All changes 
 made before speaking, or in the intervals of 
 speech, become apparent and formal, and 
 particularly all preparatory motions that 
 seem to adjust or fix the attitude of the 
 speaker, and produce the effect of suspend- 
 ing the attention of the audience. The fre- 
 quency of movement depends on the spirit 
 of the composition. An animated address, or 
 a declamatory harangue, requires frequent 
 movement. In a grave discourse, on the 
 contrary, the movements are made more sel- 
 dom. Poetry requires, from its vividness of 
 emotion, many changes of position ; prose, 
 from its more equable character, compara- 
 tively few. 
 
 The changes of attitude, which occur in poetic 
 recitation, are varied according to the kind of emo- 
 tion expressed : those which generally occur in dec- 
 lamation, or the delivery of speeches, are the ad- 
 vancing, for the bolder or more earnest parts of an 
 address ; and the retiring, for the more calm and 
 deliberate passages. Pieces that do not commence 
 with the manner of haughtiness or surprise, natural- 
 ly begin with the first position of the right, as bring- 
 ing the speaker near to his audience, to facilitate 
 communication, or as expressing most naturally the 
 emotion implied in the language. Pride, disdain, or 
 scorn, and the manner of astonishment or wonder, 
 
THE FEET. 37 
 
 if they occur in the opening of a speech, would in- 
 cline more naturally to the second position ; as these 
 feelings erect and incline backward the head and the 
 whole frame of the speaker. Of the former style we 
 should have an example in the opening of Mark 
 Antony's funeral oration over the body of Caesar ; 
 
 5 Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.' 
 
 and of the latter, in the commencing strain of Cati- 
 line's speech to the senate, after his sentence : 
 
 1 Banish'd from Rome ! What 's banish'd, but set free 
 From daily contact with the things I loathe 1 ' 
 
 The advancing and the retiring movements, when 
 considered in detail, are merely transitions from one 
 to another of the positions of the feet, exemplified in 
 the plates. They require attention chiefly to one 
 point, — that every movement must be made by a 
 change of the position of the foot which does not 
 support the body. Confusion, in this respect, some- 
 times costs the speaker a good many unnecessary 
 motions, which are at variance with dignity and 
 freedom of manner, and produce merely a vacillation 
 about the feet, rather than an actual change of place 
 or posture. To prevent such faults, it may be useful 
 to advert to a mechanical view of the changes which 
 take place in advancing or retiring. — 1st. Advanc- 
 ing: To advance from the first position of the right 
 foot* nothing is necessary but to pass directly, and 
 without the intervention of any change, into the first 
 of the left. Errors and hesitancy arise from throw- 
 ing in some intervening movement. To advance 
 
 * See engravings, figs. 10, 11, 12, 13. 
 
 4 
 
38 MOVEMENT. 
 
 from the first position of the left is, in like manner, 
 nothing but a simple transition to the first position of 
 the right. The advance from the second position of 
 the right foot, is made simply by passing into the 
 first position of the same foot ; and so of the corres- 
 ponding change of the left. — 2d. Retiring : To re- 
 tire from the first position of either foot, is merely 
 to drop into the second of the same foot. To retire 
 from the second position of either foot, seems a more 
 complicated movement; but it is nothing more than 
 to pass directly into the second position of the oppo- 
 site foot.* 
 
 POSITION AND MOVEMENT OF THE LEGS. 
 
 Remarks. The general air and expression of 
 the whole body depend much on the position of the 
 legs ; as we may observe by adverting to the feeble 
 limbs of infancy and of old age, the rigid and square 
 attitude of men who follow laborious occupations, or 
 the artificial display of limb sometimes acquired at 
 the dancing-school, or exemplified on the stage. 
 
 A firm, free, and graceful position of the limbs, is 
 natural to most human beings, till the influence of 
 awkward custom, or of imperfect health, has destroy- 
 ed or impaired it. Correct and appropriate posture, 
 therefore, becomes an important point in preparatory 
 practice and training, intended to aid the formation 
 of habits of rhetorical delivery. 
 
 * These changes should be repeatedly practised by the learner, 
 referring at the same time to the plates. 
 
THE LEGS. 39 
 
 Errors in the position of the legs occur in 
 the following forms : 
 
 1. A rigid and inflexible posture, entirely 
 at variance with freedom and grace ; causing 
 the limbs to resemble supporting posts, rather 
 than parts of the human frame ; and inter- 
 fering with the force, ease, and gracefulness 
 of gesture. This fault is partly caused by 
 the wrong position and movement of the feet, 
 mentioned first among the errors regarding 
 the feet. [See Figs. 4, 5, 7.] 
 
 2. A feeble, though perhaps slight bending 
 of the knees, which gives the general atti- 
 tude an appearance of timid inefficiency ; and 
 which, when accompanied, as it often is, by 
 a sinking and rising motion, seeming to keep 
 time to the beat of the arm in gesture, pro- 
 duces a childishness of mien, which throws 
 over the speaker's whole delivery an air of 
 silliness. [See Fig. 14.] 
 
 3. A fault very prevalent in public decla- 
 mation, arises from overlooking the fact, that 
 a free and natural attitude requires the knee 
 of the leg lohich is not supporting the xc eight 
 of the body, to fall into the natural bend of 
 
 freedom and rest. The neglect of this point, 
 — a neglect which very naturally arises from 
 general embarrassment or constraint, — has a 
 
40 MOVEMENT. 
 
 very unfavorable effect on the whole attitude: 
 in the c first' position, it causes, by its neces- 
 sary action on the frame, a slight, but un- 
 graceful throwing up of the shoulder, on the 
 side which supports the body ; [See Fig. 15 ;] 
 and in the ' second • position, it partly with- 
 draws the speaker's body from his audience, 
 by inclining it backward or too much upimrd, 
 and by erecting the head in the manner of in- 
 difference or disregard. [See Fig. 16.] 
 
 The influence of this attitude is quite at variance 
 with the speaker's aim in delivery, which is to con- 
 vince or persuade ; the effect of which, on his atti- 
 tude, would be to incline it somewhat forward, as in 
 the natural manner of earnest address. No error, 
 apparently so slight, is attended with so many bad 
 consequences as this ; nothing tends so much to give 
 the speaker the air of speaking at his audience, 
 rather than to them ; yet no fault is more common 
 in the declamation of school and college exhibitions. 
 All that is objectionable in this attitude, however, 
 would be done away, by the speaker merely allowing 
 the knee of the leg which does not support the body, 
 to drop into its natural bend. 
 
 Other errors in the position of the legs, are involved 
 in the faulty positions and movements of the feet ; 
 such as the placing of the legs too close or too widely 
 distant from each other. But whatever was men- 
 tioned, on this point, concerning the feet, may be 
 applied by the learner himself, to the placing of the 
 limbs. [See Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.] 
 
THE TRUNK. 41 
 
 Rule. The leg tohich supports the body, 
 should be firm and braced, but not strained; 
 and the leg which does not support the body, 
 should bend freely at the knee. [See Figs. 10, 
 11, 12, 13.] 
 
 POSITION AND MOVEMENT OF THE TRUNK. 
 
 Remarks. The actions of a human being differ 
 from the motions of a machine, chiefly in that sym- 
 pathy of the entire frame, which makes action appear 
 to proceed from the whole surface, and terminate in 
 the arm, the hand,* or the foot. No gesture, therefore, 
 seems to have life or energy, unless the whole body 
 partake in it, by a moderate, yet perceptible swaying 
 or yielding to accommodate it, and a general impulse 
 of the muscles to enforce it, or impart to it additional 
 and sympathetic energy. Gesture, destitute of such 
 aid, becomes narrow, angular, and mechanical. It 
 is of the utmost consequence, then, that the position 
 and general bearing of the body should be free and 
 unconstrained. 
 
 The following observations are quoted from the 
 work mentioned before,— Austin's Chironomia. 
 
 'The trunk of the body is to be well balanced, 
 and sustained erect upon the supporting limb. What- 
 ever the speaker's position may be, he should present 
 himself, as duintilian expresses it, cequo pectore — 
 with the breast fully fronting his audience, — and 
 never in the fencing attitude of one side exposed. 
 What Cicero calls the virilis flexus laterum — the 
 4* 
 
42 MOVEMENT. 
 
 manly inclination of the sides, — should also be at- 
 tended to ; for, without this position, the body will 
 seem awkward and ill-balanced. The inclination of 
 the sides withdraws the upper part of the body from 
 the direction of the sustaining limb, and inclines it 
 the other way, whilst it throws the lower part of the 
 body strongly on the line of the supporting foot. In 
 this position, the figure forms that gentle curve or 
 waving line which painters and statuaries consider as 
 appropriate to grace. [See Figs. 10, 11, 12, 13.} 
 
 'The gesture of the arms and hands must receive 
 a slight accompanying movement of the trunk, and 
 not proceed from it as from a rigid log. Whilst care 
 is taken to avoid affected and ridiculous contortions, 
 there must be a manly and free exertion of the mus- 
 cles of the whole body, the general consent of which, 
 is indispensable to graceful action.' 
 
 Errors. The faults in the management of 
 the trunk, are the following : 
 
 1. A rigid and square position , connected 
 with, and in part proceeding from, errors in 
 the position and movement of the feet and 
 legs. [See ' Errors/ regarding these particu- 
 lars, and Figs. 4 and 5 in the engravings, 
 already referred to.] 
 
 This position lacks the natural yielding or inclina- 
 tion of the sides, and by destroying the sympathetic 
 action of the muscles of the frame, seems to discon- 
 nect the arm from the body, causing it to resemble 
 an extraneous object accidentally fastened to the 
 
THE TRUNK. 43 
 
 trunk, and producing, in the movements of the arm 
 in gesture, the style of motion exemplified in the 
 actions of an ill-contrived automaton, or in the 
 moving of the handle of a pump. [See Fig. 4.] 
 
 2. Exposing the side, somewhat as in a 
 fencing posture. [See Fig. 6.] 
 
 This attitude gives an unmeaning and offensive 
 force to gestures made in front of the body, and com- 
 municates an awkward and painful twist to all ges- 
 tures which fall in an outward direction. The fault 
 of position now alluded to, arises, sometimes, from the 
 habit of addressing the different portions of an audi- 
 ence separately, and by turns, which is itself a great 
 impropriety, unless on special occasions requiring it. 
 The error arises from the placing of the feet, and in 
 the direction given to them in movement, — pointing 
 the toes straight forward from the speaker's body, in 
 the manner which would be exemplified in the 
 natural attitude of an Indian. 
 
 3. Allowing the body to incline too far for- 
 ward] in a stooping or lounging manner. 
 
 This fault takes away all manly dignity and energy 
 from the speaker's appearance, and impairs the 
 general effect of delivery. 
 
 4. Keeping the body too erect, and inclining 
 it away from the audience. 
 
 The bad effects of this fault were described in con- 
 nexion with the %third ' error in the position of the 
 legs. [See Fig. 16.] 
 
44 
 
 MOVEMENT. 
 
 5. A theatrical protruding of the body, with 
 the air of display. [See Fig. 17.] 
 
 This fault coincides, in most instances, with the 
 wide position of the feet formerly objected to, as pro- 
 ducing an overbearing and swaggering mien. 
 
 6. A leaning over to the side on which ges- 
 ture is made. 
 
 This fault presents the speaker very awkwardly to 
 the eye, — somewhat in the manner of figures in the 
 drawings of young children who have not yet ac- 
 quired a perfect idea of a perpendicular line, and 
 who represent all objects in a picture as if in the act 
 of falling. The apparent want of security and firm- 
 ness in this attitude, enfeebles to the eye every action 
 of the speaker^ arm. [See Fig. 18.] 
 
 Rule. The trunk, or main part of the 
 body, should always be in a firm, but free 
 and graceful posture, exposing the full front, 
 and not the side ; avoiding equally rigidity 
 and display, and yielding to every impulse 
 of gesture. [See Figs. 10, 11, 12, 13.] 
 
 POSITION AND MOVEMENT OF THE HEAD AND 
 THE COUNTENANCE. 
 
 Remarks. The bearing of the head decides the 
 general mien of the body, as haughty and conde- 
 scending, as spiritless, dejected, embarrassed, — or as 
 
THE HEAD. 45 
 
 free from the influence of such feelings, and wearing 
 an easy, self-possessed, and unassuming expression, 
 arising from tranquillity and serenity of mind. The 
 first-mentioned of these states of feeling inclines the 
 head upward; the second causes it to drop, or keeps 
 it fixed by constraint ; the last preserves it from these 
 extremes, and allows it an easy and natural motion. 
 The recitation of poetry may, in particular instances, 
 authorize or require a very erect, or a drooping pos- 
 ture of the head; but declamation, or public speaking, 
 implies a state of self-command, a rational consider- 
 ation of effect, and an avoiding of the appearances 
 of extreme emotion. In the latter exercise, therefore, 
 the general air of the head bespeaks respect for the 
 audience, mingling with a just self-respect, and 
 avoids alike a lofty or a submissive carriage. The 
 eyes and the other features correspond to this manner. 
 
 Errors in the position of the head are as 
 follows : 
 
 1. A distant and lofty, or indifferent air, 
 throwing back the head, or carrying it too 
 erect. [See Fig. 16.] 
 
 This fault is generally unintentional, and arises, 
 in many instances, from an error in the posture of 
 the limbs, as mentioned before. 
 
 2. A bashful drooping of the head, accom- 
 panied with downcast eyes. 
 
 This manner takes away the effect of delivery. 
 As the mind always appears to follow the eye, the 
 
46 MOVEMENT. 
 
 speaker's attention seems not to be directed to his 
 audience. 
 
 3. The head remaining fixed and still, un- 
 der the influence of embarrassment and con- 
 straint. 
 
 This fault is much aggravated, if attended, as it 
 usually is, by a vague wandering, or a motionless 
 abstraction of the eye, and, perhaps, an occasional 
 working of the eye-brows. The effect of these 
 manifestations of uneasiness is, of course, very un- 
 favorable to the influence of the speaker's delivery. 
 
 4. An objectionable movement of the muscles 
 of the countenance. 
 
 This fault sometimes assumes the form of an un- 
 meaning smile, or an equally unmeaning frown; 
 sometimes, of too much excited play of the features, 
 with an incessant and inappropriate turning or 
 staring of the eyes ; and sometimes, in vehement 
 declamation, an ungraceful protrusion of the lips. 
 
 Rule. The head should neither be hung 
 bashfully down, nor carried haughtily erect: 
 it should turn easily but not rapidly, from side 
 to side; the eyes being directed generally 
 to those of the persons who are addressed, 
 but not fastening particularly on individuals. 
 The abstraction of the mind, implied in the 
 appropriate recitation of some pieces in po- 
 
GESTURE. 47 
 
 etry, may, however, render it inconsistent to 
 give to delivery the air of address ; as, for 
 example, in the reciting of any passage in 
 which a distant or imaginary scene is called 
 up vividly to the thoughts. The eyes should, 
 in such cases, be directed away from those of 
 the audience, and be fixed on vacancy. All 
 inappropriate and ungraceful play or working 
 of the features, should be carefully avoided. 
 
 GESTURE. 
 POSITION AND MOVEMENT OF THE HAND. 
 
 Remarks. The hand is, in most forms of action, 
 the great organ of the mind. Its power of expres- 
 sion in communication, when used alone, or accom- 
 panied by speech, is peculiar and extensive. The 
 position or action of the hand invites, repels, refuses, 
 rejects, implores, or threatens, more forcibly than 
 even the voice or the countenance. The language 
 and meaning of gesture lie in the hand ; and these 
 cannot be expressed without an appropriate use of 
 this organ. The arm is, in gesture, but the inferior 
 agent to move and exert the hand, the great instru- 
 ment of all expression addressed to the eye. The 
 tones of the voice, and the action of the features are, 
 no doubt, the chief vehicles of meaning. But next 
 to these comes the hand, as an important agent in 
 delivery; and, in some kinds of emotion, it even 
 takes the precedence of the voice : — in all those pas- 
 
48 GESTURE. 
 
 sions, for instance, which by their excess tend to 
 render the tongue mute. In unimpassioned speaking, 
 the gesture of the hand is not so prominent ; but it 
 still serves a useful purpose in accompanying, aid- 
 ing, and enforcing the impressions produced by the 
 voice. It helps to concentrate the action of the 
 senses towards the objects which are presented to 
 the mind, and, though a subordinate, is yet an indis- 
 pensable, instrument of appropriate and impressive 
 delivery. 
 
 Errors. The chief faults in the position 
 of the hand, are, 
 
 1 . A feeble gathering in of the fingers to- 
 wards the palm. [See Fig. 19.] 
 
 The proper use of the hand is thus lost. As the 
 fingers are bent in, in this position, they hide the 
 palm, — a part which bears the same reference to the 
 use of the hand in gesture, that the countenance 
 does to the head. Without the exhibition of the 
 features, there can be no meaning gathered from the 
 view of the head ; so without the exposure of the 
 palm, there is no expression in the hand. The open 
 hand is essential to most gestures, on the principle 
 that such a position, and no other, harmonizes with 
 the idea of communication. The error now object- 
 ed to will appear in its true light, if we advert to the 
 difference between the acts of giving and receiving, 
 as they influence the position of the hand. Suppose, 
 for a moment, the case of two persons in the atti- 
 tudes relatively, of giving and receiving alms. The 
 
THE HAND. 49 
 
 individual who receives the gift, holds his hand in a 
 hollow position, for the sake of receiving and retain- 
 ing what is bestowed, while the individual who be- 
 stows, necessarily opens the hand, to convey to that 
 of the other the gift which is conferred. The posi- 
 tion, in the former case, which is nearly that now 
 mentioned as a fault, is that of reception, and cannot 
 be appropriate in delivery, which is an act of com- 
 munication or of transferring. The hand partly 
 closed has no speaking expression to the eye : to 
 produce this effect, it must be opened fully and freely. 
 [See Fig. 20.] 
 
 2. A fiat and square position of the hand, 
 with the fingers straight and close. [See 
 Figs. 21, and 22.] 
 
 This position has to the eye the effect of the me- 
 chanical placing of a piece of board, rather than the 
 appropriate appearance of a human hand, — from 
 which the idea of pliancy can never be naturally 
 separated. The awkward air of this position is 
 much increased, if the thumb is placed close to the 
 fingers. [See Fig. 22.] The want of separation in 
 the placing of the fingers, has an influence nearly as 
 unfavorable as that of allowing the hand to be partly 
 closed. 
 
 3. A half pointing position of the fingers, 
 which' has neither the definiteness of point- 
 ing, nor the speaking expression of the open 
 hand. [See Fig. 23.] 
 
 5 
 
50 GESTURE. 
 
 This fault savors of studied and artificial grace, 
 whilst every point of detail in gesture should be 
 characterised by a natural and manly freedom. 
 
 4. An Indefinite spreading of the fingers, 
 which lacks energy and expression. [See 
 Fig. 24.] 
 
 This style of position has, unavoidably, a vague and 
 feeble character, which impairs the effect of gesture, 
 and seems to take away the expression of life from 
 the hand. 
 
 5. A displayed position of the fingers, dif- 
 fering from the correct position, by inclining 
 the little finger outward and downward, in- 
 stead of inward ; and parting it too widely 
 from the other fingers. [See Fig. 25.] 
 
 This position seems studied, finical, and affected; 
 it produces the effect of caricature, and, from its 
 mincing style, is unavoidably associated with feeble- 
 ness. 
 
 6. Too frequent use of the repressing ges- 
 ture which turns the palm downward. [See 
 Fig. 26.] 
 
 This gesture is appropriate in particular descriptive 
 passages of poetry, but is unsuitable for prose, unless 
 in a highly imaginative style. 
 
 7. Too frequent use of the pointing gesture, 
 
THE HAND. 51 
 
 which gives an unnecessary peculiarity and 
 emphasis to manner. 
 
 This position of the hand is appropriate and ex- 
 pressive in particular allusions and emphatic descrip- 
 tions. But its propriety in such circumstances, sug- 
 gests equally its unsuitableness for a prevailing 
 gesture. There are three faults very common in the 
 manner of pointing ; all of which render the fre- 
 quency of the gesture more striking and disagreeable. 
 The Jirst of these is the gathering up, and pressing 
 tight with the thumb, all the fingers but the one 
 which points ; and the pointing finger projected 
 perfectly straight. There is a rigidness of expres- 
 sion in this style, which is unfavorable in its effect 
 on the eye. [See Fig. 27.] The second fault is the 
 opposite one, of all the fingers bending feebly inward, 
 and the thumb scarcely, if at all, touching them ; 
 the fore-finger not projecting sufficiently to suit the 
 purpose of pointing. [See Fig. 28.] The third 
 fault is that of letting the hand droop from the wrist 
 downward ; the fingers generally, and the thumb 
 spreading to a great distance, and the fore-finger 
 rising at the middle. [See Fig. 29.] 
 
 8. Placing the hand edgeways, with the 
 fingers straight and close. [See Fig. 30.] 
 
 The motion produced in consequence of this posi- 
 tion, is like that of an instrument for cutting, but 
 possesses none of the appropriate effects of delivery. 
 
 9. Clenching the hand, in the expression 
 of great energy. [See Fig. 31.] 
 
52 GESTURE. 
 
 This form of action may be natural and appropri- 
 ate in the intense excitement produced by some of 
 the boldest flights of poetry, in which the presence of 
 others is forgotten by the speaker, when he becomes 
 entirely rapt in an imaginary scene of vehement 
 passion. But it is utterly inappropriate in public 
 discourse or address, which always implies the 
 speaker's consciousness of his auditory ; a just re- 
 spect to whom should forbid all indecorous action, 
 all approach to bullying attitudes, and, on the same 
 general principle, all extravagant expressions of ex- 
 citement. 
 
 Rule. The position of the hand in the re- 
 citation of poetry, depends on the emotion 
 which is expressed in the language of the 
 piece ; and the intensity of feeling which is 
 peculiar to poetry gives rise to varied attitude 
 and action, and, consequently; to various 
 positions, of the hand. But in declamation, 
 or speaking in the form of address, variety is 
 not generally so important to the effect of 
 delivery. Energy and propriety become, in 
 such exercises, the chief objects of attention ; 
 and although there are some prose pieces en- 
 tirely imaginative or romantic in character, 
 and occasional passages in most speeches 
 which produce a strong emotion, yet the 
 general style of a public address may be 
 considered as differing widely from the man- 
 
THE HAND. 53 
 
 ner of poetic excitement, and inclining to the 
 plainer forms of gesture, and consequently 
 to the ordinary positions of the hand, when 
 used for enforcing sentiment, rather than for 
 expressing effects produced on the imagina- 
 tion. Pointing, and other varieties of gesture, 
 may be occasionally proper in declamation ; 
 but the prevailing action should be that of 
 earnest assertion and persuasive appeal, 
 which are expressed with the open hand. 
 
 The appropriate position of the hand, for 
 the common purposes of speaking, implies 
 that it is fully open, with an expression com- 
 bining firmness, freedom, and grace; the 
 palm sloping moderately from the wrist 
 towards the fingers, and from the thumb to- 
 wards the fourth or little finger ; — avoiding 
 thus the flat position mentioned among the 
 errors on this point ; the thumb freely part- 
 ed from the fingers, but not strained ; the 
 fore-finger nearly straight, and moderately 
 parted from the other fingers ; the two fingers 
 in the middle of the hand, close together, 
 and inclining somewhat inward ; the fourth 
 finger parted at some distance from the 
 others, and inclining more inwardly than 
 any. [See Fig. 32.] 
 
 This position of the hand, when minutely analysed, 
 
54 GESTURE, 
 
 may, at first view, seem complex and comparatively 
 difficult ; but the difficulty is more apparent than 
 real ; for it is the natural posture of the hand, in 
 reference to the common and habitual actions of life ; 
 the fore-finger inclining to a straighter and firmer 
 position than the other fingers, because more con- 
 stantly in exercise, and therefore rendered more rigid ; 
 the second and third fingers inclining somewhat in- 
 ward, as not possessing the force and firmness of the 
 fore-finger, and keeping close together, as they 
 naturally do in the common actions of grasping, lift- 
 ing, &c; and the fourth finger inclining more in- 
 wardly than any, because the feeblest of the fingers. 
 The parting of the fore-finger and the little finger 
 from the rest, is essential to the idea of the hand pre- 
 sented fully and freely open.* 
 
 The embarrassment which young learners some- 
 times feel in attempting a correct position Lof the 
 hand, is partly owing to previous fixed habit, and 
 partly to the slight difficulty of attending separately 
 to the position of each finger, a difficulty exemplified 
 when we try to do, at the same moment, a different 
 action with each hand. A little practice and atten- 
 tion are for the most part sufficient to obviate the 
 difficulty alluded to. But if, in any instance, it 
 should prove insuperable, the simple position of the 
 open hand may be substituted ; avoiding only the 
 flat posture, and the thumb close to the fingers. 
 
 * One of the happiest illustrations of this natural point of pro- 
 priety in taste, occurs in West's celebrated picture, ' Christ re- 
 jected,' and may be traced in nearly every figure of that great 
 production. 
 
THE ARM. 55 
 
 POSITION AND MOVEMENT OF THE ARM. 
 
 Remarks. The freedom and force of gesture de- 
 pend entirely on the appropriate action of the arm. 
 The free play of the arm gives scope to gesture, 
 which would otherwise be narrow, confined, and in- 
 expressive. The elevated thoughts and grand images 
 abounding in poetry, require a free, lofty, and en- 
 ergetic sweep of the arm in gesture ; but speaking" 
 which has persuasion for its object, is naturally 
 characterised by a less commanding and less imagin- 
 ative style of action. Reasoning, arguing, or inculcat- 
 ing, in the usual manner of speech, requires chiefly 
 enforcing or emphatic gesture. Poetry abounds so 
 in variety of emotion, that the action which accom- 
 panies the recitation of it, is frequent and forcible, 
 and marked by vivid transitions, with a predomi- 
 nance of gracefulness in the whole manner. The 
 style of speaking adapted to prose, is more calm and 
 moderate, and more plain in its character : coinciding 
 thus with the tenor of thought and language which 
 usually pervades prose composition. 
 
 Action is the first, the simplest, and the most strik- 
 ing expression of feeling. It cannot, therefore, be 
 dispensed with, but at the risk of losing the natural 
 animation of manner. Under the regulation of taste, 
 it becomes a harmonious and powerful accompani- 
 ment to speech, imparting additional force to lan- 
 guage in all its forms, and aiding a full and clear 
 conception of what is expressed. Gesture is not a 
 mere matter of ornament, as it sometimes is supposed. 
 
56 GESTURE. 
 
 Its main object is force of impression : the beauty or 
 grace which it imparts to delivery is but an inferior 
 consideration. To the young learner, however, 
 whose habits are yet forming, the cultivation of cor- 
 rect and refined taste in regard to gesture, is a matter 
 of great importance ; and several of the following 
 errors are mentioned as such, with a view to this 
 consideration. 
 
 Errors. The leading faults in the man- 
 agement of the arm are the following : 
 
 1. A feeble and imperfect raising or fall- 
 ing of the arm, and the allowing it to sink 
 into an angle at the elbow. [See Figs. 6, 8, 
 and others in which the elbow is angular.] 
 
 This style of gesture has several bad effects, be- 
 sides its angular form, which is objectionable to the 
 eye, as associated with mechanical motion and pos- 
 ture, rather than those of an animated being. It 
 narrows and confines every movement of the arm, 
 and prevents the possibility of free and forcible 
 action, which can flow only from the whole arm 
 fully, though gracefully, extended. 
 
 2. The opposite fault is that of an irregu- 
 lar force which throws out the arm perfectly 
 straight and rigid. [See Fig. 4.] 
 
 This position of the arm has also an objectionable 
 and mechanical aspect, at variance with the idea of 
 a natural use of the human frame and its limbs. 
 
COMMON FAULTS. 57 
 
 3. The habitual performing of gesture in 
 a line from the speaker's side. 
 
 An occasional gesture of this sort may be proper ; 
 but a constant use of it gives either a feeble or an 
 ostentatious air to delivery, as the gesture happens to 
 be made with more or less energy. 
 
 4. A horizontal swing of the arm, used in- 
 variably. 
 
 This action expresses negation appropriately, and 
 may be occasionally employed for other purposes; 
 but it lacks force for energy and emphasis, and if 
 habitually used to the exclusion of other gestures, it 
 renders the speaker's manner tame and ineffective. 
 
 5. A want of distinction in the use of ges- 
 ture, in regard to the lines in which it termi- 
 nates, the space through which it passes, and 
 the direction in which it moves. 
 
 This indiscriminate use of gesture interferes, of 
 course, with its appropriate expression ; substituting 
 one style of action for another, and serving, some- 
 times, no other purpose than to manifest the anima- 
 tion of the speaker, instead of imparting energy to 
 meaning or emotion. [See Rule 2, for distinction 
 of gesture.] 
 
 6. The improper use of a poetic or roman- 
 tic style of gesture, in the delivery of a prose 
 speech or discourse. [See Rule 2.] 
 
58 GESTURE. 
 
 This style is as inappropriate as would be the 
 reading of prose with the tones of poetry, and sacri- 
 fices the manly efFect of simplicity and directness, 
 for a false excitement of fancy. 
 
 7. A florid redundancy of gesture, produc- 
 ing incessant action and change of posture. 
 
 The effect of this fault is to impart a restless, un- 
 meaning, and puerile activity of manner, which is 
 inconsistent with deep feeling or grave thought. 
 
 8. The opposite error is that of standing 
 motionless and statue-like, in every limb. 
 
 This fault gives a dull, heavy, and morbid air to 
 delivery, and deprives the train of thought expressed 
 in the composition, of its natural efFect on the mind. 
 A clear perception of meaning, or a true interest in 
 the subject of what is spoken, is justly expected to 
 awaken the intellect of the speaker, and animate him 
 to activity of feeling. 
 
 9. The fault of an arbitrary and studied 
 variety of action. 
 
 To avoid deadness and monotony it is not neces- 
 sary to assume any emotion not authorized by the 
 sense of what is uttered. Variety of style is not 
 always called for, as we may observe in the appro- 
 priate delivery of a long strain of vehement invective, 
 in which the chief expression is that of reiterated 
 force; or as we may observe in a connected train of 
 calm thought or reasoning on a single point. The 
 
COMMON FAULTS. 59 
 
 author of the composition is on all occasions ac- 
 countable for the transitions of feeling; and the 
 speaker is at fault only when he obviously omits 
 their expression. A continuance of moderate and 
 gentle action in persuasion, forms, sometimes, the 
 very eloquence of delivery. All action, which does 
 not spring directly from emotion expressed in the 
 piece which is spoken, is unnatural and offensive ; 
 and the more sprightly and varied its character, the 
 worse is its effect. 
 
 10. The opposite error is that of using but 
 one or two gestures, which perpetually recur 
 in all pieces, and in all passages, how differ- 
 ent soever their style and expression may 
 naturally be. 
 
 There is a dryness and inappropriateness about 
 this manner, which always renders it mechanical 
 and wearisome, and sometimes absurd in its applica- 
 tion to sense. 
 
 11. Gestures performed in a manner which 
 is regulated by their supposed gracefulness, 
 rather than their connexion with meaning. 
 
 Grace is a negative rather than a positive quality 
 of gesture; its proper effect is to regulate, chasten, 
 and refine. Action, if just, is called for from other 
 considerations than those of beauty or ornament — - 
 from the natural demands of forcible and warm 
 emotion : it does not suggest or create a single move- 
 ment which would not otherwise exist. The action 
 
60 GESTURE. 
 
 which energy has elicited, grace is to preserve from 
 awkwardness. Beyond this point, true grace ceases 
 to exist. 
 
 12. The most childish of all faults is that 
 of imitative gesture, in which the speaker 
 represents objects or actions by pantomimic 
 motions. 
 
 The distinct and vivid conceptions produced by 
 the recitation of poetry, may sometimes identify the 
 imagination of the speaker so entirely with the forms 
 which the poet has called up to the mind, that the 
 action of sympathy passes into that of assimilation ; 
 and, in lively and humorous emotion, actual imita- 
 tion, judiciously indulged, is natural and appropriate. 
 But not so in prose addresses, on serious occasions, 
 which imply a full self-possession and a becoming 
 dignity on the part of the speaker, with a constant 
 regard to his audience. Imitative action in such 
 circumstances is still more trivial, indecorous, or 
 absurd than it would be in private conversation. 
 
 13. The want of the observance of time in 
 gesture, which seems to disjoint the action, 
 and separate it from the expression of the 
 voice. 
 
 A gesture made before or after the emphatic word 
 to which it naturally belongs, is entirely out of place. 
 The moment when a given action must come to its 
 acme, or to its closing 'movement, is precisely that 
 of littering the accented syllable of the emphatic 
 word. The impulse given to the frame by the ener- 
 
COMMON FAULTS. 61 
 
 gy of emphasis, being exactly at this point, whatever 
 motion of the arm is to accompany it, must fall, (if 
 performed naturally,) in strict coincidence with it. 
 Hence the necessity of timing the preparatory 
 movement of gesture so that the action of the arm 
 shall neither outstrip nor lag behind the prominent 
 force of voice. 
 
 14. The neglect of the preparatory move- 
 ment of gesture , by which action is rendered 
 either too abrupt or too confined. 
 
 Every rhetorical action consists of two parts, a 
 preparatory and a terminating movement. A gesture 
 performed by the human arm must necessarily be so 
 far complex ; as the hand cannot, with propriety of 
 effect, or even with ease, spring at once to a given 
 point. A deliberate and dignified manner of action, 
 derives much of its character from the accommoda- 
 tion of this preparatory motion to time and space ; 
 performing it with due slowness ; avoiding hurry or 
 jerking quickness ; allowing it also free scope for the 
 natural and unconstrained play of the arm, and, 
 sometimes for the appropriate sweep of the style of 
 gesture. Quick, narrow, and angular movements 
 render action mechanical and ineffective. This re- 
 sult usually takes place in consequence of delaying 
 gesture, till the emphasis occurring leaves no ade- 
 quate time for forming a full gesture : a brief, hasty, 
 and very limited movement is accordingly produced, 
 in the manner that would necessarily exist if the 
 arm were repressed by material obstacles. This 
 fault sometimes arises, however, from the opposite 
 6 
 
62 
 
 GESTURE. 
 
 error of anticipating the gesture, and commencing 
 and finishing the preparatory movement too soon ; 
 the arm remaining in suspense for the occurrence of 
 the appropriate word, and then suddenly dropping 
 into the gesture. 
 
 15. Using, with unnecessary frequency ,the 
 gesture of the left hand, and, sometimes, in 
 alternation with that of the right. 
 
 The left hand may be used exclusively, if the per- 
 son or persons addressed are situated on the left of 
 the speaker ; as by one of the speakers in a dialogue, 
 or in an address which is so composed as to be di- 
 rected to different portions or divisions of an audience, 
 separately, as in the opening and closing addresses 
 at an exhibition. The occasional use of the left 
 hand in the delivery of a long speech, is a natural 
 and agreeable change, in passing to a new topic of 
 discourse, or entering on a new strain of emotion in 
 recitation. [See Figs. 12, 13, 45, 49, 53.] But too 
 frequent recourse to it, or to use it in the early part 
 of an address, destroys its good effect; and to use it 
 in an alternate and antithetic manner to correspond 
 to the action of the right hand, has a studied and 
 mechanical air of precision, unfavorable to the 
 general style of delivery. 
 
 16. Too frequent use of both hands in the 
 same form of gesture. 
 
 The occasional use of both hands in warm and 
 earnest appeal, in the expression of thoughts of vast 
 extent, or in the intensity of poetic emotion, is fa- 
 
COMMON FAULTS. 63 
 
 vorable in its effect. [See Figs. 46, 50, 54.] But it 
 should be reserved for such circumstances in delivery, 
 and not introduced at random, or for imaginary 
 variety. 
 
 17. Making gestures occasionally, and hy 
 fits ; the hand dropping, at every interval of 
 a few moments, to the side, and then rising 
 anew to recommence action. 
 
 The dropping of the hand has properly a meaning 
 attached to it, as much as any other action used in 
 speaking. It ought to indicate a long pause, and 
 a temporary cessation of speech, as at the close of a 
 paragraph or of a division of a subject ; or it may be 
 used in recitation to denote grief, or any state of mind 
 which quells the expression of gesture, or which for 
 a time overpowers the feelings, and suspends the 
 utterance. Generally, the hand should not drop at 
 the conclusion of a gesture, but should either re- 
 main for a few moments suspended, in the position 
 in which the last gesture closed, or pass into the pre- 
 paration for a gesture following. The use of the 
 suspended hand appears natural and expressive, if 
 we advert to its effect in conversation, or in appeal 
 and argument. Gesture becomes, in this way, easy 
 and unobtrusive, and ceases to attract the eye un- 
 necessarily ; while the perpetual rising and falling of 
 the hand in the irregular manner above alluded to, 
 makes gesture unnecessarily conspicuous, and gives 
 it an air of formality and parade. 
 
 The abrupt discontinuance of gesture by tioitching 
 back the hand } somewhat in the manner of sudden 
 
64 
 
 GESTURE. 
 
 alarm, has a very bad effect ; yet it is a fault to 
 which young speakers are very prone from their em- 
 barrassment of feeling. 
 
 An upward or inward rebound of the hand, after 
 the termination of the gesture itself, is often added 
 to the frequent return of the hand to the side. 
 Dropping the hand heavily, and allowing it to shut 
 as it drops, is another fault of this class. The 
 speaker's action is apt in consequence of such ges- 
 tures to become a succession of flourishes of defiance, 
 rather than of persuasive movements. 
 
 18. Using gesture without regard to the char- 
 acter of the piece which is spoken, as plain or 
 figurative, moderate or impassioned in style. 
 
 A figurative style of language forms at once an ex- 
 pression and an excitement of imagination, — or the 
 active states of thought and feeling combined. It 
 implies, therefore, a full activity of manner in the 
 speaker. The intense action of mind influences by 
 sympathy the corporeal frame, and impels to gesture; 
 and the absence of action, in such circumstances, 
 creates an unnatural disruption or separation of the 
 mutual influences of mind and body. 
 
 Narration and description in plain style, however, 
 make no demand for gesture, in circumstances of ex- 
 cited feeling, arising from other causes than those 
 whicbexist in the language uttered at the moment, 
 — a case which would be exemplified in the state- 
 ment of a fact connected, but not immediately, with 
 an injury or grievance, or in the commencement of a 
 narration which is to terminate tragically, or in the 
 description of the scene of a remarkable event. 
 
COMMON FAULTS. 65 
 
 Neither does common definition, statement, or ex- 
 planation, or unimpassioned discussion call for ges- 
 ture, unless in very moderate forms, and at intervals. 
 Whatever is addressed purely to the understanding 
 can derive little aid from rhetorical action. Feeling 
 and imagination are the great springs of gesture ; and 
 without these to impel it, it becomes lifeless and me- 
 chanical. 
 
 19. Placing the hand upon the heart irregu- 
 larly r , without attention to the nature of the 
 feeling, or the circumstances of speech under 
 which this action is appropriate. 
 
 This gesture is applicable chiefly to the personal 
 feelings of the speaker ; and, in a very vivid style of 
 description, as in the recitation of poetry, it may be 
 used in allusion to deep internal feeling, contrasted 
 with that which is produced by external causes. 
 Thus, it may appropriately occur in the second of 
 the following lines : 
 
 * Slight are the outward signs of evil thought ; 
 Within, — within ; 't was there the spirit wrought.' 
 
 But, generally, this form of action is erroneously 
 applied to all cases of inward emotion, and sometimes 
 even to the bare mention of the mind and heart, in 
 contradistinction from the body. 
 
 The errors in the mode of making this gesture are 
 very numerous. 1st. Placing the hand on the pit 
 of the stomach, instead of on the breast. [See Fig. 
 33.] 2d. Bringing the hand round towards the left 
 side. [See Fig. 34.] 3d. Elevating the elbow as in 
 the manner of playing on the violin. [See Fig. 35.1 
 6* 
 
66 GESTURE. 
 
 4th. Hugging the body with the whole arm. [See 
 Fig. 36.] 5th. Touching the breast with the thumb, 
 in the manner of familiar and humorous representa- 
 tion. [See Fig. 37.] 6. Pressing the tips of the 
 fingers against the heart. [See Fig. 38.] 
 
 20. Making gesture across the speaker's body. 
 
 This fault takes place in dialogue, when one 
 speaker employs the hand which is farthest from 
 the other speaker, instead of using that which is 
 nearest to him. An awkward and feeble sort of 
 gesture is thus produced ; or the speaker is compelled, 
 irr using it, to turn his side to the audience, which 
 destroys the effect of dialogue, by hindering the full 
 view of the persons and countenances of the speakers. 
 [See Fig. 39.*] 
 
 When this fault occurs in single declamation, it 
 has a very objectionable air of display and assump- 
 tion, in its upward lines, and a want of speaking 
 effect, in its lower movements. [See Figs. 41, and 42.] 
 
 21. An inward siceep of gesture, instead of 
 an outward, downward, or upward movement. 
 
 This fault has a left-handed air, which borders on 
 the ridiculous, and adds no force to delivery. 
 
 22. Involuntary and inadvertent gestures^ 
 arising from embarrassment and confusion. 
 
 Faults of this class are too numerous and varied 
 to admit of description in an elementary book. The 
 principal are a Hoisting- and working of the fingers, 
 
 * The correct position for dialogue is exemplified in figure 40. 
 
GENERAL RULES. 67 
 
 a dangling of the hand, an unintentional clenching 
 of it, or thrusting it into the pocket, or resting it on 
 the side, a sympathetic motion of the unemployed 
 hand, in imitation, as it were, of the gestures made 
 by the other hand. 
 
 Rule I. The arm when not employed in 
 preparing for the terminating act of gesture, 
 should never exhibit an angle at the elbow, but 
 be always freely extended, yet without the 
 rigidness of a straight line ; a moderate sink- 
 ing of the elbow being requisite to freedom 
 and grace. [See Figs. 10, 11, 12, 13.] 
 
 II. The various emotions of poetic recita- 
 tion produce a great variety of action. But 
 the usual manner of delivery in a speech or 
 discourse, is naturally more restricted, as 
 conversant with a less vivid state of feeling. 
 
 The following are the principal gestures 
 appropriate in address : 
 
 1. The descending,* used with great energy in 
 strong assertion and vehement argumentation, in em- 
 phatic declaration and forcible appeal. [See Figs. 43, 
 44, 45, 46.] 
 
 2. The horizontal* (the hand rising to a horizon- 
 tal level with the shoulder,) appropriate in elevated 
 and general thought or description, and in geograph- 
 ical and historical allusions. [See Figs. 47, 48, 49, 50.] 
 
 3. The ascending,* (the hand rising to a level, 
 
 * These designations arise from the position in which the gesture 
 terminates, as may be seen by the plates. 
 
68 GESTURE. 
 
 nearly, with the head,) expressive of sublimity of 
 thought or feeling. [See Figs. 51, 52, 53, 54.] 
 
 From these three principal lines of gesture arise 
 three others : 
 
 1. The gesture in front* appropriately used in 
 strong or emphatic statements, and terminating in 
 the descending, horizontal, or ascending lines, accord- 
 ing to the character of the thought and the language. 
 [See Figs. 43, 47, 51.] 
 
 2. The gesture oblique* falling in an intermedi- 
 ate line between one drawn in front of the speaker's 
 body and one drawn from his side. This gesture is 
 one of general character, having neither the force of 
 the preceding one, nor the peculiarity of that which 
 follows, and terminating upward, downward, or 
 horizontally, according to the nature of the senti- 
 ment expressed. [See Figs. 44, 48, 52.] 
 
 3. The gesture extended* (falling in a line with 
 the side,) appropriate in the expression of ideas of 
 extent and space, or forming the terminating point 
 to a wave or sweep of gesture in negation, rejection, 
 &c, and closing in an upward or downward position 
 as before. [See Figs. 45, 49, 53.] 
 
 Hence arise the following combinations and 
 changes of gesture: 'Descending' 'in front.' [See 
 Fig. 43.] ' Descending ' ' oblique.' [See Figs. 44 and 
 46.] ' Descending' 'extended.' [See Fig. 45.] 'Hori- 
 zontal 5 'in front.' [See Fig. 47.] 'Horizontal,' 'ob- 
 lique.' [See Figs. 48 and 50.] ' Horizontal,' ' ex- 
 tended.' [See Fig. 49.] 'Ascending' 'in front.' 
 
 * These designations refer to the person and attitude of the. 
 speaker. 
 
GENERAL RULES. 69 
 
 [See Fig. 51.] ! Ascending' f oblique.' [See Fig. 52.] 
 f Ascending 5 ' extended.' [See Figs. 53 and 54] 
 Each of these forms of gesture has a peculiar char- 
 acter, fixed and modified by the lines explained 
 above. See i descending,' i horizontal,' fyc. 
 
 Note. There are occasionally gestures which fall in a line in- 
 ward from that { in front,' as in the slight gestures which take place 
 in reading; and outivard from the line c extended,' as in alluding to 
 any thing very remote in time or place. But these seldom occur. 
 
 A discriminating and correct use of these different 
 classes of gesture, is the only proper source of varie- 
 ty in action, 
 
 III. The movement or sweep of the arm, 
 in preparing for gesture, should always be 
 free and graceful, but avoiding too much ex- 
 tent of space, and performed in strict time icith 
 the movement of the voice in utterance. The 
 line of motion in gesture describes a curve, 
 and avoids in all action but that of the humor- 
 ous style, — a confined or angular movement. 
 
 The curve here spoken of would be exemplified 
 in passing from the gesture l descending 5 J in front 5 
 to that which is denominated \ descending 5 i oblique. 5 
 To make this transition, the whole arm rises mode- 
 rately, contracting slightly at the elbow, and the 
 hand approaching a little nearer to the upper part of 
 the speakers body, but not drawn up towards the 
 face, as often happens in incorrect style : the hand 
 and arm having thus finished the preparatory move- 
 
70 GESTURE. 
 
 merit, at an intermediate point between the line of 
 the gesture from which it passes and that of the ges- 
 ture towards which it is tending, — descends, (with 
 more or less force and swiftness, according to the 
 character of emotion in the language uttered,) to the 
 terminating point of movement for the gesture 'de- 
 scending' 'oblique.' The line of motion thus de- 
 scribed might be represented to the eye as follows : 
 If A C be the points from and to which the gesture 
 
 passes, the line of a _. 
 
 motion is not an /\ hut * curve > /^% 
 angle, thus, A* \jl thus ' ^ U 
 
 The idea of the motion traced by the hand will be 
 perhaps fully formed by supposing the curve to slope 
 inward towards the speaker's body ; thus, if D repre- 
 sent the place of the speaker, the curve would be 
 described in this manner, B representing /^\D 
 the termination of the preparatory move- q/ J a 
 ment. [See also Fig. 55.] 
 
 The observance of the character of preparatory 
 movement, is a point of great consequence in gesture ; 
 since it decides the style of action as free, forcible, 
 commanding, dignified, graceful, lofty, or the reverse, 
 according to the extent of space it moves through, 
 and the time of its movement, as slow or quick, 
 gradual or abrupt. Magnificence and boldness of 
 gesture belong to the recitation of sublime strains of 
 poetry. But force, freedom, and "propriety, with 
 chasteness of style, are the chief considerations in 
 the delivery of prose ; and these qualities require less 
 allowance of time and space for action^ than are 
 
GENERAL RULES. 71 
 
 necessary to those of poetic recitation, — a distinction 
 which should be carefully observed. 
 
 IV. The frequency of gesture must be 
 prescribed by the character of sentiment in 
 the piece which is spoken, and by the style 
 of language, as moderate and plain, or impas- 
 sioned and figurative ; the former requiring 
 little use of gesture, and the latter much. 
 
 V. All action must arise directly from the 
 sense of ivhat is spoken, and never from arbi- 
 trary notions of variety or grace. True 
 variety is the result of a due observance of 
 the preparatory and terminating lines of 
 gesture; and grace consists merely in pre- 
 serving these from awkward deviations. 
 
 VI. Imitative gesture should seldom be 
 used even in poetry, and never in prose. 
 
 VII. The use of the left hand, whether 
 singly or in conjunction with the right, de- 
 pends not on arbitrary opinions of propriety 
 or grace, but usually on necessity, felt by the 
 speaker, either as regards himself or his au- 
 dience. This form of gesture, as far as it is a 
 matter of choice, should be sparingly adopted. 
 
 VIII. Gesture should be fluent and con- 
 nected, not abrupt and desultory, or appear- 
 ing and disappearing in a capricious manner. 
 
 IX. The placing of the hand on the heart 
 
72 GESTURE. 
 
 had better be omitted, if any risk must be 
 incurred of an incorrect or objectionable 
 action by performing it. # 
 
 X. Gesture appropriate to the prevailing 
 style of prose, unites force and grace with 
 simplicity, and has generally an outward 
 and downward tendency combined ; avoiding 
 action ichich runs across the body of the 
 speaker, or sweeps inwardly. 
 
 XL All nice and studied positions of the 
 hand, and all which are peculiar and awk- 
 ward, should be carefully avoided, as well 
 as all positions and actions which uninten- 
 tionally interfere with the effect of delivery. 
 
 * The correct placing of the hand on the heart, is such as to bring 
 the middle part of the middle and the third fingers — not the palm — 
 directly over the spot in which the pulsation of the heart is felt. 
 [See Fig. 56.] 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 DESIGNED FOR PRACTICAL EXERCISE 
 
 IN 
 
 JBeclamatton, 
 
 CONSISTING OF A DEBATE ON THE CHARACTER OP 
 
 JULIUS CiESAR. 
 By James Sheridan KLnowles* 
 
 1st Speaker, {Chairman.)'— Gentlemen, 
 
 You have assembled to discuss the propriety of calling 
 Caesar a Great Man. I promise myself much satisfaction 
 from your debate. I promise myself the pleasure of 
 hearing many ingenious arguments on each side of the 
 question. I promise myself the gratification of witness- 
 ing a contest, maintained with animation, good humor, 
 and courtesy. 
 
 You are assembled, Gentlemen, to discuss the merits of 
 a man, whose actions are connected with some of the most 
 interesting events in Roman story. You have given the 
 subject due consideration. — You come prepared for the 
 contest; and I shall not presume to offer any opinion, 
 respecting the ground which either side ought to take. 
 My remarks shall be confined to the study of Oratory — 
 and, allow me to say, I consider Oratory to be the second 
 end of our academic labors, of which the first end is, tc 
 render us enlightened, useful, and virtuous. 
 7 
 
74 APPENDIX. 
 
 The principal means of communicating our ideas are 
 two — speech and writing. The former is the parent of 
 the latter ; it is the more important, and its highest efforts 
 are called — Oratory. 
 
 If we consider the very early period at which we be- 
 gin to exercise the faculty of speech, and the frequency 
 with which we exercise it, it must be a subject of surprise 
 that so few excel in Oratory. In any enlightened com- 
 munity, you will find numbers who are highly skilled in 
 some particular art or science, to the study of which they 
 did not apply themselves, till they had almost arrived at 
 the stage of manhood. Yet, with regard to the powers 
 of speech — those powers which the very second year of 
 our existence generally calls into action, the exercise of 
 which goes on at our sports, our studies, our walks, our 
 very meals ; and which is never long suspended, except at 
 the hour of refreshing sleep — with regard to those powers, 
 how few surpass their fellow-creatures of common infor- 
 mation and moderate attainments! how very few deserve 
 distinction! — how rarely does one attain to eminence! 
 
 The causes are various; but we must not attempt, here, 
 to investigate them. By doing so, we might alarm many 
 a formidable adversary ; we might excite a suspicion that 
 we wished to undermine the foundations of modern litera- 
 ture; although our only aim should be to render them 
 sound and durable, and to despoil the edifice of a few 
 monastic features, that mar the harmony, and take from 
 the general effect of the structure. 
 
 I shall simply state, that one cause of our not generally 
 excelling in Oratory is — our neglecting to cultivate the 
 
APPENDIX. 75 
 
 art of speaking — of speaking our own language. We 
 acquire the power of expressing our ideas, almost insensi- 
 bly — we consider it as a thing that is natural to us; we 
 do not regard it as an art — it is an art — a difficult art — 
 an intricate art — and our ignorance of that circumstance, 
 or our omitting to give it due consideration, is the cause 
 of our deficiency. 
 
 In the infant, just beginning to articulate, you will ob- 
 serve every inflection that is recognised in the most accu- 
 rate treatise on elocution — you will observe, further, an 
 exact proportion in its several cadences, and a speaking 
 expression in its tones. I say, you will observe these 
 things in almost every infant. Select a dozen men — men 
 of education — erudition — ask them to read a piece of ani- 
 mated composition — you will be fortunate if you find one 
 in the dozen, that can raise or depress his voice — inflect 
 or modulate it, as the variety of the subject requires. 
 What has become of the inflections, the cadences, and the 
 modulation of the infant ? They have not been exercised 
 — they have been neglected — -they have never been put 
 into the hands of the artist, that he might apply them to 
 their proper use- — they have been laid aside, spoiled, 
 abused ; and, ten to one, they will never be good for any 
 thing ! 
 
 Oratory is highly useful to him that excels in it. In 
 common conversation, observe the advantage which the 
 fluent speaker enjoys over the man that hesitates, and 
 stumbles in discourse. With half his information, he has 
 twice his importance; he commands the respect of his 
 auditors ; he instructs and gratifies them. In the general 
 
76 APPENDIX. 
 
 transactions of business, the same superiority attends him. 
 He communicates his views with clearness, precision, and 
 effect ; he carries his point by his mere readiness ; he con- 
 cludes his treaty before another kind of man would have 
 well set about it. Does he plead the cause of friendship? 
 —how happy is his friend! Of charity? — how fortunate 
 is the distressed ! Should he enter the legislature of his 
 country, he approves himself the people's bulwark ! 
 
 That you will persevere in the pursuit of so useful a 
 study as that of Oratory, I confidently hope. 
 
 Gentlemen, the Question for debate is — 
 
 WAS CESAR A GREAT MAN? 
 
 2d Speaker. — Sir, I am unpractised in the orator's 
 art, nor can I boast that native energy of talent, which 
 asks not the tempering of experience, but, by its single 
 force, effects what seems the proper achievement of labors 
 and of years. Let me then hope that you will excel in 
 favor, as much as I shall fall short in merit. 
 
 *Was Caesar a great man?' — What revolution has 
 taken place in the first appointed government of the uni- 
 verse — What new and opposite principle has begun to 
 direct the operations of nature — What refutation of their 
 long-established precepts has deprived reason of her 
 sceptre, and virtue of her throne, that a character which 
 forms the noblest theme that ever merit gave to fame, 
 should now become a question for debate ? 
 
 No painter of human excellence, if he would draw the 
 features of that hero's character, needs study a favorable 
 light, or striking attitude. In every posture, it has majesty j 
 
APPENDIX. 77 
 
 and the lineaments of its beauty are prominent in every 
 point of view. Do you ask me, * Had Caesar genius?' — 
 He was an orator ! * Had Caesar judgment ? ' — he was 
 a politician ! ' Had Caesar valor ? ' — he was a conqueror ! 
 'Had Caesar feeling? ' — He was a friend! 
 
 It is a generally received opinion, that uncommon 
 circumstances make uncommon men — Caesar was an un- 
 common man, in common ^circumstances. The colossal 
 mind commands your admiration, no less in the pirate's 
 captive, than in the victor of Pharsalia. Who, but the 
 first of his race, could have made vassals of his savage 
 masters, mocked them into reverence of his superior 
 nature, and threatened, with security, the power that held 
 him at its mercy? Of all the striking incidents of Caesar's 
 life* had history preserved for us but this single one, it 
 would have been sufficient to make us fancy all the rest; 
 at least we should have said, 'Such a man was born to 
 conquest, and to empire ! ' 
 
 To expatiate on Caesar's powers of oratory, would only 
 be to add one poor eulogium to the testimony of the first 
 historians. Cicero, himself, grants him the palm of al- 
 most pre-eminent merit, and seems at a loss for words to 
 express his admiration of him. His voice was musical, 
 his delivery energetic, his language chaste and rich, ap- 
 propriate and peculiar. And it is well presumed, that, 
 had he studied the art of public speaking, with as much 
 industry as he studied the art of war, he would have been 
 the first of orators, duintilian says, he would have been 
 the only man capable of combating Cicero; but, granting 
 
78 APPENDIX. 
 
 them to have been equal in ability, what equal contest 
 could the timid Cicero — whose nerves fail him, and whose 
 tongue falters, when the forum glitters with arms — what 
 equal contest could he have held with the man, whose 
 vigor chastised the Belgse, and annihilated the Nervii, 
 that maintained their ground till they were hewn to 
 pieces on the spot ! 
 
 His abilities as a master of composition were undoubt- 
 edly of the first order. How admirable is the structure 
 of his Commentaries! what perspicuity and animation 
 are there in the details f You fancy yourself upon the 
 field of action f You follow the development of his plans 
 with the liveliest curiosity! — You look on with unwea- 
 ¥ied attention, as he fortifies his camp,, or invests his 
 enemy, or crosses the impetuous torrent ! — You behold 
 his legions, as they move forward,, from different points, 
 to the line, of battle — you hear the shout of the onset, and 
 the crash of the encounter; and, breathless with suspense, 
 mark every fluctuation of the awful tide of war ! 
 
 As a politician, how consummate was his address ! — 
 How grand his projections ! — How happy the execution 
 of his measures I He compels the vanquished Helvetii to 
 rebuild their towns and villages; making his enemies the 
 guards, as it were, of his frontier. He captivates, by his 
 clemency, the Arverni, and the iEdui, winning to the 
 support of his arms the strength that had been employed 
 to overpower them. He governs his province with such 
 equity and wisdom, as add a milder, but a fairer lustre to 
 his glory ; and, by their fame, prepare the Roman people 
 for his happy yoke. Upon the very eve of his rupture 
 
APPENDIX. 79 
 
 with Pompey, he sends back, on demand, the borrowed 
 legions, covering with rewards the soldiers that may no 
 longer serve him, and whose weapons, on the morrow, 
 may be turned against his breast — presenting here a 
 noble example of his respect of right, and of that mag. 
 nanimity, which maintains that gratitude should not cease, 
 though benefits are discontinued. When he reigns sole 
 master of the Roman world, how temperate is his triumph I 
 —how scrupulous his respect for the very forms of the 
 laws! — He discountenances the profligacy of the patri- 
 cians, and endeavors to preserve the virtue of the state, 
 by paying wholesome restraints upon luxury. He en- 
 courages the arts and sciences, patronizes genius and 
 talents, respects religion and justice, and puts in practice 
 every means that can contribute to the welfare, the happi- 
 ness, and the stability of the empire. 
 
 To you, Sir, who are so fully versed in the page of his- 
 tory, it must be unnecessary to recount the military exploits 
 of Caesar. Why should I compel your attention to follow 
 him, for the hundredth time, ^through hostile myriads, 
 yielding, at every encounter, to the force of his invincible 
 arms. Full often, Sir, have your calculations hesitated to 
 credit the celerity of his marches; your belief recoiled at 
 the magnitude of his operations; and your wonder re-pe- 
 rused the detail of his successive victories, following upon 
 the shouts of one another. As a captain, he was the first 
 of warriors ; nor were his valor and skill more admirable 
 than his abstinence and watchfulness — his disregard of 
 ease and his endurance of labor — his moderation and his 
 mercy. Perhaps, indeed* this last quality forms the most 
 
80 APPENDIX. 
 
 prominent feature in his character; and proves, by the 
 consequences of its excess, that virtue itself requires re- 
 straint, and has its proper bounds, which it ought not to 
 exceed ; for Caesar's moderation was his ruin ! 
 
 That Caesar had a heart susceptible of friendship, and 
 alive to the finest touches of humanity, is unquestionable. 
 Why does he attempt so often to avert the storm of civil 
 war ? — Why does he pause so long upon the brink of the 
 Rubicon ? — Why does he weep when he beholds the head 
 of his unfortunate rival ?— -Why does he delight in par- 
 doning his enemies— even those very men that had de- 
 serted him ? 
 
 It seems as if he lived the lover of mankind, and fell — 
 as the Bard expresses it — vanquished, not so much by 
 the weapons, as by the ingratitude of his murderers. 
 
 If, Sir, a combination of the most splendid talents for 
 war, with the most sacred love of peace — of the most illus- 
 trious public virtue, with the most endearing private 
 worth — of the most unyielding courage, with the most ac- 
 cessible moderation, may constitute a great man — that title 
 must be Caesar's [ 
 
 3d Speaker.- — No change, Sir, has taken place in 
 the first appointed government of the universe — the opera- 
 tions of nature acknowledge, now, the same principle that 
 they did in the beginning — reason still holds her sceptre-, 
 virtue still fills her throne, and the epithet of great does 
 not belong to Caesar ! 
 
 I would lay it down, Sir, as an unquestionable position, 
 that the worth of talents is to be estimated only by the use 
 
APPENDIX. 81 
 
 we make of them. If we employ them in the cause of 
 virtue, their value is great. — If we employ them in the 
 cause of vice, they are less than worthless — they are per- 
 nicious and vile. Now, Sir, let us examine Caesar's 
 talents by this principle, and we shall find, that, neither 
 as an orator, nor as a politician — neither as a warrior 
 nor as a friend — was Caesar a great man. 
 
 If I were asked, * What was the first, the second, and 
 the last principle of the virtuous mind ? ' I should reply, 
 * It was the love of country.' Sir, it is the love of parent, 
 brother, friend ! — the love of man ! — the love of honor, 
 virtue, and religion ! — the love of every good and vir- 
 tuous deed ! — I say, Sir, if I were asked> * What was the 
 first, the second, and the last principle of the virtuous 
 mind ? ' I should reply, * It was the love of country I ' 
 Without it, man is the basest of his kind ! — a selfish, 
 cunning, narrow speculator! — a trader in the dearest 
 interests of his species ! — reckless of every tie of nature 
 — sentiment — affection ! — a Marius — a Sylla — a Crassus 
 — a Catiline — a Caesar ! What, Sir, was Caesar's oratory? 
 — How far did it prove him to be actuated by the love of 
 country? It justified, for political interest, the invader 
 of his domestic honor! — -sheltered the incendiary! — abet- 
 ted treason !- — flattered the people into their own undoing! 
 — assailed the liberties of his country, and bawled into 
 silence every virtuous patriot that struggled to uphold 
 them! He would have been a greater orator than 
 Cicero ! I question the assertion — I deny that it is cor- 
 rect ! — He would have been a greater orator than Cicero ! 
 — Well ! let it pass — he might have been a greater orator* 
 
82 APPENDIX. 
 
 but he never could have been so great a man. Which 
 way soever he had directed his talents, the same inordi- 
 nate ambition would have led to the same results ; and, 
 had he devoted himself to the study of oratory, his tongue 
 had produced the same effects as his sword, and equally 
 desolated the human kingdom. 
 
 But Caesar is to be admired as a politician! I do not 
 pretend to define the worthy speaker's idea of a politician ; 
 but I shall attempt, Mr. Chairman, to put you in possession 
 of mine. By a politician, I understand a man who 
 studies the laws of prudence and of justice, as they are 
 applicable to the wise and happy government of a people, 
 and the reciprocal obligations of states. Now, Sir, how 
 far was Caesar to be admired as a politician 1 He makes 
 war upon the innocent Spaniards, that his military talents 
 may not suffer from inaction. This was a ready way to 
 preserve the peace of his province, and to secure its loyalty 
 and affection. That he may be recorded as the first 
 Roman that had ever crossed the Rhine in a hostile man- 
 ner, he invades the unoffending Germans, lays waste their 
 territories with fire, and plunders and sacks the country 
 of the Sicambri and the Suevi. Here was a noble policy ! 
 — that planted in the minds of a brave and formidable 
 people, the fatal seeds of that revenge and hatred, which 
 finally assisted in accomplishing the destruction of the 
 Roman empire ! In short, Sir, Caesar's views were not 
 of that enlarged nature, which could entitle him to the 
 name of a great politician ; for he studied, not the happi- 
 ness and interests of a community, but merely his own; 
 
APPENDIX. 83 
 
 advancement, which he accomplished— by violating the 
 laws, and destroying the liberties, of his country. 
 
 That Cses.ar was a great conqueror, I do not care to 
 dispute. His admirers are welcome to all the advantages 
 that result from such a position. I will not subtract one 
 victim from the hosts that perished for his fame, or abate, 
 by a single groan, the sufferings of his vanquished ene- 
 mies, from his first great battle in Gaul, to his last victory 
 under the walls of Munda ; but I will avow it to be my 
 opinion, that the character of a great conqueror does r not 
 necessarily constitute that of a great man ; nor can the 
 recital of Caesar's many victories produce any other im- 
 pression upon my mind, than what proceeds from the 
 contemplation of those convulsions of the earth, which, in 
 a moment inundate with ruin, the plains of fertility and 
 the abodes of peace ; or, at one shock, convert whole cities 
 into the graves of their living population ! 
 
 But Caesar's munificence, his clemency, his moderation 
 and his affectionate nature, constitute him a great man ! 
 What was his munificence, his clemency, or his modera- 
 tion ? — The automaton of his ambition! It knew no 
 aspiration from the Deity. It was a thing from the hands 
 of a mechanician! — an ingenious mockery of nature ! Its 
 action seemed spontaneous — its look argued a soul — but 
 all the virtue lay in the finger of the operator. He could 
 possess no real munificence, moderation, or clemency, 
 who ever expected his gifts to be doubled by return — who 
 never abstained, but with a view to excess ; nor spared, 
 but for the indulgence of rapacity. 
 
 Of the same nature, Sir, were his affections. He was, 
 
84 APPENDIX. 
 
 indeed, a man of exquisite artifice ; but the deformity of 
 his character was too prominent — no dress could 
 thoroughly hide it; nay, Sir, the very attempt to conceal, 
 served only to discover, the magnitude of the distortion. 
 He atones to the violated and murdered laws, by doing 
 homage to their manes ; and expiates the massacre of 
 thousands, by dropping a tear or two into an ocean of 
 blood ! 
 
 4th Speaker. — Sir, to form an accurate idea of Caesar's 
 character, it is necessary that we should consider the na* 
 ture of the times in which he lived ; for the conduct of 
 public men cannot be duly estimated, without a knowledge 
 of k the circumstances under which they have acted. The 
 happiness of a community resembles the health of the 
 body. As it is not always the same regimen that can 
 preserve, or the same medicine that can restore, the latter; 
 so the former is not always to be maintained by the same 
 measures, or recovered by the same corrections. There 
 was a time, when kingly power had grown to so enor- 
 mous an excess, as rendered its abolition necessary for 
 the salvation of the Roman people, Let us examine 
 whether the times in which Caesar lived, did not call for, 
 and justify, the measures which he adopted — whether the 
 liberty of the republic had not degenerated into such a 
 state of anarchy, as rendered it expedient that the power 
 of the empire should be vested in one man, whose influ- 
 ence and talents could command party, and control faction. 
 
 The erroneous ideas that we have formed concerning 
 Roman liberty, have induced us to pass a severe judgment 
 
APPENDIX. 85 
 
 on the actions of many an illustrious man. The admirers 
 of that liberty will not expect to be told that it was little 
 better than a name. True liberty, Sir, could never have 
 been enjoyed by a people who were the slaves of continual 
 tumults and cabals, whose magistrates were the mere 
 echoes of a crowd, and among whom virtue itself had no 
 protection from popular caprice or state intrigue. By 
 the term liberty, I understand a freedom from all respon- 
 sibility, except what morality, virtue, and religion, impose. 
 That is the only liberty which is consonant with the true 
 interest of man — the only liberty that renders his associa- 
 tion with his fellow, permanent and happy — the only lib- 
 erty that places him in a peaceful, honorable, and pros- 
 perous community — the only liberty that makes him the 
 son of a land that he would inhabit till his death, and the 
 subject of a state that he would defend with his property 
 and his blood ! All other liberty is but a counterfeit — the 
 stamp a cheat, and the metal base — turbulence — insolence 
 — licentiousness — party ferment — selfish domination — an- 
 archy — such anarchy as needed more than mortal talents 
 to restrain it ; and found them in a Caesar, 
 
 I hold it to be an unquestionable position, that they who 
 duly appreciate the blessings of liberty, revolt as much 
 from the idea of exercising, as from that of enduring, op- 
 pression. How far this was the case with the Romans, 
 you may inquire of those nations that surrounded them. 
 Ask them, ' What insolent guard paraded before their 
 gates, and invested their strong holds?' They will answer, 
 * A Roman legionary. 5 Demand of them, * What greedy 
 8 
 
86 APPENDIX. 
 
 extortioner fattened by their' poverty, and clothed himself 
 by their nakedness ] ' They will inform you, • A Roman 
 Quaestor.' Inquire of them, * What imperious stranger 
 issued to them his mandates of imprisonment or confisca- 
 tion, of banishment or death ? ' They will reply to you, 
 * A Roman Consul.' Question them, * What haughty con- 
 queror led through his city their nobles and kings in 
 chains, and exhibited their countrymen, by thousands, 
 in gladiators' shows for the amusement of his fellow 
 citizens ? ' They will tell you, ' A Roman General.' 
 Require of them, * What tyrants imposed the heaviest 
 yoke — enforced the most rigid exactions — inflicted the 
 most savage punishments, and showed the greatest gust 
 for blood and torture ? ' They will exclaim to you, * The 
 Roman people.' 
 
 Yes, Sir, that people, so jealous of what they called 
 their liberties, to gratify an insatiate thirst for conquest, 
 invaded the liberties of every other nation ; and on what 
 spot soever they set their tyrant foot, the fair and happy 
 soil of the freeman withered at their stamp! But the re- 
 tributive justice of Heaven ordained that their rapacity 
 should be the means of its own punishment. As their 
 territories extended, their armies required to be enlarged, 
 and their campaigns became protracted. Hence the citi- 
 zen lost in the camp that independence which he had 
 been taught in the city ; and, being long accustomed to 
 obey, implicitly, the voice of his general, from having been 
 sent forth the hope, returned the terror of his country. 
 Hence, Sir, their generals forgot, in foreign parts, the re- 
 publican principles which they had imbibed in the forum ; 
 
APPENDIX. 87 
 
 and, long habituated to unlimited command, from being 
 despots abroad, learned to be traitors at home. Hence, 
 Sir, Marius returned the salutations of his fellow-citizens 
 with the daggers of assassins ; and, with cool ferocity, 
 marched to the Capitol, amidst the groans of his butchered 
 countrymen, expiring on each side of him. Hence Sylla's 
 bloody proscription, that turned Rome into a shambles — 
 that tore its victims from the altars of the gods — that made 
 it death for a man to shelter a person proscribed, though 
 it were his son, his brother, or his father ; and never suf- 
 fered the executioners to take breath, till senators, knights, 
 and citizens, to the number of nine thousand, had been 
 inhumanly murdered ! 
 
 Such, Sir, were the events that characterized the times 
 in which Cassar lived. To such atrocities were the Ro- 
 man people subject, while the rivalry of their leading men 
 was at liberty to create divisions in the state. Had you. 
 Sir, lived in those times, what would you have called the 
 man, that would have stepped forward to secure your 
 country against the repetition of those horrid scenes % 
 Would you not have styled him a friend to his country — 
 a benefactor to the world — a great man — a demi-god ? 
 Was not Cassar such a character? Observe what use he 
 makes of power. — He does not employ it to gratify re- 
 venge, or to awe his countrymen : on the contrary, the 
 whole of his conduct encourages confidence and freedom ; 
 while he reforms the government, and enacts the wisest 
 laws for the preservation of [order, and for the happiness 
 of the community. They who object to the character of 
 Ca3sar, condemn it, principally, upon the score of his 
 
88 APPENDIX. 
 
 having erected himself into the sole governor of the re- 
 public ; but let it be remembered, that the happiness of a 
 state does not depend so much upon the form of its govern- 
 ment, as upon the manner in which that government is 
 administered. A country might be as prosperous and 
 free under what was anciently called a tyranny, as where 
 the chief power was vested in the people. 
 
 In short, Sir, when Caesar created himself dictator, and 
 thereby destroyed, virtually, the republican form of gov- 
 ernment, he usurped no more than the people did, when 
 they erected themselves into a republic, and thereby de- 
 stroyed the monarchy; and the existing circumstances 
 which rendered the act of the latter expedient, were not 
 more urgent than those which gave rise to the conduct of 
 the former. 
 
 Caesar, Sir, was a great man ! 
 
 5th Speaker. — Caesar, Sir, was not a great man. He 
 who, for his own private views, disobeyed the order of the 
 senate, from whom he held his power — he who seduced 
 from their duty the soldiers whom he commanded in 
 trust for the republic — he who passed the Rubicon, 
 though, by that step, he knew he must inundate his coun- 
 try with blood — he who plundered the public treasury, 
 that he might indulge a selfish and rapacious ambition — 
 he against whom the virtuous Cato ranked himself, whose 
 very mercy the virtuous Cato deemed a dishonor to which 
 death was preferable,— was not a great man, 
 
 * Caesar erected himself into a tyrant, that he might pre- 
 vent a repetition of those atrocities which had been com- 
 
APPENDIX. 89 
 
 mittedby Marias and Sylla ! ' What does the gentleman 
 mean by such an assertion? Caesar pursues the same 
 measures that Marius and Sylla did — why?— To prevent 
 the recurrence of the effects which those measures pro- 
 duced } He keeps his eye steadfastly upon them — follows 
 them in the same track — treads in their very foot-prints — 
 w T hy ? That he may arrive at a different point of destina- 
 tion! What flimsy arguments are these! What were 
 Sylla and Marius, that Caesar was not ? If they were 
 ambitious, was not he ambitious ? If they were treach- 
 erouSj was not he treacherous ? If they rebelled, did not 
 he rebel? If they usurped, did not he usurp? If they 
 were tyrants, was not he a tyrant % 
 
 You were told — the people, from their long-continued 
 service in the army, gradually lost the spirit of independ- 
 ence, and that the calamities of the state arose from that 
 cause. Granted. — It follows, then, that a spirit of independ- 
 ence was necessary for the prosperity of the state; and, 
 consequently, that the way to put a stop to its calamities^ 
 was to revive that spirit. Did Caesar do this ? The gen- 
 tleman says, he had the happiness of his country at heart. 
 From his own argument, it follows, that this was the way 
 to secure the happiness of his country. Did Caesar 
 adopt it ? Was it to revive in his countrymen the spirit 
 of independence, that he audaciously stepped from the 
 rank of their servant to that of their master ? Was it to 
 preserve the integrity which fosters that spirit, that he 
 corrupted the virtue of all that came in contact with him, 
 and that he dared to tempt ? Was it for the regeneration. 
 
90 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 of the republic that he converted it into a tyranny ? Was 
 it to restore the government to its ancient health and 
 soundness, that he filled all the offices of the state with his 
 own creatures, the instruments of his usurpation? Was it 
 to reanimate the people with a sense of their own dignity, 
 that he called them Bruti and Cumcei — that is, beasts and 
 fools — when they applauded the tribunes for having strip- 
 ped his statues of the royal diadems with which his flatter- 
 ers had dressed them ? These were the acts of Caesar. 
 Did they tend to restore the ancient virtue of the Roman 
 people? No, Sir; they tended to annihilate the chance of 
 its restoration — to sink the people into a viler abasement 
 — to rob them of the very names of men. 
 
 But the gentleman has brought forward a very curious 
 argument, for the purpose of proving that the Romans 
 were incapable of being a free people — namely, that their 
 magistrates were the mere echoes of the people. He ad- 
 verts, I suppose, to what were called the tribunes of the 
 people — officers that acted particularly for the plebeian 
 orders, and were generally chosen from their body. But 
 those magistrates, or tribunes, were, it seems, the mere 
 voices of the people, and that circumstance rendered the 
 people incapable of being free! To me, at least, this is a 
 paradox. Who elected these tribunes? — The people. 
 What were they? — The representatives of the people. 
 Whose affairs did they manage ? — The affairs of the peo- 
 ple. To whom were they responsible? — The people. 
 What should they have been, then, but the voices, or, as 
 the gentleman has expressed it, the echoes of the people? 
 But this circumstance rendered the Roman people incapa- 
 
APPENDIX. yl 
 
 ble of being free! Did it shackle them to have a control 
 over their tribunes ? Did it enslave them to have a voice 
 in their own measures? Did it sell them into bondage to 
 have the disposal of their own affairs? If it did, I should 
 advise you, Sir, not to meddle w r ith that honest man, your 
 steward. Bid him let what farms he pleases; demand 
 what fines he pleases; cultivate what land he pleases; fell 
 what timber he pleases ; keep what accounts he pleases ; 
 and make what returns he pleases; lest, by impertinently 
 meddling with your servant, in your own affairs, you rob 
 yourself — ruin your estate — become involved in debt — 
 and end your days in pris,onL 
 
 The admirers of Caesar, and, of course, of that form of 
 government which was anciently called a tyranny, are ex- 
 tremely fond of under-rating the character of the Romans, 
 as a free people : their liberty they always represent to 
 us, as something bordering on excess; and, following the 
 idea that extremes meet, they describe it as verging into 
 that extreme which naturally leads to despotism. But 
 the hypothesis, which is not borne out by facts, is good 
 for nothing. It was not the liberty which the plebeians 
 enjoyed, that was the cause of their final enslavement. It 
 was the senate's jealousy of that liberty — the senate's 
 struggles for the control of that liberty — the senate's 
 plunder of that liberty — the senate's desire to annihilate 
 that liberty, which left it in the power of any crafty 
 knave, miscalled a great man, who was sufficiently mas- 
 ter of hypocrisy and daring, to set his foot on both the 
 senate ^and the people, and make himself, as Caesar did, 
 the tyrant of his country !: 
 
92 APPENDIX. 
 
 6th Speaker. — It is not, Mr. Chairman, my present 
 object to answer the arguments which have been so ably 
 brought forward to support the negative of this question. 
 I rise, to submit a few observations upon the nature of 
 the question itself. I take the liberty of stating, that I 
 think it an injudiciously selected question — a vague and 
 indefinite question — a question which does not receive 
 from every mind the same interpretation. I dare assert, 
 Mr. Chairman, that, in this very assembly, there are 
 various different opinions with respect to what constitutes 
 a great man. Some will tell you, that greatness consists 
 in rank — some, in exploits — some, in talents — some, in 
 virtue. Thus, Sir, the very premises of our discussion 
 are unsettled and wavering; and, from unsettled and 
 wavering premises, what can proceed, but indefinite and 
 inconclusive arguments. Already do the gentlemen on 
 the opposite side endeavor to strain your question to the 
 construction, that greatness essentially consists in good- 
 ness ; and they may quote Mr. Pope, and say, ''Tis 
 phrase absurd to call a villain great.' Others, again, may 
 insist, that greatness depends upon rank, and exclaim 
 with Milton, ' Worthiest, by being good, far more than 
 great or high.' Where are we to rest, Sir, upon this 
 doubtful basis? — this 'neither sea nor good dryland!' 
 I confess, Mr. Chairman, that, until this point shall have 
 been disposed of, I cannot hope for an end to the debate, 
 and, therefore, propose, as an amendment, that previously 
 to the farther discussion of the question, we shall deter- 
 mine, * w T hat it is that constitutes a great man, ' 
 
APPENDIX. 93 
 
 7th Speaker. — Mr. Chairman, I object to the amend- 
 ment, on- two grounds; first, because it is indecorous, with 
 regard to you; secondly, because it is uncalled for, with 
 regard to the question. Your experience, Sir, could 
 never have allowed you to propose a question that re- 
 quired revision; and had you proposed such a question, 
 it would have been our duty to receive without comment. 
 The question in point does not require revision. You 
 do not ask, if Caesar was a great warrior, or a great poli- 
 tician; but, if he was a great man. Surely, Sir : . in these 
 enlightened times, we do not inquire what it is that consti- 
 tutes a great man. Do we not refuse the name of man to 
 him that violates the laws of morality and religion? And, 
 if we wish to express that a person is eminently virtuous, 
 do we not use that name without a single epithet ? To 
 say of any one that he is a man, is to give him credit for 
 the noblest endowments of the heart. To say that he is 
 not a man, is to leave him destitute of any generous prin- 
 ciple. The question cannot be viewed in any light but 
 one, namely, as inquiring whether Caesar was a man of 
 great virtues, and justifiable conduct? If he was so, our 
 opposition will be fruitless — if he was not so, those gen- 
 tlemen exert their eloquence to little purpose. 
 
 Upon what ground are we to acknowledge that Caesar 
 was a great man ? For my part, I am at a loss to ac- 
 count for the infatuation of those who call him so; for his 
 chief merit seems to have consisted in his talents as a 
 warrior; and those talents he certainly employed in a 
 cause that cannot be defended upon any principle of mo- 
 rality or religion. What species of beings are we, that 
 
94 APPENDIX. 
 
 we laud to the skies those men whose names live in the 
 recollection of a field of carnage, a sacked town, or a 
 stormed citadel?— that we celebrate, at our convivial 
 meetings, the exploits of him, who, in a single day, has 
 more than trebled the ordinary havoc of death? that our 
 wives and daughters weave garlands for the brow whose 
 sweat has cost the groans of widows and of orphans ? — 
 and that our very babes are taught to twine the arms of 
 innocence and purity about the knees that have been used 
 to wade in blood? — I say, what species of beings are we, 
 that we give our praise, our admiration, and our love, to 
 that which reason, religion, interest, every consideration 
 should persuade us to condemn — to avoid — to abhor ! 
 
 I do not mean to say that war Ought never to be waged 
 — there are, at times, occasions when it is expedient — 
 necessary, justifiable. But who celebrates with songs of 
 triumph those commotions of the elements that call the 
 awful lightning into action — that hurl the inundating 
 clouds to earth — and send the winds into the deep to 
 rouse its horrors ? These things are necessary ; but we 
 hail them not with shouts of exultation ; we do not clap 
 our hands as they pass by us ; we do not throng in crowds 
 to their processions ; we shudder as we behold them ! 
 What-species of beings are we ? We turn with disgust 
 from the sight of the common executioner, who, in his 
 time, has despatched a score or two of victims — and we 
 press to the heels of him, that in a single day, has been 
 the executioner of thousands ! 
 
 Let us not call Csesar a great man, because he was a 
 great warrior. If we must admire him, let us seek some 
 
other warrant for our applauses than what proceeds from 
 the groans and writhings of humanity! 
 
 Let us, then, Sir, first examine his youth — and here 
 we are struck with his notable adventure with the pirates. 
 These freebooters took him, as he was sailing to Rhodes ; 
 they asked twenty talents for his ransom ; and, in derision 
 of their moderation, he promised them fifty — the onus of 
 which act of liberality was borne by the honest Milesians, 
 who raised the money by a voluntary tax. He spent 
 thirty-eight days with those pirates; joined in their diver- 
 sions ; took his exercises among them ; wrote poems and 
 orations, which he rehearsed to them, and which, indeed, 
 pirates as they were, they did not admire; and, in short, 
 lived among them with as much security, ease, and honor, 
 as if he had been in Rome. And what was the sequel ? 
 His ransom arrives ; they keep their compact ; set him at 
 liberty: he departs ; arrives at Miletus ; mans some vessels 
 in the port of that place ; returns ; attacks these same 
 pirates ; takes the greater number of them prisoners, and 
 crucifies them, to a man ! # 
 
 Was this a great act in Caesar? True ! he had promised 
 to do so, when they showed no great relish for the songs 
 and speeches which he had written among them ; but, 
 should he have kept his promise? True! they were a ban- 
 ditti, — they had deprived him of his liberty ; — but he had 
 eaten at their board; he had partaken of their diversions; 
 he had slept among them in sacred security; he had rail- 
 ed at them without retort; threatened them, and only ex- 
 cited delight at his freedoms; — should he, Mr. Chairman, 
 have crucified them ? crucified them, to a man ? Was 
 
96 APWNTH^ 
 
 there not one t at least, he might have spared ? one bluff 
 face, whose humor and confidence had pleased him above 
 the rest? one hand, whose blunt officiousness he more 
 particularly remembered? Oh! Mr. Chairman, do we 
 admire the attachment which a wild beast displays towards 
 its attentive keeper; do we applaud that sacred and 
 general principle of nature, which allows kindness to 
 obliterate the sense of injury; and shall we give our sanc- 
 tion, praise, and admiration, to this exploit of Caesar's? 
 
 What do we find him next about? He produces the 
 images of Marius ! that man, who, as my worthy friend 
 has said, returned the salutations of his fellow-citizens 
 with the blows of his assassins ; and marched to the 
 Capitol amidst the groans of his butchered countrymen, 
 expiring on each side of him. This was not follow- 
 ing the steps of Marius; it was justifying them ; it was 
 expatiating upon them, in the language of veneration and 
 triumph ! it w r as inviting to the standard of his ambition 
 every recreant that would sell the vigor of his arm to any 
 cause, na matter how bloody, how unnatural, how im- 
 moral, how sacrilegious? 
 
 I shall not comment upon the circumstance of his 
 having been two hundred and fifty thousand pounds in 
 debt, before he obtained any public office ; neither shall I 
 dwell upon his exhibition of three hundred and twenty 
 pair of gladiators ; his diversions in the theatre ; his pro- 
 cessions and entertainments — in which, as Plutarch says, 
 he far outshone the most ambitious that had gone before 
 him, and by which he courted the favor of the vile, the 
 witless, the sensual, and the venal. I shall not expatiate 
 
APPENDIX. 97 
 
 upon the share he had in Catiline's conspiracy ; I shall 
 not track him in his military career, hy pointing out the 
 ruin which he left behind him at every step: I shall sim- 
 ply answer those gentlemen*, who argue, that Caesar 
 usurped the supreme power for the public good, by ex* 
 amining the characters of the men who abetted him. 
 
 Were your country, Sir, in a state of anarchy; were it 
 distracted by the struggles of rival parties, drawn out, 
 every now and then in arms against one another ; and 
 were you, Sir, to attempt a reformation of manners, what 
 qualifications would you require in the men, whom you 
 would associate with you in such an undertaking? What 
 would content you? Talent? No! Enterprise I No! 
 Courage? No! Reputation? No! Virtue? No! The 
 men whom you would select, should possess, not one, but 
 all of these ; nor, yet, should that content you. They 
 must be proved men; tested men; men that had, again 
 and again, passed through the ordeal of human tempta- 
 tion, without a scar, without a blemish, without a speck! 
 You would not inquire out the man who was oppressed 
 with debts, contracted by licentiousness, debauchery, every 
 species of profligacy! Who, Sir, I ask, were Caesar's 
 seconds in his undertaking? Crebonius Curio, one of 
 the most vicious and debauched young men in Rome ; a 
 creature of Pompey's, bought off by the illustrious Caesar! 
 Marcus Antonius, a creature of that creature's; a young 
 man so addicted to every kind of dissipation, that he had 
 been driven from the paternal roof — the friend and coad- 
 jutor of that Clodius, who violated the mysteries of the 
 9 
 
98 APPENDIX. 
 
 Bona Dea, and drove into exile the man that had been 
 called the father of his country! Paulus iEmilius, a 
 patrician, a consul, a friend of Pompey's— bought off by 
 the great Csesar with a bribe of fifteen hundred talents ! 
 Such, Sir, were the abettors of Caesar. What, then, what 
 was Caesar's object 7 Do we select extortioners, to en- 
 force the laws of equity ? Do we make choice of profli- 
 gates, to guard the morals of society ? Do we depute 
 atheists, to preside over the rites of religion? What, I 
 say, was Caesar's object? I will not press the answer: I 
 need not press the answer; the premises of my argument 
 render it unnecessary. The achievement of great objects 
 does not belong to the vile; or of virtuous ones, to the 
 vicious ; or of religious ones, to the profane. Caesar did 
 not associate such characters with him for the good of 
 his country ; his object was the gratification of his own 
 ambition, the attainment of supreme power ; no matter by 
 what means accomplished ; no matter by what conse- 
 quences attended. He aspired to be the highest — above 
 the people ! above the authorities! above the laws ! above 
 his country ! and, in that seat of eminence he was con- 
 lent to sit, though, from the centre to the far horizon of 
 his power, his eyes could contemplate nothing but the 
 ruin and desolation by which he had reached to it ! 
 
 8th Speaker. — Mr. Chairman, I solicit your attention. 
 
 The gentleman says, we ought not to rejoice at the tri- 
 umphs of the warrior ! Is this position, Sir, to be received 
 without the least restriction ? Let us detect the sophistry 
 of those who support the negative of the question. 
 
APPENDIX. 99 
 
 A caitiff enters your house at the dead hour of the 
 night, prepared for robbery, and grasping the instrument 
 of murder ! You hear the tread of unknown feet — you 
 rise, come upon the intruder, resist him, and lay him pros- 
 trate! Shall your wife shudder, when you approach to 
 tell her she is safe? — Shall your children shrink from 
 you, when you say you have averted the danger that 
 threatened their innocent sleep ? Why should they not? 
 I'll tell you, Sir — because you have followed the dictates 
 of reason, of affection, of nature, and of God. Had you 
 not been alarmed — notwithstanding this imminent danger, 
 had you risen in safety, and had you found the ruffian 
 dead at your chamber-door, without a mark of violence 
 upon him — his ready weapon lying by his hand — had 
 you then called your family to behold the spectacle, what 
 would they all have done? Would not some have fallen 
 upon their knees? — would not others have stood with up- 
 lifted hands ? — would not all have been transfixed with 
 gratitude — w T ith adoration — -that their Almighty guard 
 had stretched his arm between them and destruction, and 
 marked a limit which the murderer should not pass, with- 
 out the penalty of death ? And is the question changed, 
 because you are the instrument of God ? It would be 
 preposterous to say so. If then, your wife, your children, 
 and family, shall bless the hand that has been the means 
 of their preservation — if they shall weep for gratitude, 
 and press to you on every side, rejoicing in the protection 
 of your arm — shall he not hear the voice of gratulation, 
 whose skill and valor have saved the lives of thousands — 
 have defended cities of matrons and children, not from un- 
 
iOO APPENDIX. 
 
 expected destruction, but from destruction, again and again 
 anticipated — approaching before their eyes, and, at every 
 step, acquiring additional horror? Sir, there are warriors, 
 whose victories should be celebrated with shouts and 
 songs — for whose brows our wives and daughters should 
 weave garlands, and whose knees our infants should em- 
 brace — such warriors as guard the boundaries of their 
 native land ! Though they have waded through blood, 
 fair is their aspect, Religion is the motto of their standard, 
 and Mercy glances from their sword. — And had not 
 Cassar been such a warrior? Who were the enemies 
 over whom he triumphed, before his rupture with Pom- 
 pey ? Barbarians, that lived by predatory warfare! — The 
 people whose ancestors had once sacked Rome ! — who 
 were the restless invaders of the Roman territory, and, in 
 one of their incursions, annihilated a consular army of a 
 hundred and twenty thousand men ! — a nation of robbers ! 
 — ignorant of the laws of arms — regardless of leagues and 
 treaties — the blood-hounds of havoc — that destroyed for 
 the mere gust of destroying ! 
 
 Hut a very curious attack has been made upon the 
 character of Caesar, namely that he put a few pirates to 
 death ! I question, if the worthy gentleman understands 
 what a pirate of those times signified. Probably, he con- 
 ceives him to have been a rough, honest, free, merry kind 
 of fellow, that loved a roving life, and indulged himself, 
 only now and then, in a little harmless plunder! He will 
 not expect to be told, that he was a man, enrolled in a 
 formidable band — possessing, at times, a fleet of a thousand 
 galleys — making frequent descents upon the Italian coasts; 
 
APPENDIX. 101 
 
 plundering villas — temples — and even towns ! — carrying 
 off consuls and their lictors ! — tearing virgins from the 
 arms of their aged parents ! — murdering in cold blood, the 
 prisoners whom they had taken, particularly Romans — 
 and spreading such terror over the seas, that no merchant- 
 vessel dared to put out of port, and large districts of the 
 empire were threatened with famine! Surely the gentle- 
 man must be ignorant of these facts; otherwise he would 
 not have chosen so untenable a position for attack. As to 
 Caesar's forgetting that the pirate had been his host, it 
 might indeed have been some ground for animadversion, 
 had he ever remembered that he was so. Some gentle- 
 men, truly, may be so much in love with hospitality, as 
 to admire it, though it should be forced upon them with 
 handcuffs and fetters ; and may have so curious a taste for 
 visiting, as never to go abroad, except upon the requisition 
 of a bailiff; or value an entertainment, unless the host 
 turns the key upon them, and feasts them in a dungeon 
 with walls a yard thick, and windows double-barred. 
 But, as such fancies cannot be called common, Caesar, I 
 think, may escape without censure for not having in- 
 dulged in them. 
 
 And Caesar is to be condemned, because he produced 
 the images of Marius, and revived his memory and hon- 
 ors ! Now, Sir, I conceive a weaker ground of accusa- 
 tion could not have been selected ; for the mere circum- 
 stance of Marius's having been related to Caesar by 
 marriage, presents a very natural excuse for such a pro- 
 ceeding — particularly as it took place upon the death of 
 9* 
 
102 APPENDIX. 
 
 Caesar's aunt, who was the wife of Marius. I fear the 
 worthy gentleman does not follow Bacon's recommenda- 
 tion, and chew and digest the nutritious food which 
 historical reading presents to the mind; otherwise, he 
 must have perceived that Caesar's conduct on this occa- 
 sion not only admitted of excuse, but even challenged 
 commendation. Let him return to the page which he 
 has examined, I fear, too superficially, and he will find, 
 that, up to that time, several of Sylla' s partisans — parti- 
 sans in his murders — remained in Rome — lived there, in 
 peace, in safety — perhaps in power : he will find the 
 general assertion, that Caesar's conduct in having revived 
 the memory of Marius, incensed the nobility; and the 
 particular assertion that Catulus accused him before the 
 senate. This Catulus had been the distinguished friend 
 of Sylla ; had been raised by Sylla to the consulship ; and, 
 at Sylla' s death, had preserved his remains from the de- 
 served dishonor of an ignominious burial ; had procured 
 him the most magnificent funeral that had ever been seen 
 in Rome, and caused the vestals and pontifices to sing 
 hymns in praise of the man, who, as it has been justly 
 said, converted Rome into a shambles, with his butche- 
 ries- ! ; — He will find that Caesar answered the invectives of 
 Catulus, and was acquitted with high applauses; and that 
 he, thereupon, attacked the remaining partisans of Sylla, 
 brought them to trial, and, having convicted such as had 
 imbrued their hands in the blood of their fellow-citizens, 
 caused them to be condemned to death, or to perpetual 
 banishment! 
 
APPENDIX. 103 
 
 Let us, Sir, do justice to the dead, though their interests 
 be parted from ours by the lapse of a hundred genera- 
 tions — and, as this noble act of Caesar's followed the re- 
 vival of his uncle's honors, let us believe that he revived 
 his uncle's honors for the purpose of performing this 
 noble act — that the memory of Sylla's enemy, being op- 
 posed to the memory of Sylla, might deprive it of that 
 power which gave impunity to murder, and guarded, 
 sacrilege from vengeance ! 
 
 As to the assertion, that Caesar's aims may be ascer- 
 tained by examining the character of those whom he 
 associated with him, it must go for nothing. The gen- 
 tleman must recollect that those very men had been the 
 abettors of Pompey — had been employed by Pompey— 
 ay ! and with the sanction of the senate — in carrying on 
 the measures which he adopted against Caesar. 
 
 Our cause may rest upon one single fact— Rome was 
 happy, prosperous, and honored, under Caesar's govern- 
 ment ; and I shall have the hardihood to assert, that he, 
 whose rule secures the happiness, prosperity, and glory 
 of a nation, deserves to rule it. 
 
 9th Speaker. — Sir, if you are not indebted to the 
 gentleman that has just addressed you, I am sure the 
 fault is not his. He has made you a present of a wife,, 
 and a fine thriving family, with all the happy et ceteras. 
 Allow me, Sir, to pay my compliments to you, in your 
 new character — allow me to congratulate you upon your 
 having escaped the bachelor's tax — allow me to give you 
 joy of a title, which becomes your grave deportment — 
 
104 APPENDIX. 
 
 which you wear with a peculiar grace — and which, I 
 fervently trust, you will wear long ! 
 
 Here, Mr. Chairman, I feel myself tolerably bold, for I 
 have a good cause, and that is more than half the battle — - 
 Sir, it is the whole of the battle — it is the victory itself; 
 for, though Truth should be repulsed a hundred times, 
 she will be triumphant at last. Defeated again, and 
 again, she returns unwearied, whole, and confident, to the 
 charge — because she is immortal! 
 
 * As easy may you the intrenchant air 
 
 With your keen sword impress, as make her bleed.' 
 
 But this kind of style does not belong to me, Mr. 
 Chairman. Unfortunately, I am a fellow so given to 
 jesting, that I am always thought to be most in jest, when 
 I appear to be serious ; therefore, Sir, I must talk to you 
 in my own way — catching at the ideas just as they pre- 
 sent themselves ; and giving them to you without exam- 
 ination, or order, or system, or any thing elsejhat be- 
 speaks a man of a sedate habit of thinking; confiding 
 every thing, as I said before, to the goodness of my cause. 
 
 And, first of all, Sir, I have not the least idea of calling 
 a man great, because he has been a great conqueror! I 
 do not like what are called your great conquerors ! your 
 gentlemen that have slain their tens of thousands, and 
 fought more battles than they are years old ! I care not 
 in what cause they may have been engaged — that is the 
 last consideration ; for the very best cause may be en- 
 trusted to the very worst man — that is, with respect to 
 morals, principles, and so forth. It is not virtue that is 
 
APPENDIX. 105 
 
 requisite to form such characters ; it is the contempt 
 of death — enterprise — cunning — skill — resolution ; and 
 these may be found in a man who does not possess one 
 single recommendation besides. How many a renowned 
 general has turned his arms against the very cause, in 
 whose defence he first took them up ! as Caesar did — 
 Caesar, who was commissioned by his country to subdue 
 the Gauls, and then commissioned himself to subdue his 
 country ! I wonder that any man who has a regard for 
 common sense, or plain honesty, can so far forget him- 
 self, as to justify Caesar's conduct in this particular. I 
 shall state a very simple case to you, Mr. Chairman. 
 You have a very large estate ; you employ a couple of 
 stewards to assist you in the management of it ; and you 
 send one of them to reside in the most distant part of it. 
 Well, Sir, this steward is a fellow of address; he manages 
 his little government very skilfully— keeps your tenants 
 in due subjection, andyour servants in admirable order — 
 at the same time, taking care to secure himself in their 
 good graces, by indulgences, and gifts, and flatteries, and 
 every effective means of engaging esteem. Well, Sir, in 
 process of time, you determine to dismiss this steward ; 
 but you retain the other ; you recall him, that he may give 
 an account of himself, and receive his discharge. Does 
 he obey you % No : he does not stir a step ! He sets 
 his arms akimbo, and thus accosts your messenger — 
 ' Mr. Jack — or Thomas — or William — or Walter — pre- 
 sent my duty to my master, and say, that when steward 
 such-a-one receives his discharge, I ; 11 accept mine.' I 
 should like to see your face, Mr, Chairman, upon your 
 
105 APPENDIX. 
 
 receiving his message. I need not follow the supposition 
 farther. You would do what you could. You would 
 have him fined — imprisoned — hanged. And yet, Sir, 
 such a man — though acting upon a larger scale — was 
 the immortal Caesar. It makes one sick to hear the 
 cause of such a man advocated ! And let me recall to 
 the recollection of those gentlemen, the truth, that great- 
 ness cannot consist in any thing that is at the disposal of 
 chance ; or, rather, that exists by chance. Had not for- 
 tune favored Csesar in his first battles, he would have 
 been recalled, perhaps brought to trial, and banished ; 
 and then he would have been little Csesar. 
 
 And now, Sir, in the name of common sense, what 
 mighty acts did Caesar perform, when he became the 
 master of his country? We are told that the servile sen- 
 ate created him reformer of manners — a fine reformer of 
 manners, whose own manners stood so much in need of 
 reforming!— Sir, they should have rather made him in- 
 spector of markets — for it was in that capacity that he 
 shone the most conspicuously. It is said, he limited the 
 expense of feasts, and that his officers used to enter the 
 houses of the citizens, and snatch from off their tables any 
 meats that were served up contrary to his prohibition! I 
 should like to see a constable enter my parlor at dinner 
 time, and hand away a dish just as it had been placed 
 upon the table ! But the best of it is, his restrictions 
 affected certain orders only. Men of rank might do as 
 they pleased. They might have their litters, and their 
 embroidered robes, and their jewels — ay ! and, I dare say, 
 their dishes without limit of number, or of quality, or of 
 
APPENDIX. 107 
 
 variety. Give me no great Caesar for the governor of 
 my country. Give me such government as leaves the 
 management of a man's table to himself? — Give me such 
 cities as have markets without informers ! — where a cook 
 may ride in a carriage, as fine as his own gilt and figured 
 pastry ; and a pin-maker may set you down to as many 
 different dishes, as there are minikins in a row ! 
 
 In fine, Mr. Chairman, my opinion of Caesar is this — 
 He was a very fine fighter — a very bad patriot — a very 
 selfish master — and a very great rogue ! 
 
 10th Speaker. — Sir, if my worthy friend has presented 
 you with a wife and family, the last speaker is not behind- 
 hand wiih him, for he has given you a large estate to 
 maintain them — an estate so large, as to require two stew- 
 ards to manage it ! 
 
 As to the gentleman's eloquence, in opposition to Cae- 
 sar's greatness, he, himself, tells you what degree of im- 
 portance you are to attach to his opinions ; for he very 
 ingenuously says, you are not to expect any thing serious 
 from him ; but that you must accept of undigested ideas, 
 and rash conclusions, in the place of sober reflection, and 
 logical reasoning: his arguments, therefore, pass for 
 nothing; and do not add to the strength of his cause, or 
 subtract from that of ours. 
 
 In one instance, however, I shall comment upon what 
 he has said ; because a man should not be frivolous, even 
 in his jesting. I allude to his wit, respecting the restraints 
 that Caesar laid upon luxury. Surely, the gentleman can- 
 not have been so great a victim to his mirth, as to have 
 
108 APPENDIX. 
 
 laughed away the fruit of his academical labors ! Surely, 
 he cannot have forgotten that Caesar had proud authority 
 for the policy he pursued in the respect alluded to ! Surely, 
 he remembers a few of the laws of Lycurgus, particularly 
 that which prescribed the diet of the Spartans, and enjoin- 
 ed all ranks to eat without distinction in one common hall, 
 where the simplest repast was provided ! Surely, I need 
 not remind him, that the heroes of Greece fared upon 
 black broth, and drew their glory no less from the mode- 
 ration of their appetite, than from the excess of their 
 courage and patriotism. 
 
 The gentleman says, it makes him sick to hear the 
 cause of such a man as Caesar advocated ! I shall pre- 
 scribe for his sickness. Let him take a dose of common 
 sense, and use a little mental exercise — that will remove 
 his sickness. 
 
 Caesar, Sir, was a man of stupendous loftiness of mind! 
 A man above all influence of fortune! — Himself, where 
 other men would have been — nothing ! Observe him, 
 when he is surprised by the Nervii. His soldiers are 
 employed in pitching their camp — the ferocious enemy 
 sallies from his concealment, puts the Roman cavalry to 
 the rout, and falls upon the foot. Every thing is alarm, 
 confusion, and disorder ! Every one is doubtful what 
 course to take! — every one but Caesar ! He causes the 
 banner to be erected — the charge to be sounded — the 
 soldiers at a distance, recalled — all in a moment ! He runs 
 from place to place — his whole frame is in action — his 
 words — his looks — his motions — his gestures, exhort his 
 men to remember their former valor ! He draws, them 
 
APPENDIX. 109 
 
 up, and causes the signal to be given — all in a moment ! 
 The contest is doubtful and dreadful ! — Two of his legions 
 are entirely surrounded ! He seizes a buckler from one 
 of the private men — puts himself at the head of his broken 
 troops \ — darts into the thick of the battle! — rescues his 
 legions, and overthrows the enemy ! 
 
 But, if you would contemplate Caesar in a situation 
 where he is peculiarly himself, observe him attempting to 
 cress the sea in a fishing-bark. A storm arises ; the 
 waves and winds oppose his course; the rowers, in des- 
 pair, desist from their labor! — Caesar, from the time he 
 had entered the boat, had sat in silence, habited in the 
 disguise of a slave, unknown to the sailors or the pilot. — 
 Like a genius who could command the elements, he stands 
 before the master of the vessel, in his proper shape, and 
 cries, ' Go on boldly, my friend, and fear nothing ! Thou 
 carriest Caesar and his fortunes along with thee ! ' 
 
 Really, Sir, I cannot command my patience, when I 
 hear those gentlemen indulge themselves in invectives 
 against a man, the twentieth part of whose excellence, 
 divided amongst the whole of them, would make them 
 heroes. 
 
 I shall certainly vote for the affirmative of the question. 
 
 11th Speaker. — I regret, Mr. Chairman, that I must 
 dissent from the last speaker, with regard to his admira- 
 tion of Caesar — I cannot, I confess, behold those incidents 
 he has just named, in Caesar's life, in the same light that 
 he does. When Caesar was surprised by the Nervii, he 
 10 
 
110 APPENDIX. 
 
 had a great cause at stake, and his conduct was the natural 
 result of that consideration. That consideration made him 
 collected, and gave him coolness to employ the readiest 
 means of extricating himself from the danger that threat- 
 ened him. — Besides, he was no raw commander ; he had 
 subdued the Helvetians, the Germans, and the Belgians ; 
 nor was his rescuing the two legions that were surround- 
 ed by the enemy, so wonderful an exploit. He was joined 
 at that critical moment by the force that he had left to 
 guard his baggage — nor was his success more the conse- 
 quence of his courage in leading his men into the thickest 
 of the fight, than of the enthusiasm of his soldiers, who 
 followed their general, and whose dearest honor was, 
 then, most particularly concerned in his safety. 
 
 Caesar, an ambitious general, attempted to cross the sea 
 in a fishing-bark ! — A lover swam across the Hellespont! 
 — Caesar's fortunes and life were at stake ! — He had only 
 a handful of men with him, and Antony was loitering, as 
 he supposed, near Brundusium.— Leander had his mistress 
 at stake ! — I will not, Mr. Chairman, trespass any longer 
 on your patience. I am sure you will agree with me, 
 that great exploits must have noble ends — and then, in- 
 deed, they make the executor great. 
 
 * Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave, 
 Is but the more a fool— the more a knave. 
 Who noble ends, by noble means, obtains, 
 Or, failing, smiles, in exile or in chains — 
 Like good Aurelius, let him sigh, or bleed 
 Like Socrates— that man is great indeed.' 
 
APPENDIX. Ill 
 
 12th Speaker. — Mr. Chairman, a gentleman has said 
 that the man whose rule secures the happiness, prosperity 
 and glory of a nation, deserves to rule it. With equal 
 confidence, I assert, that the man who obtains the rule of 
 his country, by violating its laws, — how much soever he 
 may contribute to make it happy, prosperous and great — 
 does not deserve to rule it. He sets a bad example — an 
 example, the more pernicious, as his virtues seem to palli- 
 ate the atrocity of his usurpation. He leaves it in the 
 power of any wretch, who may possess his ambition, with- 
 out his excellence, to quote his name, and use it as an 
 authority for the commission of a similar crime. 
 
 No gentleman has yet presumed to say that Caesar's 
 conduct was sanctioned by the laws of Rome — those laws 
 that guarded more cautiously against the approaches of 
 tyranny, than against the invasion of a foreign enemy — 
 those laws which justify any private man in putting to 
 death the person, whom he could afterwards prove to have 
 been guilty of meditating usurpation. Cassar, then, did 
 not deserve to rule his country, for he violated its laws. 
 A good man respects the laws of his country ; Cassar was 
 not, in this view, a good man — Cassar was not, in this 
 view, a great man ; for goodness is an essential part of 
 greatness. 
 
 Let us now examine how far he deserved to rule his 
 country, because, as it has been said, he secured its hap- 
 piness, prosperity and greatness. Sir, I do not believe 
 that he accomplished any such object. To dispose of all 
 offices and honors, just as his own interest, or fancy, di- 
 rected his choice of the candidates ; to create new offices 
 
112 APPENDIX. 
 
 for the gratification of his favorites and creatures — making 
 the public property the recompense of public delinquency ; 
 to degrade the venerable senate, by introducing into it 
 persons whose only claim to that dignity was their servile 
 devotion to his interests — common soldiers — the sons of 
 freedmen — foreigners, and so forth — I say, Sir, to adopt 
 such measures as these, had not a tendency to secure the 
 happiness or prosperity of his country. But, upon what 
 ground does the gentleman assert, that Caesar secured the 
 greatness of his country ? Was it by extending the fame 
 of its arms ! There was another kind of fame, which the 
 Roman people valued more than the fame of their arms — 
 the fame of their liberty! — There was another kind of 
 greatness, dearer to their pride than all the wealth or 
 honor, that could result from foreign victory — that kind 
 of greatness, which gloried, not in the establishing, but in 
 the destroying of tyranny ; which drove a Tarquin from 
 the throne, and cast an Appius into prison ! which called 
 their proudest heroes from heads of armies and the rule 
 of conquered nations, into the equal ranks of private 
 citizens. 
 
 A gentleman, speaking of Caesar's benevolent disposi- 
 tion, and of the reluctance with which he entered into the 
 civil war, observes, * How long did he pause upon the 
 brink of the Rubicon 1 ' How came he to the brink of 
 that river 1 How dared he cross it % Shall private men 
 respect the boundaries of private property, and shall a man 
 pay no respect to the boundaries of his country's rights ?' 
 How dared he cross that river ? — Oh ! but he paused 
 upon the brink ! He should have perished on the brinkj 
 
APPENDIX. 113 
 
 ere he had crossed it ! Why did he pause ? — Why does 
 a man's heart palpitate, when he is on the point of com- 
 mitting an unlawful deed ? Why does the very murder- 
 er, his victim sleeping before him, and his glaring eye 
 taking the measure of the blow, strike wide of the mortal 
 part? — Because of conscience! 'T was that made Caesar 
 pause upon the brink of the Rubicon. Compassion ! — 
 What compassion ? The compassion of an assassin, that 
 feels a momentary shudder, as his weapon begins to cut [ 
 Caesar paused upon the brink of the Rubicon £ — What 
 was the Rubicon ? — The boundary of Caesar's province. 
 From what did it separate his province? — From his 
 country. Was that country a desert % No ? it was cul- 
 tivated and fertile ; rich and populous ! Its sons were 
 men of genius, spirit, and generosity ! Its daughters were 
 lovely^ susceptible, and chaste ! Friendship was its in- 
 habitant ! — Love was its inhabitant ! — Domestic affection 
 was its inhabitant! — Liberty was its inhabitant! — All 
 bounded by the stream of the Rubicon ! What was Caesar, 
 that stood upon the brink of that stream? — A traitor, 
 bringing war and pestilence into the heart of that country ? 
 No wonder that he paused ! No wonder, if his imagina- 
 tion, wrought upon by his conscience, he had beheld blood; 
 instead of water; and heard groans, instead of murmurs! 
 No wonder, if some gorgon horror had turned him into 
 stone upon the spot! But, no! — he cried, 'The die is 
 cast!' He plunged! he crossed! and Rome was free 
 no more \ 
 
 Again. It has been observed, ' How often did ke at- 
 10* 
 
114 APPENDIX. 
 
 tempt a reconciliation with Pompey, and offer terms of 
 accommodation ! < Would gentlemen pass tricks upon us 
 for honest actions ?■ Examine the fact. Caesar keeps his 
 army on foot, because Pompey does so. What entitles 
 either of them to keep his army on foot ? The commis- 
 sion of his country. By that authority they levied their 
 armies — by that authority they should disband them. 
 Had Caesar that authority to keep his army on foot ? — 
 No. Had Pompey? — Yes. What right, then, had 
 Caesar to keep his army on foot, because Pompey did so ? 
 His army ! It was the army of his country — enrolled by 
 the orders of his country — maintained by the treasure of 
 his country — fighting under the banners of his country — 
 seduced by his flatteries, his calumnies, and his bribes, to 
 espouse the fortunes of a traitor. Sir, he never sincerely 
 sought an accommodation. Had he wished to accomplish 
 such an object, he would have adopted such measures as 
 were likely to obtain it. He would have obeyed the order 
 of the senate; disbanded his troops; laid down his com- 
 mand; and appeared in Rome a private citizen. Such 
 conduct would have procured him more dignity, more 
 fame, more glory, than a thousand sceptres — he would 
 not have come to parley with the trumpet and the stand- 
 ard, the spear and the buckler — he would have proved 
 himself to have been great in virtue. 
 
 Upon the same principle, his clemency must go for 
 nothing.— Clemency 1 — to attribute clemency to a man, is 
 to imply that he has a right to be severe — a right to punish. 
 Caesar had no right to punish. His clemency ! — it was 
 
APPENDIX. 115 
 
 the clemency of an outlaw — a pirate — a robber — who 
 strips his prey, but then abstains from slaying him! 
 
 You were also told, that he paid the most scrupulous 
 respect to the laws. He paid the most scrupulous respect 
 to the laws! — he set his foot upon them ; and, in that 
 prostrate condition, mocked them with respect ! 
 
 But, if you would form a just estimate of Caesar's aims, 
 look to his triumphs after the surrender of Utica — Utica, 
 more honored in being the grave of Cato, than Rome, in 
 having been the cradle of Caesar I 
 
 You will read, Sir, that Caesar triumphed four times. 
 First, for his victory over the Gauls; secondly, over 
 Egypt; thirdly, over Pharnaces ; lastly, over Juba, the 
 friend of Cato. His first, second, and third triumphs 
 were, we are told, magnificent. Before him, marched the 
 princes, and noble foreigners of the countries he had 
 conquered; his soldiers, crowned with laurels, followed 
 him, and the whole city attended w 7 ith acclamations. 
 This was well! — the conqueror should be honored. His 
 fourth triumph approaches — as magnificent as the former 
 ones. It does not want its royal captive, its soldiers 
 crowned with laurels, or its flushed conqueror, to grace 
 it; nor is it less honored by the multitude of its spectators 
 — but they send up no shout of exultation ; they heave 
 loud sighs; their cheeks are frequently wiped ; their eyes 
 are fixed upon one object, that engrosses all their senses 
 — their thoughts — their affections. — It is the statue of 
 Cato ! — carried before the victor's chariot ! It represents 
 him rending open his wound, and tearing out his bowels; 
 as he did in Utica, when Roman liberty was no more ! 
 
116 APPENDIX. 
 
 Now, ask if Caesar's aim was the welfare of his country f 
 Now, doubt if he was a man governed by a selfish ambi- 
 tion ! — Now, question whether he usurped, for the mere 
 sake of usurping ? He is not content to triumph over the 
 Gauls, the Egyptians, and Pharnaees ; he must triumph 
 over his own countrymen ! He is not content to cause 
 the statues of Scipio and Petreius to be carried before 
 him ; he must be graced by that of Cato I He is not eon- 
 tent with the simple effigy of Cato ; he must exhibit that 
 of his suicide ! He is not satisfied to insult the Romans 
 with triumphing over the death of liberty: they must 
 gaze upon the representation of her expiring agonies, and 
 mark the writhings of her last — fatal struggle! 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I confidently anticipate the triumph of 
 our cause. 
 
 13th Speaker. — Sir, with great reluctance I present 
 myself to your notice at this late hour. We have proved 
 that your patience is abundant — *we cannot presume that 
 it is inexhaustible. I shall exercise it for only a few 
 moments. Were our cause to be judged by the approbar 
 tion which our opponents have received,, it would appear 
 to be lost ; but that is far from being the case, Mr. Chair- 
 man. The approbation they receive is unaccompanied 
 by conviction. It is a tribute — and a merited one — to 
 their eloquence, aad has not any reference to the justice 
 of the part they take. Our cause is not lost — is not in, 
 danger — does not apprehend danger. We are as strong 
 as ever — as able for the contest, and as confident of victo? 
 
APPENDIX. 117 
 
 ry. We fight under the banners of Csesar ; and Caesar 
 never met an open enemy without subduing him. 
 
 We grant that Caesar was a usurper ; but we insist 
 that the circumstances of the times justified his usurpation. 
 We insist that he became a usurper for the good of his 
 country; for the salvation of the republic ; for the preserva- 
 tion of its very existence ! What must have been the 
 state of Roman liberty, when such men as Marius and 
 Sylla could become usurpers? Monsters, against whose 
 domination, nature and religion exclaimed! 
 
 Gentlemen talk very prettily about the criminality of 
 usurpation. They know it is a popular theme. All men 
 are tenacious of their property ; and the gentlemen think 
 that, if they can carry the feelings of their auditors along 
 with them, in this respect, they may be certain of success 
 in every other. We have not any objection to their flat- 
 tering themselves with such fancies; but the cause of jus- 
 tice shall not be sacrificed to their gratification. — Surely 
 those gentlemen must be ignorant of the state of the 
 republic, in those times; surely they have never heard, or 
 read, that massacre was the common attendant of public 
 elections ; that the candidates brought their money — 
 openly — to the place of election, and distributed it among 
 the heads of the different factions; that those factions 
 employed force and violence, in favor of the persons who 
 paid them; and that scarce any office was disposed of 
 without being disputed, sword in hand, and without cost- 
 ing the lives of many citizens ! 
 
 A gentleman very justly said, that the love of country 
 is the first, the second, and the last principle of a virtuous 
 
118 APPENDIX. 
 
 mind. Now, Sir, it appears that the Roman people sold 
 their country! — its offices — its honors — its liberty; sold 
 them to the highest bidder — as they would sell their 
 wares — a sheep — or the quarter of an ox; and that, after 
 they had struck the bargain, they threw themselves into 
 it, and fought manfully for the purchaser 1 Cicero and 
 Cato lived in these times — Cicero, that saved Rome from 
 the conspiracy of Catiline — Cato who would not survive 
 the liberty of his country. The latter attempted to stop 
 the progress of the corruption ; but his efforts were fruit* 
 less. He could neither restrain its progress, nor mitigate 
 its virulence. Thus, Sir, the independence of the repub- 
 lic was virtually lost, before Caesar became a usurper; 
 and, therefore, to say that Csesar destroyed the indepen- 
 dence or liberty of his country, is to assert that he 
 destroyed a nonentity. 
 
 It was happily remarked, that the power of interfering 
 with the tribunes, was fatal to the Roman people. Yes, 
 Sir, it was fatal. The tribunes ought to have been inde- 
 pendent of the people, from the moment of their entering 
 on their office, to that of their laying it down. You 
 were told the people had a right to the direction of their 
 own affairs. Yes, Sir, they had a right. We do not 
 dispute that. But it was a right by the abandonment of 
 which they would have been gainers. It was a fatal 
 right, by grasping at which, they lost every thing. It 
 was an inconsistent right, for they stood as much in need 
 of being protected from themselves, as of being protected 
 from the nobility. Why does any man put his affairs 
 into the hands of another, but because he cannot manage 
 
APPENDIX. 119 
 
 them so well himself? If he cannot manage them so 
 well himself, why should he interfere with the person to 
 whose conduct he entrusts them? Because he has a 
 right! I know he has; but it is an unfortunate right, for 
 it leaves it in his power to ruin himself, in spite of good 
 counsel and friendship ! 
 
 Gentlemen talk of what are called, the people, as if they 
 were the most enlightened part of the community! Are 
 they the guardians of learning ? — or of the arts ?- — or of 
 the sciences ? Do we select counsellors from them ? — or 
 judges? — or legislators? Do we inquire among them for 
 rhetoricians? — logicians? — or philosophers? — or, rather, 
 do we not consider them as little cultivated in mind ? — 
 little regulated by judgment? — much influenced by preju- 
 dice? — greatly subject to caprice? — chiefly governed by 
 passion? — Of course, Sir, I speak of what are generally 
 called the people—the crowd, the mass of the community. 
 But you ask me for a proof of the bad effects that resulted 
 to the Roman people, from the liberty they possessed, of 
 legislating directly for themselves. Look, Sir, to the 
 proceedings of the forum! — What they did, they undid; 
 what they erected, they threw down ; they enacted laws, 
 and they repealed them ; they elected patriots, and they 
 betrayed them; they humbled tyrants, and they exalted 
 them ! You will find that the great converted the undue 
 power, which the people possessed, into the means of 
 subjugating the people. If they feared a popular leader, 
 it was only necessary to spread, by their emissaries, a 
 suspicion of his integrity, or set the engine of corruption 
 to work, upon that frailest of all fortifications, popular 
 
/ 
 
 120 APPENDIX. 
 
 stability — and thus, Sir, they carried their point, humbled 
 their honest adversaries, and laughed in the face of the 
 wisest and most salutary laws. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I think that the times in which Caesar 
 lived, called for, and sanctioned, his usurpation. I think 
 his object was, to extinguish the jealousies of party; to 
 put a stop to the miseries that resulted from them ; and to 
 unite his countrymen. I think the divided state of the 
 Roman people exposed them to the danger of a foreign 
 yoke, from which they could be preserved, only by re- 
 ceiving a domestic one. I think that Csesar was a great 
 man ; and I conclude my trial of your patience, with the 
 reply made to Brutus by Statilius, who had once deter- 
 mined to die in Utica with Cato ; and by Favonius, an 
 esteemed philosopher of those times. These men were 
 sounded by Brutus, after he had entered into the con- 
 spiracy for murdering Caesar. The former said, he 
 * would rather patiently suffer the oppressions of an arbi- 
 trary master, than the cruelties and disorders which 
 generally attend civil dissensions.' The latter declared, 
 that, in his opinion, a * civil war was worse than the most 
 unjust tyranny.' 
 
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