to conscience,

and to God.

WE ARE ANSWERABLE!

and if duty

be any thing more than a word of imposture,

if conscience be not a bugbear,

we are preparing to make ourselves

as wretched

as our country.

FISHER AMES.

333

PART III.

EXPRESSION.

HITHERTO We have considered delivery merely in reference to intelligibility and force. Exposition of Thought, which we last discussed, is a subject entirely distinct from that of Expression. The latter does not proceed from the understanding, or from the imagination; it springs from feeling.

Suppose two persons to read or speak either of our extracts, and each to exhibit precisely the same delivery, so far as it can be influenced by the directions we have hitherto given. The two will set forth the same ideas, and give them the same relative importance. They will be equally earnest and forcible. The attention of an audience may be as completely enchained by the one as by the other. The hearers may even be impressed and gratified in an equal degree by both. All this may be done, and yet they may proceed in diametrically opposite styles of delivery. They may differ in Expression.

As Expression proceeds from feeling, it is obvious that persons of widely different temperaments and characters, must be predisposed to different styles of speaking. What we call a person's natural and characteristic manner, has its origin in such constitutional and habitual influences.

So too, the subject of an address, the nature of the occasion, and the peculiar character and circumstances of the audience, all exert their appropriate influences, and excite feelings in the speaker, which modify his style of expression.

Whoever be the speaker, an entire address, or at least a division or a paragraph, is characterized by some prevalent expression. We trust this will be shown by our subsequent clas

sification, to be not only a fact, but one which has as definite a foundation in nature, as articulation, pause, inflexion or emphasis.

Our views on this subject are not theoretical, or the result of investigation on abstract grounds, but arise from observation of the varieties of manner exhibited by persons differing in age, character and profession, and aiming at different objects in speaking.

Nor is the subject difficult, either to teach or to learn. On the contrary, any particular style of expression is more easily imitated than the sum total of the numerous and subtle modulations which combine to effect a complete exposition of thought. Every natural style is produced by the continual recurrence of some simple and definite modification of tone. Mixed expressions do not so often appear in any one address, as might be expected previous to investigation; and when they do occur, are easily analyzed, their elements being few and definite.

Expression is always the result of two sets of influences, which are in nature perfectly distinct, although existing in conjunction. We shall describe these in separate chapters, and

call them

1. MOODS OF DELIVERY.

2. STYLES OF ADDRESS.

Every address exhibits a certain style, and also proceeds in one of the moods of delivery, or in a medium between them.

CHAPTER I.

MOODS OF DELIVERY.

THESE are but two in number; a single exception which we shall hereafter mention, being but partial. They are

1. The Direct;

2. The Meditative Mood.

The second might be called the indirect; but the term we adopt, though less appropriate in reference to mere classification, is more descriptive of the actual state of mind which it expresses. When we speak of but two moods, we have reference to extreme degrees of each. An address often exhibits a

medium or mixture of each of the two.

THE DIRECT MOOD OF DELIVERY.

Suppose a speaker makes an extemporaneous address, on a subject with which he is so familiar as to have all his ideas, and their language, perfectly at his command. Suppose his whole matter and style are so prompt and fluent, that his thoughts are ready for use in his mind, and he has merely to employ them as instruments. Then suppose him to be exclusively occupied in endeavoring to influence his audience. If such be his situation and efforts, his delivery will be in what we call the direct mood.

In this mood, the speaker's energies are wholly directed towards his audience.

Every tone, look and gesture, shows that he is primarily, and indeed exclusively influenced, so far as his delivery is concerned, by this state of mind. Whether he asserts, explains, insists, persuades, urges, commands, exhorts, or appeals, it is primarily to them. None of these things are done in reference to strengthening his own convictions, or satisfying his own feelings in view of his subject. He endeavors exclusively to influence others; and does not aim to satisfy himself and others. The truth and interest of a course of thought, are not dwelt upon abstractly, or for the gratification of his own mind, but are taken for granted, and enforced upon his audience. He is not assisting himself to think and feel, but occupied in making others sympathize with thoughts and feelings completely matured

in his mind.

The pleadings of lawyers before juries, are generally in this mood of delivery, and with little or no admixture of the meditative. Still further illustration will be afforded under the next head, by the comparison of the two moods with each other.

To succeed in speaking in this mood, it will be sufficient for the student to put his mind into the state above described, and make vigorous efforts accordingly. Yet it will be interesting and useful to describe, in detail, the modifications of general manner which result from so doing.

1st. The attitude is that of leaning forward towards those addressed.

If they are very near, as in the case of a jury addressed by a lawyer, the body will lean forward from the hips. But if the audience is large, the body will not bend from the hips, but lean forward from the foot on which it rests, generally from the right one.

It should be remembered that in graceful attitudes, the bending forward which expresses sympathy and a desire to bespeak attention, will not be principally at the neck. The head will incline with the body, and not by itself. Bending the head without the body, is apt to suggest a notion that the speaker feels too proud to be unreservedly polite, or sympathizing.

2d. In gesture, the arm will be freely extended, and not be half drawn back.

If this be not done, the speaker will be liable to appear either bashful, or too self-important to be in earnest.

There is an exception in the case of those familiar gestures of explication or argument, in which the elbows remain nearly at the sides of the body, and the gesticulations are made with the fore-arm and wrist. These are the gestures commonly used in conversation, and deserve to be cultivated in familiar delivery. Vide p. 45.