tongue. It is said of Chatham, that such was the power of his eye, that he
very often cowed down an antagonist in the midst of his speech, and threw
him into confusion. It is through the eye, scarcely less than through the
tones of voice, that intercourse of soul is carried on between the speaker
and hearers. To secure this intercourse the speaker should let his soul
beam from his eye. Nor should he fail to look at his hearers, if he would
have his hearers look at him. Among the faults to be avoided in the
management of the eye, Dr. Porter notices particularly that unmeaning look
which the eye "bent on vacuity" has, resembling the inexpressive glare of
the glass eye of a wax figure; that indefinite sweep of the eye which
ranges from one side to the other of an assembly, resting nowhere; and
that tremulous, roving cast of the eye, and winking of the eyelid, which
is in direct contrast to an open, collected, manly expression of the face.

Among the faults of action to be noticed are:--1. Want of action; 2. Want
of expression of countenance; 3. A stiff, or a careless, attitude; 4. Want
of appropriateness; 5. Excess of motions of the hands and arms; 6. Too
great violence of action; 7. Too great complexity; 8. A mechanical
uniformity; 9. Tardiness, the action following the utterances when it
should accompany it, or slightly precede it.

It must not be supposed that it is necessary for the pupil to receive
training in a technical system of gesticulation before he commences his
exercises in declamation. If the student designs to qualify himself to be a
professor of elocution, he will need to study the laws of gesture in
"Austin's Chironomia," and be instructed in their application by a skillful
teacher. But this course is neither practicable nor necessary for the mass
of students. Instruction in this department should generally be of a
negative nature, and occupy itself mainly in the correction of faults. When
the pupil commences his exercises in declamation, the less said about