A Practical Treatise on Gesture; Chiefly Abstracted from Austin's Chironomia. Adapted to the Use of Students, and Arranged According to the Method O (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1831 edition. Excerpt: ...be preferred, as being equally intelligible. The connexion of gesture is therefore the relation which one gesture bears to another, and it is shown by a notation of the circumstances in which they agree and in which they differ. Thus the gestures noted in the above line agree, first in being common to both hands (B), and then in the position of each hand, e vertical, and also in the elevation of both arms, h horizontal. So that it is unnecessary to repeat those circumstances in which they agree, as1 the connecting dash expresses them with greater clearness and brevity. The connexion of gesture in the vertical direction, when the hand without altering its position merely ascends by short intervals, in order to mark a succession (as it sometimes does) of discriminating gestures, is noted by the usual connecting dash and an a over the word where the hand ascends. phf a "I mourn the pride o nef--R shfst "And avarice that make man a wolf to man." Transition of gesture relates to the manner of arriving at a gesture, and also to changes of gesture. A gesture may have a very different character and effect according to the manner in which the hand arrives at its destined point. See figure 39, and several instances in the plate of "The Miser and Plutus." With reference to change of gesture, it may be observed that the hand is not to be changed while a strict connexion subsists among the sentiments of the discourse; the variety necessary in such cases is to be effected by the well regulated action of the advanced hand and the combined assistance and accompaniment of the other. As an instance, the Soliloquy of Hamlet may be cited. It requires that the gesture throughout should be performed with the right hand. The principal...