Philosophical Society of London, 35 



nfttone, elevation or depression ; it judges also of suspen- 

 sions and pauses. Now these several qualities may cha- 

 racterize the expression of a whole sentence, a word, a 

 syllable, or a single letter. And again, these varieties, as 

 far as sounds go, may be rendered correspondent to all the 

 modifications of oratorical expression, the complexity of 

 passion, emotion and sentiment : by the intervention of 

 pauses and suspensions, by the adaptation of long and short 

 syllables, of sharp and flat tones, and the greater or less 

 inflexions of voice, the spirits may be either dilated with 

 the sensations of joy, or depressed by those of sadness and 

 melancholy. Having reduced the types of our feeling to 

 motion and sound, it remains to distinguish their oratorical 

 qualities. The first comprises looks and gestures ; the 

 latter, the tones and tunes in which words are delivered, 

 and the rests, pauses and respirations necessarily inter- 

 vening." 



" According to the modern definitions of the words 

 look and gesture, we understand an appropriate attitude 

 of the body and cast of the eye to the nature and import 

 of the sounds we are pronouncing ; but, united, their 

 genuine meanings appear to be (as guilt will frequently 

 betray itself notwithstanding every attempt made to con- 

 ceal it) a probable picture of what passes in the soul. We 

 may also define look and gesture to be natural systems of 

 expression, which by all nations and deijiees of men are 

 most readily understood." As an apt corollary to this last 

 position, the learned lecturer turned to the animated page of 

 Sterne, and enriched his discourse by the description of Cor- 

 poral Trim's pathetic appeal to ordinary feeling on the news 

 of master Bobby's death. 



**This excellent picture exhibits to the student the ^ plain 

 lines* of Hogarth. If the corporal had characterized his 

 action by ' curved lines,' he would have appeared aflVcted, 

 and have displayed but little eloquence. 



We have a natural and rooted dislike to any kind of af- 

 fectation, and to no species a greater, than to that which is 

 seen in a person who pretends to mimicry, or to courtly 

 gesture, without possessing the advantages and talents they 

 require. 



" The mind of the corporal seems to have been adequate- 

 ly attuiicd ; he received the impression with the aciitcness 

 of sensibility, and expressed himself in all the energy of 

 natural feelmg. But if bis mind had been otherwise 

 framed, or if it had been under the influence of either of 

 the unfriendly passions, his expression, though delivered in 

 D 4 the 



