Gestures.

6. Imitative affinities.

7. The special rule for each gesture.

8. The law whence this rule proceeds.

9. Reflections upon the portrayal of personal character.

Chapter VII.

A Series of Gestures for Exercises.

_Preliminary Reflections._

We know the words of Garrick:

"I do not confide in myself, not I, in that inspiration for which idle
mediocrity waits."

Art, then, presents a solid basis to the artist, upon which he can rest
and reproduce at will the history of the human heart as revealed by
gesture.

This is true, and it is as an application of this truth that we are
about to consider the series, which is an exposition of the passions
that agitate man, an initiation into imitative language. It is a poem,
and at the same time it lays down rules through whose aid the
self-possessed artist can regain the gesture which arises from sudden
perturbation of the heart. It is a grammar which must be studied
incessantly, in order to understand the origin and value of imitative
expressions.

The development of the series is based upon the static, the semeiotic
and the dynamic.

The static is the life of gesture; it is the science of the equipoise of
levers, it teaches the weight of the limbs and the extent of their
development, in order to maintain the equilibrium of the body. Its
criterion should be a sort of balance.

The semeiotic is the spirit and _rationale_ of gesture. It is the
science of signs.

The dynamic is the action of equiponderant forces through the static; it
regulates the proportion of movements the soul would impress upon the
body. The foundation and criterion of the dynamic, is the law of the
pendulum.

The series proceeds, resting upon these three powers. The semeiotic has
given the signs, it becomes aesthetic in applying them. The semeiotic
says: "Such a gesture reveals such a passion;" and gesture replies: "To
such a passion I will apply such a sign." And without awaiting the aid
of an inspiration often hazardous, deceitful and uncertain, it moulds
the body to its will, and forces it to reproduce the passion the soul
has conceived. The semeiotic is a science, the aesthetic an act of
genius.

The series divides its movements into periods of time, in accordance
with the principle that the more time a movement has, the more its
vitality and power; and so every articulation becomes the object of a
time.

The articulations unfold successively and harmoniously