t him at the corner of
the street, lets his tray fall, and, at first stupified by the accident,
bursts at last into a fit of crying?"

All our great actors have been good Mimics, and herein, doubtless, lies
the secret of their success. The mere intonation of words unaccompanied
by a strict knowledge of "that dumb, silent language," Pantomime, is
only _parroting_. Herein, therefore, lies the true imitativeness of the
actor, and _the natural form of acting_. The word actor "Is a name only
given to the persons in a dramatic work, _because they ought to be in
continual action during the performance of it_." It does not mean that
the actor is to stand still, and to be in action only with his tongue
when speaking his "lines." No! he bears the honoured name of actor, and
he should bring the full power of gesture language--Pantomime--that he
has at his control into play in order to be convincing in the character
that, for the time being, he is.

Action (mentions Betterton, in his "History of the English Stage,"
1741), can never be in its perfection but on the stage. Action, indeed,
has a natural excellence in it superior to all other qualities; action
is motion, and motion is the support of nature, which without it would
sink into the sluggish mass of chaos. Life is motion, and when that
ceases, the human body so beautiful, nay so divine, when enlivened by
motion, becomes a dead and putrid corpse, from which all turn their
eyes. The eye is caught by anything in motion, but passes over the
sluggish and motionless things as not the pleasing object of its view.

The natural power of motion, or action, is the reason that the
attention of the audience is fixed by any irregular, or even fantastic
action, on the stage, of the most indifferent player; and supine and
drowsy when the best actor speaks without the addition of action. The
stage ought to be the seat of passion in its various kinds, and,
therefore, the actors ought to be thoroughly acquainted with the whole
nature of the affections, and habits of the mind, or else they will
never be able to express them justly in their looks and gestures, as
well as in the tone of their voice and manner of utterance. They must
know them in their various mixtures, as they are differently blended
together in the different characters they represent; and then that
excellent rule in the "Essay on Poetry" will be of equal use to the poet
and player:--

Who must look within to find
The