to stand at some distance exactly opposite to
him in the same position, the right and left sides only reversed, and
while the pupil is speaking, to show him by example the action he is to
make use of. In this case the teacher's left hand will correspond for
the pupil's right, by which means he will see as in a looking-glass, how
to regulate his gesture, and will soon catch the method of doing it by
himself.

It is expected the master will be a little discouraged at the aukward
figure his pupil makes in his first attempts to teach him. But this is
no more than what happens in dancing, fencing, or any other exercise
which depends on habit. By practice, the pupil will soon begin to feel
his position, and be easy in it. Those positions which were at first
distressing to him, he will fall into naturally, and if they are such as
are really graceful and becoming (and such it is presumed are those
which have been just described) they will be adopted with more facility
than any other that can be taught him.

SECTION II.

_On the Acting of Plays at School_.

Though the acting of plays at schools has been universally supposed a
very useful practice, it has of late years been much laid aside. The
advantages arising from it have not been judged equal to the
inconveniencies; and the speaking of single speeches, or the acting of
single scenes, has been generally substituted in its stead. Indeed when
we consider the leading principle and prevailing sentiments of most
plays, we shall not wonder that they are not always thought to be the
most suitable employment for youth at school; nor, when we reflect on
the long interruption to the common school-exercises, which the
preparation for a play must necessarily occasion, shall we think it
consistent with the general improvement:--But, to wave every objection
from prudence or morality, it may be confidently affirmed, that the
acting of a play is not so conducive to improvement in elocution, as the
speaking of single speeches.

In the first place, the acting of plays is of all kinds of delivery the
most difficult; and therefore cannot be the most suitable exercise for
boys at school. In the next place, a dramatic performance requires so
much attention to the deportment of the body, so varied an expression of
the passions, and so strict an adherence to character, that elocution is
in danger of being neglected: Besides, exact propriety of action, and a
nice discrimination of the