nt unto their fancies, and imagine that it hath some relation
to love. Whatever signs, shows, or gestures we shall make, or whatever
our behavior, carriage, or demeanor shall happen to be in their
view and presence, they will interpret the whole in reference to
androgynation." A story is told to the same point by Guevara, in his
fabulous life of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. A young Roman gentleman
encountering at the foot of Mount Celion a beautiful Latin lady, who
from her very cradle had been deaf and dumb, asked her in gesture what
senators in her descent from the top of the hill she had met with,
going up thither. She straightway imagined that he had fallen in love
with her and was eloquently proposing marriage, whereupon she at once
threw herself into his arms in acceptance. The experience of travelers
on the Plains is to the same general effect, that signs commonly used
to men are understood by women in a sense so different as to occasion
embarrassment. So necessary was it to strike the mental key-note
of the spectators by adapting their minds to time, place, and
circumstance, that even in the palmiest days of pantomime it was
customary for the crier to give some short preliminary explanation
of what was to be acted, which advantage is now retained by our
play-bills, always more specific when the performance is in a foreign
language, unless, indeed, the management is interested in the sale of
librettos.

GESTURES OF OUR PUBLIC SPEAKERS.

If the scenic gestures are so seldom significant, those appropriate to
oratory are of course still less so. They require energy, variety, and
precision, but also a degree of simplicity which is incompatible with
the needs of sign language. As regards imitation, they are restrained
within narrow bounds and are equally suited to a great variety of
sentiments. Among the admirable illustrations in Austin's _Chironomia_
of gestures applicable to the several passages in Gay's "Miser and
Plutus" one is given for "But virtue's sold" which is perfectly
appropriate, but is not in the slightest degree suggestive either
of virtue or of the transaction of sale. It could be used for an
indefinite number of thoughts or objects which properly excited
abhorrence, and therefore without the words gives no special
interpretation. Oratorical delivery demands general grace--cannot rely
upon the emotions of the moment for spontaneous appropriateness, and
therefore requires preliminary study and prac