he medium, though
probably not the precise manner of its employment, recalls Lucan's
account of the quieting of an older tumult--

tumultum
Composuit vultu, dextraque silentia fecit.

This rivalry of Punch would, in London, have occasioned measureless
ridicule and disgust. The difference in what is vaguely styled
temperament does not wholly explain the contrast between the two
peoples, for the performance was creditable both to the readiness of
the King in an emergency and to the aptness of his people, the main
distinction being that in Italy there was in 1821, and still is, a
recognized and cultivated language of signs long disused in Great
Britain. In seeking to account for this it will be remembered that the
Italians have a more direct descent from the people who, as has been
above shown, in classic times so long and lovingly cultivated gesture
as a system. They have also had more generally before their eyes the
artistic relics in which gestures have been preserved.

It is a curious fact that some English writers, notably Addison
(_Spectator_, 407), have contended that it does not suit the genius
of that nation to use gestures even in public speaking, against which
doctrine Austin vigorously remonstrates. He says: "There may possibly
be nations whose livelier feelings incline them more to gesticulation
than is common among us, as there are also countries in which plants
of excellent use to man grow spontaneously; these, by care and
culture, are found to thrive also in colder countries."

It is in general to be remarked that as the number of dialects in any
district decreases so will the gestures, though doubtless there is
also weight in the fact not merely that a language has been reduced to
and modified by writing, but that people who are accustomed generally
to read and write, as are the English and Germans, will after a time
think and talk as they write, and without the accompaniments still
persistent among Hindus, Arabs, and the less literate of European
nations.

The fact that in the comparatively small island of Sicily gesture
language has been maintained until the present time in a perfection
not observed elsewhere in Europe must be considered in connection with
the above remark on England's insularity, and it must also be admitted
that several languages have prevailed in the latter, still leaving
dialects. This apparent similarity of conditions renders the contrast
as regards use of gestu