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Show 114 THE CODE OF TERPSICHORE. ideas. Voice and gesture convey them to those we address, in an immediate and direct manner. In short, speech, or rather the words which compose it, is an artificial institution, formed and agreed upon between men, for a more distinct reciprocal communication of their ideas ; whilst gestures and the tone of voice are, I may say, the dictionary of simple nature; they are a language innate in us, and serve to exhibit all that concerns our wants and the preservation of our existence; for which reason they are rapid, expressive, and energetic. Such a language, of which the terms are rather those of nature than of cultivation, cannot but be an inexhaustible source to an art whose object is to move the deepest sensations of the soul!"-LE B A T T E U R . These lines speak sufficiently in favour of Pantomime, and may serve for an introduction to the lessons of the performer. Gestures are of two kinds, natural and artificial. The first are in our nature-we are born with them, they are the outward signs of all that passes within us. The latter we derive from art; they express, by imitation, all objects that are independent of ourselves. Natural gestures are the physical signs of our sentiments ; artificial ones the emblems of all that is without the moral world. Those of the former kind exhibit the emotions of love, sadness, anger, hatred, joy, fear, pleasure, despair, & c , and are what we may call the mechanical effects of our intellectual over our physical being. Those of the latter sort serve to represent objects, as a warrior old age, a child, a temple, a ship, arms, robes, & c , they can also describe a storm, a fallen edifice, a fight, a death, &c. "There is another class of gestures, termed, in Pantomime, gestures of convention, which are often necessary to cast a light on some obscure parts of its performance. These gestures of convention, which art has created and custom established, paint those things |
