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 practice, such as are applied
to dancing and fencing with a similar object; indeed, accomplishment
in both dancing and fencing has been recommended as of use to
all orators. In reference to this subject a quotation from Lord
Chesterfield's letters is in place: "I knew a young man, who,
being just elected a member of Parliament, was laughed at for being
discovered, through the key-hole of his chamber door, speaking to
himself in the glass and forming his looks and gestures. I could not
join in that laugh, but, on the contrary, thought him much wiser than
those that laughed at him, for he knew the importance of those little
graces in a public assembly and they did not."