Whence comes this law?  To behold a loved object fully, we must step back, remove to some little distance from it.  Look at a painter admiring his work.  It is retroaction at sight of a beloved person, which has led to the discovery of the phenomena of life, to this triple state of man which is found in like manner, everywhere:  Concentric, eccentric, and normal.

The concentric is the passive state, for when one experiences a deep emotion, he must retroact.  Hence a demonstration of affection is not made with a forward movement.  If so, there is no love.  Expiration is the sign of him who gives his heart.  Hence there is joy and love.  In inspiration there is retroaction, and, in some sort, distrust.  The hand extends toward the beloved object; if the hand tend toward itself, a love of self is indicated.  Love is expressed by a retroactive, never by a forward movement.  In portraying this sentiment the hand must not be carried to the heart.  This is nonsense; it is an oratorical crime.  The hand must tend toward the loved being to caress, to grasp, to reassure or to defend.  The hand is carried to the heart only in case of suffering there.

Take this passage from Racine’s Phedre: 

    Dieu—­que ne puis-je a l’ombre des forets,
    Suivre de l’oeil un char fuyant dans la carriere—­

    ("God—­may I not, through the dim forest shades,
    With my glance follow a fleet chariot’s course.”)

Here the actor does not follow affectionately, but with the eye, and then by recoiling and concentrating his thought upon himself.

In the role of Emilie: 

    “He may in falling crush thee ’neath his fall”

at sight of her crushed lover Emilie must recoil in terror, and not seem to add the weight of her body to that which crushes the victim.

Augustus, on the contrary, may say: 

    “I might in falling crush thee ’neath my fall,”

pausing upon a forward movement, because he is here the agent.

Let us note in passing that the passive attitude is the type of energetic natures.  They have something in themselves which suffices them.  This is a sort of repose; it is elasticity.

Opposition of Agents.

The opposition of the agents is the harmony of gesture.  Harmony is born of contrasts.  From opposition, equilibrium is born in turn.  Equilibrium is the great law of gesture, and condemns parallelism; and these are the laws of equilibrium: 

1.  The forward inclination of the torso corresponds to the movement of the leg in the opposite direction.

2.  When one arm is added to the weight of the already inclined torso, the other arm must rise to form a counterpoise.

3.  In gazing into a well, the two arms must be drawn backward if the body is equally supported by the two legs; in like manner the two arms may be carried in front if the torso bends backward.  This is allowable only in the first attitude of the base, or in a similar attitude.