Do Not Use Too Much Gesture

As a matter of fact, in the big crises of life we do not go through many actions.  When your closest friend dies you do not throw up your hands and talk about your grief.  You are more likely to sit and brood in dry-eyed silence.  The Hudson River does not make much noise on its way to the sea—­it is not half so loud as the little creek up in Bronx Park that a bullfrog could leap across.  The barking dog never tears your trousers—­at least they say he doesn’t.  Do not fear the man who waves his arms and shouts his anger, but the man who comes up quietly with eyes flaming and face burning may knock you down.  Fuss is not force.  Observe these principles in nature and practise them in your delivery.

The writer of this chapter once observed an instructor drilling a class in gesture.  They had come to the passage from Henry VIII in which the humbled Cardinal says:  “Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness.”  It is one of the pathetic passages of literature.  A man uttering such a sentiment would be crushed, and the last thing on earth he would do would be to make flamboyant movements.  Yet this class had an elocutionary manual before them that gave an appropriate gesture for every occasion, from paying the gas bill to death-bed farewells.  So they were instructed to throw their arms out at full length on each side and say:  “Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness.”  Such a gesture might possibly be used in an after-dinner speech at the convention of a telephone company whose lines extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but to think of Wolsey’s using that movement would suggest that his fate was just.

Posture

The physical attitude to be taken before the audience really is included in gesture.  Just what that attitude should be depends, not on rules, but on the spirit of the speech and the occasion.  Senator La Follette stood for three hours with his weight thrown on his forward foot as he leaned out over the footlights, ran his fingers through his hair, and flamed out a denunciation of the trusts.  It was very effective.  But imagine a speaker taking that kind of position to discourse on the development of road-making machinery.  If you have a fiery, aggressive message, and will let yourself go, nature will naturally pull your weight to your forward foot.  A man in a hot political argument or a street brawl never has to stop to think upon which foot he should throw his weight.  You may sometimes place your weight on your back foot if you have a restful and calm message—­but don’t worry about it:  just stand like a man who genuinely feels what he is saying.  Do not stand with your heels close together, like a soldier or a butler.  No more should you stand with them wide apart like a traffic policeman.  Use simple good manners and common sense.