e 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.

The harmonic law of gesture is the static law _par excellence_.

It is of childlike simplicity. We employ it in walking; also when we
carry a weight in one hand, the other rises. The law consists in placing
the acting levers in oppositi