The orator's abstraction should change the face, but not the gesture. If the double change takes place simultaneously, there will be no unity. The gesture should be retained and the expression of the face changed.
A variety of effects and inflections should be avoided. While the speaker is under the influence of the same sentiment, the same inflection and gesture must be retained, so that there may be unity of style.
Art proposes three things: to move, to interest, to persuade by unity of inflection and gesture. One effect must not destroy another. Divergence confuses the audience, and leaves no time for sentiment.
It is well to remember that the stone becomes hollowed by the incessant fall of the drop of water in the same place.
The Rhythm of Gesture.
Gesture is at the same time melodic, or rather inflective, harmonic and rhythmic. It must embrace the elements of music, since it corresponds to the soul; it is the language of the soul, and the soul necessarily includes the life with its diverse methods of expression, and the mind. Gesture is melodic or inflective through the richness of its forms, harmonic through the multiplicity of parts that unite simultaneously to produce it. Gesture is rhythmic through its movement, more or less slow, or more or less rapid.
Gesture is, then, inevitably synthetic, and consequently harmonic; for harmony is but another name for synthesis.
Each of the inflective, harmonic and rhythmic modes has its peculiar law.
The rhythmic law of gesture is thus formulated:
"The rhythm of gesture is proportional to the mass to be moved."