----But before the Corporal begins, I must first give you a description of his attitude; ----otherwise he will naturally stand represented, by your imagination, in an uneasy posture, --stiff, --perpendicular, --dividing the weight of his body equally upon both legs; ----his eye fixed, as if on duty; --his look determined, --clenching the sermon in his left hand, like his firelock. ----In a word, you would be apt to paint _Trim_, as if he was standing in his platoon ready for action. --His attitude was as unlike all this as you can conceive.
He stood before them with his body swayed, and bent forwards just so far, as to make an angle of 85 degrees and a half upon the plain of the horizon; --which sound orators, to whom I address this, know very well to be the true persuasive angle of incidence; --in any other angle you may talk and preach; --'tis certain; --and it is done every day; --but with what effect, --I leave the world to judge!
The necessity of this precise angle, of 85 degrees and a half to a mathematical exactness, ----does it not shew us, by the way, how the arts and sciences mutually befriend each other?
How the duce Corporal _Trim_, who knew not so much as an acute angle from an obtuse one, came to hit it so exactly; ----or whether it was chance or nature, or good sense or imitation, &c., shall be commented upon in that part of the cyclopdia of arts and sciences, where the instrumental parts of the eloquence of the senate, the pulpit, and the bar, the coffee-house, the bed-chamber, and fire-side, fall under consideration.
He stood, ----for I repeat it, to take the picture of him in at one view, with his body swayed, and somewhat bent forwards, --his right leg from under him, sustaining seven-eighths of his whole weight, ------the foot of his left leg, the defect of which was no disadvantage to his attitude, advanced a little, --not laterally, nor forwards, but in a line betwixt them; --his knee bent, but that not violently, --but so as to fall within the limits of the line of beauty; --and I add, of the line of science too; --for consider, it had one eighth part of his body to bear up; --so that in this case the position of the leg is determined, --because the foot could be no farther advanced, or the knee more bent, than what would allow him, mechanically to receive an eighth part of his whole weight under it, and to carry it too.
[-->] This I recommend to painters: --need I add, --to orators! --I think not; for unless they practise it, ------they must fall upon their noses.

- But before the Corporal begins, I must first give you a description of his attitude; otherwise you will imagine him stiff and perpendicular, - his eye fixed, as if on duty, his look determined; clenching the sermon in his left hand. - In a word, you would be apt to paint Trim, as if he was standing in his platoon ready for action. His attitude was as unlike this as you can conceive.
He stood before them with his body bent forwards to make an angle of 85 degrees and a half from the horizontal; - which orators know very well to be the true persuasive angle of incidence; - in any other angle you may talk and preach, certainly; but with what effect, I leave the world to judge!
The necessity of this precise angle, of 85 degrees and a half - does it not show us, by the way, how the arts and sciences mutually befriend each other?
How the deuce Corporal Trim, who knew not an acute angle from an obtuse one, came to hit it so exactly; whether it was chance or good sense or imitation, I know not.
He stood, I repeat, with his body somewhat bent forwards, his right leg sustaining seven-eighths of his weight, - the left foot advanced a little, his knee bent, not violently, but so as to fall within the limits of the line of beauty; - consider, it had one eighth of his body to bear up - so that the foot could be no farther advanced, or the knee more bent, than what would allow him to carry an eighth part of his weight.
[This I recommend to painters: - need I add, to orators! for unless they practise it, they must fall upon their noses.]
