It is not necessary always to saw the air

Two favorite quotes from my rereading of Gilbert Austin's Chironomia. First, on the difficulty of delving into the topic and the tendency, then, to let the hands fall as they may:

Every man has to begin for himself; and hence few are willing to venture upon the labour of contriving a system, and choose rather to trust to the gesture suggested by the momen, than hazard the more dangerous exhibition of gestures imperfectly conceived, and which will consequently be imperfectly executed. (p. 5)

I turned this around, and took it as encouragement to conceive of my work as deeply and fully as possible, in order to come up to a decent standard of execution, however imperfect it may be.

Second, on the variety of gesture and remembering to include passage with less gesture:

The art of gesture however cultivated, is not to be used for incessant flourishing; as well might the steps and bounds in dancing be adopted on all occasions, instead of the simple movement of walking: and our art my serve the same excellent purpose to the awkward gesticulator for which the father sent his clownish son to the dancing school, that he might learn to stand still. (p. 137)

Or, in his more succinct summary from the same paragraph, "It is not necessary always to saw the air..." (p. 137)