iveliness, convey the idea of that character,
with all its transports of fury and disorder.

It was in this light, that the antients required the union of
the actor and of the dancer in the same person. They expected,
on the theatre especially, dances of character, that should
express to the eye the sensations of the soul: without which,
they considered it as nothing but an art that had left nature
behind it; a mere corpse without the animating spirit; or at the
best, carrying with it a character of falsity or tastelessness.
A thorough master of dancing, should, in every motion of every
limb, convey some meaning; or rather be all expression or
pantomime, to his very fingers ends.

How many requisites must concur to form an accomplished
possession of this talent! It is not enough that the head should
play on the shoulders with all the grace of a fine connection;
nor that his countenance should be enlivened with significance
and expression; that his eyes should give forth the just
language of the passions belonging to the character he
represents; that his shoulders have the easy fall they ought to
have; let even the motions of his arms be true; let his elbows
and wrists have that delicate turn of which the grace is so
sensible; let the movement of the whole person be free, genteel,
and easy; let the attitudes of the bending turn be agreeable;
his chest be neither too full nor too narrow; his sides clean
made, strong, and well turned; his knees well articulated, and
supple; his legs neither too large, nor too small, but finely
formed; his instep furnished with the strength necessary to
execute and maintain the springs he makes; his feet in just
proportion to the support of the whole frame; all these,
accompanied with a regularity of motion; and yet all these,
however essential, constitute but a small part of the talent.
Towards the perfection of it, there is yet more, much more
required, in that sensibility of soul, which has in it so much
more of the gift of nature, than of the acquisition of art; and
is perhaps in this, what it is in most other arts and sciences,
if not genius itself, an indispensable foundation of genius.
There is no executing well with the body, what is not duly
felt by the soul: sentiment gives life to the execution, and
propriety to the looks, motions and gestures.

Those who would make any considerable progress in this art,
should, above all things, study justness of action. They cannot
there