t.

I have before observed that the grave or serious stile of
dancing, is the great ground-work of the art. It is also the
most difficult. Firmness of step, a graceful and regular motion
of all the parts, suppleness, easy bendings and risings, the
whole accompanied with a good air, and managed with the greatest
ease of expertness and dexterity, constitute the merit of this
kind of dancing. The soul itself should be seen in every motion
of the body, and express something naturally noble, and even
heroic. Every step should have its beauty.

The painter draws, or ought to draw his copy, the actor his
action, and the statuary his model, all from the truth of
nature. They are all respectively professors of imitative arts;
and the dancer may well presume to take rank among them, since
the imitation of nature is not less his duty than theirs; with
this difference, that they have some advantages of which the
dancer is destitute. The Painter has time to settle and correct
his attitudes, but the dancer must be exactly bound to the time
of the music. The actor has the assistance of speech, and the
statuary has all the time requisite to model his work. The
dancer's effect is not only that of a moment, but he must every
moment represent a succession of motions and attitudes, adapted
to his character, whether his subject be heroic or pastoral, or
in whatever kind of dancing he exhibits himself. He is by the
expressiveness of his dumb show to supplement the want of
speech, and that with clearness; that whatever he aims at
representing may be instantaneously apprehended by the
spectator, who must not be perplexed with hammering out to
himself the meaning of one step, while the dancer shall have
already begun another.

In the half-serious stile we observe vigor, lightness, agility,
brilliant springs, with a steadiness and command of the body.
It is the best kind of dancing for expressing the more general
theatrical subjects. It also pleases more generally.

The grand pathetic of the serious stile of dancing is not what
every one enters into. But all are pleased with a brilliant
execution, in the quick motion of the legs, and the high springs
of the body. A pastoral dance, represented in all the pantomime
art, will be commonly preferred to the more serious stile,
though this last requires doubtless the greatest excellence:
but it is an excellence of which few but the connoisseurs are
judges; who are rarely numerous enough to enco