ious
observation of the beauties and delicacies of nature. These he
must incessantly study, in order to transplant into his art such
as are capable of producing the most pleasing effect. He must
particularly consult the fitness of time, place and manners;
otherwise what would please in one dance might displease in
another. Propriety is the great rule of this art, as of all
others. A discordance in music hurts a nice ear; a false
attitude or motion in dancing equally offends the judicious eye.

The looks of the dancer are far from insignificant to the
character he is representing. Their expression should be
strictly conformable to his subject. The eye especially should
speak. Thence it is that the Italian custom of dancing with
uncovered faces, cannot but be more advantageous than that of
dancing masked, as is commonly done in France; when the passions
can never be so well represented as by the changes of
expression, which the dancer should throw into his countenance.

And it is by these changes of countenance, as well as of
attitude and gesture, that the dancer can express the gradations
of the passions; whereas the painter is confined intirely to one
passion, that of the particular moment in which he will have
chosen to draw a character. For example, a painter, who means to
represent a country-maid, under the influence of the passion of
love, can only aim at expressing some particular degree of that
passion, suitable to the circumstances of the rest of his
picture, or to the situation in which he shall have placed her.
But a dancer may successively represent all the gradations of
love; such as surprize at first sight, admiration, timidity,
perplexity, agitation, languor, desire, ardor, eagerness,
impatience, tumultous transports, with all the external simptoms
of that passion. All these may be executed in the most lively
manner, in time and cadence, to a correspondent music or
simphany. And so of all the other passions, whether of fear,
revenge, joy, hatred, which have all their subdivisions
expressible, by the quick shift and succession of steps,
gestures, attitudes, and looks, respectively adapted to each
gradation.

A mask then cannot but hide a great part of the necessary
expression, or justness of action. It can only be favorable to
those who have contracted ill habits of grimacing or of
contortions of the face while they perform.

There are however some characters in which a mask is even
necessary: but t