hen great care should be taken to model and fit
it as exactly as possible to the face, as well as to have it
perfectly natural to the character represented. The French are
particularly, and not without reason, curious in this point.

The female dancers have naturally a greater ease of expression
than the men. More pliable in their limbs, with more sensibility
in the delicacy of their frame; all their motions and actions
are more tenderly pathetic, more interesting than in our sex. We
are besides prepossessed in their favor, and less disposed to
remark or cavil at their faults. While on the other hand, that
so natural desire they have of pleasing, independently of their
profession, makes them studiously avoid any motion or gesture
that might be disagreeable, and consequently any contortion of
the face. They, instinctively then, one may say, make a point of
the most graceful expression.

A woman, who should only depend on the exertion of strength in
her legs or limbs, without attention to expression, would
possess but a very defective talent. Such an one might surprize
the public, by the masculine vigor of her springs; but should
she attempt to execute a dance, where tender expressions are
requisite, she would certainly fail of pleasing.

The female dancers have also an advantage over the men, in that
the petticoat can conceal many defects in their execution; even,
if the indulgence due to that amiable sex, did not only make
great allowances, but give to the least agreeable steps in them,
the power of obtaining applause.

At the Italian theatres at Rome, in the Carnaval, where the
female dancers are not suffered to perform the dances, and where
the parts of the women are perform'd by men in the dresses of
women, it appears plainly, how much the execution suffers by
this expedient. However well they may be disguised, there is an
inherent clumsiness in them, which it is impossible for them to
shake off, so as to represent with justness the sprightly graces
and delicacy of the female sex. The very idea of seeing men
effeminated by such a dress, invincibly disgusts. An effeminate
man appears even worse than a masculine woman.

But however the consulting a looking-glass gives to men, in
general, the air of fops or coxcombs; it is to those who would
make a figure in dancing a point of necessity. A glass is to
them, what reflexion is to a thinking person; it serves to make
them acquainted with their defects, and to corre