of the ladies, for they know that sculptors would
hardly choose as subjects the lower portion of women whose legs have
been over-developed by a training so arduous that it is found almost
impossible to get English girls to go through with it. But--and here's
the rub--the dancer has a respect for her craft, which, like the actor's
devotion to his art, tends to produce erroneous ideas, and this is why
the fight has taken place.

At the bottom, it becomes a question of virtuosity. Art has suffered
appallingly in every branch from the mania for cultivation of dexterity
in accomplishment. To the prima ballerina the dancing is more important
than the dance, to the actors the playing than the play, to many
painters the _facture_ than the picture, and so on. Music has been the
main sufferer, particularly on the vocal side, and certain kinds of
opera have been buried under the vocal acrobatics of the singers. One
sees occasionally in shop windows, and, it may be, in human habitations,
a species of abominable clock that has no kind of casing to conceal the
works; it suggests the image of a prima ballerina. With the perfectly
modest immodesty of the little boy cited in discussion by Laurence
Sterne, she delights in exhibiting the works; more truthfully than a
once famous conjuror, she insists upon showing us "how it is done"; and
that really is quite the last thing a person of any taste wishes to
know, or, rather, desires to have forced upon him.

Obviously, it is the duty of everyone who pretends to be educated to
have some acquaintance with the mechanics of the different branches of
art, but he does not want to be taught in public. Unfortunately the
performer displays a natural desire to show his own cleverness rather
than that of the dramatist. He treats himself as the cart when he is
only the--horse.

Drama has suffered severely from this; indeed, in our theatres we have
reached the topsy-turvydom of having the dramatist write for the players
instead of having the players act for the dramatist. Sterile art is the
general outcome. A great form of architecture perished with the
architect who, forgetful of noble design, indulged in desperate _tours
de force_ and offered to the stonemason the opportunity of executing
miracles in stone lacework.

Dancing has stood still since the dancers have gyrated frantically in
order to prove their mechanical dexterity, and drama is in the doldrums
because the players, with the assistance o