nt details of the performance of the Judgment of Paris to
show that it strongly resembled the best form of ballet opera known
in modern times. These exhibitions were so greatly in favor that,
according to Ammianus Marcellinus, there were in Rome in the year 190
six thousand persons devoted to the art, and that when a famine raged
they were all kept in the city, though besides all the strangers all
the philosophers were forced to leave. Their popularity continued
until the sixth century, and it is evident from a decree of
Charlemagne that they were not lost, or at least, had been revived in
his time. Those of us who have enjoyed the performance of the original
Ravel troupe will admit that the art still survives, though not with
the magnificence or perfection, especially with reference to serious
subjects, which it exhibited in the age of imperial Rome.

Early and prominent among the post-classic works upon gesture is that
of the venerable Bede (who flourished A.D. 672-735) _De Loquela per
Gestum Digitorum, sive de Indigitatione_. So much discussion had
indeed been carried on in reference to the use of signs for the
desideratum of a universal mode of communication, which also was
designed to be occult and mystic, that Rabelais, in the beginning of
the sixteenth century, who, however satirical, never spent his force
upon matters of little importance, devotes much attention to it. He
makes his English philosopher, Thaumast "The Wonderful" declare, "I
will dispute by signs only, without speaking, for the matters are so
abstruse, hard, and arduous, that words proceeding from the mouth of
man will never be sufficient for unfolding of them to my liking."

The earliest contributions of practical value connected with the
subject were made by George Dalgarno, of Aberdeen, in two works, one
published in London, 1661, entitled _Ars Signorum, vulgo character
universalis et lingua philosophica_, and the other printed at Oxford,
1680, entitled, _Didascalocophus, or the Deaf and Dumb Man's
Tutor_. He spent his life in obscurity, and his works, though he was
incidentally mentioned by Leibnitz under the name of "M. Dalgarus,"
passed into oblivion. Yet he undoubtedly was the precursor of Bishop
Wilkins in his _Essay toward a Real Character and a Philosophical
Language_, published in London, 1668, though indeed the first idea was
far older, it having been, as reported by Piso, the wish of Galen that
some way might be found out to represent