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the same end , we allow the head to lean somewhat on one side . Both these attitudes are imitated in sculpture as elements of grace . Tu rning from attitudes to movements , our current remarks will he found to imply the same relationship . No one praises as graceful a walk that is irregular and jerking , and so displays waste of power ; no one sees any beauty in the waddle of a fat man , or the trembling steps of an invalid , in both of which effort is visible ; hut the style of walking we admire is moderate in velocity , perfectly rhythmical , unaccompanied by violent swinging of the arms , and giving us the perception that there is no conscious , exertion , and , at the same time , that there is no force thrown away , — -that there is as much muscular action used as is needful , and no more . In dancing , again , the prevailing difficulty—the proper disposal of the hands and arms , well illustrates the same truth . Those who fail in overcoming this difficulty ,
wive the spectator the impression that their arms are a trouble to them ; they are held stiffly in some meaningless attitude , at an ohvions expense of power ; they are checked from swinging in the direction in which they would naturally swing ; or they are so moved , that , instead of helping to maintain the equilibrium , they endanger it . A good dancer , on the contrary , makes us feel that , so far from the arms being in the way , they are of great use . Each motion of them , whilst it seems naturally to result from a previous motion of the body , is turned to some advantage ; we perceive that it has facilitated instead of hindered the general action ; or , in other
WOrds that an economy of effort has heen achieved . Any one wishing to distinctly realize this fact , may readily do so by studying the action oi the arms in walking . Let him place his arms close to his sides , and there keep them , whilst walking with some rapidity . He will immediately find himself obliged to fall into a backward and forward motion of the shoulders , of a wriggling , ungraceful character . After persevering in this for a space , until he finds , as he will do , that the action is not only ungraceful , usual The
but fatiguing , let him suddenly allow his arms to swing as . writing of the shoulders will , cease , the hody will he foiind to move equably forward , and comparative ease will he felt . If inclined to pursue the inquiry further , he may perceive that the motion backward of each arm is simultaneous with , the forward motion of the corresponding leg ; and , if he will attend to his muscular sensations , he will find—what if a mathematician he will recognise as a consequence of the law , that action and re-action are equal and opposite , —that this backward movement of the it is
arm is a counterbalance to the forward movement of the leg , and that ¦ easier to produce this counterbalance by moving the arm , than by contorting the body , as he otherwise must do . * The action of the arms in walking being thus understood , it will be xeadily perceived that the graceful employment of them in' dancing is simply a complication of the same thing ; and that a good dancer is one having so acute a muscular sense as at once to feel in what direction the arms should he moved , to most readily counterbalance each successive motion of the body or legs , and to thus facilitate instead of hinder the general action . .
„____ This relationship between gracefulness and economy of force will be at once recognised by those who skate . They will remember that all their early attempts , and especially their first timid experiments in figureskating were alike awkward and fatiguing ; and that the acquirement of skill was also the ' acquirement of ease . The requisite confidence , and a -t p . 1 , .. r .., i- 1 . C ~~ I . ^^ n *» l \ foivio / 1 flirwo t . vvist . lll P'S OI tll C d of the feet having been obtainedthose twistings ot the
due comman , trunk and gyrations of the arms , which are previously needful to maintain the balance , are found needless ; the body is allowed to follow without control the impulse given to it , the arms to swing where they will ; and it is clearly felt , that the graceful way of performing any evolution is the way that costs least effort . Lookers-on can scarcely fail to see the same truth , if they look for it . Perhaps there is no case in which they may so distinctly perceive that the . movements they call graceful , are those which fulfil a given
«> nd with the smallest expenditure of force . The reference to skating suggests , that graceful motion might be defined as motion hi curved lines . Certainly , straight and zig-zag , movements are excluded from the conception , The sudden stoppages , the irregularities which angular movements imply , are its antithesis ; for a leading element of grace is continuity , ilowmgness . It will be found , however , that tins is , i , erely anotliw aspect of the same fact , and that motion m curved lines is economical motion . Given certain successive pos . tions to he assumed by a limb , then if it be moved in a straight Ymc to the first of these positions , suddenly arrested , afid then moved fn another direction straight to the second position , and so on , it is clear that at each arrest the nunncntum previously ' given to the limb umst be destroyed at u certain cost of Joree , and ' a new momentum given to it at a further cost of force ; whereas . 1 instead of arresting the limb at its first position , its motion be allowed to
* A narnllcl !«<•« ., 1 \ n-lh «* r olix-idntin- Miin , niny »>< ' humi in a looomol / . vo «« .. £ „„ ,. On lookin /; ill ,, drM » who « l , then , will be fo .., ul b « . « i « . tl . o Im »» *> wbrcl . th » inirrml iHHWiM " . lii ! cl , iV « inv «|»«» Mliii / , ' inaHMor . iu .. l . nl on Mm opnomln hi . Io oi tho w ici I , ul o . . liH mi , fro ... U . o . Ui . ro ; or , if U . « <>» V »» »» » " » » lv » "K » 1 H " " 7 1 "" !*" ; llll < " or u . l < i « , i block of iron , -Unar to it in h ««> , but pro ^ -lm , ' Jr . an Mm axlo in tl >« roverm Iliro .-iion JCv « lo .. Uy . Wi ,. Ki pMKl on opyomlo h . j ,-h o ( II ... con n « o ?»»;» ' . «¦•« ' < frank ami ' its . ¦ om . lorlml . mro n . ov « in opiHwUo . l . rcHioriH nilat . v .-. ly to 1 , ho axl < - , i »< l by 7 , ,... iU Ibo HauM > MluliouHliip thai «*«* hoLw , * .. tlu , njot , « ,. H oi , o « , „ .... Uj b ,,, Wo inul motion * of Iho uririH aixl Io h in walku . fr ; a , , 1 ... Mu < r V'ir ' , lilway locomotion , Udovo lh ,, Hn «« , UT , t , | . rbaH « l «* « m I , 1 « w « , r » .. h . mI loco . noilv ^ SntX-JH ^ Hul ^ cHx , u violout < m n \ lniio , » hiwt , l v nnalo ^ onn to tluit wr . tfgH « of thiV * bouldWH tluit ii ^ vfuu wU . vn . " » vp , wilK i ' uat witUuul moving our , urius .
continue , and a lateral force be impressed upon it to make it diverge towards the second position , a curvilinear motion is the necessary result ; and by making use of the original momentum , force is economized . If the truth of these conclusions respecting graceful movement be admitted , it cannot , I think , be doubted , that graceful form is that kind of form which we see best fitted to accomplish graceful movement . Were it otherwise , there would arise the incongruity that the two would either not be associated at all , or that the one would habitually occur in the absence
of ' the other j , both which alternatives being quite at variance with our experience , we are compelled to conclude that there exists the relationship indicated . ' Any one hesitating to admit this , will , I think , do so no longer on remembering that the animals which we consider graceful , —as deer , leopards , greyhounds , are those noted for fleetness and agility , and that those we class as ungraceful , —as elephants , bears , sloths , are those having the faculty of locomotion but little developed . In the case of the greyhound , especially , we see that the particular modification of the canine type , in which the facility and economy of muscular motion have been brought by habit to the greatest perfection , is the one which we call most graceful . " _ . . . i .- * have this ithet
How trees and inanimate objects should ever come to ep applied to them , will at first sight seem difficult to explain . But the fact that we commonly , and perhaps unavoidably regard all objects under a certain anthropomorphic aspect , will , I think , help us to understand it . The stiff branch of an oak-tree standing out at right angles from the trunk , g ives us a vague notion of great force expended to keep it in that position ; and we call it ungraceful , on the same ground that we call the holding out an arm at right angles to the body ungraceful . ' Conversely , the lax drooping boughs of a weeping-willow are vaguely associated with limbs in easy attitudes—attitudes requiring little effort to maintain them—and the term graceful , by which we describe these , we apply by metaphor to the willow . I may as well here , in a few lines , venture the hypothesis , that this notion of Grace has its subjective basis in Sympathy . The same faculty
which makes us shudder on seeing another in danger—which sometimes causes motion of our limbs on seeing a struggle or a fall , makes us in a vague way participate in all the muscular sensations which those around us are experiencing . When their motions are violent or awkward , we feel in a slio-ht degree the disagreeable sensations which we should have were they our own . When they are easy , we sympathize with the pleasant sensations they imply in those exhibiting them .
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PASSAGES FROM A BOY'S EPIC . XV . OLYMPUS . He ceast , but listening stood The Princess , till the Strength of all the Worlds His arm upraising on the paler skies , Fronted the sea that snowed the rock-ribbed shore With wreaths of creamy spray . A summer wind Leaned on its breast , and whirled the watchet waves In dimpling eddies round , till rising slow , Through their blue depth a hollow shell appeared , TEtherial , ample ; whose serene concave Was coloured like to fading- sunset skies . Within the shell , . is in some airy bower Built by the twilight winds of rosy dew On the pale con ( hies of the morn and eve , Stood mid the ; graceful children of the sea , Ambrosial Aphrodite . Many sounds Of dulcet instruments invisible , And birds that sang this single sunset down , But never sang again to mortal ear , Accompanied . But when she toueht the shore , And the white daughters of the ; wandering waves Closed round her as around the Moon the stars , Slow sank tlie magic bark , uuiid the coil Of waters gurgling with : i flute-like sound , Down to tin- silent cities of the sea . Then to that Power celestial and bis Male Approaching , came the Queen of nil Desire , Veiled in the glow of her own loveliness , A liner atmosphere that round her lay , Like light siround tin ; petals of the rose , Ami thus she said : " ¦ O welcome , sister mine ! For tbou art worthy of that gentle name , That henceforth in the golde . u homes shall ; dwell , Of the great ( . Jods that over trampled hopes , Have led thoc to the starry pnlnces , Where thou the Queen and Mo / her of nil life , Shalt iind tliy King . Therefore o ' er birth and growth , O ' er life and ' death , ninl chance and fate , preside , And lead thou Man , while stately music culls , Down war ' s red furrows , mid with myrtle blend The laurel shadowing his imperial brow , Till fairer seasons fairer manners bring , Ami rights aliow clear , . since Love the sovran might
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December 25 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1239
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 25, 1852, page 1239, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1966/page/19/
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