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Show RISE A N D PROGRESS OF DANCING. 47 FROM THE ITALIAN. Terspichore, the Goddess of Dancing, finding herself alone, betakes herself to the pleasures of graceful movements : first, she retires, then advances, displaying, as she lightly trips along, a beauteous knee. Her attention is fixed, on the harmonious sounds, while she arranges her steps in prelude 9. She flies around her new theatre ; her motion quickens, and her steps increase; so bouyant she appears, that waves might well sustain her tread10. On her small foot she pauses skilfully, and gives to every limb some graceful attitude". Now, she seems to haste away, and n o w again returns ; now she vanishes, and now she re-appears. Darting from side to side, she glances over the ground">, as shoots the lightning suddenly through the serenity of a night in summer '3. By such well-studied motion, and so light, the Goddess scarcely deigns to touch the earth. She wantons gaily, and springs aloft with such velocity, that her winged feet deceive the sight, and seldom can w e detect which foot it is that prints the soil. Shooting along in airy bounds, she traces circles with her limber feet; then, with step exact, retraces them, enlarging and diminishing ; as the dipping waves that dance along the bright Meander14, so are the motions of her twinkling feet, whether on earth, or quivering in the air ; whether she lightly trips, or firmly treads the ground !s. When she springs aloft she seems the spiry flame ; and like the undulating wave, she skims along; but her more stately turns assume the whirlwind's power, or seem like eddying billows by the tempest stirred l6. Harmonious symmetry prevails throughout her person. The attitude of one limb induces corresponding motions in the rest. Each foot moves, but by mutual consent it answers to the other in fraternal motion1'. The strictest ties unite her to the measure, never is a line mistaken, or a step misplaced,8. The linked, and entwined figures of her dance are varied to the change of melody; marking each note, and minding every pause, promptly she obeys each phrase of music, which she respects as mistress of every motion. N o w she advances, stops, rises, leaps on high, or reverently bends, and then regains the upright attitude •9. Suddenly she pauses in mid-dance, assumes another attitude, and on the instant, her whole style is changed ; her feet separating, form a figure, unmatched in mathematics for precision ; she turns, and seems a moving sphere, resembling most perhaps the peacock's airy plumes. One foot in the centre stays, while the other swiftly marks the outer round 2°. On her left foot her figure rests, and adopting a new posture, she swiftly whirls around ; with less rapidity the darted Paleum flies. With grace inimitable she now regains the spot from whence she parted, there stops, then leaps aloft, and hangs her feet on nothing, quivering in the air". Again she |