CHAPTER X.

GRACE THE CROWN OF BEAUTY.

OVEMENT may be in itself beautiful, and when so, and

appropriately combined with beauty of the human form, it constitutes the highest conceivable beauty. So associated in the mind is living form with movement, and symmetry of the living form with exquisite movement, that a sense of deficiency is experienced if the movement does not correspond with the apparent requirements of the form. So intimately are they associated in the mind, that we feel the absence of due relations between them, even when the idea of movement conveyed is, as in the statue, only suggested by the counterfeit presentment of life. The colossal statues of Egypt sit grandly erect with their Atef crowns, but stolidly, and wholly unsuggestive of movement through all eternity. The Greek statues, on the contrary, be the portrayal of the human form never so reposeful, from the massive-shouldered, resting Hercules to the elegantly-limbed Apollo, through all the intermediate delicacy of womankind, everywhere suggest form energized by potential action, ready to deploy itself in manifestations of strength and grace.

It is movement that makes grace. When we say of a figure that it is graceful, it is not the figure itself which is properly thought of as graceful, but the effect which would be exhibited if only it should move. This proves how closely our ideas of form and movement are associated, when we actually transfer the complex perception of moving form to form alone. The conception from a perception is instinctively transferred to and identified with the figure itself, as its exclusive attribute.

If the reader desires to seize and hold firmly the principles underlying grace, it will be well, first of all, to consider that it

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is not the exclusive possession of human beings, nor even of animate things generally, and that it is an element of beauty which may be absent from form otherwise beautiful. Everywhere, however, that it manifests itself, it is found associated either with life or with that which is life-like through presenting the appearance of life. Thus, we witness it in the gracefulness of a yacht under full sail, bounding over the sea. We need not go to Byron's line, "She walked the waters like a thing of life," to know, if we have ever seen it, how full of apparent life and purpose is the careening craft among the billows. Even the movements of a kite are manifestly life-like and graceful, resembling the soaring of birds. We find among the lower animals several kinds which are exquisitely graceful; witness, for instance, certain species of antelope and deer, and the species of birds to which allusion has just been made, as affording the high standard by which we judge of the movement of the kite. The horse, too, not as he sometimes appears, trained even to tricks, but free as nature itself, is of almost unsurpassable gracefulness, in his gathered form, arching neck, flaming or fearful eye, when he sometimes becomes an embodiment of grace and picturesqueness difficult to match.

It is, however, only when we reach the human form that symmetry and grace can be so conjoined as to be beyond comparison. This is said, of course, with due regard for the fact noted in the preceding pages, and to be kept in mind, that we are constrained to speak of that which most nearly approaches our highest conception, as the ideal, although, of course, the ideal is a conception beyond anything that we perceive. Even the Apollo Belvidere has been discovered by modern anatomists to be defective in the delineation of the muscles of the chest, and the equally celebrated, in its way, group of the Laocöon exhibits in the brow of the distraught father imperfection in delineation of the muscles which there represent the corrugations of despair.

With this continued understanding, therefore, it may be said that there are seen occasionally certain embodiments of perfect grace. It is almost impossible to conceive anything human more nearly reaching perfection than the symmetry and grace which Rachel presented in "Phédre." Every step seemed to flow naturally out of what preceded, her every gesture moved in rhythmical accord with the verses that flowed from her lips, while, robed in the superbly ample peplum of the Greeks, this high-priestess of the histrionic art moved a goddess on the mimic scene. In an entirely different sphere of grace, Ellen Terry, in "Much Ado about Nothing," where the line occurs, "Look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, moves close to the ground to hear our conference," thrilled the spectator by the sight of her agile flight across the stage.

Grace is fundamentally, then, beauty of movement in living or life-like things. It gratifies in the mind the associated ideas. of accordance with each other of form and movement, and that condition best satisfies the mind which harmonizes the two elements concerned in the greatest unity of effect. experience great pleasure at the sight of gracefulness, and corresponding uncomfortableness at the sight of intense awkwardness.

We

Looking at the effect from a mechanical point of view, and it is from that point of view which we must examine it, if we wish thoroughly to understand and promote gracefulness, it depends upon close co-ordination between the nervous system and the trunk and limbs of the body. Extreme deficiency in that co-ordination may be illustrated by citing the case of one who has St. Vitus's dance, and moderate deficiency by that of one who is muscularly well developed, but does everything awkwardly. Grace, on the contrary, represents the complete adaptation of movement to the mechanism of the body. It presents ocular evidence of the smallest expenditure of force

for a given effect. When its constituent qualities are analyzed, it is found to be manifesting itself by curvilinear movement within the bounds associated with mechanical effectiveness and the appearance of perfect ease. Hence the superiority of women over men in gracefulness.

Let not the reader, however, for a moment confound the concomitant of ease with the constituents of gracefulness. An athlete may raise from the ground, hold at arm's length, or otherwise handle with what may be called ease, a very heavy weight, but that does not make any of his movements necessarily easy in the sense of their being graceful. Even if he were able to perform all his movements with the curvilinear differences that would be inseparable from female deployment of the same muscles, he would not thereby become more graceful, because the resulting action would not be appropriate to the masculine form. Nothing is more open to observation than that to each sex difference of physical conformation assigns difference of movement; for we find that women, when they approach the masculine type of form, are exceedingly awkward and unattractive, and that men, when they approach the feminine type, become thereby positively emasculated in appearance, and repulsive. There are certain well-defined bounds within which gracefulness can be exhibited by individuals of the male sex, as in the Spanish and some other national dances, but no bounds can be assigned to individuals of the opposite sex within which action must be confined to insure gracefulness. The première danseuse is admirable, but the premier danseur is abominable. Beyond the simpler order of movements, the latter degenerates into an exhibition of pure athleticism, while, with the former, the most pronounced exhibition of athleticism is completely veiled by the quality of feminine grace.

The appearance of ease is, as has been indicated, the effect of curvilinear movements. First in the sequence of causes and

effects comes co-ordination of the nervous system with the body and limbs. Next in order of importance comes symmetrical development in accordance with sex. The product of these is the individual of either sex who represents a good organization for the ordinary purposes of life. Beyond that is the highest possible co-ordination of the nervous system with a form of the highest symmetry. These conjoined, with physical education, lead to the highest possible manifestation of the special physical aptitude and grace appropriate to each sex. Anatomical differences between the sexes causing the movements of women to be executed in lines more curved than they are when executed by men, it comes about that when, according to their type, women are beautiful in face and form, and nervously highly organized, and are at the same time physically and socially well trained, they present the highest possible example of development, for they, the fairest of creatures, are thus endowed, in grace, nature's final embellishment.

with

It is easy to see why certain movements executed by individuals of one sex are not equally well performed by individuals of the opposite one. It would follow from what has been said,

that those movements which are least curved would be best executed by men, and observation bears out the statement that they are. Men strike horizontally straight from the shoulder, throw with admirable precision, and kick and run with the utmost directness of movement. Women, on the contrary, that is, typically well-formed women, cannot execute any of these movements with either ease or grace. Woman's arm is articulated lower at the shoulder than is that of man, because it is placed with reference to the position of her more slanting shoulders, and the arm itself is not so straight as his, and she cannot in consequence throw a stone well, or, to save her life, hit a straight blow from the shoulder. She is, too, if wellformed, what would be called in a man slightly knock-kneed,