and in consequence she cannot, on the run, avoid a lateral movement representing a waste of energy for the purpose to be accomplished. The cancan, performed by young, slim girls, instead of being available as the basis of an argument against the view that women are unable to kick effectively, is confirmatory of it, for one of the prominent elements in the dance is the ridiculousness of the kicking. But if we, personally, could have any doubt of feminine kicking being ridiculous, through unadapted physical conformation, it would be removed by the revival in our mind of a scene which we once witnessed at a country-seat, where four young ladies from the city, visiting one afternoon, and finding a Rugby foot-ball on the lawn, were inspired to have a game, and were instigated thereto by the host and hostess and two or three guests who occupied the porch. The spot was so sequestered as to be entirely beyond the possi bility of observation, and so, the newcomers taking sides of two against two, the game began. So painful an exhibition we have never before or since witnessed. The ball was mounted by one of the girls missing it on the run and kicking herself into the air, whence she descended collapsed, to be tumbled over by her partner in an indiscriminate heap. And so the game went on for twenty minutes, with the players half the time on the ground making revolving efforts to rise, while the people on the porch, from being suffocated with laughter, roared with most inelegant shouts, wept, and became weak and hysterical, while they besought the equally-exhausted lawn-party to desist. Painful!

there were moments when we were so sore and aching all over that we would have given anything to be miles away from the extraordinary fascination of that sport!

IN

CHAPTER XI.

THE ART OF WALKING.

a very interesting work which appeared two or three years ago, entitled "Romantic Love and Personal Beauty," lately supplemented by the author, Mr. Henry T. Finck, in an article. in which he descants admiringly on the beauty of Spanish women as enhanced by their singularly graceful carriage, he incidentally makes some erroneous statements in regard to the art of walking, all the more remarkable as coming from an observer and connoisseur in the charms which he depicts. Incidentally, however, to noticing this error, we feel bound in honor to say that, with the exception of only one other, which we shall have occasion to notice in the next chapter,-that as to his view of the future virtual extirpation of the blonde by the brunette type of beauty,-Mr. Finck's work is most instructive, and to be cordially recommended to every one desirous of closely studying beauty as influenced by romantic love. To the demonstration of this hitherto much-overlooked source of beauty, his work is especially devoted. The present state of physiological knowledge fully supports the conclusions which he reaches by ample discussion and illustration. If, as undoubtedly they do, drunkenness and other causes which have a deleterious influence upon the human organism, and, on the other hand, all that conduces to its health, impress themselves upon offspring, it is impossible that it should be otherwise than that the sexual congress which is necessary to the extension of life, by which, in effect, parents are perpetuated in their children, should not, when associated with romantic love, in creatures so highly endowed as are human beings with the faculty of ideation, produce the happiest effect upon health, vigor, and beauty of offspring.

The very pictures of Spanish women, by Fortuny and others, with which Mr. Finck's article, on the beauty of Spanish women, is illustrated, refute his statements on the art of walking, in his work on "Romantic Love and Personal Beauty." He there

remarks that

It is a mooted question whether the toes should be slightly turned outward, as dancing-masters insist, or placed in straight parallel lines, as some. physiologists hold. For the reasons indicated in the last paragraph, physiologists are clearly right. With parallel, or almost parallel, great toes a graceful walk is more easily attained than by turning out the toes. Even in standing, Dr. Thomas S. Ellis argues, the parallel position is preferable. When a body [he says] stands on four points, I know of no reason why it should stand more firmly if those points be unequally disposed. The tendency to fall forward would seem to be even increased by widening the distance between the points in front, and it is in this direction that falls most commonly occur.

Gracefulness of walking is so essential to elegance of presence, and so dependent upon the proper position of the feet with reference to the body and the line of advance, that one cannot do better than take the preceding statement as text for the discussion of the subject, which cannot properly be omitted in a work like this, and which finds its most appropriate place at the point that we have reached.

First of all, before proceeding farther, certain ambiguities. in the statement must be cleared up. It is to be observed that, after the author had spoken of the feet being placed in "straight parallel lines, as some physiologists hold," he subjoins that "physiologists are clearly right." Now, the most that can be claimed is that some physiologists advocate the practice described; but that of itself has no weight, for there is no question, great or small, upon which members of any profession are all agreed in opinion. Authority that compels acceptance of views can come only from overwhelming majority, individual distinction, or demonstration, and all these are wanting to the statement. It is our conviction that authority for the opposite opinion is represented by enormous preponderance in the num

bers and prominence of its advocates over those who hold the opinion cited.

It is to be considered, with reference to the citation of dancing-masters as having exaggerated notions of how the feet should be placed, that they represent only a certain kind of drill, and that all drill, as has been elsewhere intimated, is excessive in formal teaching, in order to allow ample margin for lapse in actual practice. The soldier is taught, in the manual of arms, in marching, and all that appertains to drill, what is to serve him in stead in his military life, but what does not so formally there appear. It is notorious that, in the assauts d'armes, the small-sword practice with foils, when they take place as competitive contests, the academical style, as it is termed, largely disappears in the heat and exigencies of the contests. So we may say of boxing and of any other athletic exercises, that there are formal positions, always in excess of those which are to be observed in actual use, and still more in emergency. In close contest, nature declines to be strictly academical, and yet the practice which is born of the school and the academy better fits the possessor than otherwise to use the powers with which he has been gifted by

nature.

We reach the consideration as to what degree of turning out of the toes is permitted by the expression quoted: "With parallel, or almost parallel, great toes a graceful walk is more easily attained than by turning out the toes." The angle at which, in our estimation, the toes should be turned out is that at which the ball of the great toe, as well as the great toe itself, can best act, not only as the fulcrum around which the body is moving, but as giving the most considerable repeated force in propulsion. This angle is not to be arbitrarily determined, but should depend upon and be fixed by what constitutes the most effective movement of the body. The rigid march of Frederic the Great's soldiers was the model first adopted by our army.

The whole world imitated it on parade. It remained for the French (among the most practical people on earth) to discover that even the arms have, through their momentum, a function in marching. Hence, was to be seen among the French, forty years ago, the first true military marching, where the body sways with an easy carriage.

Now, neither in marching nor in walking-for they are essentially the same thing, marching being only formal walking (and hence those persons walk best who have been taught to march) can the body move best with parallel feet. The most perfect freedom possible of movement of the whole body in the walk should, as we have indicated, determine the angle at which the feet should be turned out, and this will slightly differ in different persons, with breadth of shoulder and length of leg. So adjusted as to angle, the movement of advancing is accompanied by shoulders alternately thrown back, and corresponding expansion of the chest. Observation of any one walking with turned-in or parallel toes will prove that the shoulders alternately describe smaller arcs, and that the whole effect is contracted and ungainly.

Dr. Ellis's advocacy of parallel feet, quoted with approval by Mr. Finck, is entirely untenable from the point of view of geometry and physics. He says:—

When a body stands on four points, I know of no reason why it should stand more firmly if those points be unequally disposed. The tendency to fall forward would seem to be even increased by widening the distance between the points in front, and it is in this direction that falls most commonly occur.

If Dr. Ellis would take a jointed doll, place its feet parallel, and stand it up on a table, he would find that it is in a position of most unstable equilibrium. If he would then, without removing it, turn the doll's toes slightly outward, he would find it firmly placed. As it is not alone the area of the soles of both feet upon which the human figure stands as its base, but the