[Footnote 5:  By Addison.]

* * * * *

No. 466.  Monday, August 25, 1712.  Steele.

  ‘—­Vera incessu patuit Dea.’

  Virg.

When AEneas, the Hero of Virgil, is lost in the Wood, and a perfect Stranger in the Place on which he is landed, he is accosted by a Lady in an Habit for the Chase.  She enquires of him, Whether he has seen pass by that Way any young Woman dressed as she was?  Whether she were following the Sport in the Wood, or any other Way employed, according to the Custom of Huntresses?  The Hero answers with the Respect due to the beautiful Appearance she made, tells her, He saw no such Person as she enquired for:  but intimates, that he knows her to be of the Deities, and desires she would conduct a Stranger.  Her Form from her first Appearance manifested she was more than mortal; but tho’ she was certainly a Goddess, the Poet does not make her known to be the Goddess of Beauty till she moved:  All the Charms of an agreeable Person are then in their highest Exertion, every Limb and Feature appears with its respective Grace.  It is from this Observation, that I cannot help being so passionate an Admirer as I am of good Dancing. [1] As all Art is an Imitation of Nature, this is an Imitation of Nature in its highest Excellence, and at a Time when she is most agreeable.  The Business of Dancing is to display Beauty, and for that Reason all Distortions and Mimickries, as such, are what raise Aversion instead of Pleasure:  But Things that are in themselves excellent, are ever attended with Imposture and false Imitation.  Thus, as in Poetry there are laborious Fools who write Anagrams and Acrosticks, there are Pretenders in Dancing, who think meerly to do what others cannot, is to excel.  Such Creatures should be rewarded like him who had acquired a Knack of throwing a Grain of Corn through the Eye of a Needle, with a Bushel to keep his Hand in Use.  The [Dancers [2]] on our Stages are very faulty in this Kind; and what they mean by writhing themselves into such Postures, as it would be a Pain for any of the Spectators to stand in, and yet hope to please those Spectators, is unintelligible.  Mr. Prince has a Genius, if he were encouraged, would prompt them to better things.  In all the Dances he invents, you see he keeps close to the Characters he represents.  He does not hope to please by making his Performers move in a manner in which no one else ever did, but by Motions proper to the Characters he represents.  He gives to Clowns and Lubbards clumsie Graces, that is, he makes them Practise what they would think Graces:  And I have seen Dances of his, which might give Hints that would be useful to a Comick Writer.  These Performances have pleas’d the Taste of such as have not Reflection enough to know their Excellence, because they are in Nature; and the distorted Motions of others have offended those who could not form Reasons to themselves for their Displeasure, from their being a Contradiction to Nature.