the dance. This movement has become worldwide; it has met with all kinds of opposition from clerical and lay sources, and yet it has gone on regardless of both, for the reason that it contained a message within itself which, if understood and used aright, would make for the betterment of mankind. With every new departure there is always much that is going to disturb the conventional thought of the time, and a certain number of people are absolutely sure to rise up and try to thwart the progress of any movement that would make for human development. They are like so many old women trying to sweep back the onward-coming tide. But progress is the keynote of life, and their puny efforts come to naught. They have nothing to do with the present or the future of the dance.

It is upon the professors and the teachers who are the real exponents of the dance that the continuation and the, progress of the dance will depend. From henceforward the world will not accept the partial or the incomplete, the unnatural or the ungraceful, except for a brief season of time. What the world of the present should demand is the very best of everything, for it is only the best that shall endure. At the present the shoemaker, the baker, or the candlestick maker can become the professor or the teacher of dancing, and a certain number of people will enthusiastically become their followers. But this, at best, is only a superficial, temporary condition and cannot continue. In fact, already it has become evident that the people who can inculcate the rhythm, grace, and beauty of dancing are having all they can possibly do, while the charlatans and incompetents are beginning to see the sign of the times, and are slowly but surely losing their followers. It is therefore necessary

that the intelligent and cultivated professors of the dance who desire to perpetuate this renaissance of rhythmic movement should continue to improve it in every way possible through the use of rhythm and melody, grace, and beauty, so that the dance may become as perfect an expression of man's inner thought and feeling as it is possible to make it. Increase the number and variety of the dances, but never sacrifice quality for either variety or number. Grace and beauty should be the determining factors in the use of any new steps in the dances. Teachers, as well as students, should realise that excesses of any kind are followed by reactions; that temperance is necessary in all things; and that there is no surer way of destroying the value of anything, no matter how worth while it may be, than by using it to excess. The dance has its legitimate place in the world; it can do almost untold good if used in a natural way; but its abuse will cut short its usefulness and its duration more quickly than all anathemas that may be hurled against it by the clerical or the lay mind. Its coming at the present time is really a harbinger of the artistic life that is yet to come, because the freedom of mind and body realised through the dance will reach out and affect life in many new and varied artistic ways. Not that I mean that it will bring new arts into being, but it will so colour the other arts that we shall have newer and more artistic expression. All the arts are so related and interrelated that a movement in any one is really the starting of an impulse that will reach out and extend to all the rest. After all, no matter what the art may be, it is founded on the great trinity of rhythm, melody, and harmony. The recognition of these three brings grace, symmetry, and beauty to

all the rest. Life is one, but diversity is made evident throughout all expression. One law controls and directs the whole universe, but expresses itself through a multiplicity and variety of forms. Unity exists at the heart of life and diversity on its surface.

Dancing is necessary to the full development of man, inasmuch as all natural expression is essential to right living. There is a mental and physical exhilaration in dancing that has a vitalising effect upon the whole life. The full benefit, however, can only be obtained when the dancer is alive to the indwelling rhythm that is necessary to all true dancing. When he thoroughly feels this rhythm, then his movements become graceful and there is a beauty of expression. Almost everyone enjoys seeing one or more people who are dancing with rhythm, grace, and beauty. The effect on the onlooker is often to exhilarate in a beneficial way. I have an idea that the person who perfects himself in the art of dancing is also perfecting himself in many other ways. When one is able to express in a graceful or beautiful way, then this also has an uplifting effect in many other directions. The dance gives courtesy to speech and grace to action. As a physical exercise for the perfecting of health and strength, there are few that will prove so beneficial, because there is probably no other exercise wherein all the muscles of the body are used to the same degree. I can understand that excessive dancing, or the abuse of the dance through unnatural and ungraceful movements, may prove a detriment rather than a gain, but that holds good of anything and everything in life. No one can resort to unnatural ways of doing anything in life, without getting unnatural results. In dancing one learns, or at least

one should learn, to hold the body erect in an easy and a graceful way. Through doing this all the organs of the body are held in their natural positions, so that each and every organ is enabled to function in a perfectly natural way.

No one must mistake the use of time for rhythm in either music or dancing. Rhythm is a direct result of the inner feeling, and time becomes associated with it, yet it is something far greater in its power than time can ever become. A person may sing, play or dance and keep perfect time, and yet give no expression of true rhythm. Rhythm always lends itself to graceful action and movement. Time is acquired through the use of the ear, and when not associated with rhythm is purely artificial. You will see many people who keep perfect time in dancing who are, nevertheless, awkward and ungraceful in movement, while others who are not keeping any better time are natural and graceful in movement because they are using life's inner rhythm instead of merely using time. The easy, elastic, graceful body is a true expression of the rhythm in the life of man. Dancing is one of the greatest arts for calling out and using rhythm, therefore it must occupy a worthy place in man's life. It is too soon as yet to say that the dance will become a part of religious ceremonial, but there is no reason to doubt that eventually it will regain its proper place in the religious systems of the world as an outer expression of inner joy, rhythm, and melody.

CHAPTER VIII

NATURE AND ART IN SINGING

"And here the singer for his Art

Not all in vain may plead,

The song that moves a nation's heart
Is in itself a deed!"

"Thine is music such as yields

Feelings of old brooks and fields,
And, around this pent-up room,
Sheds a woodland, free perfume;
O, thus forever sing to me!
O, thus forever!

-TENNYSON.

The green, bright grass of childhood bring to me,
Flowing like an emerald river,

And the bright blue skies above!

O, sing them back, as fresh as ever,
Into the bosom of my love."

-LOWELL.

WHEN I use the term "art" in relation to singing, I should like it to be understood in this sense: that music produced by the human voice is a natural expression of life just as much as the song of the bird. And while to an extent this expression is spontaneous and instinctive; yet through the desire to express by the voice and with continued practice one may go on developing far beyond anything that was deemed possible in the beginning. Art does not make the voice, but art assists in getting the best possible production from the voice. At times a person not in possession of a beautiful voice may use his art to such a degree as to produce a more pleasing effect upon people than could another person with a more beautiful voice who lacks artistic expression.

It is plainly the duty of anyone who wishes to sing