37o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" In the most ancient religious usages dancing, and next to dancing instru- 

 mental music, were far more prominent than song. In the great procession, 

 with which the Eoman festival of victory was opened, the chief place, next 

 to the images of the gods and the champions, was assigned to the dancers, 

 grave and merry. . . . The ' leapers ' (salii) were perhaps the most ancient 

 and sacred of all the priesthoods.'' 



So, too, Guhl and Koner write : 



"Public games were, from the earliest times, connected with religious 

 acts, the Roman custom tallying in this respect with the Greek. Such 

 games were promised to the gods to gain their favor, and afterward carried 

 out as a sign of gratitude for their assistance. " 



CoDgruous with this statement is that of Posnett, who, after 

 quoting an early prayer to Mars, says 



" This primitive hymn clearly combined the sacred dance . . . with the 

 responsive chant ; and the prominence of the former suggests how readily 

 the processional or stationary hymn might grow into a little drama sym- 

 bolizing the supposed actions of the deity worshiped." 



Here we see a parallelism to the triumphal reception of David 

 and Saul, and are shown that the worship of the hero-god is a 

 repetition of the applause given to a conqueror when alive in 

 celebration of his achievements : the priests and people doing in 

 the last case that which the courtiers and people did in the first. 

 Moreover in Rome, as in Greece, there eventually arose, out of 

 the sacred performances of music, secular performances a culti- 

 vation of music as a pleasure-giving art. Says Inge 



" In republican days a Roman would have been ashamed to own himself a 

 skilled musician. . . . Scipio iEmilianus delivered a scathing invective in 

 the senate against schools of music and dancing at one of which he had 

 even seen the son of a Roman magistrate." 



But in the days of the Caesars musical culture had become part 

 of a liberal education ; and we have, in illustration, the familiar 

 remembrance of Nero as a violinist. At the same time " trained 

 choirs of slaves were employed to sing and play to the guests at 

 dinner, or for the delectation of their master alone." 



On tracing further the evolution of these originally twin pro- 

 fessions, we come upon the fact that while, after their separation, 

 the one became almost wholly secularized, the other long contin- 

 ued its ecclesiastical connections and differentiated into its secular 

 forms at a later date. Why dancing ceased to be a part of reli- 

 gious worship, while music did not, we may readily see. In the 

 first place dancing being inarticulate, is not capable of expressing 

 those various ideas and feelings which music, joining with words, 

 is able to do. As originally used it was expressive of joy, alike in 

 presence of the living hero and in the supposed presence of his 



