258 BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN PROBLEMS 



ness. Through its operations in both time and 

 space, the dancer's art gains its peculiar charm of 

 grace, while at the same time losing in intensity. We 

 can best see this by contrasting the effect produced 

 by a beautiful human figure in the motion of danc- 

 ing with that produced when the figure assumes a 

 fixed position. In the fixed position the effect is 

 like that obtainable by sculpture, the space expres- 

 sion being shorn of any time and rhythmical element. 

 The fixity so gained at once becomes the means of a 

 gain in seriousness and intensity of expression, an 

 increase of dignity. Fixity of position in a significant 

 attitude imparts the suggestion of the fixity of fate, 

 of the inexorable, and thus gives to sculpture its 

 peculiar impressiveness in dealing with the larger 

 human emotions. Thus it appears that there are 

 definite biological reasons for the relatively restricted 

 appeal of dancing as an art. It seems certain that 

 dancing will be employed more and more in the future 

 for expressions of the milder forms of human delight, 

 the joy of motion in rhythm, and the healthful expen- 

 diture of stored muscular and nervous energy. On 

 the other hand, it appears certain that no great 

 development is to be expected in the range or inten- 

 sity of its appeal to human faculty and emotion. 



Ill 



Incomparably more analytical of the phenomenal 

 world are the eye and the ear as compared with the 



