One night while watching a dancer, and inwardly
condemning her tours de force as barbarisms which would
be hissed, were not people such cowards as always to
applaud what they think it the fashion to applaud, I
remarked that the truly graceful motions occasionally
introduced, were those performed with comparatively little
effort. After calling to mind sundry confirmatory facts,
I presently concluded that grace, as applied to motion,
describes motion that is effected with economy of force;
grace, as applied to animal forms, describes forms capable
of this economy; grace, as applied to postures, describes
postures which may be maintained with this economy;
and grace, as applied to inanimate objects, describes
such as exhibit certain analogies to these attitudes
and forms.
That this generalization, if not the whole truth, contains at least a large part of it, will, I think, become obvious, on considering how habitually we couple the words easy and graceful; and still more, on calling to mind some of the facts on which this association is based. The attitude of a soldier, drawing himself bolt upright when his serjeant shouts “attention,” is more remote from gracefulness than when he relaxes at the words “stand at ease.”
– Herbert Spencer, 1852
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