In one of the poems appears the phrase, “La Walse (_sic_) aux mille tours,” while among the notes at the end of the volume is a definition which may be translated as follows: Walse--a Swiss dance the music of which is in 3-4 time; but it has only the value of two steps. It is done by a couple pirouetting while circling round the salon. It has nothing in it of complexity; it is the art in its infancy. When its rhythm is in 2 time it is called “_sauteuse_.” The word “_sauteuse_” suggests the ordinary polka in 2-4 time, in the customary manner, for any dance described as “sauteuse” means one in which the feet are raised from the ground, or in which leaping is indulged in, _not_ when the feet glide on the ground, as in the modern waltz. The old _volta_, from which the modern waltz is derived, was, it will be remembered, a _leaping_ dance. The greater part of the second volume is mainly devoted to his lengthy paraphrase of the great Boileau’s “L’Art Poétique,” under the title of “L’Art de la Danse,” which is full of sound instruction to dancers and interesting criticism of his contemporaries. CHAPTER XXIII A CENTURY’S CLOSE We have lingered somewhat over these sketches of the eighteenth century; let us hasten over that century’s close, for was it not steeped in blood? “Revolution,” did they not call the madness which seized France? Heralded by fair promises of universal brotherhood, what did all the fine talk of her “intellectuals” and “philosophs” end in? A state of anarchy, national madness; in which no man’s life was safe, and no woman’s honour. War is horrible enough between nations. What, then, is universal war between individuals, “men, _brother_ men?” Strange, is it not, that while the dying century was performing its dance of death, theatres should be open; operas, comedies, and ballets be performed. Before Guimard and her literary husband had begun to find their fortunes affected by the advent of the popular madness called Revolution, there were few theatres in Paris. Indeed, there were only five of any importance giving daily performances in 1775 and of these the Opera was of course the leading house as of old--the work of Gluck, Grétry, Piccinni and Sacchini holding the bill in Opera, for a period of some thirty years onward, the work of ballet composition being mainly in the hands of Noverre and the brothers Maximillian and Pierre Gardel. It was from the end of that year, too, when Noverre’s “Médée et Jason” was produced that the novelty of ballet-pantomime, having come to replace the earlier opera-ballet, now became generally known simply as ballet.