14 OCTOBER 1899, Page 22

Dancing in AU Ages. By Edward Scott. (Swan Sonnenschein and

Co. Gs.)—Mr. Scott gives in this volume an historical account of dancing, a topic on which he possesses much of the knowledge of an expert. It is not, however, in his review of the dancing of antiquity that he is at his best. That "in early days dancing appears to have been held in the highest esteem as a domestic pastime," for instance, is a very doubtful statement. Dancing was always mimetic or religious. In a quotation from Xenophon's " Anabasis " (spelt Anabases) we have a curious mistake : " He who struck him, having stripped him of his arms, went out sing- ing Sstacles." What he sung was " Setalies," probably a national ballad about some hero of the name. But there is a considerable nollection of facts in the volume, and Mr. Scott's style, though now and then suffering from the attempt to be funny, is not without attraction.