From the beginning of all time there has been implanted in the human
breast the Dramatic instinct full of life and of vigour, and finding
undoubtedly its outlet, in the early days of civilization, if not in the
Dramatic Art then in the poetry of motion with that necessary and always
essential concomitant of both--Pantomime. Indeed, of the Terpsichorean
Art, it has been truly observed "That deprived of the imitative
principle (_i.e._, Pantomime), the strength, the mute expression, it
becomes nothing but a series of cadenced steps, interesting merely as a
graceful exercise." Equally so in every way does it apply to the
Dramatic Art, which minus its acting, its gestures--in a word, its
Pantomime--we have nothing but, to quote Hamlet, "Words, words, words."

In observing "That all the world's a stage, and the men and women merely
players," Shakespeare doubtless included in the generic term "players,"
Pantomimists as well: Inasmuch as this, that when, and wherever a
character is portrayed, or represented, be it in real life or on the
stage--"Nature's looking-glass," and the world in miniature--the words
that the individual or the character speaks, are accompanied with
gesture and motion, or, in other words, Pantomime, when "The action is
suited to the word, the word to the action."

To trace the original origin of Pantomime, or Mimicry, we must go to
Nature herself where we can find this practised by her from the
beginning of all time as freely, and as fully, as ever it was, or ever
will be, upon the stages of our theatres. What better evidence, or
instances, of this can we have than in those studies of her handiwork?
as the larger species of caterpillars, when, by stretching themselves
out in imitation of, and to make their foes think that they are snakes;
tigers and lions choosing a background in keeping with, and in imitation