were known as _Ethologues_, meaning painters of manners. One of the most
celebrated of these Mimes was Sophron of Syracuse. In depicting the
conduct of man so faithfully, the Pantomimes of the Greek Mimes served
to teach and inculcate useful moral lessons. The moral philosophy of the
Mime, Sophron, was so pure that Plato kept a book of his poems under his
pillow when on his death-bed. Besides these Moralities, as they were
termed, there were, in addition, light pieces of a farcical kind, in the
portrayal of which the Mimes were equally as successful as in the other
species.

The dancing of the Greeks was an actual language, in which all
sentiments and passages were interpreted. By the aid of the
Terpsichorean Art, Professor Desrat says, "That the Greeks, a nation of
heroes, trained themselves in the art of hand-to-hand combat."

"Dancing," says another writer, "and imitative acting in the lower
stages of civilization are identical, and in the sacred dances of
ancient Greece we may trace the whole Dramatic Art of the modern world.
The Spartans practised dancing as a gymnastic exercise, and made it
compulsory upon all children from the age of five."

And we are also told that religious processions went with song and dance
(and, of course, Pantomime), to the Egyptian temples; the Cretan chorus
sang hymns to the Greek gods; David danced in procession before the Ark
of the Covenant; and that we are to "Praise the Lord with the sound of
the trumpet, praise Him with the psaltery and the harp; praise Him with
the timbrel and the _dance_."

Aristotle speaks of Mimetic dances three hundred years before the
Augustan era. He also says that dancers want neither poetry or music, as