A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School

than banish, this amusement, much more good would be secured. On the other side, it is objected, not that dancing is a sin, in itself considered, for it was once a part of sacred worship; not that it would be objectionable, if it were properly regulated; not that it does not tend, when used in a proper manner, to health of body and mind, to grace of manners, and to social enjoyment: all these things are conceded. But it is objected to, on the same ground as horse-racing, card-playing, and theatrical entertainments; that we are to look at amusements as they _are_, and not as they _might_ be. Horseraces might be so managed, as not to involve cruelty, gambling, drunkenness, and every other vice. And so might theatres and cards. And if serious and intelligent persons, undertook to patronize these, in order to regulate them, perhaps they would be somewhat raised from the depths, to which they are now sunk. But such persons, know, that, with the weak sense of moral obligation existing in the mass of society, and the imperfect ideas mankind have of the proper use of amusements, and the little self-control, which men, or women, or children, practise, these will not, in fact, be thus-regulated. And they believe dancing to be liable to the same objections. As this recreation is actually conducted, it does not tend to produce health of body or mind, but directly the contrary. If young and old went out to dance together, in the open air, as the French peasants do, it would be a very different sort of amusement, from that which is witnessed, in a room, furnished with many lights, and filled with guests, both expending the healthful part of the atmosphere, where the young collect, in their tightest dresses, to protract, for several hours, a kind of physical exertion, which is not habitual to them. During this process, the blood is made to circulate more swiftly than ordinary, in circumstances where it is less perfectly oxygenized than health requires; the pores of the skin are excited by heat and exercise;