sanction would almost seem to be given, though still merely by implication, to the amusement you so strenuously maintain, and then only according to the style that was approved of in the simplicity of patriarchal times. I would rather say, however, that the silence as to its impropriety, observed by the evangelical writer, would seem to leave the mind at liberty to adopt it in practice or not, as a matter of indifference. I am inclined to believe also, with yourself, that as regards the last of your illustrations being drawn from that better dispensation of Christianity to which you have referred, is an additional argument in its favour.

"But now, my dear Mrs. Stately, having made to you this concession, I feel equally bound in truth to declare, that you have only surmounted one part of your difficulty, and that assuming, for the moment, that religion does not condemn dancing as a mere amusement, a fatal objection still remains to be disposed of ere the practice can be justified. I allude to the grave question of decency and morality.

Let us, how

I perceive you start at this announcement. ever, dispassionately inquire into the style and mode of dancing adopted in society in modern times. I allude now, more especially to the waltz, at which, on its first introduction into this country, all the matrons and heads of families throughout England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, raised their hands and eyes in utter astonishment and disgust. Habit that traitor to virtue- the subtle flatterer of vice in all its varied forms, could alone have reconciled the world to the polluting influence of this foreign exhibition. So true is it that, according to the language of the poetical moralist,—

'Vice is a monster of so frightful mien

As to be hated needs but to be seen;

But seen too oft, familiar with her face,

We first endure-then pity-then--embrace !'

"If we call things by their right names," continued Mrs. Gracelove, we are conscientiously bound to designate the waltz-the favourite and invariable dance at all fashionable parties (as well as all similar dances)-a licentious and unwarrantable exhibition. I trust you will pardon my liberty of speech," she paused to remark, " as I hope we are both of us reasoning to support principle and not custom."

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Most certainly, there is no occasion to apologise," replied Mrs. Stately. Though a fashionable woman, as has been stated, misled and spoilt by her husband, she was nevertheless amiable and accessible to truth; nor was she entirely heartless, as is the case with too many persons in the fashionable world. "Although we do not coincide in opinion," she remarked, “I always like to hear everything that can be advanced on both sides of a question. And if truth, as has been observed, lies at the bottom of a well, it requires no slight exertion or patience to draw her from her hiding-place, and when she does appear, we ought to treat her courteously. Pray proceed, my dear Mrs. Gracelove, for notwithstanding I am startled by your proposition, I yet feel interested in the frank and earnest style of your avowal."

"To justify the terms," resumed the conscientious mistress of Derwent Cottage," in which I have spoken of the waltz, and similar dances, what can be said in their favour by a reflective mind, witnessing the unauthorised freedom and license of attitude by which they are characterised? A young gentleman, for example, is introduced to a young lady, frequently for the first time of their ever meeting, and without the very slightest ceremony whatever she is clasped round the waist, and held closely to his side, which no one but a husband is entitled for a moment to do, while running round the giddy circle of this worse than heathenish exhibition. Can anything be more fatally calculated to corrupt a youthful

mind, just entering upon life, than an immoral liberty like this?-and at a period, too, when the passions are strong, and when they require the fostering care of a tender and judicious parent to keep them in proper subordination,—at a time when, if purity of heart exist at all, it should exist in that juvenile bosom; and when, if it surrender itself then to indelicate freedoms, it is in danger of degenerating into profligacy in after life?

"Can anything be imagined more fruitful of infidelities in the marriage state,—of broken vows, and broken hearts, than to have a young wife thus wantonly embraced, sometimes with one arm, at other times with both, by every fashionable libertine that may become acquainted with her? Is not the transition a very easy one, and, considering our corrupt nature, but too natural, from an embrace in public to an embrace in private?-from the license of the drawing-room to the more dishonourable freedoms of the boudoir?-till, at length, the Court of Doctors' Commons tells the melancholy result, in the disgrace of husband and children?

In

"The practice I speak of," continued our exemplary moralist, "is the polluter of virtue in its very source. stead of our daughters being reared up as polished corners of the temple,'-as beautifully expressed in Scripture—to become faithful wives and fostering mothers, they are trained up, as far as the license of manners and familiarities in question are concerned, to resemble, at least in outward appearance, the ancient worshippers of the goddess of Cyprus. The distinctions of right' and wrong,-the delicacies of a virtuous emotion,—are gradually undermined, till, at length, the once pure-minded youthful daughter is almost led to regard the somewhat equivocal principles of the Owenites with a secret. favour, which, under a better training, she would have repudiated with disgust.

"That such unhallowed libertinism should pervade the unholy rites of the temple of Juggernaut, and the impure ceremonies of Indian idolatry, is more to be lamented than wondered at; but that it should receive an unrighteous admission into the societies of civilized and Christian England, is a reproach that makes one blush for our degenerate country.

"The conclusion of my argument, therefore," continued Mrs. Gracelove," comes to this, that although Scripture may be silent as to any impropriety in the practice of dancing, nay, may even appear to approve of the amusement, yet it does condemn, and in the most unqualified language, all degrees of licentiousness, whether of thought, or word, or deed, and everything approximating thereto. And such is the waltzlicentious in the act, and still worse in its tendencies."

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Upon my word," exclaimed Mrs. Stately, "your unmitigated denunciation has indeed startled me more than I could possibly have imagined. Though I can by no means sympathize with you in the strong opinion you entertain on this subject, yet I almost rejoice that I have no daughter to be exposed to a danger which you have been pleased to depict in such frightful colours."

"But you have a son, my dear madam," responded her companion;" and though the consequences, in a worldly sense, of a young man going astray are not so ruinous as in the case of one of our sex, yet, in a moral point of view, sin is precisely the same denounced transgression in each party, and will be equally punished, if unrepented of, without the smallest distinction of persons. Besides, to make any difference between the sexes, as regards the religious principles on which education ought ever to be conducted, is to suppose that the souls of the one class are not as immortal and as precious as those of the other. This is a proposition unheard of except among some few savage tribes, who, in estimating the degrees of

intellectual capacity possessed amongst them, assign a spiritual nonentity to the condition of their oppressed and degraded women."

"And do you really believe," said the lady, in a tone of hesitation which she had not evinced before,-" do you really believe that every kind of dancing is unlawful? I do not mean scripturally unlawful, for I think we are both agreed that the Bible does not declare it to be so, in reference to the simple and pure style of patriarchal dancing; but I mean as being hostile to the welfare, the virtue, and the moral government of society? Am I to understand that you place the quadrille, for instance, in the same category with the waltz, and as equally offensive to virtue ?"

"To prove to you," answered our spiritual heroine," that I am not a bigot, blindly and fanatically opposed to innocent recreation, I do not think that dancing is actually sinful in itself, as practised in the years of ancient times. I am rather inclined to believe that, like wine, it is not the use, but the abuse of it that constitutes its sinfulness. I will candidly acknowledge that I do not think there is any impropriety in the quadrille, in which a modest decorum does prevail of style and attitude. I am indeed induced to imagine that being taught, for example, to walk through the steps of this dance is calculated to form a graceful carriage, and to give a degree of elegance to the person; and, in addition to this, it affords the benefit of exercise, as well as reasonable amusement, in private parties, in the evenings of a winter's day, when the weather will not permit of exercise being taken in the open air. But in making this concession, I would qualify the allowance within certain prescribed limits. I would neither sanction late hours, which are destructive to health and domestic duties, nor that ostentatious rivalry of dress which is too generally exhibited at such parties. I would not have a lady