II.

Soon as the ev'ning fhades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly to the lift'ning earth.
Repeats the story of her birth:

Whilft all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,

• Confirm the tidings as they roll,

And fpread the truth from pole to pole.
III.

What though, in folemn filence, all
Move round the dark tereftrial ball?
What tho' nor real voice nor fourd
Amid their radiant orbs be found
In reafon's ear they all rejoice,.
• And utter forth a glorious voice,
For ever finging, as they fhine,
"The hand that made us is divine."

C..

N° 466.

Monday, Auguft 25.

Vera inceffu patuit dea

VIRG. En. . v. 409.

And by her graceful' walk the queen of love is known.

DRYDEN.

WHEN Æneas, the hero of Virgil, is loft in the

wood, and a perfect ftranger in the place on which he is landed, he is accofted by a lady in an habit for the chace. She inquires of him, whether he has seen pafs by that way any young woman dreffed as fhe was? Whether he were following the fport in the wood, or any other way employed, according to the custom of huntreffes? The hero anfwers with the refpe&t due: to the beautiful appearance fhe made; tells her, he faw no fuch perfon as fhe inquired for; but intimates that he knows her to be one of the deities, and defires she would conduct a ftranger. Her form from her first apMS

T

but

pearance manifefted she was more than mortal; though he was certainly a goddefs, the poet does not make her known to be the goddess of Beauty till she moved: all the charms of an agreeable perfon are then in their highest exertion, every limb and feature appears with its refpective grace. It is from, this obfervation, that I cannot help being fo paffionate an admirer as I am of good dancing. As all art is an imitation of nature, this is an imitation of nature in its highest excellence, and at a time when the is moft agreeable. The bufinefs of dancing is to difplay beauty, and for that reafon all diftortions and mimicries, as fuch, are what raise averfion inftead of pleasure: but things that are in themfelves excellent, are ever attended with imposture and falfe imitation. Thus as in poetry there are laborious fools who write anagrams and acrostics, there are pretenders in dancing, who think merely to do what others cannot, is to excel. Such creatures fhould be rewarded like him who had acquired a knack of throwing a grain of com through the eye of a needle, with a bushel to keep his hand in ufe. The dancers on our ftage are very faulty in this kind; and what they mean by writhing themfelves into fuch poftures, as it would be a pain for any of the fpectators to ftand in, and yet hope to please thofe fpectators, is unintelligible. Mr. Prince has a genius, if he were encouraged, would prompt him to better things. In all the dances he invents, you fee, he keeps clofe to the characters he reprefents. He does not hope to please by making his performers move in a manner in which no one elfe ever did, but by motions proper to the characters he represents. He gives to clowns and lubbards clumfy graces, that is, he makes them practise what they would think graces: and I have feen dances of his, which might give hints that would be useful to a comic writer. Thefe performances have pleafed the taste of fuch as have not reflection enough to know their excellence, because they are in nature; and the distorted motions of others have offended those, who could not form reasons to themselves for their displeasure, from their being a contradiction to nature.

When one confiders the inexpreffible advantage there is in arriving at fome excellence in this art, it is monftrous

to behold it fo much neglected. The following letter has in it fomething very natural on this fubject.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

I AM a widower with but one daughter; fhe was by nature much inclined to be a romp, and I had no way of educating her, but commanding a young woman, whom I entertained to take care of her, to ⚫ be very watchful in her care and attendance about her. I am a man of bufinefs, and obliged to be much abroad. The neighbours have told me, that in my abfence our maid has let in the spruce fervants in the neighbourhood to junketings, while my girl played you the plain ⚫ and romped even in the street. To tell truth, I catched her once, at eleven years old, at chuck-farthing among the boys. This put me upon new thoughts about my child, and I determined to place her at a boarding-school, and at the fame time, gave a very difcreet young gentlewoman her maintenance at the fame place and rate, to be her companion. I took little notice of my girl from time to time but faw her now and then in good health, cut of • harm's way, and was fatisfied. But by much importunity, I was lately prevailed with to go to one of their balls. I cannot exprefs to you the anxiety my filly heart was in, when I faw my romp, now fifteen, taken of a father upon me fo pangs out: I never felt the whole life before; and I could not strongly in my have fuffered more, had my whole fortune been at ftake. My girl came on with the moft becoming modefty I had ever feen, and cafting a respectful eye, as if The feared me more than all the audience, I gave a nod, whick I think gave her all the spirit the affumed upon it, but the role properly to that dignity of afpect. • My romp, now the most graceful perfon of her fex, affumed a majefty which commanded the highest refpect; and when the turned to me, and faw my face in rapture, he fell into the prettiest fmile, and I faw in all her motions that fhe exulted in her father's fatiffaction. You, Mr. SPECTATOR, will better than I can tell you, imagine to yourfelf all the different beauties and changes of afpe in an accomplished young

woman fetting forth all her beauties with a defign to please no one so much as her father. My girl's lover can never know half the fatisfaction that I did in her that day. I could not poffibly have imagined, that fo great improvement could have been wrought by an art that I always held in itself ridiculous and contemptible. There is, I am convinced, no method like this, to give young women a sense of their own value and dignity; and I am fure there can be none fo expeditious to communicate that value to others. As for the flippant infipidly gay and wantonly forward, whom you behold among dancers, that carriage is more to be attributed to the perverfe genius of the performers, than imputed to the art itself. For my part, my child has danced herself into my efteem, and I have as great an honour for her as ever I had for her mother, from whom fhe derived thofe latent good qualities which appeared in her countenance when he was dancing; for my girl, though I fay it myself, fhewed in one quarter of an hour the innate principles of a modeft virgin, a tender wife, a generous friend, a kind mother, and an indulgent mistrefs. I will ftrain hard but I will purchase for her an husband fuitable to her merit. I am your convert in the admiration of what I thought you jefted when you recommended; and if you please to be at my houfe on Thursday next, I make a ball for my daughter, and fhall fee her dance, or, if you

you

will do her that honour, dance with her.

I am, Sir, your most humble fervant,

PHILIPATER.'

I have fometime ago fpoken of a treatise written by Mr. Weaver on this fubject, which is now, I understand ready to be published. This work fets this matter in a very plain and advantageous light; and I am convinced from it, that if the art was under proper regulations, it would be a mechanic way of implanting infenfibly in minds, not capable of receiving it fo well by any other rules, a fenfe of good-breeding and virtue.

Were any one to fee Mariamne dance, let him be never fo fenfual a brute, I defy him to entertain any

thoughts but of the highest refpect and efteem towards her. I was thewed last week a picture in a lady's clo fet, for which he had an hundred different dreffes, that she could clap on round the face, on purpose to demonftrate the force of habits in the diverfity of the fame countenance. Motion, and change of posture and afpect, has an effect no lefs furprising on the person of Mariamne when she dances.

Chloe is extremely pretty, and as filly as she is pretty. This idiot has a very good ear, and a moft agreeable fhape; but the folly of the thing is fuch, that it fmiles fo impertinently, and affects to pleafe fo filily, that while the dances you fee the fimpleton from head to foot. For you must know (as trivial as this art is thought to be) no one ever was a good dancer, that had not a good understanding. If this be a truth, I shall leave the reader to judge from that maxim, what esteem they ought to have for fuch impertinents as fly, hop, caper, tumble, twirl, turn round, and jump over their heads, and in a word, play a thoufand pranks which many animals can do better than a man, instead of performing to perfection what the human figure only is capable of performing.

It may perhaps appear odd, that I, who fet up for a mighty lover, at leaft, of virtue, fhould take fo much pains to recommend what the foberer part of mankind look upon to be a trifle; but under favour of the foberer part of mankind, I think they have not enough confidered this matter, and for that reafon only difefteem it. I muft alfo, in my own juftification, say that I attempt to bring into the fervice of honour and virtue every thing in nature that can pretend to give elegant deligh. It may poffibly be proved, that vice is in itfelf deftructive of pleasure, and virtue in itself conducive to it. If the delights of a free fortune were under proper regulations, this truth would not want much argument to fupport it; but it would be obvious to every man, that there is a ftrict affinity between all things that are truly laudable and beautiful, from the highest fentiments of the foul, to the moft indifferent gefture of the body.

T.