To fpeak plainly of this whole work, I think nothing but being loft to a fenfe of innocence and virtue can make any one fee this comedy, without obferving more frequent occafion to move forrow and indignation, than mirth and laughter. At the fame time I allow it to be nature, but it is nature in its utmost corruption and degeneracy. R. No. LXVI. WEDNESDAY, MAY 16. Motus doceri gaudet Ionicos Matura virgo, & fingitur artubus Jam nunc, & inceftos amores De tenero meditatur ungui. Behold a ripe and melting maid Ionian artists, at a mighty price, What nets to fpread, where fubtle baits to lay; ROSCOMMON. 7. THE two following letters are upon a fubject of very great importance, though expreffed without any air of gravity. Ι TAKE the freedom of afking your advice in behalf of a young country kinfwoman of mine who is lately come to town, and under my care for her edu'cation. She is very pretty, but you cannot imagine how unformed a creature it is. She comes to my hands juft as nature left her, half-finifhed, and without any acquired improvements. When I look on her I often think of the Belle Sauvage mentioned in one of your papers. Dear Mr. Spectator, help me to make her comprehend the vifible graces of speech, and and the dumb eloquence of motion; for fhe is at prefent a perfect ftranger to both. She knows no way to exprefs herself but by her tongue, and that always to fignify her meaning. Her eyes ferve her yet only to fee with, and he is utterly a foreigner to the language of looks and glances. In this I fancy you could help her better than any body. I have beftowed two months in teaching her to figh when the is not concerned, and to fmile when the is not pleafed; and am afhamed to own fhe makes little or no improvement. Then he is no more able now to walk, than the was to go at a year old. By walking you will eafily know I mean that regular but ealy motion, which gives our perfons fo irrefiftible a grace as if we moved to mufic, and is a kind of difengaged figure, or, if I may fo fpeak, recitative dancing. But the want of this I cannot blame in her, for I find the has no ear, and means nothing by walking but to change her place. I could pardon too her bluthing, if the knew how to carry herfelf in it, and if it did not manifeftly injure her complexion. They tell me you are a perfon who have feen the world, and are a judge of fine-breeding; which makes me ambitious of fome inftructions from you for her improvement: which when you have favoured me with, fhall further advife with you about the disposal of this fair forefter in marriage; for I will make it no fecret to you, that her perfon and education are to be her fortune. 'I am, Sir, • Your very humble fervant, CELIMENE.' Sir, BEING employed by Celimene to make up and fend to you her letter, I make bold to recommend the cafe therein mentioned to your confideration, because the and I happen to differ a little in our notions. I, who am a rough man, am afraid the young girl is in a fair way to be fpoiled; therefore pray, Mr. Spectator, A a 3 Spectator, let us have your opinion of this fine thing 'called Fine-Breeding; for I am afraid it differs too ⚫ much from that plain thing called Good-Breeding. Your most humble fervant.' The general miftake among us in the educating our children, is, that in our daughters we take care of their perfons and neglect their minds; in our fons, we are fo intent upon adorning their minds, that we wholly neglect their bodies. It is from this that you shall fee a young lady celebrated and admired in all the affemblies about town, when her elder brother is afraid to come into a room. From this ill management it arises that we frequently obferve a man's life is half spent before he is taken notice of; and a woman in the prime of her years is out of fashion and neglected. The boy I fhall confider upon fome other occafion, and at prefent ftick to the girl; and I am the more inclined to this, because I have feveral letters which complain to me that my female readers have not understood me fome days laft paft, and take themselves to be unconcerned in the prefent turn of my writings. When a girl is fafely brought from her nurse, before fhe is capable of forming one fimple notion of any thing in life, the is delivered to the hands of her dancing-mafter; and with a collar round her neck, the pretty wild thing is taught a fantaftical gravity of behaviour, and forced to a particular way of holding her head, heaving her breaft, and moving with her whole body; and all this under pain of never having an hufband, if fhe fteps, looks, or moves awry. This gives the young lady wonderful workings of imagination, what is to pafs between her and this hufband that the is every moment told of, and for whom the feems to be educated. Thus her fancy is engaged to turn all her endeavours to the ornament of her perfon, as what must determine her good and ill in this life; and the naturally thinks, if the is tall enough, he is wife enough for any thing for which her education makes her think he is defigned. To make her her an agreeable perfon is the main purpofe of her parents; to that is all their cofts, to that all their care directed; and from this general folly of parents we owe our present numerous race of coquettes. Thefe reflections puzzle me, when I think of giving my advice on the fubject of managing the wild thing mentioned in the letter of my correfpondent. But fure there is a middle way to be followed; the management of a young lady's perfon is not to be over-looked, but the erudition of her mind is much more to be regarded. According as this is managed, you will fee the mind follow the appetites of the body, or the body exprefs the virtues of the mind. Cleomira dances with all the elegance of motion imaginable; but her eyes are fo chaftifed with the fimplicity and innocence of her thoughts, that the raises in her beholders admiration and good-will, but no loose hope or wild imagination. The true art in this cafe is, to make the mind and body improve together; and, if poffible, to make gefture follow thought, and not let thongh be employed upon gefture. No. LXVII. THURSDAY, MAY 17. Saltare elegantiùs quàm neceffe eft probe. Too fine a dancer for a virtuous woman. R. SALUST UCIAN, in one of his dialogues, introduces a philofopher chiding his friend for his being a lover of dancing, and a frequenter of balls. The other undertakes the defence of his favourite diverfion, which, he says, was at first invented by the goddess Rhea, and preferved the life of Jupiter himfelf, from the cruelty of his father Saturn. He proceeds to fhew, that it had been approved by the greateft men in all ages; that Homer calls Merion a Fine Dancer; and fays, that the graceful mien and great agility which he liad acquired by that exercife, exercife, diftinguished him above the reft in the armies, both of Greeks and Trojans. He adds, that Pyrrhus gained more reputation by inventing the dance which is called after his name, than by all his other actions: that the Lacedæmonians, who were the braveft people in Greece, gave great encouragement to this diverfion, and made their Hormus, a dance much refembling the French Brawl, famous over all Afia: that there were still extant fome Theffalian ftatues erected to the honour of their beft dancers: and that he wondered how his brother philofopher could declare himself against the opinions of those two perfons, whom he professed so much to admire, Homer and Hefiod; the latter of which compares valour and dancing together; and fays, That the gods have beftowed fortitude on fome men, and on others a difpofition for dancing.' Laftly, he puts him in mind that Socrates, who, in the judgment of Apollo, was the wifeft of men, was not only a profeffed admirer of this exercife in others, but learned it himself when he was an old man. The morofe philofopher is fo much affected by thefe, and fome other authorities, that he becomes a convert to his friend, and defires he would take him with him when he went to his next ball. I love to fhelter myfelf under the examples of great men; and I think, I have fufficiently fhewed that it is not below the dignity of thefe my fpeculations to take notice of the following letter, which, I fuppofe, is fent me by fome fubftantial tradefinan about Change. • Sir, I AM a man in years, and by an honeft industry in the world have acquired enough to give my chil'dren a liberal education, though I was an utter ftranger to it myself. My eldest daughter, a girl of fixteen, has for fome time been under the tuition of Monfieur Rigadoon, a dancing-mafter in the city; and I was pre. vailed upon by her and her mother to go laft night to one of his balls. I must own to you, Sir, that having |