No. 66. WEDNESDAY, MAY 16. Motus doceri gaudet Ionicos. De tenero meditatur ungui. HOR. Od. vi. 1. 3. ver. 21. Behold a ripe and melting maid What nets to spread, where fubtle baits to lay; T1 clay. HE two following letters are upon a fubject of very great importance, though expreffed without any air of gravity. • SIR, ments. To the SPECTATOR. I take the freedom of asking your advice in • behalf of a young country kinfwoman of mine, who is lately come to town, and under my care for her education. She is very pretty, but you ⚫ cannot imagine how unformed a creature it is. She comes to my hands just as nature left her, • half finished, and without any acquired improveWhen I look on her I often think of the • Bell Sauvage mentioned in one of your papers. • Dear Mr. SPECTATOR, help me to make her <comprehend the vifible graces of speech, and the dumb eloquence of motion; for the is at present a perfect stranger 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 Bb 2 6 a a foreigner to the language of looks and glances. In this I fancy you could help her better than a< ny body. I have beftowed two months in teaching her to figh when the is not concerned, and to fmile when she is not pleased; and am afhamed to own the makes little or no improvement. Then the is no more able now to walk, than she · was to go at a year old. By walking you will eafily know I mean that regular but easy 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 she has no ear, and means nothing by walking but to change her place. I could 'pardon too her blushing, if she knew how to carry herself in it, and if it did not manifeftly injure her complexion. They tell me you are a person who have seen 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, I fhall further advife with you about the disposal of this fair forester 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, CELIMEN E.' • 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 con• fideration, because fhe 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, let your opinion of this one thing called Fine ་ us have breeding; • breeding; for I am afraid it differs too much from that plain thing called Good-breeding. • Your most humble fervant.' The general mistake 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 fhall fee a young lady celebrat ed and admired in all the affemblies about town, when her elder brother is afraid to come into a room. From this ill-management it arifes, that we frequently observe a man's life is half spent béfore he is taken notice of; and a woman in the prime of her years is out of fashion and ne glected. 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 feve ral letters which complain to me that my female readers have not understood me for fome days laft past, and take themselves to be unconcerned in the prefent turn of my writings. When a girl is fafely brought from her nurfe, before fhe is capable of forming one fimple notion of any thing in life, the is delivered to the hands of her dancing-master; 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 husband, if the fteps, looks, or moves awry. This gives the young lady wonderful workings of imagination, what is to pafs between her and this hufband, that she 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 orhament of her perfon, as what must determine her good and ill in this life; and the naturally thinks, if the is tall enough, fhe is wife enough for any thing for which her education makes her think the is defigned. To make her an agreeable person is. the main purpose 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 prefent numerous race of coquettes. These reflections puzzle me, when I think of giving my advice on the subject 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 overlooked, 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 raifes 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 im, prove together; and, if poffible, to make gesture follow thought, and not let thought be employed upon, gesture. R No. 67. THURSDAY, MAY 17. Saltare elegantius quam neceffe eft proba. 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 fays, was firft invented by the god defs defs Rhea, and preserved the life of Jupiter himself from the cruelty of his father Saturn. He proceeds to fhew, that it had been approved by the greatest men in all ages; that Homer calls Merion a fine dancer; and fays, that the graceful mien and great agility, which he had acquired by that exercise, 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 Lacedamo. nians, who were the braveft people in Greece, gave great encouragement to this diverfion, and made their Hormus (a dance much resembling the French Brawl) famous over all Afia: that there were ftill extant fome Theffalian ftatues erected to the honour of their best dancers: and that he wondered how his brother philofopher could declare himself against the opinions of these two perfons, whom he profeffed fo much to admire, Homer and Hefiod; the latter of which compares valour and dancing together; and fays, that the gods have beflowed 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 exercise 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 myself 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 tradefman about 'Change. |