are of the utmoft concern to her. The cares or pleafures of the world ftrike in with every thought, and a multitude of vicious examples give a kind of justification to our folly. In our retirements every thing difpofes us to be ferious. In courts and cities we are entertained with the works of men; in the country with those of God. One is the province of art, the other of nature. Faith and devo ion naturally grow in the mind of every reasonable man, who fees the impreffions of Divine Power and Wisdom in every object, on which he cafts his eye. The Supreme Being has made the best arguments for his own existence, in the formation of the heavens and the earth, and these are arguments which a man of fenfe cannot forbear attending to, who is out of the noife and hurry of human affairs. Ariftotle fays, that fhould a man live under ground, and there converfe with works of art and mechanifm, and fhould afterwards be brought up into the open day, and fee the feveral glories of the heaven and earth, he would immediately pronounce them the works of fuch a Being as we define God to be. The Pfalmift has very beautiful ftrokes of poetry to this purpose, in that exalted ftrain: The heavens declare the glory of God: And the firmament fheweth his handy work. One day telleth another: And one night certifieth another. There is neither Speech nor language: But their voices are heard among them. Their found is gove e out into all lands; and their words into the ends of the world. As fuch a bold and fublime manner of thinking turnishes very noble matter for an ode, the: reader may fee it wrought into the following one.

I.

The Spacious firmament on high,

With all the blue ethereal sky,

And Spangled heavens, a fhining frame,

Their great Original proclaim:
Thunwaried fun, from day to day,
Does his creator's power difplay,
And publikes to every land
The works of an Almighty Hand,

II. Scen

II.

Soon as th' ev'ning shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly to the liftning earth
Repeats the ftory of her birth:

Whilft all the fears that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,

And Spread the truth from pole to pole.

III.

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

W

'HEN Æneas, the hero of Virgil, is loft in the wood, and a perfect ftranger in the place on which he is landed, he is accosted by a lady in an habit for the chace. She inquires of him, Whether he has feen pafs by that way any young woman dreffed as ine was? Whether fhe were following the fport in the wood, or any other way employed, according to the cuftom of huntreffes? The hero anfwers with the refpect due to the beautiful appearance he made; tells her, He faw no fuch perfon as the enquired for; but intimates that he knows her to be of the deities, and defires fhe would conduct a ftranger. Her form from her first appearance

M 5

N° 466 pearance manifefted she was more than mortal; but tho' The was certainly a goddefs, the poet does not make her known to be the goddess of Beauty 'till fhe moved: All the charms of an agreeable perfon are then in their higheft 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 most agreeable. The bufinefs of dancing is to difplay beauty, and for that reason all diftortions and mimicries, as fuch, are what raise averfion inftead of pleature: But things that are in themselves excellent, are ever attended with impofture and falfe imitation. Thus as in poetry there are labouring fools who write anagrams and acrofticks, 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 corn through the eye of a needle, with a bushel to keep his hands 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 spectators to ftand in, and yet hope to please those 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 close 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 pleased the tafle of fuch as have not reflexion enough to know their excellence, because they are in nature; and the distorted motions of others have offended thofe, who could not form reafons to themselves for their difpleasure, 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

*

ftrcus 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 business, and obliged to be much abroad. The neighbours have told me, that in my. absence our maid has let in the fpruce fervants in the neighbourhood to junketings, while my girl play'd and romped even in the ftreet. To tell you the plain 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-fchool, 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, out of harm's way, and was fatisfied. But by much importunity, I was lately prevail'd 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, ta'ken out: I never felt the pangs of a father upon me fo ftrongly in my whole life before; and I could not 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 fhe feared me more than all the audience, I gave a nod, which I think gave her all the spirit the affumed upon it, but fhe rofe properly to that dignity of afpect. My romp, now the most graceful perfon of her fex,, affumed a majesty which commanded the higheft refpect; and when the turned to me, and faw my face in rapture, fhe fell into the prettieft fmile, and I saw in ⚫ all her motions that she exulted in her father's fatisfaction. You, Mr. SPECTATOR will, better than I can tell you, imagine to yourself all the different beauties and changes of afpect in an accomplished young wo•.

man,.

man, fetting forth all her beauties with a defign to pleafe no one fo 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 itfelf ridiculous and contemptible.. There is, I am convinced, no method like this, to give young women a fenfe 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 esteem, and I have as great an honour for her as ever I had for her mother, from whom she derived thofe latent good quali ties which appeared in her countenance when the was dancing; for my girl, tho' 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 miftrefs. I'll 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 pleafe to be at my houfe on Thur/day next, I make a ⚫ ball for my daughter, and you shall see her dance, or, 6 if you will do her that honour, dance with her,

I am, SIR, your most humble fervant,

PHILIPATER.

I have fome time 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