[Footnote 1: John Hughes is the author of these two letters, and,
Chalmers thinks, also of the letters signed R. B. in Nos. 33 and 53. He
was in 1711 thirty-two years old. John Hughes, the son of a citizen of
London, was born at Marlborough, educated at the private school of a
Dissenting minister, where he had Isaac Watts for schoolfellow, delicate
of health, zealous for poetry and music, and provided for by having
obtained, early in life, a situation in the Ordnance Office. He died of
consumption at the age of 40, February 17, 1719-20, on the night of the
first production of his Tragedy of 'The Siege of Damascus'. Verse of his
was in his lifetime set to music by Purcell and Handel. In 1712 an opera
of 'Calypso and Telemachus', to which Hughes wrote the words, was
produced with success at the Haymarket. In translations, in original
verse, and especially in prose, he merited the pleasant little
reputation that he earned; but his means were small until, not two years
before his death, Lord Cowper gave him the well-paid office of Secretary
to the Commissioners of the Peace. Steele has drawn the character of his
friend Hughes as that of a religious man exempt from every sensual vice,
an invalid who could take pleasure in seeing the innocent happiness of
the healthy, who was never peevish or sour, and who employed his
intervals of ease in drawing and designing, or in music and poetry.]

* * * * *

No. 67. Thursday, May 17, 1711. Budgell. [1]

'Saltare elegantius quam necesse est probae.'

Sal.

Lucian, in one of his Dialogues, introduces a Philosopher chiding his
Friend for his being a Lover of Dancing, and a Frequenter of Balls. [2]
The other undertakes the Defence of his Favourite Diversion, which, he
says, was at first invented by the Goddess _Rhea_, and preserved the
Life of _Jupiter_ himself, from the Cruelty of his Father _Saturn._ He
proceeds to shew, that it had been Approved by the greatest Men in all
Ages; that _Homer_ calls _Merion_ a _Fine Dancer;_ and says, That the
graceful Mien and great Agility which he had acquired by that Exercise,
distinguished him above the rest 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
_Lacedaemonians_, who were the bravest People in _Gre