joy and festivity; and
as such they thought neither of them improper in an address of
gratulation to the deity, whom they supposed rather pleased at
such innocent oblations of the heart, exulting in his manifold
bounties and blessings.

From before the altar, among the heathens, the admission of
dances upon the theatre, was rather an extension of their power
to entertain, than a total change of their destination; since
the theatres themselves were dedicated to the worship _of the
heathen deities_, of which their making a part was one of the
principal objections of the primitive Christians to the theatres
themselves. However, it was from the theatres that dancing
received its great and capital improvement.

As an exercise, the virtue of dancing was well known to the
antients, for its keeping up the strength and agility of the
human body. There is a remark which I submit to the
consideration of the reader, that it is not impossible but
that the antient Romans, who were, generally speaking, low in
stature, and yet were eminently strong, owed that advantage to
their cultivation of bodily exercise. This kept their limbs
supple, and rendered their constitution stout and hardy. Now,
very laborious exercises would rather wear out the machine than
they would invigorate it, if there was not a due relaxation,
which should not, however, be too abrupt a transition from the
most fatiguing exercises to a state of absolute rest. Whereas
that dancing, of which they were so fond, afforded them, not
only a pleasing employ of vacant hours, but, withall, in its
keeping up the pliability of their limbs, made them find more
ease in the application of themselves to more athletic, or to
more violent exercises, either of war or of the chace: while all
together bred that firmness of their muscles, that robust
compactness and vigor of body, which enabled them to atchieve
that military valor, to which they owed all their conquests and
their glory.

Certain it is then, that among the Romans, even in the most
martial days of that republic, the art of dancing was taught, as
one of the points of accomplishment necessary to the education
of youth; and was even practised among the exercises of the
Circus. I need not observe, that there were also various abuses
of dancing, which they very justly accounted dishonorable to
those who practised them, whether in public or private. These,
in the degenerate days of Rome, grew to an enormous excess. But