ok
smilingly on.

As to the claim for ease and grace of manners,--all that is gained, by
this practice, can be better secured, by Calisthenics, which, in all its
parts, embraces a much more perfect system, both of healthful exercise,
graceful movement, and pleasing carriage.

The writer was once inclined to the common opinion, that dancing was
harmless, and might be properly regulated; and she allowed a fair trial
to be made, under her auspices, by its advocates. The result was, a full
conviction, that it secured no good effect, which could not be better
gained another way; that it involved the most pernicious evils to
health, character, and happiness; and that those parents were wise, who
brought up their children with the full understanding that they were
neither to learn nor to practise the art. In the fifteen years, during
which she has had the care of young ladies, she has never known any
case, where learning this art, and following the amusement, did not have
a bad effect, either on the habits, the intellect, the feelings, or the
health. Those young ladies, who are brought up with less exciting
recreations, are uniformly likely to be the most contented and most
useful, while those, who enter the path to which this diversion leads,
acquire a relish and desire for high excitement, which make the more
steady and quiet pursuits and enjoyments of home, comparatively
tasteless. This, the writer believes to be generally the case, though
not invariably so; for there are exceptions to all general rules.

In reference to these exciting amusements, so liable to danger and
excess, parents are bound to regard the principle, which is involved in
the petition, "Lead us not into temptation." Would it not be
inconsistent, to teach this prayer, to the lisping tongue of childhood,
and then send it to the dancing-master, to acquire a love for a
diversion, which leads to constant temptations that so few find strength
to resist?

It is encouraging, to those who take this view of the subject, to find
how fast the most serious and intelligent portion of the community is
coming to a similar result. Twenty-five years ago, dancing was
universally practised by the young, as a matter of course, in every part
of the Nation. Now, in those parts of the Country, where religion and
intelligence are most extensively diffused, it is almost impossible to
get up a ball, among the more refined classes of the community. The
amusement is fast leavin