Page 181

  DANCING AND OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 181
The characteristic of an English country-
dance is that of gay simplicity. The steps
should be few and easy; and the correspond.
ing motion of the arms and body unaffected,
modest, and graceful.
  Before I go farther on the subject, I cannot
but stop a little to dwell, more particularly, on
the necessity there is for more attention than
we usually-find paid to the management of
the arms and general person in dancing.
  In looking on at a ball, perhaps you will
see that every woman, in a dance of twenty
couple, moves her feet with sufficient atten-
tion to beauty aed elegance; but, with regard
to the deportment of the rest of the person,
most likely you will not discover one in a
hundred who seems to know more about it
than the most uncultivated damsel that ever
jogged at a village wake.
  I cannot exactly describe what it is that we
see in the carriage of our young ladies in the
dance; for it is difficult to point out a want
by any other expression than a negative : but
it is only requisite for my readers to recal to
memory the many inanimate, ungraceful forms,
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