There appears to have been no previous preparations of extravagant
dressing; no premeditated design of setting off the person; no previous
methods of procuring admiration; no circumstance, in short, by which he
could reasonably suppose, that either pride or vanity could have been
called into existence. The time also would appear to him to have been
too short, and the circumstances too limited, to have given birth to
improper feelings. He would certainly see that a sort of levity would
have unavoidably arisen on the occasion, but his impartiality and
justice would oblige him to make a distraction between the levity, that
only exhilarates, and the levity that corrupts, the heart. Nor could he
conceive that the dancing for an hour only, and this totally unlooked
for, could stand much in the way of serious reflection for the future.
If he were desired to class this sudden dancing for an hour upon the
green with any of the known pleasures of life, he would probably class
it with an hours exercise in the fields, or with an hours game at play,
or with an hours employment in some innocent recreation.
But suppose now, that a new case were opened to the philosopher. Suppose
it were told him, that the same party had been so delighted with their
dance upon the green, that they had resolved to meet once a month for
the purpose of dancing, and that they might not be prevented by bad
weather, to meet in a public room; that they had met according to their
resolution; that they had danced at their first meeting but for a short
time; but that at their meetings after, wards, they had got into the
habit of dancing from eight or nine at night till twelve or one in the
morning; that many of them now began to be unduly heated in the course
of this long exercise; that some of them in consequence of the heat in
this crowded room, were now occasionally ready to faint; that it was now
usual for some of them to complain the next morning of colds, others of
head-achs, others of relaxed nerves, and almost all of them of a general
lassitude or weariness--what could the philosopher say in the present
case?
The philosopher would now probably think, that they acted unreasonably
as human beings; that they turned night into day; and that, as if the
evils of life were not sufficient in number, they converted hours, which
might have been spent calmly and comfortably at home, into hours of
indisposition and of unpleasant feelings to themselves.
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