268 THE MASTER OF THE HOUNDS. 



Althoiigli custom reconciles us to many strange sights, tliat 

 is not the question to be considered, but the j'^rs^ effect produced 

 on the mind of the beholder. What are our first impressions 1 

 These will be found generally to be our best guides in most 

 cases. What, then, are the natural feelings of every modest 

 girl on witnessing, for the first time, the ballet at the Opera 

 House ? Those of offended delicacy and disgust. The attitudes 

 assumed by the dancers, and their indecent dress, are not only 

 often inelegant, but perfectly revolting. For instance, what 

 can be more absurd than the very favourite position of standing 

 on one leg, with the other thrown out nearly at right angles 

 with the body ? (not to mention its horrible immodesty) — why, 

 a swan or a goose performs this grand feat without any eflfort 

 at all. By the general patronisers of the ballet, the same 

 answer may be returned as by the girl skinning live eels — they 

 ar6 ased to it. That is true enough of the ladies who can wit- 

 ness, apparently unmoved, such exhibitions night after night, 

 although false as regards the eels. In fact, the hahituees of the 

 Opera House, after having undergone the operation of being 

 flayed of the first outer soft cuticle of delicacy, lose or suppress 

 all further feeling in the matter ; at least, they pretend to great 

 indifference or callousness, which, in the majority of cases, I 

 fear, is not assumed, but really ex^Dcrienced. But the same 

 cannot be said of the male portion of the spectators, who have 

 no modesty at all, and on whose account principally this 

 detestable exhibition is still fostered in a professedly Christian 

 community ; for my impression is decidedly that these im- 

 modest displays fan the flame of passion in men, and tend to 

 keep alive those unhallowed desires which sensualists only will 

 and do so freely indulge. To such the ballet at the Opera 

 House is the grand attraction ; and so long as it is counte- 

 nanced by those ladies in the higher sphere of life who give the 

 tone to fashion, so long will it continue a reflection on their 

 own characters and a disgrace to a civilised nation. Can it be 

 a matter for surprise that right-thinking Christian ministers 

 inveigh so bitterly against theatrical exhibitions and balls, 

 *rhen their tendency is so palpably to debase and demoralise 

 the minds of young persons of both sexes 1 Were plays divested 

 of coarse jokes and double entendres, they would be restored to 

 their primitive province, as a medium of instruction and amuse- 

 ment, instead of, as now, the means of corruption to youth ; and 

 of balls it may be said, there is nothing objectionable in our 

 country dances or c^uadrilles; but the foreign intx'oduction of 



