ersal, nor
enduring, have little value to the student of anything but anatomy and
lingerie. By study of a thousand, the product of as many years, it might
be possible to trace the thread upon which such beads are
strung--indeed, it is pretty obvious without research; but considered
singly they have nothing of profit to the investigator, who will do well
to contemplate without reflection or perform without question, as the
bent of his mind may be observant or experimental.

Dancing, then, is indelicate where the women are depraved, and to this
it must be added that the women are depraved where the men are indolent.
We need not trouble ourselves to consider too curiously as to cause and
effect. Whether in countries where man is too lazy to be manly, woman
practices deferential adjustment of her virtues to the loose exactions
of his tolerance, or whether for ladies of indifferent modesty their
lords will not make exertion--these are questions for the ethnologer. It
concerns our purpose only to note that the male who sits cross-legged on
a rug and permits his female to do the dancing for both gets a quality
distinctly inferior to that enjoyed by his more energetic brother,
willing himself to take a leg at the game. Doubtless the lazy fellow
prefers the loose gamboling of nude girls to the decent grace and
moderation of a better art, but this, I submit, is an error of taste
resulting from imperfect instruction.

And here we are confronted with the ever recurrent question. Is dancing
immoral? The reader who has done me the honor attentively to consider
the brief descriptions of certain dances, hereinbefore presented will,
it is believed, be now prepared to answer that some sorts of dancing
indubitably are--a bright and shining example of the type being the
exploit wherein women alone perform and men alone admire. But one of the
arguments by which it is sought to prove dancing immoral in
itself--namely that it provokes evil passions--we are now able to
analyze with the necessary discrimination, assigning to it its just
weight, and tracing its real bearing on the question. Dances like those
described (with, I hope a certain delicacy and reticence) are
undoubtedly disturbing to the spectator. They have in that circumstance
their _raison d'etre_. As to that, then, there can be no two opinions.
But observe the male oriental voluptuary does not himself dance. Why?
Partly no doubt, because of his immortal indolence, but mainly, I