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my lord Byron sang of waltzing. Let us forgive and--remembering his poor
foot--pity him. Yet the opinions of famous persons possess an interest
that is akin, in the minds of many plain folk, to weight. Let us, then,
incline an ear to another: "Laura was fond of waltzing, as every brisk
and innocent young girl should be," wrote he than who none has written
more nobly in our time--he who "could appreciate good women and describe
them; and draw them more truly than any novelist in the language, except
Miss Austen." The same sentiment with reference to dancing appears in
many places in his immortal pages. In his younger days as _attache_ of
legation in Germany, Mr. Thackeray became a practiced waltzer. As a
censor he thus possesses over Lord Byron whatever advantage may accrue
from knowledge of the subject whereof he wrote.

We are happily not called upon to institute a comparison of character
between the two distinguished moralists, though the same, drawn
masterly, might not be devoid of entertainment and instruction. But two
or three other points of distinction should be kept in mind as having
sensible relation to the question of competency to bear witness. Byron
wrote of the women of a corrupted court; Thackeray of the women of that
society indicated by the phrase "Persons whom one meets"--and meets
_now_. Byron wrote of an obsolete dance, described by Irving in terms of
decided strength; Thackeray wrote of our own waltz. In turning off his
brilliant and witty verses it is unlikely that any care as to their
truthfulness disturbed the glassy copiousness of the Byronic utterance;
this child of nature did never consider too curiously of justice,
moderation and such inventions of the schools. The key-note of all the
other wrote is given by his faithful pen when it avers that it never
"signed the page that registered a lie." Byron was a "gentleman of wit
and pleasure about town"; Thackeray the father of daughters. However,
all this is perhaps little to the purpose. We owe no trifling debt to
Lord Byron for his sparkling and spirited lines, and by no good dancer
would they be "willingly let die." Poetry, music, dancing--they are one
art. The muses are sisters, yet they do not quarrel. Of a truth, even as
was Laura, so every brisk and innocent young girl should be. And it is
safe to predict that she will be. If she would enjoy the advantage of
belonging to Our Set she must be.

As a rule, the ideas of the folk who cherish