d steps to the sounds of various
instruments of music.

Considering withal that the Romans, in their most solemn
processions, as in that called the _Pompa_, which I have before
mentioned, in which not only the Pirrhic dance was
processionally executed, but other dances, in masquerade, by men
who, in their habits, by leaping and by feats of agility,
represented satirs, the _Sileni_, and _Fauni_, and were attended
by minstrels playing on the flute and guitar; besides which,
there were _Salian_ priests, and _Salian_ virgins, who followed,
in their order, and executed their respective religious dances;
it may bear a question whether not an unpleasing use might not
be made, on the theatres, of processional dances properly
introduced, and connected, especially in the burlesque way. In
every country, and particularly in this, processions are
esteemed an agreeable amusement to the eye; and certainly they
must receive more life and animation from a proper intermixture
of dances, than what a mere solemn march can represent, where
there is nothing to amuse but a long train of personages in
various habits, walking in parade. I only mention this however
as a hint not impossible to be improved, and reduced into
practice.

But even, where it might be improper or ridiculous to think of
mixing dances with a procession, though it were but in
burlesque, which must, if at all, be the preferable way of
mixing them, the pleasure of those who delight in seeing
processions and pageantry exhibited on the theatre, might be
gratified, without any violence to propriety, by making them
introductory to the dances of the grandest kind. For example;
where a dance in Chinese characters is intended, a procession
might be previously brought in, of personages, of whom the
habits, charactures, and manners might be faithfully copied from
nature, and from the truth of things, and convey to the
spectator a juster notion, of the people from which the
representation was taken, of their dress and public processions,
than any verbal description, or even prints or pictures. After
which, the dance might naturally take place, in celebration of
the festival, of which, the procession might be supposed the
occasion.

In order to give a more distinct idea of this hint, I have
hereto annexed the print of a Chinese procession taken from the
description of a traveller into that country; by which a good
composer would well know how to make a proper choice of what
m