and the dangers of their wretched affailants, not merely tolerable to female eyes, but a fpectacle gratifying beyond every other in the way of amusement; let it not be thought very improbable, that in our own country fashion may, on fome occafions, prove herself able to attach women to amufements, which, though neither ftained with blood, nor derived from the infliction of pain, may be fuch as for other reasons ought to be univerfally reprobated and exploded. And whenever fuch occafions may arife, let every woman remember, that modes of amusement intrinsically wrong, or in any respect unbecoming the female fex, are not tranfformed into innocent recreations by the countenance of numbers, nor by the fanc

Henry's Hiftory of England, vol. vi. p. 671. An amusement thus countenanced was probably acceptable to Englifh ladies in general. It appears, at a later period, to have ftill maintained a place among the recreations of women of rank. Among the fpectacles difplayed for the diversion of Queen Elizabeth, when the was entertained at Kenilworth Castle by the Earl of Leicester, bear-baitings and boxingmatches are enumerated by the hiftorian of the feftivity.

tion, if they should obtain the fanction, of nobility, or of a court.

any

Confcientious vigilance to avoid an improper choice of amufements is a duty of great importance, not only because time spent amifs can never be recalled, but particularly because, by the nature of the engagements in which the hours of leisure and relaxation are employed, the manners, the difpofitions, and the whole character, are materially affected. Let the volume of judicious traveller through a foreign country be opened in the part where he delineates the pursuits, the general conduct, the prevailing moral or immoral fentiments of the people. He will there be found to bestow attention on their cuftomary diverfions, not only because the account of them adds entertainment to his narrative, and is necessary in order to complete the picture of national manners, but also because they form one of the fources to which national opinions, virtues, and vices, may be traced. It

is true, that the amusements which prevail in any country will depend, in a confiderable degree, on the tone of fentiment and opinion prevailing there; because a conformity to the existing state of general fentiment and opinion is neceffary to render public amusements generally acceptable. But it is also true, that the latter exert a reciprocal influence on the former; and are among the most active of the causes by which it may be altered or upheld. If he who affirmed that, were he allowed to compofe the ballads of a nation, he would, at pleasure, change its form of government, uttered a boast not altogether unfounded in the principles of human nature; with juster confidence might he have engaged to produce most important effects on the manners, opinions, and moral character of a nation, should he be invefted with full power over all the public diverfions. The influence of amusements on character is manifeft in both fexes. A young woman, however, must be deemed more liable than an individual of

the

the other fex, to have the difpofitions of the heart effentially affected by favourite modes of entertainment. Her time is not abforbed, nor her turn of mind formed and steadied, by profeffional habits and occupations: and her fuperior quickness of feeling renders her the more alive to impreffions conveyed through a pleasurable medium. Tacitus, in his description of the manners of the ancient inhabitants of Germany, dwells with merited praise on the fingular modesty of the women; and affigns as a principal cause of this virtuous excellence, their not being corrupted by feducing spectacles and diverfions (i). The remark is made with his usual acuteness of moral reflection. And we cannot doubt, that it was fuggefted by his experience of the melancholy depravation of conduct in the ladies of Rome, refulting from their attendance on the Amphitheatre and the Circus.

(i) "Quod nec fpectaculorum illecebris, nec conviviorum irritationibus corruptæ."-De Moribus Germ.

Since then, it is evident that the character and difpofitions cannot fail to be in fome measure changed by the amusements habitually pursued; and that alterations of fupreme importance have taken place, and may therefore again take place, under their influence; it seems proper to add a few diftinct obfervations on the different claffes of public diverfions, which are at present frequented in this country by perfons in the upper and the middle ranks of life.

The class of amusements which, in consequence of having affumed to itself a sort of pre-eminence in dignity and splendor over other scenes of entertainment, claims to be noticed in the first place, consists of those in which the parties engaged appear under the disguise of a borrowed character. It includes all those meetings which, however distinguished each from the other in the fashionable world by diversities of form and other circumstances, may here be comprehended under the general name of masque

rades.