| Citation |
CC-H.768.010
2 May 1768:11,12,13 (175)
. . . [99 lines, essay on health] ...when after a chearful
dance & rich entertainment thro' a great part of the night,
they unguardedly rush all glowing and sweating, into the
night air, and have perhaps a considerable distance to ride
or travel. How evidently, how piteously does nature
complain at the shock the next morning! & how surely must
she sink under it, if just such a practice was continued for
any considerable course of time! far be it from me to
condemn dancing, and a virtuous, recreating, modest
familiarity between the sexes in their juvenile days----I
would rather enhance all their rational pleasures; and
remove all those ingredients in them which are a present
alloy, and productive of future pain--when a company does
not break up till the body is exhausted and weakened with
the exercise, till nature proclaims her weariness by gaping
mouths and half-closed eyes, when the candles seem to dance
and flirt before them and their heads swim, or ake, then to
go in a sweating, relaxed, febrile state, into the dewy
night & perhaps (to close the diversion) set shivering,
gaping, and yawning with a partner in a cold room till
towards morning. . . [39 more lines describing other
fashionable but unhealthy situations.]
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