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Show RISE AND PROGRESS OF DANCING. 7 Tibicini, whose device was composed of the five following-letters : Q.S.P.P.S. " qui sacris publicis prcesto sunt." They were held in high estimation, and treated in an honourable manner; they might even aspire to the first dignities in the commonwealth. Sometimes they were priests of Jupiter and augurs; at others, admirals of fleets, captains of legions, commanders of the cavalry, & c , and History speaks of them in many places1. The name of the Muse, Terpsichore, who presides over the dance, is composed of two Greek words, nfn-u, to delight, and x0£°? the dance ; and the name of the Muse Euterpe, who presides over music, is derived from two words, tv well, and rip™ to delight. The former appears to have been created for climates that are under the influence of a torrid sun. It is a pleasure everywhere-there it is a passion ; warmed by an incessant heat, the glowing constitution of the native of the South, contains the seed of every pleasure ; each moment of his rapid existence seems to him made only for enjoyment. The inhabitant of the North, forced by nature to maintain a constant combat with the rigours of the seasons, seldom aspires to delight. His whole care is engrossed in securing himself from snows and frosts. The roughness of his manners almost extinguishes his sensibility ; and the delicate sentiments that voluptuousness imparts are to him wholly unknown. H o w could dancing, that amiable offspring of pleasure, display her gracefulness and attractions amid perpetual ice and never melting snows ? Music and dancing are nearly coeval with the world. The Egyptians, the Persians, the Indians, the Jews, and the Arcadians, the most ancient of nations; Amphion, Orpheus, Chiron, Thamyris, the prophetess Miriam, David, and others, together with the dances that the l * |