The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-01-17
..Round Danees.,, ;,
AN ECCLESIASTICAL BLAST AeAINs

AN ECCLESIASTICAL BLAST AGAINST
~ THEM. -
The Baltimore Episcopal Methodist
has an article on the subject of the
condemnation, by the plenary council
of the Catholic Church, OF certain fash
ionable dances. The Methodist takes
sides with the council in the discussion
that has ensued. We quote:
FOR are we ignorant of round dances
as practiced now. We have observed
them at Saratoga night after night, un-
til we knew all we wished to know
about them. An old doctor, accus-
toned for many years to see the unvar-
nished side of society, is not likely to be
over-prudish and fastidious about cor
poreal exhibitions; but if Esculapius
had lived until now, he would not have
thought 1t proper to look at the Phe-
nomena of the polka as we saw them
at Saratoga, except as a permitted
study in animal physiology or moral
pathology. The young ladies who were
handled and swung about there
night after night might have been
perfectly innocent of all eviE,-we
trust they were-but, if we were Young
and marriageable again, we would no
more think OF seeking one of them for
a wife than we would select the show
cake in eonfectioner's window for
home consumption. 1t might be very
good cake, but then the association of
the ideas of purity with public expos
ure and lrreverent handling has nat
ural difficulty in it, so great that, from
what we have heard fall from gay gen.
tlemen, even the practice of the polka
does not overcome it. We know the
defence against it. We are entirely
familiar with "Honi soft qIi NAL y peISe"
-"Evil be to him who evil thinks;"
hnt this motto nf the 10 sold fo
have originated under circumstances
that contradicted its philosophy, and
its use is commonly true to its origin.
1t is well to have u pure imagination,
but to have one purged of common
sense is not laudable. The mind that
can perceive no evil tendencies in things
not positive breaches of the command
ments is not only pure, but stupid. The
Cordeliers have legend that, when st.
Francis saw young man stealthily
kissing maiden, he raised his hands
to Heaven and returned thanks to
God that there was so much
Christian charity in the world. The
saint was so pure that he could i'm
agine no impulse to kissing but SYM
pathy, and discern no spirit in il but
elevated religious devotion. Now, we
confess we are not pure enough to be
stone-blind. We are not to be ''honi
Soit'' out of our senses and a knowl-
edge of human nature. We do not
think that polkaing has power to
steady the reason, and that waltzing
gives a paralytic vertigo to animal ma
ture, or that the German shuff1es the
intellect into region of pure elevation
inaccessible to the passions. We do not
think that gross improprieties become
harmless because they are fashion
able" We think of a waltz much as
Byron did, who was not a Puritan. The
opinion of the Catholic Council derives
great weight from the fact that it is
based upon the information obtained in
the confessional from one end of the
country to the other. The effect of
these dances upon the mind and NOR
ais, with us, is an inference; with them
it is disclosure; and we do not know
how its weight is to be resisted by the
Yotaries of the fashion.