Allan Ramsay. [A biography.] - National Library of Scotland

ALLAN RAMSAY 77
did to dissipate the mistaken ideas of the Scottish clergy
and the stricter section of the Presbyterian Church, on
the subject of dancing and the holding of the Assemblies.
In the preface to his poem of The Fair Assembly he
remarks : 'It is amazing to imagine that any are so
destitute of good sense and manners as to drop the least
unfavourable sentiment against the Assembly. It is to
be owned with regret, the best of things have been
abused. The Church has been, and in many countries
is, the chief place for assignations that are not warrant-
able. . . . The beauty of the fair sex, which is the great
preserver of harmony and society, has been the ruin of
many. So places designed for healthful and mannerly
dancing have, by people of an unhappy turn, been
debauched by introducing gaming, drunkenness, and
indecent familiarities. But will any argue from these
we must have no churches, no wine, no beauties, no
literature, no dancing ? Forbid it. Heaven ! whatever
is under your auspicious conduct iriust be improving
and beneficial in every respect.'
His poem is an ode in praise of dancing, and of the
manner in which the Assemblies were conducted.
Fortifying his case with Locke's well-known sentence
' Since nothing appears to me to give children so much
becoming confidence and behaviour, and so raise them
to the conversation of those above their age, as dancing,
I think they should be taught to dance as soon as
they are capable of learning it,' he boldly avows
himself as an advocate for the moderate indulgence
in the amusement, both as health - giving and as
tending to improve the mind and the manners, and
concludes with these two spirited stanzas, which are
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