This is a dance--why should I say more. But consider this dance is before the highest and best--in an immense and brilliantly lighted, lofty house. There are vast crowds, seated upon a level with, or just below the stage--in rows, one row above another, forming a grand half-circle, from the floor to the dome; so high, that the faces cannot be distinguished. Then the rich and glittering decorations; the paintings, the sculptures, the music! The music of innumerable instruments strikes up. In come the troops of half-naked girls; their busts, their legs exposed. In they come, leaping, dancing, twirling, whirling, flying! They twirl around on the toes like tops. They spin on a single toe, sticking out the other leg--and, in this attitude, revolve about! They retreat, advance, stoop, go backward, forward; twisting, twirling, throwing themselves, their arms, and particularly their legs, into all possible positions; whirling about on one leg and extending the other, being the most admired feat! This is (very faint) the _Ballet_! Mothers, wives, husbands, daughters, sons, lovers, maidens, look upon this spectacle--and pray for the benighted Heathen! Englishmen often remarked to me, jocosely, "Ah-Chin--no like the Ballet--why, the Theatre nowadays _stands_ on Legs!" It is a fact that, in those times which the Barbarians call _dark_, when ignorance and brutality marked the whole aspect of common life, the _instinct_ of decency prevented women from appearing on the Stage at all. It is quite a modern invention. The Circus is another favourite show. In this, women appear, ride the horses, fly in the air, walk upon ropes tightly drawn above the spectators, and form a main feature. They make the same study of exposing themselves, and are undressed like the women in the _Ballet_. They give to the performance the same kind of stimulus, to which is added the further excitement of danger. For in leaping, flying through the air, vaulting, and walking upon the tight-rope high above the spectators; the probability of a broken back, or neck, gives a new sensation.