BALLS AND DANCING PARTIES condemned by the Scriptures, Holy Fathers, Holy Councils, and most renowned theologians of the Church

BALLS AND DANCING PARTIES condemned by the Scriptures, Holy Fathers, Holy Councils, and most renowned theologians of the Church

Advice to young persons regarding them.

From the French of Abbé Hulot.

By a young man.

What guards the purity of melting maids
In courtly balls and midnight masquerades,
Safe from the treacherous friend, the daring spark,
The glance by day, the whisper in the dark,
When kind occasion prompts their warm desires,
When music softens, and when dancing fires ?
                                                          POPE.



TBC....

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION


The following translation of Father Hulot's learned treatise on Dances is from the Fourth Paris edition of 1842 - Traité sur la Danse.

A work of this kind, now introduced for the first time to the English reader, supplies a want felt not only by the pious laity, but, at times, even by the missionary charged with their instruction. The moral dangers of the too common and too fashionable amusements of which it treats are pointed out, with as much force as clearness and learning, in this small but valuable book.

Familiarity removes, often, a due appreciation even of these dangers, and both in cities and country places there are Catholics who seem, as it were, to have become sceptical as to the very existence of the danger attendant on their supposed innocent recreations.

TBC....

It is but seldom, in these days of error and laxity of morals, that the tastes and habits of what is termed genteel society are regulated upon principles and rules of Christian morality.

With multitudes of worldly people, it is deemed a sufficient guarantee of propriety for any custom or practice whatever, that it prevails, and is in favorable acceptance amongst "the better classes of society," by which they understand, not the virtuous portion of the community, but only that which is rich.

The high and holy testimonies cited in this work, to prove the dangers, and, generally, pernicious consequences of balls and other dancing assemblies, collected as they are with so much care and fidelity, by the learned author, from the saints and holy fathers and councils of the Church, render it more particularly valuable in this country, where, owing to the scarcity of Catholic libraries, the learned themselves cannot conveniently have access to the works from which Father Hulot has selected his quotations.

TBC...