Familiar dialogues on dancing, between a minister and a dancer

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Substantiated by quotations from other writers including Pascal, the Prince of Conti, Chief Justice Hale, and Archbishop Tillotson, Phillips declares dance to be a vain and idle amusement. While he acknowledges that many people assume the study of dance teaches good carriage and a "graceful and easy way of moving our limbs," he notes that Quakers, "who hold dancing in abomination," manage to display good carriage without benefit of dance instruction. As with other writers of antidance literature, Phillips notes that, although dance was prevalent during biblical times, only women participated.