Chapter xxv.
_Julian performs the parts of a knight and a dancing-master._
"I now mounted the stage in Sicily, and became a knight-templar; but, asmy adventures differ so little from those I have recounted you in thecharacter of a common soldier, I shall not tire you with repetition.The soldier and the captain differ in reality so little from oneanother, that it requires an accurate judgment to distinguish them; thelatter wears finer cloaths, and in times of success lives somewhat moredelicately; but as to everything else, they very nearly resemble oneanother.
"My next step was into France, where fortune assigned me the part of adancing-master. I was so expert in my profession that I was brought tocourt in my youth, and had the heels of Philip de Valois, who afterwardssucceeded Charles the Fair, committed to my direction.
"I do not remember that in any of the characters in which I appeared onearth I ever assumed to myself a greater dignity, or thought myself ofmore real importance, than now. I looked on dancing as the greatestexcellence of human nature, and on myself as the greatest proficient init. And, indeed, this seemed to be the general opinion of the wholecourt; for I was the chief instructor of the youth of both sexes, whosemerit was almost entirely defined by the advances they made in thatscience which I had the honour to profess. As to myself, I was so fullypersuaded of this truth, that I not only slighted and despised those whowere ignorant of dancing, but I thought the highest character I couldgive any man was that he made a graceful bow: for want of whichaccomplishment I had a sovereign contempt for most persons of learning;nay, for some officers in the army, and a few even of the courtiersthemselves.
"Though so little of my youth had been thrown away in what they callliterature that I could hardly write and read, yet I composed a treatiseon education; the first rudiments of which, as I taught, were toinstruct a child in the science of coming handsomely into a room. Inthis I corrected many faults of my predecessors, particularly that ofbeing too much in a hurry, and instituting a child in the sublimer partsof dancing before they are capable of making their honours.
"But as I have not now the same high opinion of my profession which Ihad then, I shall not entertain you with a long history of a life whichconsisted of borees and coupees. Let it suffice that I lived to a veryold age and followed my business as long as I could crawl. At length Irevisited my old friend Minos, who treated me with very little respectand bade me dance back again to earth.
"I did so, and was now once more born an Englishman, bred up to thechurch, and at length arrived to the station of a bishop.
"Nothing was so remarkable in this character as my alwaysvoting----[J]."
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BOOK XIX.