Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/94

 seem to make a definite advance, if at the beginning of the new century the officials of government and the leaders of society were to make known their desire that nautches should not form part of any entertainment to which they......are invited."

Not many words can profitably be given to the question, 'what next?' when nautches have been universally discouraged. It is not easy or safe to foretell the direction likely to be taken by the energies of a society passing through a great transition. To the strictly pure the simple consideration, "morals before art or pleasure," would be quite enough; but it is, probably, too much to expect the majority to be fully content with that rule. There must be a sense of want for a time, as the old order changeth into the new. Promiscuous musical entertainments, barren of result in other countries, would grow obsolete. What with natural unsuitability to India and what with social discouragement, dance would lapse as a relic of the past. Weaned from its present low