The composer, who must even have something of the poet in him;
the musician, the painter, the mechanic, are essentially
necessary to the contribution of their respective arts, towards
the harmony and perfection of composition, in a fine dramatic
dance; even the dresses are no inconsiderable part of the
entertainment. The _costume_, or in a more general term,
propriety, should have the direction of them. It is not
magnificence, that is the great point, but their being well
assorted to character and circumstances. The French are
notoriously faulty in over-dressing their characters, and in
making them fine and showy, where their simplicity would be
their greatest ornament. I do not mean a simplicity that should
have any thing mean, low or indifferent in it; but, for example,
in rural characters, the simplicity of nature, if I may use the
expression, in her holy-day-cloaths.