Balls and similar gatherings are wont to attract all that is bad and vicious; all the quarrels, envyings, slanders, and indiscreet tendencies of a place will be found collected in the ballroom. While people’s bodily pores are opened by the exercise of dancing, the heart’s pores will be also opened by excitement … while you were dancing, souls were groaning in hell by reason of sins committed when similarly occupied, or in consequence thereof.

I’m not sure I like the patron saint of writers. In Dan Piepenbring’s words, “Buzzkill, Francis!”. Paris Review – The Patron Saint of Writers and Journalists.