folds of the veil with much taste;the serpentine line has, by a very ingenious artist, been considered as the line of beauty-that author, Hogarth, in his "analysis of beauty," has perhaps carried this idea too far, but the book contains a great deal of useful and entertaining information.

The purfled border-purfled means embroidered-A modern beauty could not be drest with more elegancewhat a beautiful figure would Pandora with her box make at a masquerade.

Parnel's description of the toilette of his heroine was probably suggested by the following description of the toilette of Juno, see the fourteenth book of Homer, line 191.*

*Pope's Translation of the Iliad.

"Swift to her bright apartment she repairs,
Sacred to dress, and beauty's pleasing cares:
With skill divine, had Vulcan form'd the bow'r,
Safe from access of each intruding pow'r.
Touch'd with her secret key, the doors unfold,
Self-clos'd behind her shut the valves of gold;
Here, first she bathes; and round her body pours
Soft oils of fragrance, and ambrosial show'rs:
The winds perfumed, the balmy gale convey,
Thro' heav'n, thro' earth, and all th' aërial way;
Spirit divine! whose exhalation greets

The sense of Gods, with more than mortal sweets. Thus while she breath'd of heav'n, with decent pride®

Her artful maid the radiant tresses ty'd;
Part on her head in shining ringlets roll'd,
Part o'er her shoulders waved like melted gold.
Around her next a heav'nly mantle flow'd,
That rich with Pallas' labour'd colours glow'd.
Large clasps of gold; the foldings gather'd round,
A golden zone her swelling bosom bound.
Far beaming pendants tremble in her ear,

Each gem

illumin'd with a triple star.

Then o'er her head, she casts a veil more white

Than new fall'n show, and dazzling as the light.

Last, her fair feet celestial sandals grace,
Thus issuing radiant, with majestic pace,

Forth from the dome th' imperial Goddess moves, And calls the mother of the smiles and loves."

We may observe that Parnel with great judgment avoids in his description several adventitious ornaments of the toilette which would not have suited the first appearance of Pandora. She has no pendants in her ears, and is sophisticated with no perfumes.— Ear-rings were invented at a very early period; they are repeatedly mentioned in the old testament; whence it appears that they must have been among the Jews and the Egyptians common ornaments, as a sufficient number could be collected to make the golden calf. Not only earrings but nose jewels were in use among the Jews; whether this invention arose from refinement or

from a love of fancy, which is common to the most ignorant savages, is questionable. The inhabitants of some of the South Sea Islands had ornaments hanging from their noses.

To our prejudiced eyes these appendages would not appear very alluring, but if it were to become the fashion, no lady could be admired without them.-From which it must be admitted that the taste for dress and beauty is purely arbitrary, or according to the will of any set of people; and that it depends upon associations formed in our minds by accidental circumstances, peaked stays, high heeled shoes, long treble ruffles, adventitious protuberances of cork, and various other fantastic and useless attempts to improve the female figure have succeeded each other.-At present in 1813,

the dress of women is apparently more consistent with convenience and common sense than at any period within our memory-whether this arises from the improved education of the fair sex, or from accident, is a question not very difficult to solve.

A taste for the fine arts has been of late years prodigiously diffused in Europe-the models of antiquity are before the public eye in various popular books, and in the windows of every print shop. At Paris the Louvre was open to the public indiscriminately. The munificent public spirit of the Marquis of Stafford, of Lord Grosvenor, Mr. Hope, Mr. Angerstein, and of many other judicious collectors, and lately, to the honour of England, the free admittance to the British Museum, which has been