also to this subject. We find the Athenian lawgiver, Solon, prohibiting the ladies of his republic from carrying with them more than three gowns, particularly when they travelled: I cannot find that he mentioned anything concerning the variety of colours. With regard to another people, I cannot say much in their praise in this respect; because they carried their restrictions as to female dress beyond all becoming moderation: I mean the Spartans, who prescribed a scantiness of apparel by no means to be imitated. It appears, also, that they permitted the wearing of gold and precious stones, and other costly ornaments, to a certain class of persons, whom I had rather not mention and it is evident that they could not convey a stronger satire than they did by this permission, which, in fact, amounted to the strongest prohibition to all Spartan ladies who had, or affected to have, the least regard to their characters. It is not necessary to do more than glance at the passion of the South Sea Islanders, and the newly-discovered Americans, for the decoration of their persons. We find that, primitive as they were, they were not unadorned. Their hair, their ears, their noses, and cheeks, were sedulously embellished with bits of gold, or shells, or pebbles. They submitted to much torture in staining their skins, and ornamenting them with a variety of fantastic figures. We know that in these countries dress is one of the most complex and intricate of the arts, and that with endless ingenuity and skill, season after season, the vanity of our fair is fed in exhaustless profusion. But among savages, where the articles of dress were rather few, they had not much scope for invention, and, therefore, were obliged to give vent to it in another way. Beginning, therefore, "ab ovo," they commenced with the infant as soon as born, and, according to the fashion of the day, flattened the crown of its little head, or squeezed it into the shape of a cone; or, a square figure; once happening to be the prevailing mode, they made it rectangular. In short, as they were circumscribed in their powers of adorning their persons, they did the next best thing, they endeavoured to new-model them, hoping to improve upon nature, and make themselves more beautiful. Our ladies, it is acknowledged, are not so patient under pain, and yet, it must be confessed, they do submit to it, in some degree, for the sake of symmetry, as they imagine; witness their compressed and wasp-like waists, which must have been attained, probably, at the expense of some suffering, and much health. If they spent as much time, and bestowed as much pains, in beautifying their minds, as they do in ornamenting their persons, they would be angels, and too good for such creatures as we are. For it cannot be denied that the fault is too often our own, and that we look upon these outward adornings as far more valuable and precious than inward accomplishments: "Auferimur cultu et gemmis, auroque teguntur Arrayed in her best attire, is the true Homeric prescription for success. When Cleopatra was summoned before Antony, who was then armed with tripartite power, she was entreated by the messenger sent to require her presence, to array herself in such style, quoting the very line of Homer "Put on thy best attire ;" and assuring her that she had nothing to fear from Antony, who was the most courtly general in the world. Who does not remember Plutarch's magnificent description of the memorable sail along the Cydnus, imitated and enhanced by the more splendid colouring of a far more skilful painter of life and manners, Shakespeare? A very different character from Cleopatra received in her English court, about three centuries ago, an ambas sador from a royal cousin; and her inquiries about dress, exemplified by her own practice in that respect, are brought so lively to the mind's eye in the language of the historian, that I think my reader will be indebted to me for refreshing his memory with the picturesque description. Sir James Melville, the agreeable courtier, the man of address and conversation, "introduced such entertaining topics, suitable to the sprightly character of Elizabeth, that he threw that artful princess entirely off her guard; and made her discover the bottom of her heart, full of all those levities, and follies, and ideas of rivalship which possess the youngest and most frivolous of the sex. He talked to her of his travels, and forgot not to mention the different dresses of the ladies in different countries, and the particular advantages of each in setting off the beauties of the shape and person. The Queen said that she had dresses of all countries: and she took care thenceforth to meet the ambassador every day apparelled in a different habit. Sometimes she was dressed in the English garb-sometimes in the French-sometimes in the Italian: and she asked him which of them became her most? He answered, the Italian-a reply that he knew would be agreeable to her, because that mode showed to advantage her flowing locks, which he remarked, though they were more red than yellow, she fancied to be the finest in the world." The description of the entire of this strange audience is too long for quotation; but I hope I have said enough to induce my readers to turn to the page of Hume itself. What a passage in female human nature! A Queen, and such a Queen, the haughty Elizabeth, forgetting her politic reserve-opening her foibles to the soft and insinuating courtier, who was but too ready to listen, and too glad to retail them, and dilate upon them in no friendly guise, we may be sure, for the amusement of his royal mistress. What must have passed in Melville's mind at such moments! Shakespeare has delineated a similar scene, perhaps in allusion to this: the author of "Kenilworth," in our own days, has done the same; what other pen could have traced the like? It is thought that Pope has been too severe in the satire of the following lines : "Odious! in woollen! 'twould a saint provoke,' The poet has been censured, I say, for this, and some like passages in his ethic epistles, as exaggerating the picture, and overstepping the modesty of nature: and yet we are informed by his commentator, that this story is founded on fact, the poet only having concealed the name, which was that of a celebrated actress of the time, who so detested the very idea of being buried in woollen, that she gave these orders with her dying breath! I myself knew a lady-a very agreeable and accomplished one-who did something not quite so bad, but very like it. About the time I speak of, she was upwards of seventy years old, in a very precarious state of health; and it was her nightly custom to settle her cap and false curls, which she wore, with the utmost care and precision, stating her reason without any disguise, that if she should be taken suddenly ill, she did not wish to appear unbecomingly to her medical attendant." The ruling passion, strong in death." The least observation of the world will show that this absorbing passion has its votaries in every rank of society, from the highest to the lowest : its sway is felt from the golden-tissued robe down to the commonest fabric of the Manchester loom. The court, with laudable zeal, sets the example, and the sensitive touch of fashion vibrates at the very extremity. You will see the lowest peasant toiling at her labours all the week, and scraping together her hard-earned savings, to enable her to flaunt in tawdry finery on the Sunday. How many a cottage, cold and comfortless, owes half its wretchedness to this enticing propensity! Many serious and grave objections to this fondness for dress must occur to the reflecting mind: I shall allude only to one or two "Eutrapelus, cuicumque nocere volebat, The object of his wrath pursued, Strange hopes and projects fill his breast." In this passage the first of old ethic poets gives a lively picture of the evils which lurk within the folds of costly garments, particularly to those who have not means adequate to the expense. But it is not simply the expense, ruinous to many-it is to all the dreadful waste of time that is incurred, which gives the matter a vast importance. Cast your eyes about, and see if you cannot find some young ladies-ay, and ancient ladies, too— whose whole thoughts and time seem to be absorbed in the embellishment of their persons. “Dum moliuntur, dum comuntur, annus est;" "So long a dressing as Cæsar was marshalling his army," is the quaint old author's expression. "A gardener takes not so much delight and pains in his garden, an horseman to dress his horse, scour his armour, a mariner about his ship, a merchant his shop or shop-book, as they do about their faces," &c. The present fashionable female education leads inevitably to this result. How can it be otherwise, while young ladies are taught, both by precept and example, to attach so much importance to these external decorations? Nay, the luxury and extravagance of dress is even defended by sober writers, on the ground that it is a public benefit. The vices and follies of the great (say |