never easie in any one Place, when she thinks there
is more Company in another. The missing of an
Opera the first Night, would be more afflicting to
her than the Death of a Child. She pities all
the valuable Part of her own Sex, and calls every
Woman of a prudent modest retired Life, a poor-spirited,
unpolished Creature. What a Mortification would
it be to Fulvia, if she knew that her setting
her self to View, is but exposing her self, and that
she grows Contemptible by being Conspicuous.
I cannot conclude my Paper, without observing that
Virgil has very finely touched upon this Female
Passion for Dress and Show, in the Character of Camilla;
who, tho’ she seems to have shaken off all the
other Weaknesses of her Sex, is still described as
a Woman in this Particular. The Poet tells us,
that, after having made a great Slaughter of the Enemy,
she unfortunately cast her Eye on a Trojan [who[1]]
wore an embroidered Tunick, a beautiful Coat of Mail,
with a Mantle of the finest Purple. A Golden Bow,
says he, Hung upon his Shoulder; his Garment was
buckled with a Golden Clasp, and his Head was covered
with an Helmet of the same shining Mettle.
The Amazon immediately singled out this well-dressed
Warrior, being seized with a Woman’s Longing
for the pretty Trappings that he was adorned with:
’...
Totumque incauta per agmen
Faemineo praedae et spoliorum ardebat
amore.’
This heedless Pursuit after these glittering Trifles,
the Poet (by a nice concealed Moral) represents to
have been the Destruction of his Female Hero.
[Footnote 1: that]
* * * *
*
Quid verum atque
decens curo et rogo, et omnis in hoc sum.
Hor.
I have receiv’d a Letter, desiring me to be
very satyrical upon the little Muff that is now in
Fashion; another informs me of a Pair of silver Garters
buckled below the Knee, that have been lately seen
at the Rainbow Coffee-house in Fleet-street;
[1] a third sends me an heavy Complaint against fringed
Gloves. To be brief, there is scarce an Ornament
of either Sex which one or other of my Correspondents
has not inveighed against with some Bitterness, and
recommended to my Observation. I must therefore,
once for all inform my Readers, that it is not my
Intention to sink the Dignity of this my Paper with
Reflections upon Red-heels or Top-knots, but rather
to enter into the Passions of Mankind, and to correct
those depraved Sentiments that give Birth to all those
little Extravagancies which appear in their outward
Dress and Behaviour. Foppish and fantastick Ornaments
are only Indications of Vice, not criminal in themselves.
Extinguish Vanity in the Mind, and you naturally retrench
the little Superfluities of Garniture and Equipage.
The Blossoms will fall of themselves, when the Root
that nourishes them is destroyed.
