lity; that he had kept out of it as long as the could, and until he began to appear little in the eyes of all her acquaintance; that if he laid it afide, people would think he was not made like other women. I always gave great allowances to the fair fex upon account of the fahion, and therefore was not difplenfed with the defence of my pretty criminal. I then ordered the veft which food before us to be drawn up by a pulley to the top of my great hall, and afterwards to be spread open by the engine it was placed upon, in fuch a manner, that it formed a very fplendid and ample canopy over our heads, and covered the whole court of judicature with a kind of filken rotunda, in it's form not unlike the cupola of Saint Paul's. I entered upon the whole caufe with great fatisfaction as I fat under the fhadow of it.

The counfel for the petticoat was now called in, and ordered to produce what they had to fay against the popular cry which was raifed against it. They anfwered the objections with great strength and folidity of argument, and expatiated in very florid harangues, which they did not fail to fet off and furbelow, if I may be allowed the metaphor, with many periodical fentences and turns of oratory. The chief arguments for their client were taken, firft, from the great benefit that might arife to our woollen manufactory from this invention, which was calculated as follows: the common petticoat has not above four yards in the circumference; whereas this over our heads had more in the femi-diameter; to that by allowing it twenty-four yards in the circumference, the five millions of woollen petticoats, which, according to Sir William Petty, fuppofing what ought to be fuppofed in a well-governed ftate, that all petticoats are made of that fluff, would amount to thirty millions of thofe of the ancient mode. A prodigious improvement of the woollen trade! and what could not fail to fink the power of France in a few years.

To introduce the fecond argument, they begged leave to read a petition of the rope-makers; wherein it was reprefented, that the demand for cords, and the price of them, were much rifen fince this fashion came up. At this, all the company who were prefent lifted up their eyes into the vault; and I must confefs, we did difcover many traces of cordage,

which were interwoven in the stiffening of the drapery.

A third argument was founded upon a petition of the Greenland trade, which likewife reprefented the great confumption of whale-bone which would be occafioned by the prefent fashion, and the benefit which would thereby accrue to that branch of the British trade.

To conclude, they gently touched upon the weight and unwieldinefs of the garment, which they infinuated might be of great ufe to preferve the honour of families.

Thefe arguments would have wrought very much upon me, as I then told the company in a long and elaborate difcourfe, had I not confidered the great and additional expence which fuch fashions would bring upon fathers and husbands; and therefore by no means to be thought of until fome years after a peace. I further urged, that it would be a prejudice to the ladies themfelves, who could never expect to have any money in the pocket, if they laid out fo much on the petticoat. To this I added, the great temptation it might give to virgins, of acting in fecurity like married women, and by that means give a check to matrimony, an inftitution always encouraged by wife focieties.

At the fame time, in answer to the feveral petitions produced on that fide,. I fhewed one fubfcribed by the women of feveral perfons of quality, humbly fetting forth, that fince the introduction of this mode, their refpective ladies had, inftead of beftowing on them their caft gowns, cut them into fhreds, and mixed them with the cordage and buckram, to compleat the ftiffening of their under petticoats. For which, and fundry other reafons, I pronounced the petticoat a forfeiture: but to fhew that I did not make that judgment for the fake of filthy lucre, I ordered it to be folded up, and fent it as a prefent to a widowgentlewoman, who has five daughters; defiring the would make each of them a petticoat out of it, and fend me back the remainder, which I defign to cut into ftomachers, caps, facings of my waiftcoat-fleeves, and other garnitures fuitable to my age and quality.

I would not be understood, that, while I difcard this monftrous invention, I am an enemy to the proper ornaments of of the fair-fex. On the contrary, as the hand of Nature has poured on them

fuch

fuch a profufion of charms and graces, and fent them into the world more amiable and finished than the reft of her works; fo I would have then beftow upon themfelves all the additional beauties that art can fupply them with, provided it does not interfere with, difguife, or pervert those of nature.

I confider woman as a beautiful romantic animal, that may be adorned with furs and feathers, pearls and diamonds, ores and filks. The lynx fhall

caft it's fkin at her feet to make her a tippet; the peacock, parrot, and wap, fhall pay contributions to her muff; the fea thall be fearched for fhells, and the rocks for gems; and every part of Nature furnish out it's fhare towards the embellifhment of a creature that is the moft confummate work of it. All this I fhall indulge them in; but as for the Petticoat I have been speaking of, I neither can, nor will allow it.

VIRG. N. I. VER.211.

SHEER-LANE, JANUARY 6.

HEN I look into the frame and

WH

conftitution of my own mind, there is no part of it which I obferve with greater fatisfaction, than that tendernets and confern which it bears for the good and happinefs of mankind. My own circumftances are indeed fo narrow and feanty, that I fhould tafte but very little pleasure, could I receive it only from thofe enjoyments which are in my own poffeffion; but by this great tinétare of humanity, which I find in all my thoughts and reflections, Lam happier than any fingle perfon can be, with all the wealth, ftrength, beauty, and fuccefs, that can be conferred upon a mortal, if he only relifhes fuch a proportion of thefe bleflings as is vefted in himself, and in his own private property. By this ineans, every man that does himfelf any real fervice, does me a kindness. I come in for my fhare in all the good that happens to a man of merit and virtue, and partake of many gifts of fortune and power that I was never born to. There is nothing in particular in which I fo much rejoice as the deliverance of good and generous fpirits out of dangers, dificulties, and diftreffes, And because the world does not fupply inftances of this kind to furnish out fufficient entertainments for fuch an humanity and benevolence of temper, I have ever delighted in reading the history of ages part, which draws together into a

DRYDEN.

narrow compass the great occurrences and events, that are but thinly fown in thofe tracts of time which lie within our own knowledge and obfervation. When I fee the life of a great man, who deferved well of his country, after having ftruggled through all the oppofitions of prejudice and envy, breaking out with luftre, and fhining forth in all the fplendor of fuccefs, Lciofe my book, and am an happy man for a whole evening.

But fince in hiftory, events are of a mixed nature, and often happen alike to the worthlefs and the deferving, infomuch that we frequently fee a virtuous man dying in the midft of difappointments and calamities, and the vicious. ending their days in profperity and peace; I love to amufe myself with the accounts I meet with in fabulous hiftories and fictions; for in this kind of writings we have always the pleasure of fecing vice punished, and virtue rewarded; indeed, were we a le to view a man in the whole circle of his existence, we fhould have the fatisfaction of feeing it clofe with happiness or mifery, accord. 1 ing to his proper merit: but though our view of him is interrupted by death before the finishing of his adventures, if I may to speak, we may be fure that the conclufion and catastrophe is altogether fuitable to his behaviour. On the contrary, the whole being of a man, confidered as an hero, or a knight-errant, is comprehended within the limits of a poem or romance, and therefore always

ends

ends to our fatisfaction; fo that inventions of this kind are like food and exercife to a good-natured difpofition, which they pleafe and gratify at the fame time that they nourish and itrengthen. The greater the affliction is in which we fce our favourites in thefe relations engaged, the greater is the pleasure we take in feeing them relieved.

Among the many feigned hiftories which I have met with in my reading, there is none in which the hero's perplexity is greater, and the winding out of it more difficult, than that in a French author whofe name I have forgot. It fo happens, that the hero's mistrel's was the filter of his most intimate friend, who for certain reafons was given out to be dead, while he was preparing to leave his country in queft of adventures. The hero having heard of his friend's death, immediately repaired to his miftrefs, to condole with her, and com. fort her. Upon his arrival in her garden, he difcovered at a distance a man clafped in her arms, and embraced with the moft endearing tendernefs. What fhould he do? It did not confift with the gentleness of a knight-errant either to kill his mittrefs, or the man whom the was pleafed to favour. At the fame time, it would have fpoiled a romance, fhould he have laid violent hands on himself. In fhort, he immediately entered upon his adventures; and after a long feries of exploits, found out by degrees, that the perfon he faw in his miftrefs's arms was her own brother, taking leave of her before he left his country, and the embrace the gave him nothing elfe but the affectionate farewel of a fifter: fo that he had at once the two greateft fatisfactions that could enter into the heart of man, in finding his friend alive, whom he thought dead; and his mistress faithful, whom he had believed inconftant.

There are indeed fome difafters fo very fatal, that it is impoffible for any accidents to rectify them. Of this kind was that of poor Lucretia; and yet we fee Ovid has found an expedient even in this cafe. He defcribes a beautiful and royal virgin walking on the feafhore, where he was difcovered by Neptune, and violated after a long and unfuccefsful importunity. To mitigate her forrow, he offers her whatever the could wish for. Never certainly was the wit of woman more puzzled in finding out

a ftratagem to retrieve her honour. Hað. the defired to be changed into a flock or tone, a beat, fish, or fowl, fhe would have been a lofer by it: or had the defired to have been made a fea-nymph, or a goddess, her immortality would but have perpetuated her difgrice. • Give 'me therefore,' faid the, fuch a fhape

as may make me incapable of fuffering again the like calamity, or of being reproached for what I have already fuffered. To be fhort, he was turned into a man, and, by that only means, avoided the danger and imputation fhe fo much dreaded.

I was once myself in agonies of grief that are unutterable, and in fo great a distraction of mind, that I thought my felf even out of the poffibility of receiving comfort. The occafion was as follows: When I was a youth in a part of the army which was then quartered at Dover, I fell in love with an agreeable young woman, of a good family in thofe parts, and had the fatisfaction of feeing my addreffes kindly received, which occafioned the perplexity I am going to relate.

We were in a calm evening diverting ourfelves upon the top of the cliff with the profpect of the fea, and trifling away the time in fuch little fondneffes as are moft ridiculous to people in business, and moft agreeable to thofe in love.

In the midst of these our innocent endearments, the fnatched a paper of verfes out of my hand, and ran away with them. I was following her, when on a fudden the ground, though at a confiderable diftance from the verge of the precipice, funk under her, and threw her down from fo prodigious an height upon fuch a range of rocks, as would have dafhed her into ten thousand pieces, had her body been made of adamant. It is much easier for my reader to imagine my ftate of mind upon fuch an occafion, than for me to exprefs it. I faid to myfelf-It is not in the power of Heaven to

6

relieve me!' when I awaked, equally transported and astonished, to see myself drawn out of an affliction which, the very moment before, appeared to me altogether inextricable.

The impreffions of grief and horror were fo lively on this occafion, that while they lafted, they made me more miferable than I was at the real death of this beloved perfon, which happened a few months after, at a time when the

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