N° 265. Thursday, January 3. Dixerit è multis aliquis, quid virus in angues: Ov. de Art. Am. ONE of the Fathers, if I am rightly informed, has defined a Woman to be ζῶον φιλοκόσμον an Animal that delights in Finery. I have already treated of the Sex in two or three Papers, conformably to this Definition, and have in particular obferved, that in all Ages they have been more careful than the Men to adorn that Part of the Head, which we generally call the Outfide. THIS Obfervation is so very notorious, that when in ordinary Difcourfe we fay a Man has a fine Head, a long Head, or a good Head, we exprefs our felves metaphorically, and speak in relation to his Understanding; whereas when we fay of a Woman, fhe has a fine, a long or a good Head, we speak only in relation to her Commode. It is obferved among Birds, that Nature has lavished all her Ornaments upon the Male, who very often appears in a moft beautiful Head-drefs: Whether it be a Creft, a Comb, a Tuft of Feathers, or a natural little Plume, erected like a kind of Pinacle on the very Top of the Head. As Nature on the contrary has poured out her Charms in the greatest Abundance upon the Female Part of our Species, fo they are very affiduous in beftowing upon themfelves the finest Garnitures of Art. The Peacock, in all his Pride, does not difplay half the Colours: that appear in the Garments of a British Lady, when fe is dreffed either for a Ball or a Birth-day. BUT to return to our Female Heads. The Ladies have been for fome Time in a kind of moulting Seafon, with regard to that Part of their Drefs having caft great Quantities of Ribbon, Lace, and Cambrick, and in fome measures meafure reduced that Part of the human Figure to the beautiful globular Form, which is natural to it. We have for a great while expected what kind of Ornament would be fubitituted in the Place of those antiquated Commodes. But our Female Projectors were all the laft Summer fo taken up with the Improvement of their Petticoats, that they had not Time to attend to any Thing elfe; but having at length fufficiently adorned their lower Parts, they now begin to turn their Thoughts upon the other Extremity, as well remembring the old Kitchen Proverb, that if you light your Fire at both Ends, the middle will shift for itself. I am engaged in this Speculation by a Sight which I lately met with at the Opera. As I was ftanding in the hinder Part of the Box, I took notice of a little Clufter of Women fitting together in the prettieft coloured Hoods that I ever faw. One of them was blue, another yellow, and another Philomot; the fourth was of a Pink Colour, and the fifth of a pale Green. I looked with as much Pleafure upon this little party-coloured Affembly, as upon a Bed of Tulips, and did not know at firft whether it might not be an Embaffy of Indian Queens; but upon my going about into the Pit, and taking them in Front, I was immediately undeceived, and faw fo much Beauty in every Face, that I found them all to be English. Such Eyes and Lips, Cheeks and Foreheads, could be the Growth of no other Country. The Complexion of their Faces hindred me from obferving any farther the Colour of their Hoods, though I could early perceive by that unípeakable Satisfaction which appeared in their Looks, that their own Thoughts were wholly taken up on those pretty Ornaments they wore upon their Heads. I am informed that this Fashion fpreads daily, infomuch that the Whig and Tory Ladies begin already to hang out different Colours, and to fhew their Principles in their Head drefs. Nay, if I may believe my Friend WILL. HONEYCOMB, there is a certain old Coquet of his Acquaintance, who intends to appear very fuddenly in a Rainbow Hood, like the Iris in Dryden's Virgil, not queftioning but that among fuch variety of Colours fae fhall have a Charm for every Heart.. MY MY Friend WILT, who very much values himself upon his great Infights into Galantry, tells me, that he can already guess at the Humour a Lady is in by her Hood, as the Courtiers of Morocco know the Difpofition of their prefent Emperor by the Colour of the Drefs which he puts on. When Melefinda wraps her Head in Flame Cofour, her Heart is fet upon Execution. When the covers it with Purple, I would not, fays he, advife her Lover to approach her; but if the appears in white, it is Peace, and he may hand her out of her Box with Safety. WILL informs me likewife, that thefe Hoods may he ufed as Signals. Why elfe, fays he, does Cornelia always put on a Black Hood when her Husband is gone into the Country? SUCH are my Friend Ho N Y COM B's Dreams of Galantry. For my own Part, I impute this Diversity of Colours in the Hoods to the Diverfity of Complexion in the Faces of my pretty Country Women. Ovid in his Art of Love has given fome Precepts as to this Particular, though I find they are different from thofe which prevail among the Moderns. He recommends a red ftriped Silk to the pale Complexion; White to the Brown, and Dark to the Fair. On the contrary my Friend WILL, who pretends to be a greater Mafter in this Art than Ovid, tells me, that the paleft Features look the most agreeable in white Sarfenet; that a Face which is overflushed appears to advantage in the deepest Scarlet, and that the darkest Complexion is not a little alleviated by a Black Hood. In fhort, he is for lofing the Colour of the Face in that of the Hood, as a Fire burns dimly, and a Candle goes half out, in the Light of the Sun. This, fays he, your Ovid himself has hinted, where he treats of thefe Matters, when he tells us that the blue Water Nymphs are dreffed in Sky-coloured Garments; and that Aurora, who always appears in the Light of the Rifing Sun, is robed in Saffron. WHETHER thefe his Obfervations are juftly grounded I cannot tell: but I have often known him, as we have flood together behind the Ladies, praife or difpraife the Complexion of a Face which he never faw, from obferving the Colour of her Hood, and has been very feldom out in these his Guffes. AS AS I have Nothing more at Heart than the Honour and Improvement of the fair Sex, I cannot conclude this Paper without an Exhortation to the British Ladies, that they would excel the Women of all other Nations as much in Virtue and good Senfe, as they do in Beauty; which they may certainly do, if they will be as induftrious to cultivate their Minds, as they are to adorn their Bodies: In the mean while I fhall recommend to their moft serious Confideration the Saying of an old Greek Poet, Γωαικὶ κόσμΘ ὁ τρόπΘ, κ' ἐ χρυσία. C N° 266. Friday, January 4. Id vero eft, quod ego mihi puto palmarium, Ter O Vice or Wickednefs which People fall into from N Indulgence to Defires which are natural to all, ought to place them below the Compaffion of the virtuous Part of the World; which indeed often makes me a little apt to fufpect the Sincerity of their Virtue, who are too warmly provoked at other Peoples perfonal Sins. The unlawful Commerce of the Sexes is of all o-ther the hardest to avoid ; and yet there is no one which you fhall hear the rigider Part of Womankind fpeak of with fo little Mercy. It is very certain that a modeft Woman cannot abhor the Breach of Chastity too much; but pray let her hate it for her self, and only pity it in others. WILL HONEYCOMB calls thefe over-offended Ladies, the Outragiously Virtuous. I do not defign to fall upon Failures in general, with Relation to the Gift of Chastity, but at prefent only enter upon that large Field, and begin with the Confideration of poor and publick Whores. The other Evening paffing along near Covent-Garden, I was jogged on the Elbow Elbow as I turned into the Piazza, on the right Hand coming out of James-freet, by a flim young Girl of about Seventeen, who with a pert Air asked me if I was for a Pint of Wine. I do not know but I fhould have indulged my Curiofity in having fome Chat with her, but that I am informed the Man of the Bumper knows me; and it would have made a Story for him not very agreeable to fome Part of my Writings, though I have in others fo frequently faid that I am wholly unconcerned in any Scene I am in, but meerly as a Spectator. This Impediment being in my Way, we ftood under one of the Arches by Twilight; and there I could obferve as exact Features as I had ever feen, the most agreeable Shape, the finest Neck and Bofom, in a Word, the whole Perfon of a Woman exquifitely Beautiful. She affected to allure me with a forced Wantonnefs in her Look and Air; but I faw it checked with Hunger and Cold: Her Eyes were wan and eager, her Drefs thin and tawdry, her Mien genteel and childish. This ftrange Figure gave me much Anguifh of Heart, and to avoid being feen with her I went away, but could not forbear giving her a Crown. The poor thing fighed, curtified, and with a Bleffing, expreffed with the utmoft Vehemence, turned from me. This Creature is what they call newly come upon the Town, but who, I fuppofe, falling into cruel Hands was left in the firft Month from her Difhonour, and exposed to pass through the Hands and Difcipline of one of thofe Hags of Hell whom we call Bawds. But left I fhould grow too fuddenly grave on this Subject, and be my felf outragioufly good, I fhall turn to a Scene in one of Fletcher's Plays, where this Character is Drawn, and the Oeconomy of Whoredom moft admirably defcribed. The Paffage I would point to is in the third Scene of the fecond Act of the Humorous Lieutenant. Leucippe who is Agent for the King's Luft, and bawds at the fame time for the whole Court, is very pleafantly introduced, reading her Minutes as a Perfon of Bufinefs, with two Maids, her Under-Secretaries, taking Inftructions at a Table before her. Her Women, both thofe under her present Tutelage, and those which fhe is laying Wait for, are alphabetically fet down in her Book; and fhe is looking over the Letter |