versal contempt, because she had sat to Polygna- || which however only tended to restore an ancient tus, though that artist had only drawn a figure after her, the face of which was veiled. It is well known, that the inhabitants of the island of Cos refused to place in their city the most beautiful statue that was ever made of the goddess of beauty, because she was naked. People have declaimed in every age against nakedness, and to what purpose? Pleasantry has always produced a much more powerful effect on the female mind than the soundest arguments; the shafts of ridicule penetrate much deeper than all the artillery of logic. Of this I will quote an example: custom, and, like the others, its declamations produced nothing but disgust, when a letter, stated to have been received from one of its correspondents, made its appearance. This letter, which was written by a woman, rallied the prevailing fashion in so admirable a manner, that, for once, wit succeeded in its league with morals, and nakedness and indecency were put to the rout by the shafts of ridicule. What the pulpit could not overthrow, and the stage dared not attack, the single effort of a woman accomplished through the pages of the Guardian. In the present day it has in vain been considered possible to induce the sex to renounce this fashion, by shewing them that they sacrificed to it the most precious advantage; in vain physicians have demonstrated the pernicious effects of nakedness upon health; in vain examples incessantly recurring, confirm the precepts of me About a century ago, the same abuse had gained ground in London-I allude to the naked fashion in dress-but its progress appears to have been much more rapid than at Paris. The fashion at London consisted, indeed, not only in wearing robes cut down very deep, but likewise in having the petticoats extremely short. In spite of thedical science; in vain numerous and interesting repeated declamations of philosophers and moral- victims sink beneath a destructive fashion: these ists, and, perhaps to vex those gentlemen a little, things only stimulate the sex to expose themthey kept visibly diminishing; from day to day selves to still greater dangers To brave death the top of the robe was observed to sink, and the for glory belongs to the courage of men; to brave bottom to rise, till at length strong apprehen- it for pleasure to the courage of women, and wosions were entertained, lest these excessive dimi-nen, it must be acknowledged, are exceedingly nutions should exhibit nothing more than the courageous. I am, cestus of Venus, or rather of the girdle of our grandmother Eve, the first of costumes mentioned in the records of history. The Guardian, among other journals of the day, had declaimed against this innovation, SIR, A hearty well-wisher to your work, Bath, Feb. 18, Upper Crescent. MODESTUS. BEAUTIES OF MODERN LITERATURE. MRS. WEST'S LETTERS. The following Extract is from a Work, entitled "Letters to a Young Lady," by Mrs. West. The high character of the Writer, and the importance of the subjects which she discusses, are sufficient apologies for the length of our Extract. IT is a false and a dangerous assertion, that single women at best pass their lives in a dull mediocrity, removed indeed from lively griefs, but unacquainted with real enjoyment. Spinsters may be daughters, sisters, aunts, and friends, though they are not wives and mothers. Every one's experience can supply instances, wherein as much warmth of attachment and solicitude of attention have accompanied the fraternal, as ever hallowed the conjugal tie. How many helpless orphans have found maternal tenterness supplied by the attachment of an aunt! How many pa- || rents have perceived the joyless portion of extreme old age turned into the downy pillow of tepose, by the assiduous watchfulness of an un connected daughter! Friendship, too, may reign in the heart of the single woman with unrivalled influence; and the absolute power that she possesses over her time and property gives an extensive range to her patriotic and charitable exertions. Ladies who are thus circumstanced are the properest patronesses of public undertakings; they are the natural protectors of the friendless, and the proprietors of those funds to which genius and indigence have a right to apply. Destitute of nearer ties, and unfettered by primary obligations, the whole world of benevolence affords a sphere for their actions, and the whole circle of science offers to adorn their minds. It seems, indeed, difficult to pourtray a more en viable being, than a single woman possessed of || afluence, who has passed through the tempest of youthful passions with untainted character, unvitiated temper, and unfettered heart. fiuence of drums and bells. But constant attention, and command of temper, will still be necessary, or he will never bend to the yoke and draw kindly. I believe young ladies are not now apt to fall violently in love at first sight. Except a few tinder-hearted nymphs, who inhabit the woodland glades, our sex is become too mercenary, and too dissipated, to feel an irresistible penchant, till they have obtained a side glance at the swain's rent-roll. Or, should the lying gossip Fame have cheated them in this particular, their extensive acquaintance furnishes them with a number of Adonises, who can assist them to break the fictitious chain which they mistook for gold; and thus, like patterns at the dress-maker's, one beautiful figure effaces the impression that another had made. I shall not, therefore, here detain you with a long admonition againt young ladies falling in love. The thing is just possible among a set whom nobody knows, and therefore nobody cares for their absurdities. It is, indeed, upon record, that formerly love made terrible work with the female heart, from fourteen to seventeen; and as it is still supposed, that dur But as we unquestionably were created to be the wedded mates of man, it is only in some circumstances, and to some dispositions, that I would recommend celibacy as a state of choice; though I am persuaded that a well disposed mind may always submit to it without considering it a misfortune. Extreme delicacy of health seems one motive for declining to enter the conjugil state; for, though passionate Love may promise that his purple torch shall ever burn beside the couch of the lovely sufferer, Hymen generally tells a very different story, and, carrying a flambeau to an evening party, vacates his seat in the sick lady's chamber in favour of her nurse and apothecary. It would, indeed, be imposing too much upon a benevolent and upright heart, to confine it by engagements where we are unable to discharge our part of the contract; for infirmity is a clog, not a help-mate. Hereditary dis eases are another obstacle; and in some cases I think they ought to be an insurmountable one, comprising an extension of duty to many genera-ing, this period the soft and pliant wax might retions. Great susceptibility of temper is an objection less universally acknowledged, and which unfortunately predisposes the heart to enter upon a trial for which it has incapacited it. The precept, that in the married state women should never expect too much, nor feel too keenly, can never be too deeply impressed on the ardent mind of youth; and can they conform to this conclusion who cherish sensibility as a virtue, and,mittance to a girl of fashion: he must either fold instead of studying the temper of others, suffer their own to acquire a fastidiousness, under the pretence of delicacy and refinement of feeling. A disposition that can yield to the desires of others, not only without apparent reluctance, but without enduring pain; health, cheerfulness, activity, frugality, attention to family concerns, and a relish for common domestic pleasures, are the qualities which a young lady should endeavour to obtain who determines to become a wife. In a majority of instances, these will put happi ness in her power; in all, they will lighten the load of misery. What a fashionable education can do towards the attainment of these requisites, has been already considered. The generality of English girls are educated, if not for a Turkish Haram, at least for the court of imperial France. Should they not be apprised, that the futility of the objects on which they are taught to lay a primary stress, is commonly annihilated the moment their end is achieved? When the wild elephant's neck is once fast in the noose, the pursuer has no further occasion for the fascinating in ceive not only a deep but a lasting impression, fashion has copied the edifices in which it iminures female adolescence, from the strong fortresses where the royal race of Abyssinia are secluded from the world. On re-considering all the masquerade habits which the Gods of old assumed in their amours, I can only think of the two dignities in which Cupid could now gain ad his wings into the stuffed jacket of a dancingmaster, and twirl his bow and quiver into a kit; or dilate his tiny form into the magnitude of a drill-serjeant; as these are the only privileged beings who are still allowed an opportunity of whispering a tender tale into the credulous ear of youth. When a young woman contracts an attachment for a deserving object, who seems not to return her preference, her situation is most dangerous and pitiable. As the perverse (perhaps, in this instance, I should rather say independent) nature of man never appears more strongly, than in his determination to fly those who follow, and to follow those who fly, every enticement that a love-lorn lass holds out to catch the heart she wished for, generally proves a scarecrow that terrifies the wayward animal; and as I do not want her to have art enough to cover her advances in the attractive disguise of disdain, she must avoid" the God of her idolatry," as the most likely prelude to self-contest. If circumstances will not permit her to do this without exciting suspicion that secret partiality is the mo ive, she must yet rouse all her mental strength and make an heroical effort for self-conquest; which will be her only alternative with a life of despair. Nature certainly intended that man should sue, and woman coyly yield. Few who have volunteered their affections ever became happy wives; we must never reckon on the stability of gratitude, when we put ourselves wholly in the power of the obliged party. I have already stated, that it is needless to address polite readers on the absolute necessity of prudential considerations in marriage. But though the worship of Plutus seems to be the established religion of the age, there are a few dissenters still remaining, who fancy that this pure love will supply a good every-day dinner. This rash conclusion is, however, more the effect of ignorance, than of any real dereliction of principle; and proceeds from not knowing the value of money, and not from a Spartan renunciation of the comfort that it procures. For, if we examine the habits of these tender devotees, we shall find that their wants are too numerous even for competence; and that it is not penury, but affluence, which must supply what they call mere necessary expences. Suppose some laceenveloped Lydia Languish, in the height of her paroxysm for poor Ensign Beverly, were compelled to assist the family-caterer in the routine of purchasing daily provisions. Let her investigate the demands of the tax-gatherer and coalmerchant, and even cast her eye over the items of soap, candles, and chandlery. She will discover a great many inelegant articles to which she never affixed either value or importance, that have operated as a constant drain upon the needful, and have really been so essential to her comfort, that she could scarcely exist without them. If she understand the rudiments of arithmetic, let her next employment be to subtract these essentials from the Ensign's pay, and then let her estimate how much will remain to be the food of love. What are called very splendid alliances, are as little likely to produce comfort and content, as the imprudent connexions that we have just considered. In the preceding remarks, I did not mean to interdict a connexion which admits of the brightening prospects of successful industry, but was supposing a state in which industry could not act (and many who write gentlemen are in this painful and humiliating predicament). with respect to disparity of fortune, I do not mean to estimate it by mere weight of metal, when other considerations are equal. The wellproportioned heiress ought to enrich the dependent younger brother; and the wealthy heir should select for his consort the unportioned || daughter of a respectable family. It is my wish So to warn young women from aiming at conquests, on the score of their personal attractions, to which neither their birth, connexions, education, nor situation entitle them to aspire. If the erratic pursuers of happiness would candidly state their discoveries, we should probably accede to the proposition, that every one is happiest in the state of life to which they have been accustomed. It is certainly sufficient to discourage this species of fair adventurers, that not one in an hundred succeeds in her efforts; but the prospect still becomes more disheartening, if we also discover that few of these fortunate candidates are happy. A young woman of humble connexions and inferior accomplishments, who is engrafted into an honourable stock, will experience mortifications from the family to which she is allied, that can only be parried by effrontery or stupidity. She must continually feel the restraints and difficulties of her situation; she will sink under the fatigues of fashionable dissipation, and will find her mind fretted by fastidious refinements, of which the happy simplicity of inartificial manners can form no conception. She will also be conscious of improprieties, and omissions, which nothing but an early initiation into high life would have taught her to avoid; and even the glittering equipage, which so forcibly struck her youthful fancy, will seem but a painful conveyance, if it pass by the amusement that she could have enjoyed, and set her down at what she detests. In fine, she will discover that merit cannot successfully combat the minute scrutiny of envy, especially when its prying glances are sharpened by unexpected prosperity; and that luxurious enjoyments can sooner pall the taste, than mortifications render the heart callous. I have not taken into this view, the more than probable accumulation of uneasiness which may wring the heart, at that period when the fond romantic lover changes into the cool reflecting husband. Richardson's Pamela is as absurd in its colourings of high life, as in its portrait of the reformation of a libertine. Let not a young woman, then, seek for conjugal happiness in a station of life that is very dissiinilar to her own; or in her own rank, without a competent provision to maintain those decencies of appearance which are its proper appendages. If she possesses delicacy of character (I should here use stronger terms,) if she value her own tem. poral or eternal interests, or that of the unborn, by the sacred names of mother and christian, let ine require her to shrink from the advances of a known libertine; or, if she cannot avoid, let her steadily refuse his offers; they comprise such an accumulation of misery, as no pecuniary advantages can counterbalance. Let not youthful innocence sell itself to disease, impurity, and re morse; nor pledge her hand, where, though she must obey, she can neither love nor honour. All gross moral errors are in the same strong sense insuperable objections, and surely women never would knowingly venture on such partners, but from an expectation of their being able to reclaim them. Alas! how much does youthful vanity here over-rate female power! The stubborn clay of man is never pliant but in early life; the storms of contention and the pressure of business, give it an impenetrability which, howeversuited to the rude buffets that it is designed to endure, prevent its being made malleable by the soft strokes of feminine influence. Whatever itself" wills to do, seems," in its own estimation, "wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, b st." If we attempt to remodel the lords of the creation, we must begin before they have discarded that emblem of subjection, a petticoat. I would advise a young woman never to select a man whom she discovers to be very deficient in the article of judgment; nor even if she have reason to form a high opinion of her own, and to believe that her future husband will always regard it with lover-like preference; a contingency which is extremely improbable. The original design of marriage (mutual help and assistance) is defeated, and an inversion in the relative situation of the sexes is always attended by a degree of ridicule and absurdity, which an ingenuous and delicate mind must strongly feel. Women, in this instance, seem a little treacherous to their own cause. I will not pretend to state how it happens to be so; much less will I justify the proceeding; but most unquestionably that very respectable (though, I fear, not numerous) body of men, the Jerrys, lead a life something like that of a flying fish, who, when they are hunted out of their own natural element, are pecked at by every petty wren that skims the air. We certainly ought to take these martyrs to our renown under our protection, and, by bringing them forward on all occasions as the only true heroes, show the refractory monsters who rebel against us, what they ought to be. Long-deferred attachments, even when they are at last crowned with fruition, often produce little more than a happy honey-moon. The reason is, that romantic ideas take strong possession of the mind, while hope and fear alternately act upon so susceptible a passion as love. It is most certain, that difficulties and impediments rarely fail to deepen the impression which they are expected to eradicate; and when we feel dissatisfied with our present lot, we always dress up the unseen future in most false and flattering colours. A young woman firmly attached to a man, to whom she sees little chance of being united, in stead of investigating those defects which might reconcile her to the probable separation, generally adorns her idol in the robe of perfection. His steady fidelity to her covers every other fault; his fond solicitations, or high-wrought pictures of the felicity they are prevented from enjoying, encreases her enthusiasm; and she either believes that the sun would ever shine upon them, could their vows be once plighted, or that they should then live in a world of their own, insensible to the intervention of external miseries. "Scarce one reflects that to the torch of lore "Perhaps succeeds pale discord's sullen fire ; "Few image woes which parents only prove, "When daughters sicken, or when sons expire.” To the sure consequences of this extravagant expectation, let us add, the effect which long deferred hope must have on the spirits and temper. Sometimes the prospect will be brightened with the view of a speedy conclusion; this will again disappear, and a final separation will seem inevitable. Jealousy will perhaps intervene; but whatever form the tormenting desire wears, disgust and indifference of the present will increase. No one more keenly feels the force of the scriptural aphorism, "that hope deferred maketh the heart sick," than she who surrenders her own to the heavy pressure of protracted love :"Thus on her present hour rude passion preys, "Thus bright the prospect of her future days." Can we picture worse bride-maids than broken spirits, irritable feelings, and sanguine expectations? or can we, viewing human nature as it really is, suppose it probable, that all external circumstances conjoining with the superlative excellence of the bridegroom, can prevent those wayward ladies from hurrying the bride into some extravagance, before "those shoes grow old" which carried her to the altar? Among many other reasons which render novels dangerous to young women is this: that they always make a long attachment, which is not dissolved by death, terminate in a happy marriage, whose felicity is proportionable to the previous embarrassments. Is it possible to love twice? is a common ques tion. Certainly not, with all that enthusiasm of preference which attends a first attachment. But enthusiasm appears to be so doubtful a foundation whereon to raise the massy pile of lasting esteem, that I incline to think a second choice is more likely to be the result of judgment, and regulated by those just views which disappointment and experience mutually supply. Love, indeed, is painted blind, and so he generally is; but Hymen might be as properly exhibited looking through a microscope. A woman increases her chance of happiness by prevailing on those deities to change their appendages thus: applying the that moment resolve to indemnify ourselves, by microscope to the lover's character, and binding future indulgence, for the restraints that we are the bandage as close as possible over the faults of then putting upon our bad propensities; perhaps her husband. If after investigating the merits we are hardly conscious that we are acting a part and defects of the man who addressed her, as nar- foreign to our natural character. How then is a rowly as her situation will admit, she feels con- young woman to discover the feigning, which vinced that the latter will not diminish her de- is so justly copied from nature as probably to decided preference for the former, I give her leave ceive the actor? I would not advise her needto accompany what I call the bequest of her heart lessly to try the temper of a favoured lover; the with her hand. You see I have permitted Love power of recrimination is so great in the other to creep in at last; but with his wings so pruned,|| sex, that to do so, equals the folly of irritating a and his costume so deranged, that I question if || any excepting yourself, will feel much respect for a Cupid who is permitted to look about him, and forbidden to fly into the regions of Utopia. But let our sex be as circumspect as possible, man, while he acts the part of a lover, wears a mask that we cannot wholly penetrate. Perhaps it is uncandid to call this insincerity. When we wish to please, we almost unconsciously assume an agreeable aspect; nor do we at lion whose den we are going to enter Let no unpleasant recollections of female tyranny interrupt the complacence of the bridegroom on attaining the object of his wishes. But I am again reverting to past manners. The new code of gallantry has deprived woman of the short empire which she once possessed, and compelled her to accommodate herself to the humours of him who pursues her with the provoking indifference of assured victory. MEMOIRS OF RICHARD CUMBERLAND. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. From the Memoirs of this celebrated Author, written by himself, we have deemed it incumbent upon us to make an Extract. It is his own account of the first performance of the admirable Comedy of the West Indian. My acquaintance with Mr. Garrick had be- || say-Aye, here he comes with all his colours come intimacy between the acting of The Bro-flying-." When I asked how this was to be thers and the acceptance of the West Indian. I resorted to him again and again with the manuscript of my comedy; I availed myself of his advice, of his remarks, and I was neither conscious of doing what was wrong in me to do, nor did any remonstrance ever reach me to apprise me of my error. I was not indeed quite a novice to the theatre, but I was clearly innocent of knowing or believing myself bound by any rules or usage, that prevented me from offering my production to one or the other at my own free option. I went to Mr. Garrick; I found in him what my experience stood in need of, an admirable judge of stage effect; at his suggestion I added the preparatory scene in the house of Stockwell, before the arrival of Belcour, where his baggage is brought in, and the domestics of the Merchant are setting things in readiness for his coming This insertion I made by his advice, and I punctually remember the very instant when he said to me in his chariot on our way to Hampton"I want something more to be announced of your West Indian before you bring him on the stage, to give eclat to his entrance, and rouse the curiosity of the audience; that they may No. I, Vol. I, done, and who was to do it, he considered a while and then replied-"Why that is your look out, my friend, not mine; but if neither your merchant nor his clerk can do it, why, why send in the servants, and let them talk about him. Never let me see a hero step upon the stage without his trumpets of one sort or other." Upon this conversation it was that I engrafted the scene above mentioned, and this was in truth the only alteration of any consequence that the manuscript underwent in its passage to the stage. After we came to Hampton, where that inimitable man was to be seen in his highest state of animation, we began to debate upon the cast of the play. Barry was extremely desirous to play the part of the Irish Major, and Garrick was very doubtful how to decide, for Moody was then an actor little known and at a low salary. I took no part in the question, for I was entitled to no opinion, but I remember Garrick after long deliberation, gave his decree for Moody with considerable repugnance, qualifying his preference of the latter with reasons, that in no respect reflected on the merits of Mr. Barry-but he did not quite see him in the whole part of O'Flaherty; |