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THE LADIES' TOILETTE; OR, ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF BEAUTY.A

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The male costume destroys all the advantages which the fair sex has received from nature; and women, by adopting this costume, relinquish all' the means of seduction with which nature has endowed them.

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I assume that of men, loses all the graces of her sex, without obtaining any of the advantages of ours. Is she handsome? the male costume will very ill become her. Does the dress of our sex, on the contrary, become her well? this very circumstance accuses her of a form by no means adapted to her sex; she is no longer a handsome woman. Wherefore, then, do women assume a costume with which they can, at best, but make themselves look ridiculous!

If women appear pleasing in the eyes of the other sex, it is because they are women; nobody, I presume, will dispute this principle. The attraction, therefore, consists, in the difference of || sex; consequently, that must be the most voluptuous dress which displays this difference in the most striking manner. Establish a similarity of dress between the two sexes, confound their costume, and you destroy, in the eyes of the men, the charm which captivates them.

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The dress of women should differ in every point from that of men. This difference ought even to extend to the choice of stuffs; woman habited in cloth is less feminine than if she were clothed in transparent gauze, in light muslin, or in soft and shining silk. What woman is there but would please us more in an elegant robe than in one of those massive riding dresses, which produce such a bad effect, especially on women who are not tall, and have rather too much embonpoint. Perhaps women have gained nothing by adopting shoes as flat as those of men, which give them a firm and bold step, not exactly adapted to their sex. God for bid that I should wish to revive those heels of such extravagant and ridiculous height; but were there a greater contrast between the women's shoes and ours, the former would appear the handsomer for it. An author has observed, that there is somewhat feminine in every thing that pleases. In my opinion the inverse of this proposition is equally true, and I would say,-in every thing that is feminine there is somewhat pleasing.

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A female who relinquishes her proper dress to

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It is true that it is not always the desire of pleasing that induces women to adopt a disguise which, under every circumstance, is so ill adapted to them. The love of change, of novelty, and still more the desire of unlimited liberty, these are the motives that lead them to sacrifice cheerfully the graces of their sex, in order to obtain a small portion of what they term the felicity of ours; for, it should be observed, by the way, that women think the enjoyment of perfect liberty the greatest of earthly blessings. Accordingly, they appear less beautiful in our eyes, for the purpose of appearing less amiable; they relinquish almost all their physical advantages, in order to give us a bad notion of their moral qualities! they consent to renounce the qualities of their own sex, to prove to us that they have the faults of ours!

I should imagine that when women assume the male habit, it proceeds either from injudicious coquetry, a propensity to change, or a love of liberty. These causes, in general, are but temporary, and the female who acts only from such frivolous motives, scon becomes disgusted with a disguise which affords so little compensation.

But there are females who adopt this costume from decided preference, who constantly wear it, whom it even suits extremely well, and who are awkward in female habiliments, to such we have nothing to say; nature missed her aim in creating them, she produced only mutilated men, and we are at present addressing ourselves to none but

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is esteemed by the officers, and respected by the common soldiers. For sixteen years she has exhibited proofs of all the qualities which constitute an excellent officer, and she is free from the suspicion of any intrigue, or any of the foibles of her sex.

Such, ladies, is the course you ought to pursue when you adopt the male habit; and as you renounce the amiable qualities of your sex, dis play at least the masculine virtues of ours. We will then acknowledge you to be useful men, and assign you a place in our ranks; otherwise the assumption of male attire is but a ridiculous masquerade, which should not be tolerated except at the time of the carnival.

lover, renounced her sex, and listening only to the dictates of despair, embraced the profession of arms. Unhappy as a votary of Cupid, she was the more fortunate in her devotions to Mars. From that period she has been continually engaged in the service, has endured with fortitude every kind of fatigue, has been present in various engagements, and her bosom, destined by nature for a gentler purpose, bears the honourable marks of several wounds received in battle. During the revolution, a decree directed all women who were with the army to be sent home. At the moment when our heroine was employed in carrying an order she was stopped by an officer, who informed her of the law putting an end to her service. Indignantly drawing her sabre, she I am perfectly aware that woman is not desthreatened to dispatch the imprudent man, who tined by nature to bear arms; but nature has avoided death by a precipitate retreat, and our || her irregularities; and if we have women-warri. female prosecuted her commission. An excep-ors, so to make amends, we have also our mention was demanded, and obtained, in her favour milliners. But the man-milliner ought by all alone; she remained with the army, where she means to assume the female dress, that the meis still. I shall not mention her name; but she tamorphosis might be complete, and that the is known to the Generals under whom she served, || plumage of this rare bird might correspond with to General Lannes and General Augereau; she his song.

[To be continued.]

SABINA;
OR,

MORNING SCENES IN THE DRESSING-ROOM OF A ROMAN LADY. [Continued from Page 128.]

SCENE V.-Sabina at Breakfast; Myrrhina given in charge to the Philosopher.

Two Pages, the most beautiful of any in the household of the rich Sabina, dressed in the first Egyptian linen, and with their hair elegantly curled, this morning brought the Domina her breakfast earlier than she was accustomed to order it. In general Sabina did not take this repast till just before she went to the bath. But as she had resolved to go abroad at an earlier hour, that she might be present at the review, an alteration was made in this particular, and the pages were ordered to bring their mistress her breakfast while she was at her toilette. One of them carried a silver kettle from which issued the vapors of the hissing water. The other had in his hand an elegant basket in which eight of the finest figs, of the kind called callistruthis, which were particularly esteemed on account of their rose-coloured seed were spread upon fresh vine-leaves. On a handsome waiter, of African citron-wood, he brought a small flask of Chios wine, and two silver goblets, one for hot water and the other for No. XVI. Vol. II.

wine, to be handed to the Domina, after she had eaten as many of the figs as she pleased. For in regard to the quality of her breakfast Sabina most implicitly observed the prescription, of her young physician, the Greek Archigeres; who was himself, at least in this point, a faithful follower of Heraclides of Tarentum, who had in the strongest manner recommended figs to be taken with hot wine.

This sight, however, would have been of little advantage to the wretched Latris had not the faithful domestic philosopher, the stoic Zenothemis, presented himself at the same time as the pages, in the most ludicrous habiliments that can possibly be conceived, before the whole assembly in the dressing room of the Domina. Let the reader figure to himself a man pretty far advanced in years, with a bald head, and a long bushy beard reaching almost down to the waist. Let him farther imagine the whole stock of the wardrobe of a philosopher of those days, the Grecian mantle Сс

and one single under.garinent, or woollen shirt || thing, nor want many intreaties." It is natural

to suppose that our Zenothemis could not make any other reply than that the Domina had only to signify her commands. "I would not ask it of you," continued the lady, throwing back her veil with a graceful air, and displaying all her charms, like the full moon which appears more brilliant when issuing from behind a cloud—“ I would not ask it of you, did I not know that you possess the best heart in the world, and that you are a man on whose attention and good-nature I can place perfect reliance., Will you have the

without sleeves, wbich scarcely descended to the knees, affording a full view of legs covered only by hair, and feet, the soles of which were protected only by a board; in a word, a philosopher in a mantie and beard, a Græculus, such as were then to be found by hundreds in the houses and retinue of the haughty Romans. They were, in deed, as essential a requisite in the household of a person of distinction as a Capuchin formerly was in the family of a Polish grandee, or a domes. tic Abbé in the houses of the French nobility before the revolution, for the amusement of a beauti-goodness to take my Myrrhina in the carriage ful Marquise. This venerable gentleman from Zeno's gallery, half out of breath, and animated with duteous zeal, is now bringing in his mantle to the Domina the whole hopeful litter of the much beloved Myrrhina, of Sabina's Maltese bitch together with the lying-in lady herself. He therefore surprizes the Domina with the most convincing proof that the charming, tender, lovely, intelligent Myrrhina, who barks only at her enemy or her husband, but otherwise is good-nature itself, has been delivered the preceding night on the same mantle in which he was now bringing them, of three most beautiful and enchanting young lion-dogs. Nothing, indeed, could be more ludicrous than to see how the diminutive mother, wrapped in a green cloth, peeped out from the mantle of the wise Zenothemis, and now yelped with her delicate voice, after the manner of her species, alternately licked the hairy chin of the grave philosopher, and her young ones, who already began to stretch forth their snouts, and yet continued to find something to clean in both. The fact was, that no inconsiderable relics of the supper of the preceding night still adhered to the bushy beard of the stoic.

with you, and to see that she may want for nothing? The poor thing is big and very near her time. I cannot trust her with my servants; the careless rascals pay no attention to myself; how then would they behave to the poor animal? You will confer an extraordinary favour by undertaking this commission. I should be inconsolable were any accident to beful the pour creature. Yes, dear Zenothemis, I read compliance with my request in your eyes, and in fact the animal deserves as much for her attention to you. You know she made not the least noise, the day before yesterday, when I was bathing, and you read me the affecting essay on the perishable nature of our earthly bodies, and proved with such eloquence that this body is only an animated corpse, and no better than a leathern case."

How could Zenothemis, when intreated by such a lady in so moving a manner, and with all but tears, and at the same time reminded of one of the most interesting situations of his Villegiatura, act otherwise than promise to do every thing she wanted. The bitch, carefully wrapped up, was placed in the old gentleman's lap, and the group of the philosopher with the prodigious beard, and the little Maltese dog on his lap, and the big-headed dwarf by his side, was so unique in its kind, that as the carriage proceeded along the lia Appia towards Rome, there was no vetturino, and no passenger either on horseback or on foot, but stopped and burst into a loud fit of laughter. On their arrival in Rome, the lady sent her trusty Clio to him, urgently requesting him to keep the poor animal, which had now grown

That the reader may not be too much astonished at this description, we shall introduce an extract from Sabina's private journal, which gives the most satisfactory explanation on this subject. It is there related that Sabina did not return from her country seat, in Campania, till two days before, and had as usual brought back to town in her suite the domestic philosopher Zenothemis. Before their departure he had been brought into the most mor ifying dilemma. Instead of accom-acquainted with him, till she had pupped; adding, panying the Domina in her comfortable and convenient carriage, he was obliged to resign his place to her cousin, Saturninus, and to put up with the company of Sabina's ugly dwarf, Thersites, in a two wheeled Gallic cabriolet. But this was far from being the worst. The Domina desired to speak with him before they set off. "Dear Zenothemis," said she, "I have a particular favour to ask of you; you have it in your power to oblige me exceedingly. It is, to be sure, taking a great liberty, but I know that you never refuse me any

good care should be taken that the favorite should neither want for well-fed goose's livers, nor for sesamus cakes. Sabina knew that though he talked so loudly in praise of virtue, yet, notwithstanding all his animadversions on epicarisin and the pleasures of the palate, he was nothing less than an obstinate contemner of good living. She had observed how much he had privately given in a napkin to the servant at his feet, at the last great entertainment, and was aware that he would not be able to resist the temptation of live

ing by dividing the above-mentioned delicacies with the lap-dog. Nor was she deceived; Zenothemis shared the inconveniences of his charge, and the pleasure of the messes prepared for her, || and now came to give an account of the rich produce of the preceding night.

the whole time in profound silence in his cage, adorned with gold, ivory, and silver, just at this moment, as though it had been preconcerted, began to cry out repeatedly: "Bravo! bravo!" screaming and making a most hideous noise.

This scene, not a little mortifying to our domestic philosopher, Sabina suddenly terminated

her well-blacked eye-brows. The little Myrrhina was placed in a small basket, where she was accustomed to repose on pillows filled with soft feathers: and as she shewed signs of great thirst, she had given her a cup of the asses milk that remained after supplying the purposes of the Domina's toilette, and stood in a silver mug on a small table in a corner.

The muscles of the sternest Medusa-head must have relaxed at this spectacle, and have command-by a single thunder-threatening contraction of ed silence to its hundred hissing snakes. Sabina herself, was obliged against her will to assume a gentler air and to suffer her female attendants to indulge their risibility unpunished. "The finest of these figs, dear Zenothemis shall be yours, if you, whose poetic talents are so well known to us, can recite a pretty little Greek poem on this most happy occurrence!"-Thus exclaimed Sabina to the philosopher, who had made his way into the midst of her attendants, holding up the largest of the figs that lay in the basket. Zenothemis, who, like almost all his industrious countrymen, could exercise a dozen other arts and sciences besides his proper profession, the stoic philosophy, immediately produced the following epigram, which has been introduced, by what accident we know not, into the Grecian garland, among the epigrams of a certain Addæus:

"When the little Myrrhina was ready to drop with her heavy burden, Diana immediately sent her relief. The goddess does not appear only to thriving women; she likewise assists mothers of the canine race, which is under her especial protection as the goddess of the chace."

"What was it that Carmion whispered to you Clio, at which you laugh so immoderately?"said Sabina. Clio, who was heartily vexed at the bearded philosopher, because he had with his awkwardness, a few days before in the country, broken a beautiful vase which Sabina had received as a present from one of her admirers at the bath, of Bair, and had directed it to be carefully preserved as a too perishable memento of love.Clio replied aloud, and without reserve: "Carmion was only asking me, how long our stoic preacher of virtue had belonged to the canine sect, and had become a cynic (a dog-philosopher)?"

The officious Cypassis being directed by a motion of her mistress to relieve the philosopher from the burden of his charge and her litter, the saucy girl took this opportunity, under the pretext that poor Myrrhina had entangled herself in the old gentleman's bushy beard, to pull it handsomely, and at the same time to give the philosopher repeated slaps in the face, first with one hand and then with the other, and to play a hundred tricks under the appearance of shewing respect, but in fact to make sport. The most singular circumstance was, that a parrot which had been perched

"Has Tryphon, the bookseller, yet published Aristippus's poem, addressed to Lais on her looking-glass, dear Zenothemis ?" As her stoic friend was unable to give a satisfactory answer to this question, because he had not stirred a step the preceding day, that Myrrhina might not be left unattended, Sabina requested him now to make the necessary inquiries concerning the above mentioned work, which she expected with the utmost impatience.

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"And inquire also," said she, as he was just going to draw the curtain of the door behind him, whether any new Milesian tale has appeared? Tuccia talked a great deal at Baiæ, about a new performance of one Xenophon of Ephesus. If I recollect right the title was, 'Amours of Anthias and Habrokom.' You would exceedingly oblige me, if you could bring it with you."

Thus spoke Sabina. But it did not escape her penetrating eye that Zenothemis was filled with great indignation against the looking-glass of the licentious Aristippus, and had muttered to himself something about "puppy" and "good for nothing fellow." For this disobedience it was necessary that the much mortified stoic should receive immediate punishment. He was therefore charged with the commission to enquire for Milesian tales, and to pander for the vitiated palate of his mistress, instead of Clio, who else was accustomed to select the most luscious, licentious works for the perusal of the Donna, and had only the day before brought her a new edition, with curious figures, of the noted Matæotechnia of Elephantis. Poor Zenothemis, what would thy glorious ancestors, Zeno and Cleanthes, have said to their degenerate descendant, who, spite of his philosopher's beard, was obliged to humble himself to the offices of a chamber-maid, or rather of a pimp! How low would thy skin have sold at the auction of philosophers.

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[To be continued.]

FAMILIAR LETTERS ON PHYSIOGNOMY.

LETTER I.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

I MUST yield to your request, and try to gratify your curiosity, regardless of the trouble it will occasion me; for in this instance the dictates of friendship are more powerful than those of reason, and I will cease to remonstrate against what you wish me to do. I am conscious, however, that in the minds of some people, 1 shall pass for a magician; others, a little more enlightened, will deem me an erring follower of philosophy; and the world in general will look apon me as a visionary being; for the wonders wrought by the perfect knowledge of physiog nomy are sufficiently astonishing to justify these various opinions; yet, whatever judgment may be passed upon me, let your gratitude (for the sacrifice I am about to make, entitles me to it) think as favourably of me as before, and excuse the enthusiasm that will fire my soul, as I treat of such a subject, as being occasioned by the ardent desire 1 feel of pleasing you. Let the sweets of increasing friendship soothe the pangs of disappointment, in case I should fail in this bald attempt-I demand no higher reward.

It is customary for new writers to choose subjects which have never, at least very seldom, been explored by others; and that of physiogno- || my still offers a wide field to the attentive observer; yet, it is not its novelty that engages me to seize the pen. The most useful arts and the sciences, held in the greatest veneration, owe their existence to the bold inventive genius of some human beings; and many, who by their contemporaries were esteemed as enthusiastic madmen, are now honoured with the appellation of wise and courageous benefactors of Tankind. But this reflection does not embolden me; for the hope of having my name venerated by posterity does not overbalance the wish of being reckoned, whilst I live, a man of sense. prefer enjoying present glory, however small my share of it may me, to expecting that the most distinguishing respects should be paid to my ashes; and though my name be obscure, my ambition does not lead me to envy that of others. From all this it is plain that I can have no other motive in writing than that of pleasing my friend, and without any further assertions to prove that it is really my end, I will proceed to fulfil my promise.

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Imust inform you first that it it not my in

tention to meddle in the least with divination; I never could conceive how it was possible for reasonable people to grant any confidence to vain predictions, founded on the features of the face and the hand, the supposed relations existing between new-born children and the constellations of heaven, and the resemblance they sometimes bear to animals. Your mind, as well as mine, is far from bestowing any credit upon these fallacious ravings, which inflict sorrow up, on those whom they threaten, and deceive those whom they flatter. I will carefully avoid every thing that tends to the marvellous; and if I seein to lead you towards it, do not think that I wander from the path of nature, but that I merely unfold, some of her productions, of which till then you were ignorant. What I shall tell you will be clear and natural, för a true physiognomist never reveals what a person will be, but what it ought to have been. It is beyond his reach to dive into future events, but he is able to discover how you would behave should you be placed in trying situations. He can only perceive what immediately proceeds from the being upon whom he bends the powers of his observation, but, whatever is foreign to him remains concealed behind a veil. He will explore the true tem per of a man, but never presume to form an opinion of the fate that awaits him; his glance will pe netrate into the secret of his talents, but not into the use he may make of them, for he will only know what might have been done with them.

The most important point is to prove that the physiognomy of human beings is but the material image of the soul; that their external appearances enable us to judge of their internal passions, and that the various features of their face. are sufficient, without extending our observations any farther, to unravel their inclinations, talents, and capacities. Will not every one allow that the science which thus opens to our view the mysteries of the heart, may become, should it ever be settled on a solid basis, most useful to society? could any other be then put in compa-, rison with it? But it is useless, you will say, to wish to settle this interesting science on a solid basis, it is longing for a good which we never can obtain, and then you fix boundaries to this study which you fancy it is impossible to pass. You.. believe that speeches and actions are the only certain channels of information, and that I know how to adapt what I have heard of a person's, character to his physiognomy, so as to pronounce

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