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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc8f363 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #62238 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62238) diff --git a/old/62238-0.txt b/old/62238-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index ffc9186..0000000 --- a/old/62238-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2446 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Fashionable World Displayed, by John Owen - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: The Fashionable World Displayed - - -Author: John Owen - - - -Release Date: May 26, 2020 [eBook #62238] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FASHIONABLE WORLD DISPLAYED*** - - -Transcribed from the L. B. Seeley 1817 (eighth) edition by David Price, -email ccx074@pglaf.org, using scans made available by the British -Library. - - [Picture: Book cover] - - - - - - THE - Fashionable World - DISPLAYED. - - - * * * * * - - BY THE - _REV. JOHN OWEN_, _A.M._ - - LATE FELLOW OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; - AND RECTOR OF PAGLESHAM, ESSEX. - - * * * * * - - VELUTI IN SPECULUM. - - _THE STAGE_. - - * * * * * - - Eighth Edition. - - * * * * * - - LONDON: - PRINTED - FOR L. B. SEELEY, FLEET STREET. - 1817. - - * * * * * - - TO - THE RIGHT REVEREND - BEILBY PORTEUS, D.D. - _LORD BISHOP OF LONDON_, - NOT MORE DISTINGUISHED - BY - HIS ELOQUENCE AS A PREACHER, - HIS VIGILANCE AS A PRELATE, - HIS SANCTITY AS A CHRISTIAN, - AND - HIS VARIOUS ACCOMPLISHMENTS - AS - A SCHOLAR AND A MAN, - THAN BY - HIS INDEFATIGABLE EXERTIONS - TO DETECT THE ERRORS, - REBUKE THE FOLLIES, - AND - REFORM THE VICES, - OF THE - FASHIONABLE WORLD, - THE FOLLOWING ATTEMPT - TO BENEFIT THAT PART OF SOCIETY, - BY MEANS TOO FREQUENTLY EMPLOYED - TO CORRUPT IT, - IS - RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, - BY - HIS LORDSHIP’S FAITHFUL - AND - DUTIFUL SERVANT, - - THE AUTHOR. - -_Fulham_. - - - - -ADVERTISEMENT -TO THE -_EIGHTH EDITION_. - - -THE following little Work was originally published in the Spring of 1804, -under the assumed name of Theophilus Christian, Esq. From the high -commendation bestowed on it by the late Bishop Porteus, the Author was -induced to avow himself in the second impression, and to prefix a -Dedication, in which he endeavoured to do some justice to the merits of -that Prelate, whose character he united with the public in revering, and -whose patronage and friendship he had the honour to enjoy. - -The Author is not insensible to the degree of improvement in the general -tone of society, which has rendered certain strictures on the grosser -qualities of a Fashionable character, somewhat less appropriate than they -were at the period of their first publication. He wishes, however, he -could convince himself, that the improvement to which he alludes, and of -which he desires to speak with becoming respect, were not to be -interpreted as originating more in _humour_ than in _principle_, and as -indicating rather the progress of refinement than the influence of -virtue. The peccant evil, he is sorry to observe, continues to exist; -and, however the form of its operation may have been varied, its spirit -remains the same. On this account, it did not appear to the Author -expedient to tamper with his text. He felt persuaded that its -application will be found sufficiently accurate for every practical -purpose; and he could not consent to weaken its force by over-scrupulous -concessions to the pleadings of candour, or the requirements of temporary -accommodation. - -If an apology should be thought necessary for the little place which has -been allowed for remarks of a purely religious description, that apology -will be furnished by the nature and design of the Work. To produce a -disaffection to a life of sense, with all its blandishments, and under -all its modifications, was the end which the Author proposed to himself; -and his means were chosen with a reference to that end. In whatever -degree he may succeed in effecting it, he will think that he has gained -no ordinary point; inasmuch as they who despair of happiness in the ways -of sin, are so far prepared to embrace that godliness, which is -“profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and -of that which is to come.” - -_Fulham_, _February_ 28, 1817. - - - - -INTRODUCTION. - - -I HAVE often been surprised, that among the many descriptions which -ingenious writers have given of places and people comparatively -insignificant, no complete and systematic account has yet been written of -the Fashionable World. It is true, that our poets and caricaturists have -honoured this people with a great share of their notice, and many -particulars, not a little edifying, have been made known, through the -medium of their admirable publications. It is also true, that our -prose-writers have occasionally cast a very pertinent glance over this -fairy ground. Some of these latter have even gone so far, as to write -absolute treatises upon certain parts of the Fashionable character. Mrs. -More, for example, has delineated the religion, and Lord Chesterfield the -morals, of this singular people with the greatest exactness and -precision. Nor would it be just to overlook the very acceptable labours -of those writers who, in their Court-calendars and Court-almanacks, bring -us acquainted, from time to time, with the modes of dress which prevail -in the Fashionable World, and the names of its most distinguished -inhabitants. But after all that has been done, towards exhibiting the -manners, and unfolding the character, of this splendid community, much -remains to be done: for though certain details have been well enough -handled, yet I repeat, that a complete and systematic account of the -Fashionable World, is still a desideratum in Cosmography. - -I am far from pretending to either the ability or the design of supplying -this deficiency. The utmost that I propose to myself, is to bring more -particulars into a group, than former writers have done; and to exhibit -an outline, upon which others of more enlarged experience may improve. -It seems to me of great importance to the interests of society, that its -members should be known to each other: and of this I am persuaded, that -if there be one description of people, the knowledge of whose genuine -character would be more edifying to mankind than another, it is—the -people of Fashion. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - CHAP. I.—PAGE 1. - _Situation—Boundaries—Climate—Seasons_. - - CHAP. II.—PAGE 19. - _Government—Laws_, _&c._ - - CHAP. III.—PAGE 46. - _Religion and Morality_. - - CHAP. IV.—PAGE 73. - _Education_. - - CHAP. V.—PAGE 89. - _Manners—Language_. - - CHAP. VI.—PAGE 108. - _Dress—Amusements_. - - CHAP. VII.—PAGE 127. - _Happiness of the People estimated_. - - CHAP. VIII.—PAGE 142. - _Defect of the System—Plans of Reform—Conclusion_. - - - - -CHAP. I. - - -SITUATION—BOUNDARIES—CLIMATE—SEASONS. - -THOUGH I do not undertake to write a geographical account of the -Fashionable World, yet I should think myself highly culpable were I to -pass over this interesting part of the subject wholly in silence. My -readers must be at the same time cautioned, not to form their -expectations of the geography of Fashion from that of other countries. -The fact is, that the whole community which sustains this appellation, -extensive as it is, can scarcely be treated as having any peculiar or -exclusive locality. The individuals who compose it, are not, it is true, -absolute wanderers, like the tribes of Arabia; nor yet are they regular -settlers, like the convicts at Botany Bay: but moveable and migratory to -a certain degree, and to a certain degree stationary and permanent, they -live among the inhabitants of the parent country; neither absolutely -mixing with them, nor yet actually separated from them. - -This paradoxical state of the people renders it not a little difficult to -reduce their territory within the rules of geographical description. -They have, it is true, their _degrees_ and their _circles_; but these -terms are used by people of Fashion in a sense so different from that -which geographers have assigned them, that they afford no sort of -assistance to the topographical enquirer. It is, I presume, on this -account, that in all the improvements which have been made upon the -globe, nothing has been done towards settling the meridian of Fashion; -and though the Laplanders, the Hottentots, and the Esquimaux, have places -assigned them, no more notice is taken of the people of Fashion, than if -they either did not exist, or were not worthy of being mentioned. - -The only expedient, therefore, to which a writer can resort, in this -dearth of geographical materials, is that of designating the territory of -Fashion by the ordinary names of the several places through which it -passes. And this is, in fact, strictly conformable to that usage which -prevails in the language and communication of the people themselves: for -London, Tunbridge, Bath, Weymouth, &c. are, in their mouths, names for -little else than the lands and societies of Fashion which they -respectively contain. - -Now, the portion of each place to which Fashion lays claim, is neither -definite as to its dimensions, nor fixed as to its locality. In London, -a small proportion of the whole is Fashionable; in Bath, the proportion -is greater; and in some watering-places of the latest creation, Fashion -puts in her demand for nearly the whole. The locality of its domains is -also contingent and mutable. Various circumstances concur in -determining, when a portion of ground shall become Fashionable, and when -it shall cease to be such. The only rule of any steadiness with which I -am acquainted, and which chiefly relates to the metropolis, is that which -prescribes a _western_ latitude: {5} if this be excepted, (which indeed -admits of no relaxation,) events of very little moment decide all the -rest. If, for example, a Duchess, or the wife of some -bourgeois-gentilhomme, who has purchased the privileges of the order, -should open a suite of rooms for elegant society in any new quarter, the -soil is considered to receive a sort of consecration by such a -circumstance; and an indefinite portion of the vicinity is added to the -territory of Fashion. If, on the other hand, a shop be opened, a sign -hung out, or any symptom of business be shewn, in a quarter that has -hitherto been a stranger to every sound but the rattling of carriages, -the thunder of knockers, and the vociferation of coachmen and servants, -it is ten to one but the privileges of Fashion are withdrawn from that -place; and the whole range of buildings is gradually given up to those, -who are either needy enough to keep shops, or vulgar enough to endure -them. Now, it happens as a consequence from this adoption of new soil -and disfranchisement of old, that the territory of Fashion is extremely -irregular and interrupted. A traveller, determined to pursue its -windings, would soon be involved in a most mysterious labyrinth; his -track would be crossed by portions of country which throw him repeatedly -out of his beat: insomuch that his progress would resemble that of a -naturalist, who, in tracing the course of a mineral through the bowels of -the earth, encounters various breaks and intersections, and often finds -the corresponding parts of the same stratum unaccountably separated from -each other. - -It would be only fatiguing the reader to say more upon the topographical -part of my subject. It is obvious, from what has been stated, that the -regions of Fashion, considered as a whole, are rather numerous than -compact: and, indeed, such difference of opinion subsists among the -people themselves upon the territories which are entitled to that name, -that no correct judgment can be pronounced upon a question of so great -controversy. Thus much, however, may be affirmed, that there is scarcely -a market-town in the kingdom, in which some portion of land is not -invested with Fashionable privileges; and designated by such terms, as -mark the wish of the inhabitants, to have it considered as forming part -and parcel of the demesnes of Fashion. - -The _Climate_ of Fashion is almost entirely factitious and artificial; -and consequently differs in many material respects from the natural -temperature of those several places over which its jurisdiction extends. -Though changes from heat to cold, and vice versa, are very common among -these people, yet heat may be said to be the prevailing character of the -climate. They appear to me to have but two Seasons in the year; these -they call, in conformity to ordinary language, rather than to just -calculation, Winter and Summer. Of Summer little is known: for it seems -to be a rule among this people, to disband and disperse at the approach -of it; and not to rally or re-unite, till the Winter has fairly -commenced. Though, therefore, they exist somehow or somewhere, {10} -during the Summer months; they wish it to be considered, that they do not -exist under their Fashionable character. They wash themselves in the -sea, drink laxative waters, lose a little money at billiards, or catch a -few colds at public rooms; but all these things they do as individuals, -and wholly out of their corporate capacity as members of the community of -Fashion. So that in their mode of disposing of the Summer, they invert -the standing rule of most other animals; they choose the fair season for -their torpid state, and shew no signs of life but during the Winter. It -is not easy to say exactly when the Winter _begins_ in the Fashionable -World; an inhabitant of Bath would have one mode of reckoning, and an -inhabitant of London another. To do justice to the subject, the -commencement of Winter ought to be regulated by the former of these -places, and the close of it by the latter. Supposing, therefore, that it -begins some time in November, there can be no difficulty in settling its -duration; for the 4th of June {12} is, by a tacit yet binding ordinance, -considered as a limit, which a Fashionable Winter can seldom, if ever, -exceed. - -There are many circumstances in which the Climate of Fashion stands -peculiarly distinguished from every other. It has already been intimated -that heat is its prevailing characteristic: it is, moreover, not a little -remarkable, that this heat is at its highest point in the Winter season; -and that the inhabitants often perspire more freely when the snow is upon -the ground, than they do in the dog-days. The truth is, that, as was -before said, the Climate is wholly created by artificial circumstances, -and the natural temperature of the air is completely done away. The sort -of communication which these people keep up with each other, is -considered to require a species of apparatus which fills their atmosphere -with an immoderate degree of phlogiston. Besides this, they are -notoriously fond of assembling in insufferable crowds; and travellers -have assured us, that they have often witnessed from ten to twelve -hundred persons suffocating each other, within a space which would -scarcely have afforded convenient accommodation for a dozen families. -And this may enable us in some measure to account for the little benefit -which modish invalids are said to derive from their frequent removals to -the healthiest spots in the universe. The original object of such a -prescription was doubtless to change the air; and certainly no expedient -could have been better imagined for bracing a constitution relaxed by too -intense application to the business of a Fashionable life. But the -usages of the order render a change of air, to any salutary purpose, -utterly impracticable: for the weakest members of the community consider -themselves bound to kindle a flame wherever they go; and thus they -breathe the same phlogisticated air all over the world. - -They profess to adopt the ordinary divisions of time; and they talk like -other people of _Day_ and _Night_: but their mode of computing each is so -vague and unnatural, that inhabitants of the same meridian with -themselves scarcely understand what they mean by the terms. A great part -of this difficulty may possibly arise from the very small portion of -solar light with which they are visited. For certain it is, that no -people upon earth have less benefit from the light of the sun than the -people of Fashion; so that if it were not for torches, candles, and -lamps, they would scarcely ever see each other’s faces. - -With regard to the constitutions of these people, I have been inclined to -think them naturally robust, from observing the astonishing heat and -fatigue which they are accustomed to endure. And in this respect the -women have appeared to evince an uncommon degree of hardiness: for, -besides that they wear on every occasion a lighter species of clothing -than the men, I have been confidently told that many among them will -appear, in the severest part of the season, with dresses of such -transparency and scantiness, as convince every beholder that they who -wear them are utter strangers to the weaknesses of the sex. There is, -however, some room for doubting, whether the air which this people -breathe, and the usages which prevail among them, are favorable to the -constitution. Their patience of fatigue has been thought to be wholly -the result of habit, and their hardiness has been conjectured to be -little more than an air of extravagance and bravado. The frequent -transitions which they make from heat to cold, and back again from cold -to heat; perhaps half-a-dozen times in as many hours; must very -materially diminish the physical strength of their bodies. Certain it -is, that their natural countenances do not betray the usual symptoms of -health; and it is, I believe, admitted, that instances of extraordinary -longevity are not very common among them. - - - - -CHAP. II. - - -GOVERNMENT—LAWS, &c. - -THE History of the Fashionable World is a sort of undertaking, which, to -be accurately executed, would require abundantly more leisure and -diligence than I could afford to bestow upon it: and I very much doubt, -whether, after all, one reader out of a hundred would be at the pains of -perusing it. The fact is, that the members of this community are not -sufficiently substantial to form historical pictures. Their employments -are not of a nature to make their memory an object with mankind. Hence, -though they make a splendid appearance in a ball-room, they appear to -little advantage in a record; and, like the dancing figures in a -magic-lantern, they seem to have answered the end of their being, when -they have afforded an evening’s amusement. For these and other reasons -which might be assigned, I shall content myself with giving a brief -account of their Polity and Laws; referring those of my readers who are -desirous of further information upon their history, to Novels and -Romances, and to such Chronicles of antiquity, as have preserved the -memorials of obsolete and superannuated manners. - -It is a task of no ordinary difficulty to convey any tolerable idea of -this people, in their aggregate or national capacity. Consisting, as -they do, of various and detached societies, they are yet considered to -possess a sort of federal relation among each other; and to unite into an -imaginary whole, under the collective denomination of the Fashionable -World. It is under this aggregate character that they take their rank in -society; and the appellation which denotes their community, is recognised -by the tradesmen who advertise for their custom, and the politicians who -discourse of their affairs. A very handsome proportion of the daily -newspapers is devoted to their service; and intelligence from their -drawing-rooms is reported with as much regularity as that which is -derived from the first cabinets in Europe. Indeed, the minuteness with -which their routs and dances, their dresses and dainties, the expressions -they utter, the company they keep, and the excesses they commit, are -detailed, is at once an evidence that these people are considered to have -a corporate existence; and that no little consequence is attached to -their proceedings. I wish, with all my heart, that they thought a little -more of this; they would then scarcely run into such extravagancies, as -make them, on too many occasions, objects of ridicule to one part of -society, and dangerous examples to the other. - -Their _Population_ is more fluctuating and uncertain than that of any -people upon the face of the earth. There are among them certain tribes, -or families, distinguished by different descendable titles, who are said -to claim a sort of prescriptive right to the name of Fashionables. In -these the federal appellation continues hereditary; and it is an axiom -among the body, that people of _Quality_ (for this is the term by which -they designate the titled gentry) can never be out of Fashion. - -This is, it must be observed, their _own_ representation of the matter; -and I am inclined to suspect that there is no little management at the -bottom of it. There is something, no doubt, very splendid in the idea of -including all the families of rank within the limits of Fashion; and it -is a mark of no contemptible policy, to have constructed an axiom which -so effectually cuts off their retreat. But surely, it would be but -decent to allow the gentry of the realm to have a voice in the business. -There _have been_ times, in which many of our Nobles would have thought -themselves dishonoured by being presumed of course to sustain a -Fashionable character. I cannot but think, that if the modern nobility -were fairly consulted, several of them would _still_ be found to -entertain the same opinion; and that persons of the first distinction in -the country would be among that number. - -However that be, these dignified families are, according to Fashionable -computation, almost the only standing members of the community; and, if -these be excepted, all the rest of their body is mutable in the extreme. - -There is a perpetual reciprocation of numbers between them and the -society in which they reside. Scarcely an hour passes without some -interchange. The gossip of every day announces that some have migrated -from the region of Fashion, and that others have made their appearance -within it for the first time. The causes which produce these variations, -and the reasons by which they are defended, are in some instances too -mysterious, and in others too frivolous, to become subjects of recital. -In general it may be affirmed, that though persons become Fashionable -_with_ the concurrence of their will, they cease to be such _against_ it. -For, if a few accidental converts to plain sense and sober piety be -excepted, the greater part of those who retire have been superseded; and -resign their places, only because they cannot any longer retain them. -However that be, the fluctuation thus occasioned in the numbers and -characters of those who compose this Fashionable Community, diversifies -its complexion daily; and renders a precise account of its population and -totality utterly impossible. - -The form of government subsisting among this people, so far as it can be -traced out, is Oligarchical, and the spirit of it is absolute and -despotical. The few in whose hands the supreme authority resides, do not -consist of any regular or definite number, nor are they confined to any -particular sex. In general, they are composed of persons out of both -sexes, who, while they exercise a separate influence in things relating -to the sexes respectively, possess also a common jurisdiction in matters -of universal concern. - -The governing few are not invested with their authority by any -formalities of law; nor do they obtain their station by any specific -qualifications. The magistracy which they hold, appears to be neither -hereditary nor elective, but contingent. The term of their continuance -in power is also as indefinite and capricious, as the right by which they -acquire it. One thing, however, is certain, that as a moral reputation -has no influence in recommending them to the stations they fill, so the -forfeiture of it in no degree weakens the stability, or abridges the -duration of their power. That a government of this independent -description should exist in the heart of the British empire, an _imperium -in imperio_, will appear scarcely credible to my reader. He may, -however, rely upon it, that the fact is as I have stated it; and if he -should express his wonder, that such contempt of the sovereign authority -as it eventually leads to, has not been properly resisted, he will only -do what thousands have done before him. - -But to return:—The laws by which the government of Fashion is -administered, like the common law of England, are unwritten; and derive -their force, as that does, from usage and prescription. The only code of -any note among this people, is that which they distinguish by the -collective appellation of the LAW of HONOUR. This extraordinary code has -been defined to be—“a system of rules constructed by people of Fashion, -and calculated to facilitate their intercourse with one another.” {29} -Now if this definition be a just one, (and I presume it is, from the high -authority by which it is given,) it will afford us no indifferent help, -towards unfolding the mysteries of Fashionable jurisprudence. - -It seems, then, that the _Law of Honour_, by which people of Fashion are -said to be governed, is wholly and exclusively designed to make them -acceptable to each other. Now, not to mention other things, persons in a -Fashionable sphere cannot be strictly agreeable to each other, unless -they are well dressed; nor can that intercourse which they chiefly value, -be pleasantly maintained, without splendid equipages, choice wines, and -sumptuous entertainments. As, therefore, the necessity of the case -requires such accommodations, the _Law of Honour_, to say the least, does -not look very nicely into the means by which they may have been procured. -Hence it follows, by the fairest inference, that a man of Fashion is not -at all the less respectable in his own circle, merely because he is what -the rest of the world calls unjust. For, whatever may be the law -elsewhere, a man of Fashion can owe nothing to his inferiors: and his -character will therefore suffer no stain, though he should have broken -his word a thousand times with the reptile that made his clothes, built -his carriage, or furnished his table. - -This law is also distinguished by many other features of toleration, -which well account for the respect and influence that it possesses in the -Fashionable World. By a spirit of accommodation, of which there is no -other example, it overlooks, if it does not even encourage, a variety of -actions, which in the mouth of a moralist would be absolute vices; and -which, to say the truth, are scarcely deserving of a much better name. -Thus, a man may debauch his tenant’s daughter, seduce the wife of his -friend, and be faithless, and even brutal to his own, and yet be esteemed -a man of honour, (which is the same as a man of Fashion,) and have a -right to make any man fight him who says he is not. In like manner, a -man may blaspheme God, and encourage his children and servants to do the -same; he may neglect the interests, and squander the property, of his -family; he may be a tyrant in his house, and a bully in the streets; he -may lie a-bed all day, and drink and game all night; and yet be a most -dutiful subject of the _Law of Honour_, and a shining character in the -society of Fashion. - -There is, I own, much convenience in all this, and some consistency. -Persons who live only for this world, should have a proportionable -latitude allowed them for the employment of their animal propensities; -and the law which provides for the regulation of their conduct, should -have a special reference to this consideration. Supposing, therefore, -that people of Fashion ought to exist, they must have such a law as that -which they possess. So that, taking the Law of Honour in this connexion, -I cannot but think it a master-piece of political contrivance. - -At the same time, I cannot agree with those who have been led to consider -this table of Fashionable jurisprudence as deserving a place in the -temple of Morality. Into this error a celebrated writer appears to have -fallen, in his Treatise of Moral Philosophy. For, having defined -morality to be “that science which teaches men their duty, and the -reasons of it,” he proceeds to cite the _Law of Honour_ as one of the -three rules by which men are governed. That respectable writer has, -indeed, admitted that this law is _defective_, because it does not -provide for the duties to God and to inferiors; he has also proclaimed -that it is _bad_, by stating, that it allows of fornication, adultery, -drunkenness, prodigality, duelling, &c. Still, however, he has rather -left us to infer, that it ought wholly to be rejected, than absolutely -told us so. By classing it with the law of the land and the Scriptures, -he has (undesignedly no doubt) prevented its utter condemnation; and -afforded ground for considering it as a moral rule, to which men owe a -qualified obedience. - -Having specified the sort of practices which the _Law of Honour_ allows, -I shall take some brief notice of the duties which it exacts. The -principal of these, and that upon which its tone and spirit are most -peremptory, is the _resentment of injuries_. Now it must be observed, -that the term _injury_, in the use of people of Fashion, is of a very -wide and comprehensive signification. It not only means such an act of -outrage as amounts to a manifest and palpable wrong, but extends to every -dubious point of conduct, from which a Fashionable sophist could find -scope to infer an injurious intention. Thus a sister seduced, and then -abandoned, and a word or a look not satisfactorily explained, are all -equally injuries; and constitute, in the spirit of this code, so many -obligations to the most lively and implacable resentment. It may be, -that the offended person is of a peaceable disposition, and would rather -endure a moderate injury than revenge it; or he may have too much respect -for the laws of the parent state, to require or accept redress in any -other than the legal way; or he may know, that the offending party is a -man disposed to seek a quarrel, and that he desires nothing so much as to -provoke the innocent person, whom he has purposely insulted, to claim -satisfaction; or, lastly, it may be, that the supposed injury is founded -wholly on mistake, and that the reputed aggressor will not believe or own -himself to have offended, and will therefore make no atonement. In all -these cases, personal resentment might as well be waved; but this the Law -of Honour positively forbids: and he who should conscientiously decline -to pursue a personal quarrel, upon these, or even higher motives, might -be a better father, a better husband, a better subject, and a better -Christian, for so doing; but he would certainly be a worse man of honour. - -It is worthy of remark, that these reputed injuries are sometimes so -minute and transitory, or so remote and obscure, that, if every thing -depended upon the aggressor and the aggrieved, they would either remain -wholly undiscovered, or, at least, be speedily forgotten. But each of -these consequences is not unfrequently defeated by the officious industry -of some kind-hearted being, who, though he loves his friend too well to -let him be insulted, can govern his feelings well enough to stand by and -see him murdered. This is, certainly, a refinement upon the theory of -friendship, which may be fairly set down among the most extraordinary -achievements of the _Law of Honour_. Indeed, this bloody code has many -such refinements. For, proceeding, as it does, upon principles of its -own invention, it must necessarily clash with many antecedent -obligations. These, however, it contrives, by the help of a little -sophistry, so to supersede, that neither affinity nor attachment may -impede the progress of honourable revenge: and hence we see, in -compliance with its rigid edicts, the warmest friends sacrifice to -resentment with as little reserve as the bitterest enemies; and that, -perhaps, to settle a tavern dispute, or to avenge a play-house quarrel! - -Having said so much of the principal duty enjoined by the Law of Honour, -I shall offer a few observations upon the sort of punishment which it -inflicts. I trust I shall be excused, if, in treating this part of my -subject, I employ the term _punishment_ in a sense not strictly similar -to that in which it is ordinarily used. The fact is, that this singular -law makes the parties both judges in their own cause, and executioners of -their own sentence. The universal award against every convicted offender -is, that he shall fight a duel with the offended party. So that, if that -may be set down as punishment, which is ultimate in a controversy, and -which is exacted as a satisfaction to the law; death, or exposure to it, -is the lowest punishment which honour inflicts upon the least offender; -and the highest which it enforces upon the greatest. - -And this is, I confess, a political incongruity, which I have not a -little difficulty in reconciling with the good sense of many who have -undertaken to defend it. The law of England has often been blamed (and I -think with justice) as unreasonably sanguinary. In answer to this charge -it has been said, that, though nearly two hundred offences of almost as -many degrees of guilt, are made equally punishable with death; yet -justice is administered with so much discretion and mercy, that the -penalty is inflicted only on a few. Feeble as this excuse is, for a law -that deals in blood, it would be well for the law of Honour if it -admitted of such a palliation. But the truth is, that in the latter case -there is nothing to abate the demand for blood—the prosecution of every -difference is both summary and vindictive: there is no tribunal to -enquire into the original matter of the quarrel; no judicature to -determine the real merits of the controversy: if the judgment be -erroneous, there is no court of equity to reverse the verdict; if -rigorous, there is no arm of mercy to withdraw the victim from suffering. - -It must be evident from this view which has been presented of the law, -that, as an injury may be created by the most trivial incident, so -punishment may be inflicted with the most preposterous and unequal -retribution. I cannot better illustrate the frivolous foundation upon -which an injury may be erected, than by adverting to an occurrence of -very recent date, and of sufficient notoriety in the Fashionable World. -Two men of Fashion, incensed against each other by an accidental quarrel -between their respective dogs, dropped, in their warmth, certain -expressions which rendered them amenable to the bloody code: duel was -declared indispensable: and in less than twelve hours, one of the two was -dispatched into eternity, and the other narrowly escaped the same fate. -{42} - -The inequality of the retribution is, indeed, an inevitable consequence -of that article of the code which compels men of Fashion, without -distinction, to decide their differences by fighting a duel. It results -from this promiscuous injunction, that the peaceable man must fight the -quarrelsome; that the heir of a noble family must meet the ruined -esquire; and that the man who has never drawn a trigger in his life, must -encounter the Fashionable ruffian, who has all his life been doing little -else. This inequality is further manifest, from the different -circumstances and connexions of life under which the combatants may be -found. The son of many hopes may be matched against the worthless -prodigal; the virtuous parent against the unprincipled seducer; and the -man of industry, usefulness, and beneficence, against the miscreant who -only lives to pamper his lusts, and to corrupt his fellow-creatures. -Nothing has here been said of the indiscriminate manner in which judgment -is executed. The innocent and the guilty must both be involved in the -same awful contingency; each must put his life to hazard: and the -probability is, that, if one of the two should fall, it will be the man -whose conduct least entitled him to punishment, and whose life was most -worth preserving. - -I forbear to enter further into the system of Fashionable government, or -to meddle with the inferior points of legislation. What has been said of -the Law of Honour, will apply, with little variation, to every other -institution of minor concern. To facilitate polite intercourse, and to -exclude, as much as may be, duties to God and inferiors, is a -considerable object in every regulation; and it is but justice to this -people to say, that, in this respect, they are at once consistent and -successful. - - - - -CHAP. III. - - -RELIGION AND MORALITY. - -IN attempting to give an account of the _Religion_ of the people of -Fashion, I feel myself not a little embarrassed. It were, indeed, very -much to be wished, that one of their own number would, in the name of the -rest, draw up a confession of their faith. This is, perhaps, expecting -too much; and yet I cannot but think that it would be a very good -employment for some of those modish priests, who pass so much of their -time in the circles of Fashion. They give every proof that they have -leisure for the undertaking: and the access which they have to these -people, by attending them so familiarly at their theatres, their operas, -and their routs, must render them perfectly masters of the subject. -However, as I am not aware that any thing of this nature is yet taken in -hand, I shall lay before my reader such observations as I have been able -to make; partly because it seems necessary to the perfection of my work, -that something should be said on the subject, and partly because I should -be unwilling to afford by my silence any ground for suspicion—that there -is _no_ religion in the Fashionable World. - -I am, then, in the first place, decidedly of opinion, that people of -Fashion are not _Atheists_; though I am sufficiently aware, that some -strict religionists have entertained an opposite conviction. It has been -contended by the latter, in support of their hypothesis, that people who -believed in a God would have some scruple about taking such liberties -with his name, and his attributes, and his threatenings, and, generally, -with all his moral prerogatives, as people of Fashion are accustomed to -do. There is certainly something plausible in this sort of reasoning, -and I must candidly confess, that I have never yet seen it fairly -overthrown; but then I cannot think, that it proves their disbelief of a -God, though it certainly does prove their want of reverence for him. It -seems to me, at the same time, probable, that the ideas of this people, -and those of stricter Christians, upon the subject of that reverence -which is due to the Deity, may differ sufficiently, to account for these -offensive liberties, without having recourse to the hypothesis of -atheism. Indeed, when I consider the spirit and construction of that law -by which these people are bound, I can find other reasons for their -conduct in this respect, besides that which these theorists have -assigned. For, to say the truth, those obnoxious expressions from which -so much has been inferred, are in perfect unison with the exclusion of a -Deity from the rules which regulate their intercourse with each other. -The more therefore I reflect on this subject, the more I am confirmed in -my opinion, that the charge of Atheism against them is without any just -foundation; and that their appeals to God in levity, earnestness, and -anger, are designed to shew their contempt of His authority, and not -their denial of his being. - -I was for a long time of opinion, that these people were believers in -_Christ_; for I had observed, that his name was found in their -formularies of devotion, associated with their baptismal designation, and -frequently appealed to in their conversation with each other. There -were, I confess, many things at the time which staggered me. Having -taken up my ideas of the Saviour from those Scriptures which they profess -to receive as well as myself, I was not a little astonished at the -ultimate difference between us. Their belief of a God was, I knew, -inevitable, and forced upon them by every thing in nature and experience; -I could therefore conceive, without much difficulty, how they could -subscribe to his being, and yet not hallow his name; but I could not with -equal facility conceive, that people should go out of their way to -embrace a solemn article of revealed religion, only that they might have -an opportunity of trifling with the holy name of Him, who was the author -and the object of that revelation. - -I had, besides, occasion to remark, that this name was seldom appealed -to, but by the ladies; and it did not appear in the first instance -probable, that the gentlemen would leave them in exclusive possession of -a mode of imprecation by which any thing was meant. These and other -circumstances excited in my mind a great deal of speculation. I will -not, however, trouble my readers with the many conclusions which I drew -from them; since an event has occurred, which affords no indifferent -evidence, that belief in a Saviour does _not_ form an article of -Fashionable religion. The event to which I refer, is the publication of -a Memoir of the late Lord Camelford. In this Memoir the author professes -to acquaint the world with the last moments of a Fashionable young man -who had received a mortal wound in an affair of honour. In perusing this -extraordinary narrative, I was much surprised at finding, that neither -the dying penitent (for such he is represented to have been) nor his -spiritual confessor ever once mentioned the name of _Christ_. But when, -on further attention, I found his Lordship expressing a hope, that his -_own_ dying sufferings would expiate his sins, and placing his dependance -upon the mercy of his _Creator_; {53} I had only to conclude, that the -Divine was deterred from mentioning a name with which his office must -have made him familiar, out of respect for that Fashionable creed from -which it is excluded. - -There is some reason for supposing that these people believe in the -immortality of the soul, the existence of an evil spirit, and a place of -future torment. It must, at the same time, be acknowledged, that their -ideas on each of these points are so loose and confused, that it is -difficult to determine in what sense they apprehend them. - -In subscribing, for example, to the immortality of the soul, they give it -a value which infinitely exceeds that of the corruptible body: the -inference from this, in a fair train of reasoning, would be, that the -care of the former is of infinitely more importance than that of the -latter. And yet this is manifestly not the inference they draw: for the -experience of every week proves, that if they give three hours to the -soul, they think it too much; while they will give six days and nights to -the body, and think it too little. This is, I confess, a part of their -character, of which no satisfactory explanation has ever been given. - -I have no other evidence of their belief in an evil Spirit, and a place -of future Torment, than the report of their Prayer-books, and the tenor -of their conversation. I must, at the same time, acknowledge, that the -looseness and frequency with which they refer to Hell and the Devil, on -the most ordinary occasions, have excited my doubts whether they use -these awful terms in the same religious sense in which orthodox -Christians are accustomed to employ them. These doubts have been greatly -encouraged by that sceptical facetiousness with which they apply the name -of the evil spirit to their Fashionable amusements, and make the place of -torment a subject of scenic representation. I will not say that these -people do not believe what they thus caricature; but I think it must be -obvious that they cannot have any very exact notions of their scriptural -import, while they continue to employ them as terms of merriment, and -sources of diversion. {57} - -Religious worship, though not inculcated as absolutely necessary in the -Fashionable World, is yet neither prohibited nor renounced. Certain -persons of considerable influence among them, and whose connexion with -them arose out of the incidental circumstances of birth, or office, or -elevation, have carried into the societies of Fashion some principles -which operate as a check upon the natural libertinism of the community. -I impute it to this circumstance, rather than to any sober consideration -of duty, that religious worship, though it is not esteemed _essential_ to -a Fashionable character, is yet not regarded as any impeachment of it. -My reason, in a word, for ascribing their conformity in this particular -to influence rather than principle, is the difficulty of reconciling it, -on any hypothesis besides, to the other parts of their conduct. For it -would be a contradiction of ideas to suppose, that persons can seriously -mean to worship a God whom they habitually blaspheme; or to pray against -a devil, whom they are accustomed to hold out as a bugbear or a joke. - -Their mode of worship is generally that which prevails in the country in -which they live: they like the credit of an Establishment, and the -convenience of taking things as they find them. There are, I am told, -some members of Fashion among those who dissent from the established -religion. These I shall leave to the care of their Pastors; and proceed -to animadvert upon the Fashionable adherents to the religion of the -State. - -In their manner of observing the rites of public worship, nothing is so -remarkable as the degree of refinement they contrive to introduce into -every part of it which is capable of being refined upon. Chapels are, -for the most part, preferred to Churches; and the reason, among others, -for this preference, appears to be, that the modernness of their -structure, and their exemption from parochial controul, render them -better adapted to such elegant improvements as are requisite for -Fashionable piety. Hence that variety of ingenious accommodations, and -fanciful ornaments, which gives to their favourite place of devotion the -air of a drawing-room: so that a stranger, introduced to their religious -assemblies, might be excused for doubting, whether he was about to -worship the Deity, or to pay a Fashionable visit. The conduct of their -service is, in many cases, marked by an attention to mechanical effect, -which is more nearly allied to the parade of the theatre, than to the -simplicity of the church. The orators who fill their pulpits, are -generally preferred in proportion as they display the captivating -attractions of a graceful exterior, and a liberal theology. These -preachers have, indeed, a task to execute of no ordinary difficulty. By -the tyranny of custom they are compelled to take their text, and to -produce their authorities, from the canon of Scripture; and I think it is -much to the praise of their dexterity, that so often as they have -occasion to discourse from those offensive writings, they yet contrive to -give so little offence. How they manage this, I am at a loss to know; -unless it be by blinking every question that involves a moral -application; or else by allowing their audience the benefit of that -Fashionable salvo, that the company present is always excepted. - -It has also been remarked by scrupulous observers, that this people -perform almost the whole of their public devotions in a posture which -rather accommodates their indolence, than expresses their respect for the -object of their worship. If this be the fact, it is not a little -extraordinary; since they use a liturgy which prescribes _kneeling_ and -_standing_, as well as _sitting_; and which contains distinct -instructions, when each is to be used. I can, indeed, account, without -much difficulty, for the disuse of _kneeling_; because the structure of -the pews does not always admit of it: besides that, it is a posture into -which people cannot be expected readily to fall in public, who have not -much practice in private. But I cannot so easily account for their -refusing to _stand_: for this is notoriously an attitude to which they -are sufficiently accustomed. And that they do not consider the posture -in which a thing is done, indifferent, is manifest from the zeal with -which they rise from their seats, and expect others to do the same, when -about to join in a loyal chorus. I wonder it has not occurred to them, -that there is some indecency, not to say impiety, in _rising_ from their -seats to sing the praises of their King, and _keeping_ them while they -sing the praises of their GOD. - -I have before delivered it as my opinion, that this people comply with -the custom of public worship, rather from influence than from conviction; -and this opinion receives some confirmation from the pains they take to -remove those impressions which the offices of religion may have made upon -their minds. In the metropolis, the visit to the house of God is -succeeded, as soon as may be, by the drive into the Park. Here they meet -with a prodigious concourse of persons of their own description; and have -the most charming opportunities of seeing the world, exhibiting -themselves, and conversing upon the opera of the preceding evening, or -the parties for the ensuing week. The effect of this drive, upon their -animal spirits and the whole frame of their mind, is just what might have -been expected. Though they have so recently assisted at the most awful -solemnities, they can now relax into the most idle levity or the most -boisterous mirth; and satisfying themselves that they have done their -duty, by remembering the Almighty in the first part of the day, they take -no common pains to forget him during the remainder. - -In the vicinity of the metropolis, and in other places of Fashionable -residence, other expedients are resorted to, in order to produce the same -happy effect. No sooner has the priest pronounced his _Morning_ -benediction, than the carriage which has conveyed the family to church -must be driven round the neighbourhood; and the bells and knockers of -twenty doors announce, that the restraints of public worship are at an -end. This pleasant divertisement is not lost upon the great body of the -inhabitants. Persons the farthest removed from all Fashionable -pretensions, rejoice with their superiors at this speedy termination of -the Sabbath; and, with a servile imitation of _their_ example, pursue -their pleasures in some house of entertainment, instead of seeking a -_second_ blessing in the house of God. {66} - -Though there is something very lively and ingenious in this method of -dissipating religious impressions, yet I think it might be an improvement -upon the plan, not to allow them to be made at all. Experiments to this -effect have been actually tried by some persons of no mean condition, in -the Fashionable World, who have wholly renounced the habit of public -worship; and these experiments would probably have been tried upon a much -larger scale, had it not been for the consideration of setting a -pernicious example: for it seems to be a maxim among many of them, that -persons in a dependent state _may_ really be benefited by the offices of -devotion. With a charity, therefore, that does them honour, they make a -sacrifice of their feelings and their time to the interests of their -inferiors; and when it is considered, how much whirling in a carriage, -gaping, gadding, and gossiping, it takes them, to recover the true tone -of dissipation, it will be seen that the sacrifice is not inconsiderable. - -In observing thus largely upon the religion of the Fashionable World, I -have furnished a sufficient clue to their _moral_ character. If, from -some hints which have been thrown out in this and the preceding chapter, -rigid Christians should be led to infer, that it is no better than it -should be, they must be reminded, that people of Fashion have a standard -peculiar to themselves; and that, therefore, what are deviations from -_our_ standard, are very often near approximations to _theirs_. In fact, -they have acted in this respect with the same convenient policy by which -they have been guided in framing every other part of their system. -Pleasure being the object upon which a life of Fashion terminates, it was -sagaciously enough foreseen, that an unbending morality would be utterly -incompatible with the modes, and habits, and plans, of such a career. -There remained therefore no alternative, but that of frittering away the -strength and substance of the morality of the Gospel, till it became -sufficiently tame and pliable for the sphere of accommodation in which it -was to act. The consequence has been, that while they employ the same -terms to denote their moral ideas, as are in use among Christians in -general, yet they limit, or enlarge, their signification, as expediency -requires. Thus modesty, honesty, humanity, and sobriety—names, with -stricter moralists, for the purest virtues—are so modified and -liberalized by Fashionable casuists, as to be capable of an alliance with -a low degree of every vice to which they stand opposed. A woman may -expose her bosom, paint her face, assume a forward air, gaze without -emotion, and laugh without restraint, at the loosest scenes of theatrical -licentiousness; and yet be, after all,—a _modest_ woman. A man may -detain the money which he owes his tradesman, and contract new debts for -ostentatious superfluities, while he has neither the means nor the -inclination to pay his old ones; and yet be, after all,—a very _honest_ -fellow. A woman of Fashion may disturb the repose of her family every -night, abandon her children to mercenary nurses, and keep her horses and -her servants in the streets till day-break,—without any impeachment of -her _humanity_. So the gentleman of Fashion may swallow his two or three -bottles a-day, and do all his friends the kindness to lay them under the -table as often as they dine with him; yet, if constitution or habit -secure him against the same ignominious effects, he claims to be -considered—a _sober_ man. - -There would be no end of going over all the eccentricities of Fashionable -morality. To those who exact that truth which allows of no duplicity, -that honour which scorns all baseness, and that virtue which wars with -every vice, I question but every thing in the morals of this people would -appear anomalous and extraordinary: but to those who consider, how -necessary a certain portion of wickedness is to such a life of sense as -these people must necessarily lead, it will not be matter of surprise -that there should be so little genuine morality among them; the wonder -will rather be—that there should be any at all. - - - - -CHAP. IV - - -EDUCATION. - -NO people in the universe expend larger sums upon the education of their -children than people of Fashion. It is a maxim with them to commence the -great business of instruction in the very earliest period of life; and if -the system of education corresponded with the pains bestowed upon it, and -the price at which it is purchased, no persons would do more honour to -society than the subjects of the Fashionable World. As it is, they are -not a little ornamental to a nation. They are not, it is true, either -the columns or the base of the building; they neither support nor -strengthen it: but they supply the place of reliefs, and hangings, and -other superadded decorations. - -Religion is allowed a respectable place among the studies of the nursery. -All those useful tables of instruction are assiduously employed, which -teach, who was the _first_, the _wisest_, the _meekest_, and the -_strongest_ man; and the nursling is carefully conducted, by a -catechetical process, into the theory and practice of a Christian. As, -however, the child advances to boyish or girlish years, this religious -discipline is pretty generally relaxed, in order to allow sufficient -scope for the cultivation of those modish pursuits, which mark the man -and the woman of Fashion. - -And here I cannot help remarking, how anxious the greater part of -Fashionable parents are, to guard the minds of their children against the -_permanent_ influence of that religion, which they yet have caused them -to be taught. The fact is, that they would have them acquainted with the -technical language, and expert in the liturgical formalities of -Christianity; for these acquirements can neither disparage their -character, nor impede their pleasures: but a serious impression of its -truths upon their hearts, might disaffect them to the follies and vices -which they are destined to practise; and therefore is the thing, of all -others, that is most to be dreaded. The parents are, to say the truth, -not a little hampered by the engagements under which they have bound the -child, on the one part; and the character which they wish him to sustain, -on the other. To leave him in ignorance of a covenant in which he has -been involuntarily included, would be a fraud upon his conscience; and -yet, to have him renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh, would be -the utter ruin of his Fashionable reputation. What other course, then, -can parents thus circumstanced pursue, than that of inculcating these -lessons before they can be understood, and removing their impression -before they can be practised? - -It is, I presume, upon the principle of precaution already mentioned, -that our Fashionable young men are not always intrusted to the care of -persons distinguished for the practice of piety. It is not impossible, -indeed, that, either from the conversation, the connexions, or the -example of the preceptor, the pupil may contract certain habits, which it -was not the precise object of his education to produce. But then the -evil is not so great as fastidious moralists would insinuate. For, as -the youth is to figure in the circles of Fashion, he will only have -learnt, a little before the time, those practices which are to form a -part of his manly character: and though it might, perhaps, be as well, if -he did not learn to swear and rake quite so soon; yet it is some -consolation, that he has escaped those methodistical impressions, which -would have prevented him from swearing and raking as long as he lived. - -It may also be considered as some confirmation of the reasoning above -employed, that parents introduce their children as early as possible to -the amusements of the theatre. Now, though swearing, and raking, and -gaming, when carried to excess, are blamed even by persons of Fashion -themselves; yet it is notorious, that a reasonable proportion of each is -indispensably requisite to a popular character in the circles of -refinement. Habits of this sort must not be precipitately taken up. -There must be a schooling for the man of pleasure, as well as for the man -of letters: and certainly no school exists, in which the elements of -modish vice can be studied with greater promise of proficiency, than the -public theatres. When it is considered, at what pains the managers of -the stage are, to import the seducing dramas of Germany, as well as to -get up the loose productions of the English Muse; when it is further -considered, how studious the actors and actresses are to do justice, and -even more than justice, to the luscious scenes of the piece; to give -effect to the equivoques, by an arch emphasis; and to the oaths, by a -dauntless intonation:—when to all this is added, how many painted -strumpets are stuck about the theatre, in the boxes, the galleries, and -the avenues; and how many challenges to prostitution are thrown out in -every direction: it will, I think, be difficult to imagine places better -adapted, than the theatres at this moment are, to teach the theory and -practice of Fashionable iniquity. - -What has been observed on the subject of education, though said -principally with reference to the male branches of Fashionable families, -will yet, with a few changes, be found applicable to the youth of the -other sex. The principal points upon which their scheme of education is -brought to bear, are those of dissipation and display. A brilliant -finger on the piano, wanton flexions in the dance, a rage for operas, -plays, and parties, and the faculty of undergoing the fatiguing -evolutions of a Fashionable life, without compunction of conscience, -sense of weariness, or indications of disgust, are qualifications which -she who has acquired, will be considered as wanting little of a perfect -education. - -The same assiduity is discovered on the part of the parents, to train -their girls for the sphere of polite life, as has been already observed -with respect to the boys; and the methods that are pursued to accomplish -this end, are very nearly the same. The blush of virgin-modesty (it is -naturally foreseen) would be extremely inconvenient, not to say -absolutely indecorous, in a woman of Fashion; and therefore it is wisely -resolved, that such steps shall be taken upon the girl’s growing into -life, as may most effectually destroy it. The theatre seems principally -to be resorted to for this purpose; and it must be manifest, from what -has been already advanced, that no expedient could have been better -chosen. As intrigue is the life of the drama, and this cannot be carried -on, without expressions, attitudes, and communications between the sexes, -of a very particular nature, there is every reason for regarding the -stage as a sovereign remedy for the infirmity of _blushing_. - -There are other things to be said on behalf of the theatre, as a school -of polite morality. - -It has already appeared, that the system of Ethics which prevails among -people of Fashion, differs materially from the received system of -unfashionable Christians. Now, I know not any means by which a stranger, -anxious to ascertain, wherein that difference consists, could better -satisfy his enquiries, than by visiting the theatres. The doctrine of -the stage, therefore, exhibiting (as nearly as possible) the standard -morality of polite society, nothing could be better imagined, than to -give the embryo woman of Fashion the earliest opportunity of learning to -so much advantage, those lessons which she is afterwards to practise -through life. What she has imbibed in the nursery, and what she hears in -the church, would inspire her with a dread—perhaps a dislike—of many -things upon which she must learn hereafter to look with familiar -indifference, if not with absolute complacency. She might thus (if some -remedy were not provided) be led to take up with certain melancholy -principles, which would either shut her out from the society of her -friends, or make her miserable among them. But the stage corrects all -this; and more than counterbalances the impressions of virtue, by -stratagems of the happiest contrivance. - -It is worthy of attention, how much ingenuity is displayed in bringing -about that moral temperament, which is necessary for the meridian of -Fashion. The rake, who is debauching innocence, squandering away -property, and extending the influence of licentiousness to the utmost of -his power, would (if fairly represented) excite spontaneous and universal -abhorrence. But this result would be extremely inconvenient; since -raking, seduction, and prodigality, make half the business, and almost -all the reputation, of men of Fashion. What, then, must be done?—Some -qualities of acknowledged excellence must be associated with these -vicious propensities, in order to prevent them from occasioning unmingled -disgust. We may, I presume, refer it to the same policy, that in dramas -of the greatest popularity, the worthless libertine is represented as -having at the bottom some of those properties which reflect most honour -upon human nature; while—as if to throw the balance still more in favour -of vice—the man of professed virtue is delineated as being in the main a -sneaking and hypocritical villain. Lessons such as these are not likely -to be lost upon the ingenuous feelings of a young girl. For, besides the -fascinations of an elegant address and an artful manner, the whole -conduct of the plot is an insidious appeal to the simplicity of her -heart. She is taught to believe, by these representations, that -profligacy is the exuberance of a generous nature, and decorum the veil -of a bad heart: so that having learnt, in the outset of her career, to -associate frankness with vice, and duplicity with virtue, she will not be -likely to separate these combinations during the remainder of her life. - -To enter further into the minute details of a Fashionable education, -would only be to travel over ground which has been often and ingeniously -explored by writers of the greatest eminence. Enough has been said to -show, that the system of education adopted by this people, like every -other branch of their economy, is adapted to qualify the parties for that -polite intercourse with each other, which seems to constitute the very -end of their being. And if it be considered, of what nature that -intercourse is, it will occasion no surprise, that the education which -prepares for it should be expressly adapted to confound the distinctions -of virtue and vice; and to inculcate, with that view,—duplicity in -religion, and prevarication in morals. - - - - -CHAP. V. - - -MANNERS—LANGUAGE. - -THE _Manners_ of this people are remarkably artificial. They appear to -do every thing by rule; and not a word, a look, or a movement escapes -them, but what has at one time or other been studied. In every part of -their demeanour they have reference to some invisible standard, which -they call the _Ton_, or the Fashion, (from which latter term they have -derived their appellation;) and by this mysterious talisman their -manners, their dress, their language, and the whole of their behaviour, -are tried. It is singular enough, that this standard which is to fix -every thing, is itself the most variable of all things. The changes -which it undergoes are so rapid, that it requires a sort of telegraphic -communication to become acquainted with them: and though there is no -regular way by which they may be known, yet nothing is considered so -disgraceful as not to know them. - -The fluctuations to which this standard is subject, render it difficult -to catch the features of people of Fashion, or to speak with any -precision upon the exterior of their character. They are, in fact, -moulded and modified by such capricious and indefinable circumstances, -that he who would exhibit a true picture of their manners, must write a -history of the endless transmutations through which they are compelled to -pass. It has, indeed, been remarked by nice observers, that a -dissimulation of their sentiments and their feelings, is a feature in the -character of this people, which never forsakes them; and that amidst all -the revolutions which their other habits experience, this -master-principle preserves an unchanging uniformity. Nor is it -sufficient to overthrow this reasoning, that, among the innovations of -recent times, the manners of people of Fashion have been brought into an -affected resemblance to those of their inferiors. The cropped head, and -groomish dress of the men, and the noisy tone and vulgar air of the -women, would almost persuade a stranger that these are blunt and artless -people, and that they love nothing so much as honesty and plain-dealing. -The fact, however, is, that though the mode of playing is varied, yet the -game of dissimulation is still going on. This condescension to vulgarity -is, after all, the disguise of pride, and not the dress of simplicity; -and is as remote from the sincerity which it imitates, as from the -refinement which it renounces. - -An exaggerated opinion of their own importance is, in reality, a -prevailing characteristic of the Fashionable World. - -The Greeks and Romans were thought to have gone too far, when they called -all nations but their own _barbarians_; but people of Fashion go a step -farther: for they consider themselves _every body_, and the rest of the -world _nobody_. The influence of this sentiment is sufficiently -discernible over the whole of their character. It dictates to their -affections, and robs them, in many instances, of their spontaneity, their -sweetness, and their force. It results from this conceit, that their -love is often artificial, their friendship ceremonious, and their charity -ungracious. In a word, the whole of their demeanour is such as might be -expected from a people, who idolize the most frivolous or the most -vicious propensities of human nature; and estimate as _nothing_, the -talents, and industry, and virtue, which adorn it. - -Their _Language_ would afford great scope for discussion; but the limits -which I have prescribed to my work, will not allow me to embrace it. I -shall, however, throw together such remarks as may enable the reader to -form some judgment of it; and refer him, for more extended information -upon it, to those modish compositions in which it is conveyed, and to the -circles in which it is spoken. - -Their _language_, then, is generally a dialect of the people among whom -they reside. They do, it is true, intersperse their conversational -dialogue with scraps of French and Italian; they also construct their -complimentary phrases with singular dexterity; they have, besides, -certain epithets; such as _dashing_, _stylish_, &c. which may be -considered as perfectly their own:—but if these be excepted, the rest of -their language is, to the best of my judgment, wholly vernacular. - -It must not, however, be supposed, that because these people use the -terms of the country in which they live, they therefore use them in their -ordinary and received acceptation. Nothing can be farther from the fact. -I verily believe, that if the whole nomenclature of Fashion were examined -from beginning to end, scarcely twenty words would be found, which in -passing over to the regions of Fashion, have not left their native and -customary sense behind them. - -In support of this observation I shall cite, for the reader’s -satisfaction, a brief extract from a private memorandum, which I had -originally made with a design of constructing a Fashionable glossary. - - _Vernacular Terms_. _Fashionable Sense_. -Age An infirmity which nobody owns. -Buying Ordering goods without present purpose of - payment. -Conscience Something to swear by. -Courage Fear of man. -Cowardice Fear of God. -Day Night. -Debt A necessary evil. -Decency Keeping up appearances. -Dinner Supper. -Dressed Half-naked. -Duty Doing as other people do. -Economy (Obsolete.) -Enthusiasm Religion in earnest. -Fortune The chief-good. -Friend (Meaning not known.) -Home Every body’s house but one’s own. -Honour The modern Moloch, worshipped with licentious - rites and human victims. -Knowing Expert in folly and vice. -Life Destruction of body and soul. -Love (Meaning not known.) -Modest Sheepish. -New Delightful. -Night Day. -Nonsense Polite conversation. -Old Insufferable. -Pay Only applied to visits. -Play Serious work. -Protection Keeping a mistress. -Religion Occupying a seat in some church or chapel. -Spirit Contempt of decorum and conscience. -Style Splendid extravagance. -Thing (the) Any thing but what a man should be. -Time Only regarded in music and dancing. -Truth (Meaning uncertain). -Virtue Any agreeable quality. -Vice Only applied to servants and horses. -Undress Complete clothing. -Wicked Irresistibly agreeable. -Work A vulgarism. - -I am far from pretending to have assigned the precise significations in -which the words above cited are employed by people of Fashion. Perhaps I -have done as much towards fixing the sense, as will be expected of one -who cannot pretend to be perfectly in their confidence. In fact, the -transmutation of terms is an operation to which this people are most -devoutly addicted. It is daily making some advances among them; and -keeps pace with the progress of their ideas, from the correct and -authentic notions of truth and virtue, to those loose and spurious ones -by which they are superseded. - -In proof of this statement, I need only adduce those phrases in which -they are accustomed to pronounce the eulogium of their deceased -associates. - -For example,—Is reference made to an unthinking profligate who has lately -been hurried from the world? His vices are glanced at, and cursorily -condemned: but still it is affirmed, that, with all his faults, he always -_meant well_; he had _a good heart __at the bottom_; and he was _nobody’s -enemy but his own_. - -And for whom is this apology offered, and this praise indirectly -solicited? For the man who, if he ever meant any thing, meant nothing -more or better, than to gratify his lusts, pursue his vicious pleasures, -drink his wine, shake his dice, shuffle his cards; and thus waste his -existence, and destroy his soul. Of such a man it is gravely affirmed, -that—_he always meant well_. - -And of whom is it said, that he had _a good heart_?—Of the man who rarely -manifested, through the whole of his life, any other symptoms than those -which indicate a bad one. His mouth was full of cursing and bitterness; -his humour was choleric and revengeful; his feet moved swift to shed -blood; there was no conscience in his bosom, and no fear of God before -his eyes; and yet, because he was occasionally charitable, and habitually -convivial, no doubt is entertained but that—_he had a good heart at the -bottom_. - -Lastly, _he_ is said to have been _nobody’s enemy but his own_, who has -wasted the earnings of an industrious ancestor, and bequeathed beggary -and shame to his innocent descendants. The wretch has distressed his -family by his prodigality, and corrupted thousands by his example; and -yet, because he has been the dupe of his lusts, and fallen a martyr to -his vices, he is pronounced to have been—_nobody’s enemy but his own_. - -These instances will serve to throw some light upon the sort of idiom -employed by people of Fashion; and the manner in which they have wrested -expressions of no little importance, from their natural and legitimate -signification. - -But before I quit the consideration of their _language_, I think it my -duty to point out another peculiarity; of which, to the best of my -knowledge, no satisfactory account has yet been given. Whether it arise -from the paucity of their words, the confusion of their ideas, or any -other cause distinct from each of these, so it is, that they have but -_one_ term by which they are accustomed to express their strong emotions -both of pleasure and pain. On this _term_ you will find them ringing -perpetual changes; and, strange to say, it is to be heard, under one or -other of its grammatical inflections, {104} in almost every sentence -which falls from their lips. The master has recourse to it in scolding -his servants, the officer in reprimanding his men. The traveller employs -it in recounting his adventures, and the man of pleasure in describing -his intrigues. It is heard in the house, and in the field; in moments of -seriousness, and of levity; in expressions of praise, and of blame. In -short, it is used on occasions the most dissimilar, under impressions the -most contradictory, and for purposes the most opposite; and is, in fact, -the _sine quâ non_ of every energetic and emphatical period. - -Now it happens, unfortunately, that this _catholicon_ in Fashionable -phraseology is, of all terms, that to which sober Christians annex the -most awful ideas; and from the use of which they as scrupulously abstain, -as they do from that of the Great Being whose vengeance it so -tremendously expresses. And it may be worthy of consideration, whether -this familiar and unfeeling employment, by people of Fashion, of a term -which imports _infernal punishment_, does not strengthen those doubts -which have been already suggested, of their real belief in a place of -future torment. - -It ought not at the same time to be overlooked, that, in this respect, -they bear a close resemblance to the vulgarest part of the community; and -it would furnish a subject of curious investigation, why two classes in -society, respectively the highest and the lowest, should exhibit so -striking an agreement in a material branch of language. I know it has -been said, that extremes meet; and the fact before us is so much proof -that the remark is just: but that by no means solves the difficulty. -For, after all, the question returns upon us, _why_ such a fact should -exist? I confess, for my own part, I know no answer that can be given to -it; and I very much wish that some one of their number would undertake to -explain their real motives for courting a resemblance in _one_ respect -with that description of society, from which they make it their pride to -differ in every _other_. - - - - -CHAP. VI. - - -DRESS—AMUSEMENTS. - -THERE are, in the _Dress_ of this people, many singularities, upon which, -he who wished to say every thing that could be said, might say a great -deal. The peculiarity which a stranger would be most apt to remark, is -that of their striving to be as unlike as possible to the rest of the -world. This appears, indeed, to be the parent of almost every other -peculiarity; and certainly gives birth to many changes not a little -ridiculous and prejudicial. - -It being a sort of fundamental maxim with them, that superiority consists -in dissimilitude, they become engaged in a perpetual competition with the -world at large, and to a certain degree with each other. In order to -maintain this struggle for pre-eminence, they are compelled to vary the -modes and materials of their dress in all the ways which a fanciful -imagination can suggest. It happens, through some strange infatuation, -that those who affect to despise the man or woman of Fashion, yet ape -their dress and air with the most impertinent and vexatious perseverance. -What is to be done in this case?—Similitude is not to be endured. In -order therefore to throw out their pursuers, these monopolizers of the -mode are compelled to run into such eccentricities, as nothing could -justify or palliate, but the distress to which they are reduced. If, for -example, short skirts and low capes are copied by the herd of imitators, -the Fashionables seek their remedy in the opposite extreme; their skirts -are drawn down to the calves of their legs, and their capes pulled over -their ears with as much solemnity and dispatch, as if their existence -depended upon the measure. So if full petticoats and high kerchiefs are -adopted by the misses of the crowd, the dressing-chambers of Fashion are -all bustle and confusion:—the limbs are stripped, and the bosom laid -bare, though the east wind may be blowing at the time; and coughs, -rheumatisms, and consumptions, be upon the wings of every blast. - -This rage for dissimilitude in the affairs of the _wardrobe_, is allowed -an indefinite scope. Unfortunately, as far as I can learn, there are no -determinate points, beyond which it would be esteemed indecent or -imprudent to indulge it. The consequence is, that the _groom_ and the -_gentleman_ may be often mistaken for each other; and he who is -recognised to-day as a _man of Fashion_, may to-morrow be confounded with -_one of the people_. - -I confess I have always regarded this part of their conduct as an -impeachment of their political wisdom. I should have thought _à priori_, -that a people who are so jealous of their pre-eminence in society, would -not have overlooked the degree in which dress contributes to uphold it. -Many a Fashionable man must depend for the whole of his estimation, upon -the cut of his coat, and the selection of his wardrobe. A frivolous or -preposterous taste may therefore prove fatal to the only sort of -reputation which it was in his power to obtain. But besides, an -interchange of dress between people of Fashion and those whom they -consider their inferiors, may eventually produce very serious mischiefs. -The distinctions of rank and condition are manifestly matters of external -regulation, and consequently cannot be kept up without a due attention to -external appearances. He therefore who makes himself vulgar or -ridiculous, is guilty of an act of self-degradation; and the fault will -be his own, if he is displaced or despised; since he has renounced that -appropriate costume, which proclaimed at once his station in society, and -his determination to maintain it. - -The fair-sex appear also on their part to set all limits and restraints -at defiance. They seem to feel themselves at perfect liberty to follow -the prevailing mode, whatever that mode may be. The consequence is, that -_modesty_ is often the last thing considered by the young, and -_propriety_ as completely neglected by the old. And this latter -circumstance may serve to account in some measure for the little respect -which is said to be paid to _age_ in the Fashionable World. To judge -from the histories of all nations, it seems impossible, that length of -days, if accompanied with those characteristics which denote and become -it, should not excite spontaneous veneration. But if the shrivelled arm -must be bound in ribbands and bracelets, if the withered limbs must be -wrapped in muslins and gauzes, and the wrinkled face be decorated with -ringlets and furbelows, the silly veteran waves the privilege of her -years; and since she disgusts the grave, without captivating the gay, she -must not be surprized if she meets with respect from neither. - -A fondness for _amusements_ is one of the strongest characteristics of -this people.—They may almost be said to live for little else. They pass -the whole of that short day which they allow themselves, in making -arrangements for spending the ensuing night. Indeed, their preference of -night to day is such, that they seem to consider the latter as having no -other value than as it leads to the former, and affords an opportunity of -preparing for its enjoyment. And hence I suppose it is, that such -multitudes among them dine by candle-light, and go to bed by day-light. - -This passion for diversions renders the _Sunday_ particularly irksome to -persons of any sort of _ton_ in the Fashionable World. A dose of piety -in the morning is well enough, though it is somewhat inconvenient to take -it quite so early; but then it wants an opera, or a play, or a dance, to -carry it off. There are indeed some _esprit-forts_ among the ladies, who -are trying with no little success to redeem a portion of the Sabbath from -the insufferable bondage of the Bible and the sermon-book; and to -naturalize that continental distribution of the day, which gives the -morning to devotion, and the evening to dissipation. It is but justice -to the gentlemen to say, that they discover no backwardness in supporting -a measure so consonant to all their wishes. It is therefore not -impossible that some considerable changes in this respect may soon be -brought about. That good-humoured legislature which has allowed a Sunday -newspaper, {116} will perhaps not always refuse a Sunday opera, or play. -People of Fashion will then no longer have to torture their invention for -expedients to supply the absence of their diurnal diversions. They may -then let their tradesmen go quietly to their parish-churches, instead of -sending for them to wear away the sabbath-hours in some supervacaneous -employment. In short, Sunday may be set at liberty from its primitive -bondage, and exhibit as happy a union of morning solemnity and evening -licentiousness, as it has ever displayed among the dissolute adherents of -Fashionable Christianity. - -But to return:—The rage for amusements {119} is so strong in this people, -that it seems to supersede all exercise of judgment in the choice and the -conduct of them. To go every where, see every thing, and know every -body, are, in their estimation, objects of such importance, that, in -order to accomplish them, they subject themselves to the greatest -inconveniences, and commit the very grossest absurdities. Hence they -will rush in crowds, to shine where they cannot be seen, to dance where -they cannot move, and to converse with friends whom they cannot approach; -and, what is more, though they cannot breathe for the pressure, and can -scarcely live for the heat, yet they call this—enjoyment. - -Nor does this passion suffer any material abatement by the progress of -time. Many veterans visit, to the last, the haunts of polite -dissipation; they lend their countenance to those dramas of vanity in -which they can no longer act a part; and show their incurable attachment -to the pleasures of this world, by their unwillingness to decline them. -The infirmities which attend upon the close of life are certainly -designed to produce other habits; and it should seem, that when every -thing announces an approaching dissolution, the amusements of the -drawing-room might give place to the employments of the closet. Persons, -however, of this description are of another mind; and as every difficulty -on the score of teeth, hoariness, and wrinkles, can be removed by the -happy expedients of ivory, hair-caps, and cosmetics, there is certainly -no _physical_ objection to their continuing among their Fashionable -acquaintance, till they are wanted in another world. - -I cannot illustrate this part of my subject better than by presenting my -readers with the following Ode on the Spring, supposed to have been -written by a man of Fashion; it expresses, with so much exactness, the -sentiments and taste of that extraordinary people, that it will stand in -the place of a thousand observations upon their character. - - - - ODE ON THE SPRING. - - - SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY A MAN OF FASHION. - - I. - - LO! where the party-giving dames, - Fair Fashion’s train, appear; - Disclose the long-expected games, - And wake the modish year: - The opera-warbler pours her throat, - Responsive to the actor’s note, - The dear-bought harmony of Spring; - While, beaming pleasure as they fly, - Bright flambeaus through the murky sky - Their welcome fragrance fling. - - II. - - Where’er the rout’s full myriads close - The staircase and the door, - Where’er thick files of belles and beaus - Perspire through ev’ry pore: - Beside some faro-table’s brink, - With me the Muse shall _stand_ and think, - (Hemm’d sweetly in by squeeze of state,) - How vast the comfort of the crowd, - How condescending are the proud, - How happy are the great! - - III. - - Still is the toiling hand of Care, - The drays and hacks repose; - But, hark, how through the vacant air - The rattling clamour glows! - The wanton Miss and rakish Blade, - Eager to join the masquerade, - Through streets and squares pursue their fun: - Home in the dusk some bashful skim; - Some, ling’ring late, their motley trim - Exhibit to the sun. - - IV. - - To Dissipation’s playful eye, - Such is the life for man; - And they that halt, and they that fly, - Should have no other plan: - Alike the busy and the gay - Should sport all night till break of day, - In Fashion’s varying colours drest; - Till seiz’d for debt through rude mischance, - Or chill’d by age, they leave the dance, - In gaol or dust—to rest. - - V. - - Methinks I hear, in accents low, - Some sober quiz reply, - Poor child of Folly! what art thou? - A Bond-Street Butterfly! - Thy choice nor Health nor Nature greets, - No taste hast thou of vernal sweets, - Enslav’d by noise, and dress, and play: - Ere thou art to the country flown, - The sun will scorch, the Spring be gone,— - Then leave the town in May. - - - - -CHAP. VII. - - -HAPPINESS OF THE PEOPLE ESTIMATED. - -I TRUST my reader is by this time sufficiently acquainted with the -general outline of Fashionable life: it would only be accumulating -observations unnecessarily to enter further into the subject: I shall -therefore devote the present chapter to a brief investigation of the -state of happiness among a people who, it must be observed, claim to be -considered—the _happiest of their species_. - -Happiness is, as moralists agree, a relative expression; and indicates -the excess of the aggregate of good over that of evil in any given -condition. The foundation of happiness therefore must be traced to the -ideas which those, upon whose condition the question turns, are -accustomed to entertain, of good and evil. So that if we wished to -ascertain the amount of happiness in a life of Fashion, we must make our -calculation out of those things, which constitute respectively good and -evil in a Fashionable estimation. I have had occasion to observe before, -that a Fashionable life is a life of sense; consequently all the sources -of happiness in such a condition must be confined to the pleasures of -sense. Now, it must be considered, that the pains of sense are at least -as numerous as its pleasures; and that, by a law of Providence subject to -very few exceptions, those who will have the one, must take their -proportion of the other with them. - -This observation is abundantly confirmed by what occurs in the experience -of the parties under consideration. The pleasures which men of Fashion -derive from the gratification of their animal appetites at the table, the -gaming-house, and the brothel, have a very ample set-off in the -inconveniences which they suffer from arthritic, nervous, and a thousand -other, painful and retributive complaints. Nor are the gay and -dissipated of the other sex exempted from the same contingency of -constitutional suffering. Beside the common lot of human nature, they -have a class of evils of their own procuring; and, by excesses as -imprudent as they are immoral, they bring upon themselves a variety of -diseases, for which neither a name nor a remedy can be found. There are -those, it is true, who avoid much of this inconvenience, by mixing some -discretion with their folly, and setting some bounds to their favourite -gratifications: but then it is to be remembered, that these are -restraints which render persons of licentious minds singularly uneasy; -and they may therefore be considered as administering to pain, nearly in -proportion as they abridge indulgence. - -But supposing that we were to throw these severer items out of the -calculation: there would still remain evils enough in a Fashionable -condition, to keep the scale from preponderating on the side of pleasure. -To shine in a ball-room, is, no doubt, a high satisfaction; but then to -be outshone by another, (which is just as likely to happen,) is at least -as great a mortification: to be invited to _many_ modish parties, is -really delightful; but then to know those who are invited to _more_ than -ourselves, is certainly vexatious: to find one’s-self surrounded by -people of the first Fashion, is charming; but then to be dying with heat -all the time, is something in the opposite scale; to wear a coat or a -head-dress of the newest invention, is indeed a pleasure of the highest -order; but then to see, by accident, articles of the same mode on the -back of a man-milliner, or the head of a lady’s maid, is a species of -vexation not easily endured. An opera, a play, a party, a night passed -at a dance, or at a cassino, or a faro-table, are all events, to be sure, -of the happiest occurrence; but then, to be disappointed of _one_, makes -a deeper impression on the side of pain, than to be gratified with -_three_, does on that of pleasure: and disappointments will happen, where -many objects are pursued, and where the concurrence of many instruments -is necessary to their accomplishment. A drunken coachman, a broken -pannel, a sick horse, a saucy footman, a mistaken message, a dull play, -indifferent company, a head-ach, a heart-burn, an epidemical disease, or -the dread of it, a death in the family, Sunday, Fast-day, Passion week, -and a thousand other provoking casualties, either deprive these -entertainments of their power of pleasing, or even set them wholly aside. -I should only weary my reader were I to lay before him in detail half the -catalogue of those minor distresses which embarrass the idea of a modish -life: he must however perceive, from the little which has been said, that -every pleasure has its countervailing pain; and that every sacrifice to -diversion and splendour has its correspondent chastisement in vexation -and disgrace. - -Hitherto those principles have been assumed as the basis of calculation, -upon which people of Fashion have _some_ advantages in their favour; but -there is another ground upon which (to say the whole truth) it ought to -be put, and on which all the advantages are _against_ them. - -Man (it is notorious) is a reflecting being; and, do what he will, he -_must_ reflect. He may choose an _habitual_ career of sense; but still -he must have, whether he seek or shun them, moments of _Reflection_. -This is I admit, extremely inconvenient; but then it is without a remedy. -My business, however, is, neither to impugn, nor to vindicate the -existence of such a principle; but to show its bearings upon the sort of -life which people of Fashion must necessarily lead. Not to enter into -particulars, what can constitute a heavier affliction, than for a man of -Fashion (or, which is the same thing, a man of the world) to be obliged -to think over again the events of his licentious career? To be -persecuted with recollecting the property he has squandered, the wine he -has drunk, the seduction he has practised, and the duels he has fought? -These things were well enough at the time; they had their humour and -their reputation, and they were not without their pleasure: but then they -were designed to be _acted_, and not _reflected_ upon. The woman of -Fashion is under the same law, and is therefore exposed to the same -mental torments. She, too, must trace back (though she would give the -world to be excused) the steps she has trodden in the enchanting walks of -dissipation. She must live over again every portion of a life which, -though too fascinating to be declined, is yet too shocking to be thought -of. Her memory, also, must be haunted with frightful scenes, which -remind her, at the expence of how much health, and property, and time, -and virtue, she has sustained the figure which made her so talked of, and -the gaieties which rendered her so happy. Now these are real -afflictions; and that _Reflection_ from which they result is, not without -reason, felt and acknowledged as the scourge of their existence, by the -ingenuous part, at least, of the Fashionable World. - -Many expedients have indeed been suggested for laying this busy principle -asleep, and many plans struck out for rendering its pangs supportable; -but hitherto without success. For though it has been proposed to laugh -it away, dance it away, drink it away, or travel it away; yet not one of -these projects has answered the end: and Fashionable casuists are as far -as ever from finding out a remedy of sufficient potency, to cure, or even -abate, in any material degree, the pains of Reflection. - -And here I cannot but remark, how grievously the seat of this disease -(for such it is considered) has been mistaken by those who have so -lightly undertaken to prescribe for its removal. They have manifestly -considered it as a disorder of the _nerves_; and hence all the remedies -which they have recommended, are calculated to promote, either by change -of scene, or by some other mechanical impulse, a brisker circulation of -the animal spirits. The ill success with which each has been attended, -sufficiently proclaims the fallacy upon which they all are founded. If -Reflection had been only a nervous disturbance, if it had arisen out of -any disarrangement of the _animal_ economy, some, at least, of the -Fashionable nostrums would have dispersed the complaint: whereas it is -notorious, that, under every regimen which has been tried, while the -stronger symptoms have disappeared, the disorder has remained in the -system; and neither Bath, nor Weymouth, nor Tunbridge, nor Town, has ever -effected a cure. - -The plain truth is, (whatever may be insinuated to the contrary by these -_Médecins à-la-mode_,) that the disease is altogether _moral_; and, -consequently, the seat of it is not in the nerves, but in the -_Conscience_. There is, in fact, nothing new in the complaint: it is -inseparably connected with a Fashionable career; and has been more or -less the scourge of all, in every age, who have declined the duties which -they owe “to God and their inferiors.” I take it to have been a malady -of the very same description which afflicted Herod in his communication -with the Baptist, and which made Felix tremble under the reasoning of -Paul. It is not a little remarkable, that both these men of Fashion (for -such no doubt they were) fell into the error which has been condemned, in -the treatment of their disease; and each, there is reason to believe, -carried it with him to his grave. - -If my reader now adverts to the particulars which have been stated, he -will be compelled to draw conclusions not a little humbling to the lofty -pretensions of a Fashionable life. In few states of society, under its -present imperfection, is happiness very high: and it might not perhaps be -easy to assign the particular condition which embraces it in the greatest -proportion. But surely after the discoveries which this discussion has -made, we run no risk in affirming, that a life of Fashion is _not_ that -condition. The lot of mankind would be wretched indeed, if those were -_the happiest of the species_, who, without exemption from the pains of -sense, are excluded from the pleasures of Reflection: and who, as the -price of enjoyments derived from the _one_, become subject to the -chastisement inflicted by _both_. - - - - -CHAP. VIII. - - -DEFECT OF THE SYSTEM—PLANS OF REFORM—CONCLUSION. - -A SYSTEM which does so little for the happiness of its members, as that -which has been unfolded in the course of this work, must have some -radical defect; and it is worthy of consideration, whether some steps -should not be speedily taken, in order to discover the nature of that -defect, and to provide a competent remedy for it. - -I am perfectly aware, that it would be most decorous, to let such a -measure of enquiry originate in the community to which it primarily -relates; and if I thought there was any chance of the affair being taken -up by the body, I should satisfy myself with having intimated the -necessity of such a procedure, and leave the people of Fashion to reform -themselves. - -But I will honestly confess, that I see not at present any prospect of -such an event. It has not, so far as I can understand, been hinted, in -those assemblies which legislate for the body, that the system of Fashion -requires any revision: nor can I discover, among the projected -arrangements for future seasons, any thing like a committee of reform. -There is, on the contrary, every reason to believe, that designs of a -very different nature occupy the minds of those who influence the -community. I very much mistake, if it is not their intention, to carry -the system more extensively into effect; to make still further conquests -upon the puny domains of Wisdom and Virtue; and to evince, by new modes -of dissipation and new excuses for adopting them, the endless -perfectibility of Folly and Vice. Under such circumstances, it will -scarcely be imputed to me as a trespass upon their privileges, if I -venture to perform that office for them, which they are never likely to -do for themselves. - -I scruple not then to affirm, that INCONSISTENCY is the radical fault of -the Fashionable system. This truth is demonstrated by every thing that -has been said upon their polity and laws, their religion and morals, -their plans of education, and their institutes of life. Under every view -which has been taken of this people, they have exhibited appearances -truly paradoxical; and been found involved, from the beginning to the end -of their career, in the most palpable and extraordinary contradictions. -The fact indeed is, as their history has shown, that the principles upon -which they act, are essentially at variance with each other; and the -effect which these principles have upon their conduct and their feelings, -is only such as might be expected, from an everlasting struggle for -mastery among them. The hand of this people is given to Self-denial, but -their heart to Sensuality; and the manner in which they are obliged to -equivocate with both, will not allow them the complete enjoyment of -either. The libertinism they practise shows them nothing but _this_ -world, the piety they profess hides every thing from them but the world -to _come_: thus alternately impelled and restrained, deluded and -undeceived, they follow what they love, and condemn what they follow: -neither blind enough to be wholly led, nor discerning enough to see their -path;—with too much religion to let them be happy here, and too little to -make them so hereafter. - -Now I see but two ways by which this INCONSISTENCY can be removed; and as -I wish to make my work of some use to the people of whom it treats, I -shall briefly propose them in their order. - -1. The _first_ plan of _melioration_ which I would submit to the -Fashionable World, is that of _renouncing the Christian religion_. In -recommending this step, I proceed upon a supposition, that the government -and laws and manners which now prevail, must _at all events_ be retained: -and upon such a supposition, I contend, that _renouncing the Christian -religion_ is a measure of indispensable necessity. For surely if duels -must be fought, what can be so preposterous as to swear allegiance to a -law which says—“_Thou shalt not kill_?” If injuries must _not_ be -forgiven, where is the propriety of employing a prayer in which the -petitioner declares, that he does forgive them? If the passions are to -be _gratified_, what end is answered by doing homage to those Scriptures -which so peremptorily declare, that they must be _mortified_? In a word, -if swearing, prevarication, and sensuality; if a neglect of “the duties -to God and inferiors,” be necessary, or even allowable, parts of a -Fashionable character; where is the policy, the virtue, or even the -decency, of connecting it with a religion which stamps these several -qualities with the deepest guilt, and threatens them with the severest -retribution? If a religion of _some_ sort be absolutely necessary, let -such an one be chosen as may possess a correspondence with the other -parts of the system: let it be a religion in which pride, and resentment, -and lust, may have their necessary scope; a religion, in short, in which -the God of this world may be the idol, and the men of this world the -worshippers. Such an arrangement will go a great way towards -establishing _consistency_: it will dissolve a union by which both -parties are sufferers; and liberate at once the people of Fashion from a -profession which involves them in contradiction, and Christianity from a -connexion which covers her with disgrace. - -2. If, on the contrary, it should be thought material (as I trust it -will) _to retain Christianity at all events_, the plan of reform must be -exactly _inverted_; and the sacrifices taken from those laws, and maxims, -and habits, which interfere with the spirit and the injunctions of that -holy religion. It is altogether out of the character of Christianity to -act a subservient or an accommodating part. Her nature, her office, and -her object, are all decidedly adverse to that base alliance into which it -has been attempted to degrade her. Pure and spotless as her native -skies, she delights in holiness; because God, from whose bosom she came, -is holy. Girt with power, and designed for dominion, she claims the -heart as her throne, and all the affections as the ministers of her will: -nor does she consider her object accomplished until she has cast down -every lofty imagination, extinguished every rebellious lust, and brought -into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. It is obvious, -therefore, that if she is to be retained at all, it must be upon her -_own_ terms; and those terms will manifestly require an utter -renunciation of every measure which, under the former plan, it was -proposed to retain. Duels must _now_ no longer be fought, nor injuries -resentfully pursued, nor licentious passions deliberately gratified. -Swearing must be banished from the lips, prevarication from the thoughts, -sensuality from the heart; and that law be expunged, which dispenses with -“the duties to God and inferiors,” in order to make way for that -immutable statute which enjoins them. - -It must not be dissembled, that, in the progress of such a reform, -certain inconveniences will be unavoidably encountered; but these will be -speedily and effectually compensated by an influx of real and permanent -advantages. The pangs which accompanied the “death unto sin,” will soon -be forgotten in the pleasures which result from a “life unto -righteousness;” and the peace and hope which abound in the way, will -efface the recollection of those agonistic efforts by which it was -entered. - -In the mean time, all things will be done with decency and order. The -whole economy of life and conduct will be scrupulously consulted; and -such arrangements introduced, as will make the several parts and details -correspond and harmonize with each other. Duty and recreation will have -their proper characters, and times, and places, and limits. Every thing, -in short, will be preserved in the system, which can facilitate -intercourse without impairing virtue; and nothing be struck out but what -administers to vanity, duplicity, and vice. - -Whether changes of such magnitude as those which I have described, will -ever take place upon an extensive scale, I cannot pretend to conjecture; -but certain I am, that, if ever they should, not only the Fashionable -World, but society at large, will be very much the better for them. -Greatly as I wish the “Reformation of Manners,” and “the Suppression of -Vice,” I see insuperable obstacles to each of these events, while rank, -and station, and wealth, throw their mighty influence into the opposite -scale. Then—_and not till then_—will Christianity receive the homage she -deserves, and produce the blessings she has promised—when “the makers of -our manners” shall submit to her authority; and the PEOPLE of FASHION -become the PEOPLE of GOD. - - * * * * * - - THE END. - - - - -_Lately published by the same Author_, - - -THE CHRISTIAN MONITOR for the LAST DAYS; or a Caution to the professedly -Religious, against the Corruptions of the latter Times, in Doctrine, -Discipline, and Morals. Second Edition, corrected.—8vo. 6_s._ - - ALSO, - -THE HISTORY of the ORIGIN and FIRST TEN YEARS of the BRITISH AND FOREIGN -BIBLE SOCIETY. 2 Vols. Extra Boards. Demy, 1_l._ 4_s._ Royal, 1_l._ -15_s._ - -This Work contains an Authentic Account of the Origin of the Institution, -and of the several Societies in connection with it: together with a -Chronological View of the Controversy concerning it, and other Matters of -an interesting Nature, not before made Public. - -_The following are some of the Testimonies borne to the Work_. - - “The general Narrative is clear and manly, and in many parts rises - into true eloquence. - - “There is one department, especially, of the Work, which is entirely - _new_, and that is the History of the _Origin_ of the various - Societies. We do not hesitate to consider it as in the highest - degree interesting and valuable.” _Christ. Observ. for Nov._ 1816. - - “Mr. Owen, in detailing the History of the British and Foreign Bible - Society, has conferred an obligation, not only on the particular - Patrons of it, but on Literature in general.” _Gent. Mag. for Oct._ - 1816. - - “We trust that every one of our Readers, who can afford to purchase - the Work, will possess himself of this intellectual treat.” _Christ. - Guard. for Feb._ 1817. - - _See also British Review_, _No. XV_. - -Sold by the same Booksellers; of whom may be had the other Works of the -Author. - - * * * * * - - * * * * * - - _Tilling and Hughes_, _Printers_, _Chelsea_. - - - - -FOOTNOTES. - - -{5} For the geographical solecism of “a western _latitude_,” the author -has only to plead, that the people of whom he treats, acknowledge no -points of the compass but those of _east_ and _west_; and that the term -_longitude_ has scarcely any place in their language. - -{10} This _somehow_ and _somewhere_ existence of people of Fashion might -lead a stranger to suppose, that they have no permanent dwelling-place. -He must, however, be told, that, while they are thus migrating from place -to place, without comfort, and without respect, many of them are actually -turning their backs upon the conveniences of a family mansion, and the -consequence of a dependent tenantry. This disposition to emigration in -persons of distinction, has been so admirably noticed in a late elegant -and interesting work, that I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of -transcribing the passage. - - “That there exists at present amongst us a lamentable want of rural - philosophy, or of that wisdom which teaches a man at once to enjoy - and to improve a life of retirement, is, I think, a point too obvious - to be contested. Whence is it else, that the ancient mansions of our - nobility and gentry, notwithstanding all the attractions of rural - beauty, and every elegance of accommodation, can no longer retain - their owners, who, _at the approach of winter_, _pour into the - metropolis_, _and even in the summer months wander to the sea-coast - or to some other place of Fashionable resort_? This unsettled - humour, in the midst of such advantages, plainly argues much inward - disorder, and points out the need as well as the excellency of that - discipline which can inspire a pure taste of nature, furnish - occupation in the peaceful labours of husbandry, and, what is nobler - still, open the sources of moral and intellectual - enjoyment.”—_Preface to Rural Philosophy_, _by_ ELY BATES, Esq. p. 9. - -{12} His Majesty’s Birth-Day. - -{29} Vide Paley’s Mor. Philos. vol. i. p. 1. - -{42} For an account of this transaction, see the trial of Captain -Macnamara for the murder of Colonel Montgomery; in which it will appear, -that though the Captain admitted _the fact_, yet the jury acquitted him -of the _crime_. Such complaisance on the part of juries is particularly -favourable to this summary mode of terminating differences. Fatal duels -are now become almost as common as highway robberies, and make almost as -little impression upon the public mind. The _murdered_ is carried to his -grave, and the _murderer_ received back into society, with the same -honour, as if the one had done his duty in sacrificing his life, and the -other had only done _his_ in taking it away. - -{53} “In the worst moments of his pain he cried out, that he sincerely -hoped, _the agonies he then endured might expiate the sins he had -committed_.” * * * * “I wish with all my soul (says the writer of the -Memoir) that the unthinking votaries of dissipation and infidelity could -all have been present at the death-bed of this poor man; could have heard -his expressions of contrition for his past misconduct, and of _reliance -upon the mercy of his Creator_.”—_Vide Memoir of the late Lord -Camelford_, _by the Rev. —_, &c. - -{57} Vide the titles of certain country-dances, the Pantomime of Don -Juan, and the ballets at the Opera House, on the vigils of the Sabbath. - -{66} The Bishop of Durham animadverts (with just severity) upon “_the -great neglect of church in the Sunday afternoons_, _when the duties of -religion are deserted for the fashions or friendship if the world_.” -Vide Charge for 1801. - -{104} If the reader should have a difficulty in discovering the full -import of this remark, he is requested to consider that the peculiar -_term_ appropriated to _swearing_ is capable of becoming either a verb, a -substantive, a participial adjective, or an adverb: and he will find that -it is used under all these forms by people of Fashion. - -{116} How much the Fashionable World are indebted to the legislature for -refusing to accede to Lord Belgrave (now Earl Grosvenor’s) motion against -Sunday newspapers, in 1799, may be learnt (among other things) from the -following advertisement which appeared in the Morning Post for October -26, 1805: - - “The British Neptune, or Naval, Military, and _Fashionable_ Sunday - Advertiser, _will always contain real critiques upon Theatrical - Performances_.” - -Such entertaining publications as these, issued and hawked about on the -Lord’s Day, are a concession to the Fashionable infirmities of the age, -for which those who are wearied of their Bibles, cannot be sufficiently -thankful. - -If any of my readers wish to see this subject seriously discussed, he -will find something to his purpose in the 6th chapter of “The Christian -Monitor for the last Days.” - -N.B. While this note was passing through the press, a Sunday _Evening_ -Paper was announced for publication: and, as if it were not sufficient to -break the laws, without at the same time libelling them, this “Sunday -Evening Gazette,” which is to employ compositors, pressmen, venders, -hawkers, &c. on the Lord’s Day, is to be called—The Constitution!!! - -{119} A distinguished Prelate, who gained the ear of the Fashionable -World to a degree beyond all former example, has adverted to this “rage -for amusement” with such apostolical earnestness, at the close of a -lecture delivered to perhaps the greatest number of Fashionable people -that ever assembled for a similar purpose within the walls of a church, -that I shall avail myself of the passage, as well to confirm my statement -as to embellish my pages. - - “When I consider that the time of the year is now approaching, in - which the gaieties and amusements of this vast metropolis are - generally engaged in with incredible alacrity and ardour, and - multitudes are pouring in from every part of the kingdom to take - their share in them; and when I recollect further, that at this very - period in the last year, a degree of extravagance and wildness of - pleasure took place, which gave pain to every serious mind, and was - almost unexampled in any former times, I am not, I confess, without - some apprehensions that the same scenes of levity and dissipation may - again recur; and that some of those who now hear me (of the younger - part more especially) may be drawn too far into this Fashionable - vortex, and lose, in that giddy tumult of diversion, all remembrance - of what has passed in this sacred place.” _Bp Porteus on St. - Matthew, Vol. II. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: The Fashionable World Displayed - - -Author: John Owen - - - -Release Date: May 26, 2020 [eBook #62238] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FASHIONABLE WORLD DISPLAYED*** -</pre> -<p>Transcribed from the L. B. Seeley 1817 (eighth) edition by -David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org, using scans made available -by the British Library.</p> -<p style="text-align: center"> -<a href="images/cover.jpg"> -<img alt= -"Book cover" -title= -"Book cover" - src="images/cover.jpg" /> -</a></p> -<h1><span class="GutSmall">THE</span><br /> -Fashionable World<br /> -<span class="GutSmall">DISPLAYED.</span></h1> - -<div class="gapshortline"> </div> -<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">BY -THE</span><br /> -<i>REV. JOHN OWEN</i>, <i>A.M.</i></p> -<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">LATE FELLOW -OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">AND RECTOR OF PAGLESHAM, ESSEX.</span></p> - -<div class="gapshortline"> </div> -<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><span -class="GutSmall">VELUTI IN SPECULUM.</span></p> -<p style="text-align: right"><span class="GutSmall"><i>THE -STAGE</i></span><span class="GutSmall">.</span></p> -</blockquote> - -<div class="gapshortline"> </div> -<p style="text-align: center"><b>Eighth Edition</b>.</p> - -<div class="gapmediumdoubleline"> </div> -<p style="text-align: center">LONDON:<br /> -<span class="GutSmall">PRINTED</span><br /> -FOR L. B. SEELEY, FLEET STREET.<br /> -1817.</p> - -<div class="gapspace"> </div> -<p style="text-align: center"><a name="pagev"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. v</span><span class="GutSmall">TO</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">THE RIGHT REVEREND</span><br /> -BEILBY PORTEUS, D.D.<br /> -<span class="GutSmall"><i>LORD BISHOP OF LONDON</i></span><span -class="GutSmall">,</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">NOT MORE DISTINGUISHED</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">BY</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">HIS ELOQUENCE AS A PREACHER,</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">HIS VIGILANCE AS A PRELATE,</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">HIS SANCTITY AS A CHRISTIAN,</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">AND</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">HIS VARIOUS ACCOMPLISHMENTS</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">AS</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">A SCHOLAR AND A MAN,</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">THAN BY</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">HIS INDEFATIGABLE EXERTIONS</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">TO DETECT THE ERRORS,</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">REBUKE THE FOLLIES,</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">AND</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">REFORM THE VICES,</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">OF THE</span><br /> -FASHIONABLE WORLD,<br /> -<span class="GutSmall">THE FOLLOWING ATTEMPT</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">TO BENEFIT THAT PART OF SOCIETY,</span><br -/> -<span class="GutSmall">BY MEANS TOO FREQUENTLY EMPLOYED</span><br -/> -<span class="GutSmall">TO CORRUPT IT,</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">IS</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">BY</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">HIS LORDSHIP’S FAITHFUL</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">AND</span><br /> -<span class="GutSmall">DUTIFUL SERVANT,</span></p> -<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">The</span> -AUTHOR.</p> -<p><i>Fulham</i>.</p> -<h2><a name="pagevii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -vii</span>ADVERTISEMENT<br /> -<span class="GutSmall">TO THE</span><br /> -<i>EIGHTH EDITION</i>.</h2> -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> following little Work was -originally published in the Spring of 1804, under the assumed -name of Theophilus Christian, Esq. From the high -commendation bestowed on it by the late Bishop Porteus, the -Author was induced to avow himself in the second impression, and -to prefix a Dedication, in which he endeavoured to do some -justice to the merits of that Prelate, whose character he united -with the public in revering, and whose patronage and friendship -he had the honour to enjoy.</p> -<p><a name="pageviii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. viii</span>The -Author is not insensible to the degree of improvement in the -general tone of society, which has rendered certain strictures on -the grosser qualities of a Fashionable character, somewhat less -appropriate than they were at the period of their first -publication. He wishes, however, he could convince himself, -that the improvement to which he alludes, and of which he desires -to speak with becoming respect, were not to be interpreted as -originating more in <i>humour</i> than in <i>principle</i>, and -as indicating rather the progress of refinement than the -influence of virtue. The peccant evil, he is sorry to -observe, continues to exist; and, however the form of its -operation may have been varied, its spirit remains the -same. <a name="pageix"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -ix</span>On this account, it did not appear to the Author -expedient to tamper with his text. He felt persuaded that -its application will be found sufficiently accurate for every -practical purpose; and he could not consent to weaken its force -by over-scrupulous concessions to the pleadings of candour, or -the requirements of temporary accommodation.</p> -<p>If an apology should be thought necessary for the little place -which has been allowed for remarks of a purely religious -description, that apology will be furnished by the nature and -design of the Work. To produce a disaffection to a life of -sense, with all its blandishments, and under all its -modifications, was the end which the <a name="pagex"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. x</span>Author proposed to himself; and his -means were chosen with a reference to that end. In whatever -degree he may succeed in effecting it, he will think that he has -gained no ordinary point; inasmuch as they who despair of -happiness in the ways of sin, are so far prepared to embrace that -godliness, which is “profitable unto all things, having -promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to -come.”</p> -<p><i>Fulham</i>, <i>February</i> 28, 1817.</p> -<h2><a name="pagexi"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -xi</span>INTRODUCTION.</h2> -<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> often been surprised, that -among the many descriptions which ingenious writers have given of -places and people comparatively insignificant, no complete and -systematic account has yet been written of the Fashionable -World. It is true, that our poets and caricaturists have -honoured this people with a great share of their notice, and many -particulars, not a little edifying, have been made known, through -the medium of their admirable publications. It is also -true, that our <a name="pagexii"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -xii</span>prose-writers have occasionally cast a very pertinent -glance over this fairy ground. Some of these latter have -even gone so far, as to write absolute treatises upon certain -parts of the Fashionable character. Mrs. More, for example, -has delineated the religion, and Lord Chesterfield the morals, of -this singular people with the greatest exactness and -precision. Nor would it be just to overlook the very -acceptable labours of those writers who, in their Court-calendars -and Court-almanacks, bring us acquainted, from time to time, with -the modes of dress which prevail in the Fashionable World, and -the names of its most distinguished inhabitants. But after -all that has been done, towards exhibiting the manners, and -unfolding the character, <a name="pagexiii"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. xiii</span>of this splendid community, much -remains to be done: for though certain details have been well -enough handled, yet I repeat, that a complete and systematic -account of the Fashionable World, is still a desideratum in -Cosmography.</p> -<p>I am far from pretending to either the ability or the design -of supplying this deficiency. The utmost that I propose to -myself, is to bring more particulars into a group, than former -writers have done; and to exhibit an outline, upon which others -of more enlarged experience may improve. It seems to me of -great importance to the interests of society, that its members -should be known to each other: and of this I am persuaded, that -if there be one description <a name="pagexiv"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. xiv</span>of people, the knowledge of whose -genuine character would be more edifying to mankind than another, -it is—the people of Fashion.</p> -<h2><a name="pagexv"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -xv</span>CONTENTS.</h2> -<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">CHAP. -I.—PAGE</span> <span class="indexpageno"><a -href="#page1">1</a></span>.<br /> - -<i>Situation—Boundaries—Climate—Seasons</i>.</p> -<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">CHAP. -II.—PAGE</span> <span class="indexpageno"><a -href="#page19">19</a></span>.<br /> -<i>Government—Laws</i>, <i>&c.</i></p> -<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">CHAP. -III.—PAGE</span> <span class="indexpageno"><a -href="#page46">46</a></span>.<br /> -<i>Religion and Morality</i>.</p> -<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">CHAP. -IV.—PAGE</span> <span class="indexpageno"><a -href="#page73">73</a></span>.<br /> -<i>Education</i>.</p> -<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">CHAP. -V.—PAGE</span> <span class="indexpageno"><a -href="#page89">89</a></span>.<br /> -<i>Manners—Language</i>.</p> -<p style="text-align: center"><a name="pagexvi"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. xvi</span><span class="GutSmall">CHAP. -VI.—PAGE</span> <span class="indexpageno"><a -href="#page108">108</a></span>.<br /> -<i>Dress—Amusements</i>.</p> -<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">CHAP. -VII.—PAGE</span> <span class="indexpageno"><a -href="#page127">127</a></span>.<br /> -<i>Happiness of the People estimated</i>.</p> -<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">CHAP. -VIII.—PAGE</span> <span class="indexpageno"><a -href="#page142">142</a></span>.<br /> -<i>Defect of the System—Plans of -Reform—Conclusion</i>.</p> -<h2><a name="page1"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 1</span>CHAP. -I.</h2> -<p class="gutsumm"><span -class="GutSmall">SITUATION—BOUNDARIES—CLIMATE—SEASONS.</span></p> -<p><span class="smcap">Though</span> I do not undertake to write -a geographical account of the Fashionable World, yet I should -think myself highly culpable were I to pass over this interesting -part of the subject wholly in silence. My readers must be -at the same time cautioned, not to form their expectations of the -geography of <a name="page2"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -2</span>Fashion from that of other countries. The fact is, -that the whole community which sustains this appellation, -extensive as it is, can scarcely be treated as having any -peculiar or exclusive locality. The individuals who compose -it, are not, it is true, absolute wanderers, like the tribes of -Arabia; nor yet are they regular settlers, like the convicts at -Botany Bay: but moveable and migratory to a certain degree, and -to a certain degree stationary and permanent, they live among the -inhabitants of the parent country; neither absolutely mixing with -them, nor yet actually separated from them.</p> -<p>This paradoxical state of the people renders it not a little -difficult to reduce their <a name="page3"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 3</span>territory within the rules of -geographical description. They have, it is true, their -<i>degrees</i> and their <i>circles</i>; but these terms are used -by people of Fashion in a sense so different from that which -geographers have assigned them, that they afford no sort of -assistance to the topographical enquirer. It is, I presume, -on this account, that in all the improvements which have been -made upon the globe, nothing has been done towards settling the -meridian of Fashion; and though the Laplanders, the Hottentots, -and the Esquimaux, have places assigned them, no more notice is -taken of the people of Fashion, than if they either did not -exist, or were not worthy of being mentioned.</p> -<p>The only expedient, therefore, to which <a -name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 4</span>a writer can -resort, in this dearth of geographical materials, is that of -designating the territory of Fashion by the ordinary names of the -several places through which it passes. And this is, in -fact, strictly conformable to that usage which prevails in the -language and communication of the people themselves: for London, -Tunbridge, Bath, Weymouth, &c. are, in their mouths, names -for little else than the lands and societies of Fashion which -they respectively contain.</p> -<p>Now, the portion of each place to which Fashion lays claim, is -neither definite as to its dimensions, nor fixed as to its -locality. In London, a small proportion of the whole is -Fashionable; in Bath, the proportion is greater; and in some -watering-places of the <a name="page5"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 5</span>latest creation, Fashion puts in her -demand for nearly the whole. The locality of its domains is -also contingent and mutable. Various circumstances concur -in determining, when a portion of ground shall become -Fashionable, and when it shall cease to be such. The only -rule of any steadiness with which I am acquainted, and which -chiefly relates to the metropolis, is that which prescribes a -<i>western</i> latitude: <a name="citation5"></a><a -href="#footnote5" class="citation">[5]</a> if this be excepted, -(which indeed admits of no relaxation,) events of very little -moment decide all the rest. If, for example, a Duchess, or -the wife of some bourgeois-gentilhomme, <a name="page6"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 6</span>who has purchased the privileges of -the order, should open a suite of rooms for elegant society in -any new quarter, the soil is considered to receive a sort of -consecration by such a circumstance; and an indefinite portion of -the vicinity is added to the territory of Fashion. If, on -the other hand, a shop be opened, a sign hung out, or any symptom -of business be shewn, in a quarter that has hitherto been a -stranger to every sound but the rattling of carriages, the -thunder of knockers, and the vociferation of coachmen and -servants, it is ten to one but the privileges of Fashion are -withdrawn from that place; and the whole range of buildings is -gradually given up to those, who are either needy enough to keep -shops, or vulgar enough to endure them. Now, it <a -name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 7</span>happens as a -consequence from this adoption of new soil and disfranchisement -of old, that the territory of Fashion is extremely irregular and -interrupted. A traveller, determined to pursue its -windings, would soon be involved in a most mysterious labyrinth; -his track would be crossed by portions of country which throw him -repeatedly out of his beat: insomuch that his progress would -resemble that of a naturalist, who, in tracing the course of a -mineral through the bowels of the earth, encounters various -breaks and intersections, and often finds the corresponding parts -of the same stratum unaccountably separated from each other.</p> -<p>It would be only fatiguing the reader to <a -name="page8"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 8</span>say more upon -the topographical part of my subject. It is obvious, from -what has been stated, that the regions of Fashion, considered as -a whole, are rather numerous than compact: and, indeed, such -difference of opinion subsists among the people themselves upon -the territories which are entitled to that name, that no correct -judgment can be pronounced upon a question of so great -controversy. Thus much, however, may be affirmed, that -there is scarcely a market-town in the kingdom, in which some -portion of land is not invested with Fashionable privileges; and -designated by such terms, as mark the wish of the inhabitants, to -have it considered as forming part and parcel of the demesnes of -Fashion.</p> -<p><a name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 9</span>The -<i>Climate</i> of Fashion is almost entirely factitious and -artificial; and consequently differs in many material respects -from the natural temperature of those several places over which -its jurisdiction extends. Though changes from heat to cold, -and vice versa, are very common among these people, yet heat may -be said to be the prevailing character of the climate. They -appear to me to have but two Seasons in the year; these they -call, in conformity to ordinary language, rather than to just -calculation, Winter and Summer. Of Summer little is known: -for it seems to be a rule among this people, to disband and -disperse at the approach of it; and not to rally or re-unite, -till the Winter has fairly commenced. Though, therefore, -they exist <a name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -10</span>somehow or somewhere, <a name="citation10"></a><a -href="#footnote10" class="citation">[10]</a> during the Summer -months; they wish it to be considered, that they do not exist -under their Fashionable <a name="page11"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 11</span>character. They wash themselves -in the sea, drink laxative waters, lose a little money at -billiards, or catch a few colds at public rooms; but all these -things they do as individuals, and wholly out of their corporate -capacity as members <a name="page12"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -12</span>of the community of Fashion. So that in their mode -of disposing of the Summer, they invert the standing rule of most -other animals; they choose the fair season for their torpid -state, and shew no signs of life but during the Winter. It -is not easy to say exactly when the Winter <i>begins</i> in the -Fashionable World; an inhabitant of Bath would have one mode of -reckoning, and an inhabitant of London another. To do -justice to the subject, the commencement of Winter ought to be -regulated by the former of these places, and the close of it by -the latter. Supposing, therefore, that it begins some time -in November, there can be no difficulty in settling its duration; -for the 4th of June <a name="citation12"></a><a -href="#footnote12" class="citation">[12]</a> is, by a tacit yet -binding ordinance, <a name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -13</span>considered as a limit, which a Fashionable Winter can -seldom, if ever, exceed.</p> -<p>There are many circumstances in which the Climate of Fashion -stands peculiarly distinguished from every other. It has -already been intimated that heat is its prevailing -characteristic: it is, moreover, not a little remarkable, that -this heat is at its highest point in the Winter season; and that -the inhabitants often perspire more freely when the snow is upon -the ground, than they do in the dog-days. The truth is, -that, as was before said, the Climate is wholly created by -artificial circumstances, and the natural temperature of the air -is completely done away. The sort of communication which -these people keep up <a name="page14"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 14</span>with each other, is considered to -require a species of apparatus which fills their atmosphere with -an immoderate degree of phlogiston. Besides this, they are -notoriously fond of assembling in insufferable crowds; and -travellers have assured us, that they have often witnessed from -ten to twelve hundred persons suffocating each other, within a -space which would scarcely have afforded convenient accommodation -for a dozen families. And this may enable us in some -measure to account for the little benefit which modish invalids -are said to derive from their frequent removals to the healthiest -spots in the universe. The original object of such a -prescription was doubtless to change the air; and certainly no -expedient could have been better imagined for bracing <a -name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 15</span>a -constitution relaxed by too intense application to the business -of a Fashionable life. But the usages of the order render a -change of air, to any salutary purpose, utterly impracticable: -for the weakest members of the community consider themselves -bound to kindle a flame wherever they go; and thus they breathe -the same phlogisticated air all over the world.</p> -<p>They profess to adopt the ordinary divisions of time; and they -talk like other people of <i>Day</i> and <i>Night</i>: but their -mode of computing each is so vague and unnatural, that -inhabitants of the same meridian with themselves scarcely -understand what they mean by the terms. A great part of -this difficulty may possibly arise from the very <a -name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 16</span>small portion -of solar light with which they are visited. For certain it -is, that no people upon earth have less benefit from the light of -the sun than the people of Fashion; so that if it were not for -torches, candles, and lamps, they would scarcely ever see each -other’s faces.</p> -<p>With regard to the constitutions of these people, I have been -inclined to think them naturally robust, from observing the -astonishing heat and fatigue which they are accustomed to -endure. And in this respect the women have appeared to -evince an uncommon degree of hardiness: for, besides that they -wear on every occasion a lighter species of clothing than the -men, I have been confidently told that many among <a -name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 17</span>them will -appear, in the severest part of the season, with dresses of such -transparency and scantiness, as convince every beholder that they -who wear them are utter strangers to the weaknesses of the -sex. There is, however, some room for doubting, whether the -air which this people breathe, and the usages which prevail among -them, are favorable to the constitution. Their patience of -fatigue has been thought to be wholly the result of habit, and -their hardiness has been conjectured to be little more than an -air of extravagance and bravado. The frequent transitions -which they make from heat to cold, and back again from cold to -heat; perhaps half-a-dozen times in as many hours; must very -materially diminish the physical <a name="page18"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 18</span>strength of their bodies. -Certain it is, that their natural countenances do not betray the -usual symptoms of health; and it is, I believe, admitted, that -instances of extraordinary longevity are not very common among -them.</p> -<h2><a name="page19"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 19</span>CHAP. -II.</h2> -<p class="gutsumm"><span class="GutSmall">GOVERNMENT—LAWS, -&c.</span></p> -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> History of the Fashionable -World is a sort of undertaking, which, to be accurately executed, -would require abundantly more leisure and diligence than I could -afford to bestow upon it: and I very much doubt, whether, after -all, one reader out of a hundred would be at the pains of -perusing it. The fact is, that the members of this -community are not sufficiently substantial to form historical -pictures. Their employments are not of a nature to make -their memory an object with mankind. Hence, though they -make a splendid appearance <a name="page20"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 20</span>in a ball-room, they appear to little -advantage in a record; and, like the dancing figures in a -magic-lantern, they seem to have answered the end of their being, -when they have afforded an evening’s amusement. For -these and other reasons which might be assigned, I shall content -myself with giving a brief account of their Polity and Laws; -referring those of my readers who are desirous of further -information upon their history, to Novels and Romances, and to -such Chronicles of antiquity, as have preserved the memorials of -obsolete and superannuated manners.</p> -<p>It is a task of no ordinary difficulty to convey any tolerable -idea of this people, in their aggregate or national -capacity. Consisting, <a name="page21"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 21</span>as they do, of various and detached -societies, they are yet considered to possess a sort of federal -relation among each other; and to unite into an imaginary whole, -under the collective denomination of the Fashionable World. -It is under this aggregate character that they take their rank in -society; and the appellation which denotes their community, is -recognised by the tradesmen who advertise for their custom, and -the politicians who discourse of their affairs. A very -handsome proportion of the daily newspapers is devoted to their -service; and intelligence from their drawing-rooms is reported -with as much regularity as that which is derived from the first -cabinets in Europe. Indeed, the minuteness with which their -routs and dances, their dresses and <a name="page22"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 22</span>dainties, the expressions they utter, -the company they keep, and the excesses they commit, are -detailed, is at once an evidence that these people are considered -to have a corporate existence; and that no little consequence is -attached to their proceedings. I wish, with all my heart, -that they thought a little more of this; they would then scarcely -run into such extravagancies, as make them, on too many -occasions, objects of ridicule to one part of society, and -dangerous examples to the other.</p> -<p>Their <i>Population</i> is more fluctuating and uncertain than -that of any people upon the face of the earth. There are -among them certain tribes, or families, distinguished by -different descendable titles, who are said to <a -name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>claim a sort -of prescriptive right to the name of Fashionables. In these -the federal appellation continues hereditary; and it is an axiom -among the body, that people of <i>Quality</i> (for this is the -term by which they designate the titled gentry) can never be out -of Fashion.</p> -<p>This is, it must be observed, their <i>own</i> representation -of the matter; and I am inclined to suspect that there is no -little management at the bottom of it. There is something, -no doubt, very splendid in the idea of including all the families -of rank within the limits of Fashion; and it is a mark of no -contemptible policy, to have constructed an axiom which so -effectually cuts off their retreat. But surely, it would <a -name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 24</span>be but decent -to allow the gentry of the realm to have a voice in the -business. There <i>have been</i> times, in which many of -our Nobles would have thought themselves dishonoured by being -presumed of course to sustain a Fashionable character. I -cannot but think, that if the modern nobility were fairly -consulted, several of them would <i>still</i> be found to -entertain the same opinion; and that persons of the first -distinction in the country would be among that number.</p> -<p>However that be, these dignified families are, according to -Fashionable computation, almost the only standing members of the -community; and, if these be excepted, all the rest of their body -is mutable in the extreme.</p> -<p><a name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 25</span>There -is a perpetual reciprocation of numbers between them and the -society in which they reside. Scarcely an hour passes -without some interchange. The gossip of every day announces -that some have migrated from the region of Fashion, and that -others have made their appearance within it for the first -time. The causes which produce these variations, and the -reasons by which they are defended, are in some instances too -mysterious, and in others too frivolous, to become subjects of -recital. In general it may be affirmed, that though persons -become Fashionable <i>with</i> the concurrence of their will, -they cease to be such <i>against</i> it. For, if a few -accidental converts to plain sense and sober piety be excepted, -the greater part of those who retire have been <a -name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>superseded; -and resign their places, only because they cannot any longer -retain them. However that be, the fluctuation thus -occasioned in the numbers and characters of those who compose -this Fashionable Community, diversifies its complexion daily; and -renders a precise account of its population and totality utterly -impossible.</p> -<p>The form of government subsisting among this people, so far as -it can be traced out, is Oligarchical, and the spirit of it is -absolute and despotical. The few in whose hands the supreme -authority resides, do not consist of any regular or definite -number, nor are they confined to any particular sex. In -general, they are composed of persons out of both sexes, who, -while they exercise a <a name="page27"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 27</span>separate influence in things relating -to the sexes respectively, possess also a common jurisdiction in -matters of universal concern.</p> -<p>The governing few are not invested with their authority by any -formalities of law; nor do they obtain their station by any -specific qualifications. The magistracy which they hold, -appears to be neither hereditary nor elective, but -contingent. The term of their continuance in power is also -as indefinite and capricious, as the right by which they acquire -it. One thing, however, is certain, that as a moral -reputation has no influence in recommending them to the stations -they fill, so the forfeiture of it in no degree weakens the -stability, or abridges the duration of their power. That a -government <a name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -28</span>of this independent description should exist in the -heart of the British empire, an <i>imperium in imperio</i>, will -appear scarcely credible to my reader. He may, however, -rely upon it, that the fact is as I have stated it; and if he -should express his wonder, that such contempt of the sovereign -authority as it eventually leads to, has not been properly -resisted, he will only do what thousands have done before -him.</p> -<p>But to return:—The laws by which the government of -Fashion is administered, like the common law of England, are -unwritten; and derive their force, as that does, from usage and -prescription. The only code of any note among this people, -is that which they distinguish by the collective appellation <a -name="page29"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 29</span>of the LAW of -HONOUR. This extraordinary code has been defined to -be—“a system of rules constructed by people of -Fashion, and calculated to facilitate their intercourse with one -another.” <a name="citation29"></a><a href="#footnote29" -class="citation">[29]</a> Now if this definition be a just -one, (and I presume it is, from the high authority by which it is -given,) it will afford us no indifferent help, towards unfolding -the mysteries of Fashionable jurisprudence.</p> -<p>It seems, then, that the <i>Law of Honour</i>, by which people -of Fashion are said to be governed, is wholly and exclusively -designed to make them acceptable to each other. Now, not to -mention other things, persons in a Fashionable sphere cannot be -<a name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 30</span>strictly -agreeable to each other, unless they are well dressed; nor can -that intercourse which they chiefly value, be pleasantly -maintained, without splendid equipages, choice wines, and -sumptuous entertainments. As, therefore, the necessity of -the case requires such accommodations, the <i>Law of Honour</i>, -to say the least, does not look very nicely into the means by -which they may have been procured. Hence it follows, by the -fairest inference, that a man of Fashion is not at all the less -respectable in his own circle, merely because he is what the rest -of the world calls unjust. For, whatever may be the law -elsewhere, a man of Fashion can owe nothing to his inferiors: and -his character will therefore suffer no stain, though he should -have broken his <a name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -31</span>word a thousand times with the reptile that made his -clothes, built his carriage, or furnished his table.</p> -<p>This law is also distinguished by many other features of -toleration, which well account for the respect and influence that -it possesses in the Fashionable World. By a spirit of -accommodation, of which there is no other example, it overlooks, -if it does not even encourage, a variety of actions, which in the -mouth of a moralist would be absolute vices; and which, to say -the truth, are scarcely deserving of a much better name. -Thus, a man may debauch his tenant’s daughter, seduce the -wife of his friend, and be faithless, and even brutal to his own, -and yet be esteemed a man of honour, <a name="page32"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 32</span>(which is the same as a man of -Fashion,) and have a right to make any man fight him who says he -is not. In like manner, a man may blaspheme God, and -encourage his children and servants to do the same; he may -neglect the interests, and squander the property, of his family; -he may be a tyrant in his house, and a bully in the streets; he -may lie a-bed all day, and drink and game all night; and yet be a -most dutiful subject of the <i>Law of Honour</i>, and a shining -character in the society of Fashion.</p> -<p>There is, I own, much convenience in all this, and some -consistency. Persons who live only for this world, should -have a proportionable latitude allowed them for the <a -name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 33</span>employment of -their animal propensities; and the law which provides for the -regulation of their conduct, should have a special reference to -this consideration. Supposing, therefore, that people of -Fashion ought to exist, they must have such a law as that which -they possess. So that, taking the Law of Honour in this -connexion, I cannot but think it a master-piece of political -contrivance.</p> -<p>At the same time, I cannot agree with those who have been led -to consider this table of Fashionable jurisprudence as deserving -a place in the temple of Morality. Into this error a -celebrated writer appears to have fallen, in his Treatise of -Moral Philosophy. For, having defined morality to <a -name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 34</span>be -“that science which teaches men their duty, and the reasons -of it,” he proceeds to cite the <i>Law of Honour</i> as one -of the three rules by which men are governed. That -respectable writer has, indeed, admitted that this law is -<i>defective</i>, because it does not provide for the duties to -God and to inferiors; he has also proclaimed that it is -<i>bad</i>, by stating, that it allows of fornication, adultery, -drunkenness, prodigality, duelling, &c. Still, however, -he has rather left us to infer, that it ought wholly to be -rejected, than absolutely told us so. By classing it with -the law of the land and the Scriptures, he has (undesignedly no -doubt) prevented its utter condemnation; and afforded ground for -considering it as a moral rule, to which men owe a qualified -obedience.</p> -<p><a name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 35</span>Having -specified the sort of practices which the <i>Law of Honour</i> -allows, I shall take some brief notice of the duties which it -exacts. The principal of these, and that upon which its -tone and spirit are most peremptory, is the <i>resentment of -injuries</i>. Now it must be observed, that the term -<i>injury</i>, in the use of people of Fashion, is of a very wide -and comprehensive signification. It not only means such an -act of outrage as amounts to a manifest and palpable wrong, but -extends to every dubious point of conduct, from which a -Fashionable sophist could find scope to infer an injurious -intention. Thus a sister seduced, and then abandoned, and a -word or a look not satisfactorily explained, are all equally -injuries; and constitute, in the spirit <a -name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 36</span>of this code, -so many obligations to the most lively and implacable -resentment. It may be, that the offended person is of a -peaceable disposition, and would rather endure a moderate injury -than revenge it; or he may have too much respect for the laws of -the parent state, to require or accept redress in any other than -the legal way; or he may know, that the offending party is a man -disposed to seek a quarrel, and that he desires nothing so much -as to provoke the innocent person, whom he has purposely -insulted, to claim satisfaction; or, lastly, it may be, that the -supposed injury is founded wholly on mistake, and that the -reputed aggressor will not believe or own himself to have -offended, and will therefore make no atonement. In all -these cases, personal <a name="page37"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 37</span>resentment might as well be waved; -but this the Law of Honour positively forbids: and he who should -conscientiously decline to pursue a personal quarrel, upon these, -or even higher motives, might be a better father, a better -husband, a better subject, and a better Christian, for so doing; -but he would certainly be a worse man of honour.</p> -<p>It is worthy of remark, that these reputed injuries are -sometimes so minute and transitory, or so remote and obscure, -that, if every thing depended upon the aggressor and the -aggrieved, they would either remain wholly undiscovered, or, at -least, be speedily forgotten. But each of these -consequences is not unfrequently defeated by the officious -industry of some kind-hearted <a name="page38"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 38</span>being, who, though he loves his -friend too well to let him be insulted, can govern his feelings -well enough to stand by and see him murdered. This is, -certainly, a refinement upon the theory of friendship, which may -be fairly set down among the most extraordinary achievements of -the <i>Law of Honour</i>. Indeed, this bloody code has many -such refinements. For, proceeding, as it does, upon -principles of its own invention, it must necessarily clash with -many antecedent obligations. These, however, it contrives, -by the help of a little sophistry, so to supersede, that neither -affinity nor attachment may impede the progress of honourable -revenge: and hence we see, in compliance with its rigid edicts, -the warmest friends sacrifice to resentment with <a -name="page39"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 39</span>as little -reserve as the bitterest enemies; and that, perhaps, to settle a -tavern dispute, or to avenge a play-house quarrel!</p> -<p>Having said so much of the principal duty enjoined by the Law -of Honour, I shall offer a few observations upon the sort of -punishment which it inflicts. I trust I shall be excused, -if, in treating this part of my subject, I employ the term -<i>punishment</i> in a sense not strictly similar to that in -which it is ordinarily used. The fact is, that this -singular law makes the parties both judges in their own cause, -and executioners of their own sentence. The universal award -against every convicted offender is, that he shall fight a duel -with the offended party. So that, if that may be set <a -name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 40</span>down as -punishment, which is ultimate in a controversy, and which is -exacted as a satisfaction to the law; death, or exposure to it, -is the lowest punishment which honour inflicts upon the least -offender; and the highest which it enforces upon the -greatest.</p> -<p>And this is, I confess, a political incongruity, which I have -not a little difficulty in reconciling with the good sense of -many who have undertaken to defend it. The law of England -has often been blamed (and I think with justice) as unreasonably -sanguinary. In answer to this charge it has been said, -that, though nearly two hundred offences of almost as many -degrees of guilt, are made equally punishable with death; yet -justice is administered with so much <a name="page41"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 41</span>discretion and mercy, that the -penalty is inflicted only on a few. Feeble as this excuse -is, for a law that deals in blood, it would be well for the law -of Honour if it admitted of such a palliation. But the -truth is, that in the latter case there is nothing to abate the -demand for blood—the prosecution of every difference is -both summary and vindictive: there is no tribunal to enquire into -the original matter of the quarrel; no judicature to determine -the real merits of the controversy: if the judgment be erroneous, -there is no court of equity to reverse the verdict; if rigorous, -there is no arm of mercy to withdraw the victim from -suffering.</p> -<p>It must be evident from this view which has been presented of -the law, that, as an <a name="page42"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 42</span>injury may be created by the most -trivial incident, so punishment may be inflicted with the most -preposterous and unequal retribution. I cannot better -illustrate the frivolous foundation upon which an injury may be -erected, than by adverting to an occurrence of very recent date, -and of sufficient notoriety in the Fashionable World. Two -men of Fashion, incensed against each other by an accidental -quarrel between their respective dogs, dropped, in their warmth, -certain expressions which rendered them amenable to the bloody -code: duel was declared indispensable: and in less than twelve -hours, one of the two was dispatched into eternity, and the other -narrowly escaped the same fate. <a name="citation42"></a><a -href="#footnote42" class="citation">[42]</a></p> -<p><a name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 43</span>The -inequality of the retribution is, indeed, an inevitable -consequence of that article of the code which compels men of -Fashion, without distinction, to decide their differences by -fighting a duel. It results from this promiscuous -injunction, that the peaceable man must fight the quarrelsome; -that the heir of a noble family must meet <a -name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 44</span>the ruined -esquire; and that the man who has never drawn a trigger in his -life, must encounter the Fashionable ruffian, who has all his -life been doing little else. This inequality is further -manifest, from the different circumstances and connexions of life -under which the combatants may be found. The son of many -hopes may be matched against the worthless prodigal; the virtuous -parent against the unprincipled seducer; and the man of industry, -usefulness, and beneficence, against the miscreant who only lives -to pamper his lusts, and to corrupt his fellow-creatures. -Nothing has here been said of the indiscriminate manner in which -judgment is executed. The innocent and the guilty must both -be involved in the same awful contingency; each <a -name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 45</span>must put his -life to hazard: and the probability is, that, if one of the two -should fall, it will be the man whose conduct least entitled him -to punishment, and whose life was most worth preserving.</p> -<p>I forbear to enter further into the system of Fashionable -government, or to meddle with the inferior points of -legislation. What has been said of the Law of Honour, will -apply, with little variation, to every other institution of minor -concern. To facilitate polite intercourse, and to exclude, -as much as may be, duties to God and inferiors, is a considerable -object in every regulation; and it is but justice to this people -to say, that, in this respect, they are at once consistent and -successful.</p> -<h2><a name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 46</span>CHAP. -III.</h2> -<p class="gutsumm"><span class="GutSmall">RELIGION AND -MORALITY.</span></p> -<p><span class="smcap">In</span> attempting to give an account of -the <i>Religion</i> of the people of Fashion, I feel myself not a -little embarrassed. It were, indeed, very much to be -wished, that one of their own number would, in the name of the -rest, draw up a confession of their faith. This is, -perhaps, expecting too much; and yet I cannot but think that it -would be a very good employment for some of those modish priests, -who pass so much of their time in the circles of Fashion. -They give every proof that they have leisure for the <a -name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 47</span>undertaking: -and the access which they have to these people, by attending them -so familiarly at their theatres, their operas, and their routs, -must render them perfectly masters of the subject. However, -as I am not aware that any thing of this nature is yet taken in -hand, I shall lay before my reader such observations as I have -been able to make; partly because it seems necessary to the -perfection of my work, that something should be said on the -subject, and partly because I should be unwilling to afford by my -silence any ground for suspicion—that there is <i>no</i> -religion in the Fashionable World.</p> -<p>I am, then, in the first place, decidedly of opinion, that -people of Fashion are not <a name="page48"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 48</span><i>Atheists</i>; though I am -sufficiently aware, that some strict religionists have -entertained an opposite conviction. It has been contended -by the latter, in support of their hypothesis, that people who -believed in a God would have some scruple about taking such -liberties with his name, and his attributes, and his -threatenings, and, generally, with all his moral prerogatives, as -people of Fashion are accustomed to do. There is certainly -something plausible in this sort of reasoning, and I must -candidly confess, that I have never yet seen it fairly -overthrown; but then I cannot think, that it proves their -disbelief of a God, though it certainly does prove their want of -reverence for him. It seems to me, at the same time, -probable, that the ideas of this people, and <a -name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 49</span>those of -stricter Christians, upon the subject of that reverence which is -due to the Deity, may differ sufficiently, to account for these -offensive liberties, without having recourse to the hypothesis of -atheism. Indeed, when I consider the spirit and -construction of that law by which these people are bound, I can -find other reasons for their conduct in this respect, besides -that which these theorists have assigned. For, to say the -truth, those obnoxious expressions from which so much has been -inferred, are in perfect unison with the exclusion of a Deity -from the rules which regulate their intercourse with each -other. The more therefore I reflect on this subject, the -more I am confirmed in my opinion, that the charge of Atheism -against them is without <a name="page50"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 50</span>any just foundation; and that their -appeals to God in levity, earnestness, and anger, are designed to -shew their contempt of His authority, and not their denial of his -being.</p> -<p>I was for a long time of opinion, that these people were -believers in <i>Christ</i>; for I had observed, that his name was -found in their formularies of devotion, associated with their -baptismal designation, and frequently appealed to in their -conversation with each other. There were, I confess, many -things at the time which staggered me. Having taken up my -ideas of the Saviour from those Scriptures which they profess to -receive as well as myself, I was not a little astonished at the -ultimate difference <a name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -51</span>between us. Their belief of a God was, I knew, -inevitable, and forced upon them by every thing in nature and -experience; I could therefore conceive, without much difficulty, -how they could subscribe to his being, and yet not hallow his -name; but I could not with equal facility conceive, that people -should go out of their way to embrace a solemn article of -revealed religion, only that they might have an opportunity of -trifling with the holy name of Him, who was the author and the -object of that revelation.</p> -<p>I had, besides, occasion to remark, that this name was seldom -appealed to, but by the ladies; and it did not appear in the -first instance probable, that the gentlemen would <a -name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 52</span>leave them in -exclusive possession of a mode of imprecation by which any thing -was meant. These and other circumstances excited in my mind -a great deal of speculation. I will not, however, trouble -my readers with the many conclusions which I drew from them; -since an event has occurred, which affords no indifferent -evidence, that belief in a Saviour does <i>not</i> form an -article of Fashionable religion. The event to which I -refer, is the publication of a Memoir of the late Lord -Camelford. In this Memoir the author professes to acquaint -the world with the last moments of a Fashionable young man who -had received a mortal wound in an affair of honour. In -perusing this extraordinary narrative, I was much surprised at -finding, that neither <a name="page53"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 53</span>the dying penitent (for such he is -represented to have been) nor his spiritual confessor ever once -mentioned the name of <i>Christ</i>. But when, on further -attention, I found his Lordship expressing a hope, that his -<i>own</i> dying sufferings would expiate his sins, and placing -his dependance upon the mercy of his <i>Creator</i>; <a -name="citation53"></a><a href="#footnote53" -class="citation">[53]</a> I had only to conclude, that the Divine -was deterred from <a name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -54</span>mentioning a name with which his office must have made -him familiar, out of respect for that Fashionable creed from -which it is excluded.</p> -<p>There is some reason for supposing that these people believe -in the immortality of the soul, the existence of an evil spirit, -and a place of future torment. It must, at the same time, -be acknowledged, that their ideas on each of these points are so -loose and confused, that it is difficult to determine in what -sense they apprehend them.</p> -<p>In subscribing, for example, to the immortality of the soul, -they give it a value which infinitely exceeds that of the -corruptible <a name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -55</span>body: the inference from this, in a fair train of -reasoning, would be, that the care of the former is of infinitely -more importance than that of the latter. And yet this is -manifestly not the inference they draw: for the experience of -every week proves, that if they give three hours to the soul, -they think it too much; while they will give six days and nights -to the body, and think it too little. This is, I confess, a -part of their character, of which no satisfactory explanation has -ever been given.</p> -<p>I have no other evidence of their belief in an evil Spirit, -and a place of future Torment, than the report of their -Prayer-books, and the tenor of their conversation. I must, -<a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 56</span>at the -same time, acknowledge, that the looseness and frequency with -which they refer to Hell and the Devil, on the most ordinary -occasions, have excited my doubts whether they use these awful -terms in the same religious sense in which orthodox Christians -are accustomed to employ them. These doubts have been -greatly encouraged by that sceptical facetiousness with which -they apply the name of the evil spirit to their Fashionable -amusements, and make the place of torment a subject of scenic -representation. I will not say that these people do not -believe what they thus caricature; but I think it must be obvious -that they cannot have any very exact notions of their scriptural -import, while they continue to <a name="page57"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 57</span>employ them as terms of merriment, -and sources of diversion. <a name="citation57"></a><a -href="#footnote57" class="citation">[57]</a></p> -<p>Religious worship, though not inculcated as absolutely -necessary in the Fashionable World, is yet neither prohibited nor -renounced. Certain persons of considerable influence among -them, and whose connexion with them arose out of the incidental -circumstances of birth, or office, or elevation, have carried -into the societies of Fashion some principles which operate as a -check upon the natural libertinism of the community. I -impute it to this circumstance, rather than to any sober -consideration <a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -58</span>of duty, that religious worship, though it is not -esteemed <i>essential</i> to a Fashionable character, is yet not -regarded as any impeachment of it. My reason, in a word, -for ascribing their conformity in this particular to influence -rather than principle, is the difficulty of reconciling it, on -any hypothesis besides, to the other parts of their -conduct. For it would be a contradiction of ideas to -suppose, that persons can seriously mean to worship a God whom -they habitually blaspheme; or to pray against a devil, whom they -are accustomed to hold out as a bugbear or a joke.</p> -<p>Their mode of worship is generally that which prevails in the -country in which they live: they like the credit of an -Establishment, <a name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -59</span>and the convenience of taking things as they find -them. There are, I am told, some members of Fashion among -those who dissent from the established religion. These I -shall leave to the care of their Pastors; and proceed to -animadvert upon the Fashionable adherents to the religion of the -State.</p> -<p>In their manner of observing the rites of public worship, -nothing is so remarkable as the degree of refinement they -contrive to introduce into every part of it which is capable of -being refined upon. Chapels are, for the most part, -preferred to Churches; and the reason, among others, for this -preference, appears to be, that the modernness of their -structure, and their exemption from <a name="page60"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 60</span>parochial controul, render them -better adapted to such elegant improvements as are requisite for -Fashionable piety. Hence that variety of ingenious -accommodations, and fanciful ornaments, which gives to their -favourite place of devotion the air of a drawing-room: so that a -stranger, introduced to their religious assemblies, might be -excused for doubting, whether he was about to worship the Deity, -or to pay a Fashionable visit. The conduct of their service -is, in many cases, marked by an attention to mechanical effect, -which is more nearly allied to the parade of the theatre, than to -the simplicity of the church. The orators who fill their -pulpits, are generally preferred in proportion as they display -the captivating attractions of a graceful exterior, <a -name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>and a liberal -theology. These preachers have, indeed, a task to execute -of no ordinary difficulty. By the tyranny of custom they -are compelled to take their text, and to produce their -authorities, from the canon of Scripture; and I think it is much -to the praise of their dexterity, that so often as they have -occasion to discourse from those offensive writings, they yet -contrive to give so little offence. How they manage this, I -am at a loss to know; unless it be by blinking every question -that involves a moral application; or else by allowing their -audience the benefit of that Fashionable salvo, that the company -present is always excepted.</p> -<p>It has also been remarked by scrupulous <a -name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 62</span>observers, -that this people perform almost the whole of their public -devotions in a posture which rather accommodates their indolence, -than expresses their respect for the object of their -worship. If this be the fact, it is not a little -extraordinary; since they use a liturgy which prescribes -<i>kneeling</i> and <i>standing</i>, as well as <i>sitting</i>; -and which contains distinct instructions, when each is to be -used. I can, indeed, account, without much difficulty, for -the disuse of <i>kneeling</i>; because the structure of the pews -does not always admit of it: besides that, it is a posture into -which people cannot be expected readily to fall in public, who -have not much practice in private. But I cannot so easily -account for their refusing to <i>stand</i>: for this is -notoriously an attitude to which <a name="page63"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 63</span>they are sufficiently -accustomed. And that they do not consider the posture in -which a thing is done, indifferent, is manifest from the zeal -with which they rise from their seats, and expect others to do -the same, when about to join in a loyal chorus. I wonder it -has not occurred to them, that there is some indecency, not to -say impiety, in <i>rising</i> from their seats to sing the -praises of their King, and <i>keeping</i> them while they sing -the praises of their <span class="smcap">God</span>.</p> -<p>I have before delivered it as my opinion, that this people -comply with the custom of public worship, rather from influence -than from conviction; and this opinion receives some confirmation -from the pains <a name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -64</span>they take to remove those impressions which the offices -of religion may have made upon their minds. In the -metropolis, the visit to the house of God is succeeded, as soon -as may be, by the drive into the Park. Here they meet with -a prodigious concourse of persons of their own description; and -have the most charming opportunities of seeing the world, -exhibiting themselves, and conversing upon the opera of the -preceding evening, or the parties for the ensuing week. The -effect of this drive, upon their animal spirits and the whole -frame of their mind, is just what might have been expected. -Though they have so recently assisted at the most awful -solemnities, they can now relax into the most idle levity or the -most boisterous mirth; and satisfying themselves <a -name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 65</span>that they -have done their duty, by remembering the Almighty in the first -part of the day, they take no common pains to forget him during -the remainder.</p> -<p>In the vicinity of the metropolis, and in other places of -Fashionable residence, other expedients are resorted to, in order -to produce the same happy effect. No sooner has the priest -pronounced his <i>Morning</i> benediction, than the carriage -which has conveyed the family to church must be driven round the -neighbourhood; and the bells and knockers of twenty doors -announce, that the restraints of public worship are at an -end. This pleasant divertisement is not lost upon the great -body of the inhabitants. Persons the farthest removed <a -name="page66"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 66</span>from all -Fashionable pretensions, rejoice with their superiors at this -speedy termination of the Sabbath; and, with a servile imitation -of <i>their</i> example, pursue their pleasures in some house of -entertainment, instead of seeking a <i>second</i> blessing in the -house of God. <a name="citation66"></a><a href="#footnote66" -class="citation">[66]</a></p> -<p>Though there is something very lively and ingenious in this -method of dissipating religious impressions, yet I think it might -be an improvement upon the plan, not to allow them to be made at -all. Experiments to this effect have been actually tried <a -name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 67</span>by some -persons of no mean condition, in the Fashionable World, who have -wholly renounced the habit of public worship; and these -experiments would probably have been tried upon a much larger -scale, had it not been for the consideration of setting a -pernicious example: for it seems to be a maxim among many of -them, that persons in a dependent state <i>may</i> really be -benefited by the offices of devotion. With a charity, -therefore, that does them honour, they make a sacrifice of their -feelings and their time to the interests of their inferiors; and -when it is considered, how much whirling in a carriage, gaping, -gadding, and gossiping, it takes them, to recover the true tone -of dissipation, it will be seen that the sacrifice is not -inconsiderable.</p> -<p><a name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 68</span>In -observing thus largely upon the religion of the Fashionable -World, I have furnished a sufficient clue to their <i>moral</i> -character. If, from some hints which have been thrown out -in this and the preceding chapter, rigid Christians should be led -to infer, that it is no better than it should be, they must be -reminded, that people of Fashion have a standard peculiar to -themselves; and that, therefore, what are deviations from -<i>our</i> standard, are very often near approximations to -<i>theirs</i>. In fact, they have acted in this respect -with the same convenient policy by which they have been guided in -framing every other part of their system. Pleasure being -the object upon which a life of Fashion terminates, it was -sagaciously enough foreseen, <a name="page69"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 69</span>that an unbending morality would be -utterly incompatible with the modes, and habits, and plans, of -such a career. There remained therefore no alternative, but -that of frittering away the strength and substance of the -morality of the Gospel, till it became sufficiently tame and -pliable for the sphere of accommodation in which it was to -act. The consequence has been, that while they employ the -same terms to denote their moral ideas, as are in use among -Christians in general, yet they limit, or enlarge, their -signification, as expediency requires. Thus modesty, -honesty, humanity, and sobriety—names, with stricter -moralists, for the purest virtues—are so modified and -liberalized by Fashionable casuists, as to be capable of an -alliance <a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -70</span>with a low degree of every vice to which they stand -opposed. A woman may expose her bosom, paint her face, -assume a forward air, gaze without emotion, and laugh without -restraint, at the loosest scenes of theatrical licentiousness; -and yet be, after all,—a <i>modest</i> woman. A man -may detain the money which he owes his tradesman, and contract -new debts for ostentatious superfluities, while he has neither -the means nor the inclination to pay his old ones; and yet be, -after all,—a very <i>honest</i> fellow. A woman of -Fashion may disturb the repose of her family every night, abandon -her children to mercenary nurses, and keep her horses and her -servants in the streets till day-break,—without any -impeachment of her <i>humanity</i>. So the gentleman of -Fashion <a name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -71</span>may swallow his two or three bottles a-day, and do all -his friends the kindness to lay them under the table as often as -they dine with him; yet, if constitution or habit secure him -against the same ignominious effects, he claims to be -considered—a <i>sober</i> man.</p> -<p>There would be no end of going over all the eccentricities of -Fashionable morality. To those who exact that truth which -allows of no duplicity, that honour which scorns all baseness, -and that virtue which wars with every vice, I question but every -thing in the morals of this people would appear anomalous and -extraordinary: but to those who consider, how necessary a certain -portion of wickedness is to such a life of sense <a -name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 72</span>as these -people must necessarily lead, it will not be matter of surprise -that there should be so little genuine morality among them; the -wonder will rather be—that there should be any at all.</p> -<h2><a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 73</span>CHAP. -IV</h2> -<p class="gutsumm"><span class="GutSmall">EDUCATION.</span></p> -<p><span class="smcap">No</span> people in the universe expend -larger sums upon the education of their children than people of -Fashion. It is a maxim with them to commence the great -business of instruction in the very earliest period of life; and -if the system of education corresponded with the pains bestowed -upon it, and the price at which it is purchased, no persons would -do more honour to society than the subjects of the Fashionable -World. As it is, they are not a little ornamental to a -nation. They are not, it is <a name="page74"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 74</span>true, either the columns or the base -of the building; they neither support nor strengthen it: but they -supply the place of reliefs, and hangings, and other superadded -decorations.</p> -<p>Religion is allowed a respectable place among the studies of -the nursery. All those useful tables of instruction are -assiduously employed, which teach, who was the <i>first</i>, the -<i>wisest</i>, the <i>meekest</i>, and the <i>strongest</i> man; -and the nursling is carefully conducted, by a catechetical -process, into the theory and practice of a Christian. As, -however, the child advances to boyish or girlish years, this -religious discipline is pretty generally relaxed, in order to -allow sufficient scope for the cultivation of those <a -name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 75</span>modish -pursuits, which mark the man and the woman of Fashion.</p> -<p>And here I cannot help remarking, how anxious the greater part -of Fashionable parents are, to guard the minds of their children -against the <i>permanent</i> influence of that religion, which -they yet have caused them to be taught. The fact is, that -they would have them acquainted with the technical language, and -expert in the liturgical formalities of Christianity; for these -acquirements can neither disparage their character, nor impede -their pleasures: but a serious impression of its truths upon -their hearts, might disaffect them to the follies and vices which -they are destined to practise; and therefore is the thing, of all -<a name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 76</span>others, -that is most to be dreaded. The parents are, to say the -truth, not a little hampered by the engagements under which they -have bound the child, on the one part; and the character which -they wish him to sustain, on the other. To leave him in -ignorance of a covenant in which he has been involuntarily -included, would be a fraud upon his conscience; and yet, to have -him renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh, would be the -utter ruin of his Fashionable reputation. What other -course, then, can parents thus circumstanced pursue, than that of -inculcating these lessons before they can be understood, and -removing their impression before they can be practised?</p> -<p><a name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 77</span>It is, -I presume, upon the principle of precaution already mentioned, -that our Fashionable young men are not always intrusted to the -care of persons distinguished for the practice of piety. It -is not impossible, indeed, that, either from the conversation, -the connexions, or the example of the preceptor, the pupil may -contract certain habits, which it was not the precise object of -his education to produce. But then the evil is not so great -as fastidious moralists would insinuate. For, as the youth -is to figure in the circles of Fashion, he will only have learnt, -a little before the time, those practices which are to form a -part of his manly character: and though it might, perhaps, be as -well, if he did not learn to swear and rake quite so soon; yet <a -name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 78</span>it is some -consolation, that he has escaped those methodistical impressions, -which would have prevented him from swearing and raking as long -as he lived.</p> -<p>It may also be considered as some confirmation of the -reasoning above employed, that parents introduce their children -as early as possible to the amusements of the theatre. Now, -though swearing, and raking, and gaming, when carried to excess, -are blamed even by persons of Fashion themselves; yet it is -notorious, that a reasonable proportion of each is indispensably -requisite to a popular character in the circles of -refinement. Habits of this sort must not be precipitately -taken up. There must be a schooling for the man of -pleasure, as <a name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -79</span>well as for the man of letters: and certainly no school -exists, in which the elements of modish vice can be studied with -greater promise of proficiency, than the public theatres. -When it is considered, at what pains the managers of the stage -are, to import the seducing dramas of Germany, as well as to get -up the loose productions of the English Muse; when it is further -considered, how studious the actors and actresses are to do -justice, and even more than justice, to the luscious scenes of -the piece; to give effect to the equivoques, by an arch emphasis; -and to the oaths, by a dauntless intonation:—when to all -this is added, how many painted strumpets are stuck about the -theatre, in the boxes, the galleries, and the avenues; and how -many challenges to <a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -80</span>prostitution are thrown out in every direction: it will, -I think, be difficult to imagine places better adapted, than the -theatres at this moment are, to teach the theory and practice of -Fashionable iniquity.</p> -<p>What has been observed on the subject of education, though -said principally with reference to the male branches of -Fashionable families, will yet, with a few changes, be found -applicable to the youth of the other sex. The principal -points upon which their scheme of education is brought to bear, -are those of dissipation and display. A brilliant finger on -the piano, wanton flexions in the dance, a rage for operas, -plays, and parties, and the faculty of undergoing the fatiguing -evolutions <a name="page81"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -81</span>of a Fashionable life, without compunction of -conscience, sense of weariness, or indications of disgust, are -qualifications which she who has acquired, will be considered as -wanting little of a perfect education.</p> -<p>The same assiduity is discovered on the part of the parents, -to train their girls for the sphere of polite life, as has been -already observed with respect to the boys; and the methods that -are pursued to accomplish this end, are very nearly the -same. The blush of virgin-modesty (it is naturally -foreseen) would be extremely inconvenient, not to say absolutely -indecorous, in a woman of Fashion; and therefore it is wisely -resolved, that such steps shall be taken upon <a -name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 82</span>the -girl’s growing into life, as may most effectually destroy -it. The theatre seems principally to be resorted to for -this purpose; and it must be manifest, from what has been already -advanced, that no expedient could have been better chosen. -As intrigue is the life of the drama, and this cannot be carried -on, without expressions, attitudes, and communications between -the sexes, of a very particular nature, there is every reason for -regarding the stage as a sovereign remedy for the infirmity of -<i>blushing</i>.</p> -<p>There are other things to be said on behalf of the theatre, as -a school of polite morality.</p> -<p><a name="page83"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 83</span>It has -already appeared, that the system of Ethics which prevails among -people of Fashion, differs materially from the received system of -unfashionable Christians. Now, I know not any means by -which a stranger, anxious to ascertain, wherein that difference -consists, could better satisfy his enquiries, than by visiting -the theatres. The doctrine of the stage, therefore, -exhibiting (as nearly as possible) the standard morality of -polite society, nothing could be better imagined, than to give -the embryo woman of Fashion the earliest opportunity of learning -to so much advantage, those lessons which she is afterwards to -practise through life. What she has imbibed in the nursery, -and what she hears in the church, would inspire her with a -dread—perhaps a dislike—of many <a -name="page84"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 84</span>things upon -which she must learn hereafter to look with familiar -indifference, if not with absolute complacency. She might -thus (if some remedy were not provided) be led to take up with -certain melancholy principles, which would either shut her out -from the society of her friends, or make her miserable among -them. But the stage corrects all this; and more than -counterbalances the impressions of virtue, by stratagems of the -happiest contrivance.</p> -<p>It is worthy of attention, how much ingenuity is displayed in -bringing about that moral temperament, which is necessary for the -meridian of Fashion. The rake, who is debauching innocence, -squandering away <a name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -85</span>property, and extending the influence of licentiousness -to the utmost of his power, would (if fairly represented) excite -spontaneous and universal abhorrence. But this result would -be extremely inconvenient; since raking, seduction, and -prodigality, make half the business, and almost all the -reputation, of men of Fashion. What, then, must be -done?—Some qualities of acknowledged excellence must be -associated with these vicious propensities, in order to prevent -them from occasioning unmingled disgust. We may, I presume, -refer it to the same policy, that in dramas of the greatest -popularity, the worthless libertine is represented as having at -the bottom some of those properties which reflect most honour -upon human nature; <a name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -86</span>while—as if to throw the balance still more in -favour of vice—the man of professed virtue is delineated as -being in the main a sneaking and hypocritical villain. -Lessons such as these are not likely to be lost upon the -ingenuous feelings of a young girl. For, besides the -fascinations of an elegant address and an artful manner, the -whole conduct of the plot is an insidious appeal to the -simplicity of her heart. She is taught to believe, by these -representations, that profligacy is the exuberance of a generous -nature, and decorum the veil of a bad heart: so that having -learnt, in the outset of her career, to associate frankness with -vice, and duplicity with virtue, she will not be likely to -separate these <a name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -87</span>combinations during the remainder of her life.</p> -<p>To enter further into the minute details of a Fashionable -education, would only be to travel over ground which has been -often and ingeniously explored by writers of the greatest -eminence. Enough has been said to show, that the system of -education adopted by this people, like every other branch of -their economy, is adapted to qualify the parties for that polite -intercourse with each other, which seems to constitute the very -end of their being. And if it be considered, of what nature -that intercourse is, it will occasion no surprise, that the -education which prepares for it should be expressly adapted <a -name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 88</span>to confound -the distinctions of virtue and vice; and to inculcate, with that -view,—duplicity in religion, and prevarication in -morals.</p> -<h2><a name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 89</span>CHAP. -V.</h2> -<p class="gutsumm"><span -class="GutSmall">MANNERS—LANGUAGE.</span></p> -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> <i>Manners</i> of this people -are remarkably artificial. They appear to do every thing by -rule; and not a word, a look, or a movement escapes them, but -what has at one time or other been studied. In every part -of their demeanour they have reference to some invisible -standard, which they call the <i>Ton</i>, or the Fashion, (from -which latter term they have derived their appellation;) and by -this mysterious talisman their manners, their dress, their -language, and the <a name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -90</span>whole of their behaviour, are tried. It is -singular enough, that this standard which is to fix every thing, -is itself the most variable of all things. The changes -which it undergoes are so rapid, that it requires a sort of -telegraphic communication to become acquainted with them: and -though there is no regular way by which they may be known, yet -nothing is considered so disgraceful as not to know them.</p> -<p>The fluctuations to which this standard is subject, render it -difficult to catch the features of people of Fashion, or to speak -with any precision upon the exterior of their character. -They are, in fact, moulded and modified by such capricious and -indefinable circumstances, that he who would <a -name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 91</span>exhibit a -true picture of their manners, must write a history of the -endless transmutations through which they are compelled to -pass. It has, indeed, been remarked by nice observers, that -a dissimulation of their sentiments and their feelings, is a -feature in the character of this people, which never forsakes -them; and that amidst all the revolutions which their other -habits experience, this master-principle preserves an unchanging -uniformity. Nor is it sufficient to overthrow this -reasoning, that, among the innovations of recent times, the -manners of people of Fashion have been brought into an affected -resemblance to those of their inferiors. The cropped head, -and groomish dress of the men, and the noisy tone and vulgar air -of the women, would almost persuade <a name="page92"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 92</span>a stranger that these are blunt and -artless people, and that they love nothing so much as honesty and -plain-dealing. The fact, however, is, that though the mode -of playing is varied, yet the game of dissimulation is still -going on. This condescension to vulgarity is, after all, -the disguise of pride, and not the dress of simplicity; and is as -remote from the sincerity which it imitates, as from the -refinement which it renounces.</p> -<p>An exaggerated opinion of their own importance is, in reality, -a prevailing characteristic of the Fashionable World.</p> -<p>The Greeks and Romans were thought to have gone too far, when -they called all <a name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -93</span>nations but their own <i>barbarians</i>; but people of -Fashion go a step farther: for they consider themselves <i>every -body</i>, and the rest of the world <i>nobody</i>. The -influence of this sentiment is sufficiently discernible over the -whole of their character. It dictates to their affections, -and robs them, in many instances, of their spontaneity, their -sweetness, and their force. It results from this conceit, -that their love is often artificial, their friendship -ceremonious, and their charity ungracious. In a word, the -whole of their demeanour is such as might be expected from a -people, who idolize the most frivolous or the most vicious -propensities of human nature; and estimate as <i>nothing</i>, the -talents, and industry, and virtue, which adorn it.</p> -<p><a name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 94</span>Their -<i>Language</i> would afford great scope for discussion; but the -limits which I have prescribed to my work, will not allow me to -embrace it. I shall, however, throw together such remarks -as may enable the reader to form some judgment of it; and refer -him, for more extended information upon it, to those modish -compositions in which it is conveyed, and to the circles in which -it is spoken.</p> -<p>Their <i>language</i>, then, is generally a dialect of the -people among whom they reside. They do, it is true, -intersperse their conversational dialogue with scraps of French -and Italian; they also construct their complimentary phrases with -singular dexterity; they have, besides, certain epithets; <a -name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 95</span>such as -<i>dashing</i>, <i>stylish</i>, &c. which may be considered -as perfectly their own:—but if these be excepted, the rest -of their language is, to the best of my judgment, wholly -vernacular.</p> -<p>It must not, however, be supposed, that because these people -use the terms of the country in which they live, they therefore -use them in their ordinary and received acceptation. -Nothing can be farther from the fact. I verily believe, -that if the whole nomenclature of Fashion were examined from -beginning to end, scarcely twenty words would be found, which in -passing over to the regions of Fashion, have not left their -native and customary sense behind them.</p> -<p><a name="page96"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 96</span>In -support of this observation I shall cite, for the reader’s -satisfaction, a brief extract from a private memorandum, which I -had originally made with a design of constructing a Fashionable -glossary.</p> -<table> -<tr> -<td><p style="text-align: center"><i>Vernacular Terms</i>.</p> -</td> -<td><p style="text-align: center"><i>Fashionable Sense</i>.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Age</p> -</td> -<td><p>An infirmity which nobody owns.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Buying</p> -</td> -<td><p>Ordering goods without present purpose of payment.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Conscience</p> -</td> -<td><p>Something to swear by.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Courage</p> -</td> -<td><p>Fear of man.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Cowardice</p> -</td> -<td><p>Fear of God.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Day</p> -</td> -<td><p>Night.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Debt</p> -</td> -<td><p>A necessary evil.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Decency</p> -</td> -<td><p>Keeping up appearances.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Dinner</p> -</td> -<td><p>Supper.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p><a name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -97</span>Dressed</p> -</td> -<td><p>Half-naked.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Duty</p> -</td> -<td><p>Doing as other people do.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Economy</p> -</td> -<td><p>(Obsolete.)</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Enthusiasm</p> -</td> -<td><p>Religion in earnest.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Fortune</p> -</td> -<td><p>The chief-good.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Friend</p> -</td> -<td><p>(Meaning not known.)</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Home</p> -</td> -<td><p>Every body’s house but one’s own.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Honour</p> -</td> -<td><p>The modern Moloch, worshipped with licentious rites and -human victims.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Knowing</p> -</td> -<td><p>Expert in folly and vice.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Life</p> -</td> -<td><p>Destruction of body and soul.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Love</p> -</td> -<td><p>(Meaning not known.)</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Modest</p> -</td> -<td><p>Sheepish.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>New</p> -</td> -<td><p>Delightful.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p><a name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -98</span>Night</p> -</td> -<td><p>Day.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Nonsense</p> -</td> -<td><p>Polite conversation.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Old</p> -</td> -<td><p>Insufferable.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Pay</p> -</td> -<td><p>Only applied to visits.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Play</p> -</td> -<td><p>Serious work.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Protection</p> -</td> -<td><p>Keeping a mistress.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Religion</p> -</td> -<td><p>Occupying a seat in some church or chapel.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Spirit</p> -</td> -<td><p>Contempt of decorum and conscience.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Style</p> -</td> -<td><p>Splendid extravagance.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Thing (the)</p> -</td> -<td><p>Any thing but what a man should be.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Time</p> -</td> -<td><p>Only regarded in music and dancing.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Truth</p> -</td> -<td><p>(Meaning uncertain).</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p><a name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -99</span>Virtue</p> -</td> -<td><p>Any agreeable quality.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Vice</p> -</td> -<td><p>Only applied to servants and horses.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Undress</p> -</td> -<td><p>Complete clothing.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Wicked</p> -</td> -<td><p>Irresistibly agreeable.</p> -</td> -</tr> -<tr> -<td><p>Work</p> -</td> -<td><p>A vulgarism.</p> -</td> -</tr> -</table> -<p>I am far from pretending to have assigned the precise -significations in which the words above cited are employed by -people of Fashion. Perhaps I have done as much towards -fixing the sense, as will be expected of one who cannot pretend -to be perfectly in their confidence. In fact, the -transmutation of terms is an operation to which this people are -most devoutly addicted. It is <a name="page100"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 100</span>daily making some advances among -them; and keeps pace with the progress of their ideas, from the -correct and authentic notions of truth and virtue, to those loose -and spurious ones by which they are superseded.</p> -<p>In proof of this statement, I need only adduce those phrases -in which they are accustomed to pronounce the eulogium of their -deceased associates.</p> -<p>For example,—Is reference made to an unthinking -profligate who has lately been hurried from the world? His -vices are glanced at, and cursorily condemned: but still it is -affirmed, that, with all his faults, he always <i>meant well</i>; -he had <i>a good heart </i><a name="page101"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 101</span><i>at the bottom</i>; and he was -<i>nobody’s enemy but his own</i>.</p> -<p>And for whom is this apology offered, and this praise -indirectly solicited? For the man who, if he ever meant any -thing, meant nothing more or better, than to gratify his lusts, -pursue his vicious pleasures, drink his wine, shake his dice, -shuffle his cards; and thus waste his existence, and destroy his -soul. Of such a man it is gravely affirmed, -that—<i>he always meant well</i>.</p> -<p>And of whom is it said, that he had <i>a good -heart</i>?—Of the man who rarely manifested, through the -whole of his life, any other symptoms than those which <a -name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 102</span>indicate a -bad one. His mouth was full of cursing and bitterness; his -humour was choleric and revengeful; his feet moved swift to shed -blood; there was no conscience in his bosom, and no fear of God -before his eyes; and yet, because he was occasionally charitable, -and habitually convivial, no doubt is entertained but -that—<i>he had a good heart at the bottom</i>.</p> -<p>Lastly, <i>he</i> is said to have been <i>nobody’s enemy -but his own</i>, who has wasted the earnings of an industrious -ancestor, and bequeathed beggary and shame to his innocent -descendants. The wretch has distressed his family by his -prodigality, and corrupted thousands by his example; and yet, -because he has been the dupe of his lusts, <a -name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 103</span>and fallen -a martyr to his vices, he is pronounced to have -been—<i>nobody’s enemy but his own</i>.</p> -<p>These instances will serve to throw some light upon the sort -of idiom employed by people of Fashion; and the manner in which -they have wrested expressions of no little importance, from their -natural and legitimate signification.</p> -<p>But before I quit the consideration of their <i>language</i>, -I think it my duty to point out another peculiarity; of which, to -the best of my knowledge, no satisfactory account has yet been -given. Whether it arise from the paucity of their words, -the confusion of their ideas, or any other cause <a -name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 104</span>distinct -from each of these, so it is, that they have but <i>one</i> term -by which they are accustomed to express their strong emotions -both of pleasure and pain. On this <i>term</i> you will -find them ringing perpetual changes; and, strange to say, it is -to be heard, under one or other of its grammatical inflections, -<a name="citation104"></a><a href="#footnote104" -class="citation">[104]</a> in almost every sentence which falls -from their lips. The master has recourse to it in scolding -his servants, the officer in reprimanding his men. The <a -name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 105</span>traveller -employs it in recounting his adventures, and the man of pleasure -in describing his intrigues. It is heard in the house, and -in the field; in moments of seriousness, and of levity; in -expressions of praise, and of blame. In short, it is used -on occasions the most dissimilar, under impressions the most -contradictory, and for purposes the most opposite; and is, in -fact, the <i>sine quâ non</i> of every energetic and -emphatical period.</p> -<p>Now it happens, unfortunately, that this <i>catholicon</i> in -Fashionable phraseology is, of all terms, that to which sober -Christians annex the most awful ideas; and from the use of which -they as scrupulously abstain, as they do from that of the Great -Being <a name="page106"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -106</span>whose vengeance it so tremendously expresses. And -it may be worthy of consideration, whether this familiar and -unfeeling employment, by people of Fashion, of a term which -imports <i>infernal punishment</i>, does not strengthen those -doubts which have been already suggested, of their real belief in -a place of future torment.</p> -<p>It ought not at the same time to be overlooked, that, in this -respect, they bear a close resemblance to the vulgarest part of -the community; and it would furnish a subject of curious -investigation, why two classes in society, respectively the -highest and the lowest, should exhibit so striking an agreement -in a material branch of language. <a -name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 107</span>I know it -has been said, that extremes meet; and the fact before us is so -much proof that the remark is just: but that by no means solves -the difficulty. For, after all, the question returns upon -us, <i>why</i> such a fact should exist? I confess, for my -own part, I know no answer that can be given to it; and I very -much wish that some one of their number would undertake to -explain their real motives for courting a resemblance in -<i>one</i> respect with that description of society, from which -they make it their pride to differ in every <i>other</i>.</p> -<h2><a name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -108</span>CHAP. VI.</h2> -<p class="gutsumm"><span -class="GutSmall">DRESS—AMUSEMENTS.</span></p> -<p><span class="smcap">There</span> are, in the <i>Dress</i> of -this people, many singularities, upon which, he who wished to say -every thing that could be said, might say a great deal. The -peculiarity which a stranger would be most apt to remark, is that -of their striving to be as unlike as possible to the rest of the -world. This appears, indeed, to be the parent of almost -every other peculiarity; and certainly gives birth to many -changes not a little ridiculous and prejudicial.</p> -<p><a name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 109</span>It -being a sort of fundamental maxim with them, that superiority -consists in dissimilitude, they become engaged in a perpetual -competition with the world at large, and to a certain degree with -each other. In order to maintain this struggle for -pre-eminence, they are compelled to vary the modes and materials -of their dress in all the ways which a fanciful imagination can -suggest. It happens, through some strange infatuation, that -those who affect to despise the man or woman of Fashion, yet ape -their dress and air with the most impertinent and vexatious -perseverance. What is to be done in this -case?—Similitude is not to be endured. In order -therefore to throw out their pursuers, these monopolizers of the -mode are compelled to run into such eccentricities, <a -name="page110"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 110</span>as nothing -could justify or palliate, but the distress to which they are -reduced. If, for example, short skirts and low capes are -copied by the herd of imitators, the Fashionables seek their -remedy in the opposite extreme; their skirts are drawn down to -the calves of their legs, and their capes pulled over their ears -with as much solemnity and dispatch, as if their existence -depended upon the measure. So if full petticoats and high -kerchiefs are adopted by the misses of the crowd, the -dressing-chambers of Fashion are all bustle and -confusion:—the limbs are stripped, and the bosom laid bare, -though the east wind may be blowing at the time; and coughs, -rheumatisms, and consumptions, be upon the wings of every -blast.</p> -<p><a name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 111</span>This -rage for dissimilitude in the affairs of the <i>wardrobe</i>, is -allowed an indefinite scope. Unfortunately, as far as I can -learn, there are no determinate points, beyond which it would be -esteemed indecent or imprudent to indulge it. The -consequence is, that the <i>groom</i> and the <i>gentleman</i> -may be often mistaken for each other; and he who is recognised -to-day as a <i>man of Fashion</i>, may to-morrow be confounded -with <i>one of the people</i>.</p> -<p>I confess I have always regarded this part of their conduct as -an impeachment of their political wisdom. I should have -thought <i>à priori</i>, that a people who are so jealous -of their pre-eminence in society, would not have overlooked the -degree in <a name="page112"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -112</span>which dress contributes to uphold it. Many a -Fashionable man must depend for the whole of his estimation, upon -the cut of his coat, and the selection of his wardrobe. A -frivolous or preposterous taste may therefore prove fatal to the -only sort of reputation which it was in his power to -obtain. But besides, an interchange of dress between people -of Fashion and those whom they consider their inferiors, may -eventually produce very serious mischiefs. The distinctions -of rank and condition are manifestly matters of external -regulation, and consequently cannot be kept up without a due -attention to external appearances. He therefore who makes -himself vulgar or ridiculous, is guilty of an act of -self-degradation; and the fault will be his own, if he is <a -name="page113"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 113</span>displaced -or despised; since he has renounced that appropriate costume, -which proclaimed at once his station in society, and his -determination to maintain it.</p> -<p>The fair-sex appear also on their part to set all limits and -restraints at defiance. They seem to feel themselves at -perfect liberty to follow the prevailing mode, whatever that mode -may be. The consequence is, that <i>modesty</i> is often -the last thing considered by the young, and <i>propriety</i> as -completely neglected by the old. And this latter -circumstance may serve to account in some measure for the little -respect which is said to be paid to <i>age</i> in the Fashionable -World. To judge from the histories of all nations, it seems -impossible, that length <a name="page114"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 114</span>of days, if accompanied with those -characteristics which denote and become it, should not excite -spontaneous veneration. But if the shrivelled arm must be -bound in ribbands and bracelets, if the withered limbs must be -wrapped in muslins and gauzes, and the wrinkled face be decorated -with ringlets and furbelows, the silly veteran waves the -privilege of her years; and since she disgusts the grave, without -captivating the gay, she must not be surprized if she meets with -respect from neither.</p> -<p>A fondness for <i>amusements</i> is one of the strongest -characteristics of this people.—They may almost be said to -live for little else. They pass the whole of that short day -which they allow themselves, in making <a -name="page115"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -115</span>arrangements for spending the ensuing night. -Indeed, their preference of night to day is such, that they seem -to consider the latter as having no other value than as it leads -to the former, and affords an opportunity of preparing for its -enjoyment. And hence I suppose it is, that such multitudes -among them dine by candle-light, and go to bed by day-light.</p> -<p>This passion for diversions renders the <i>Sunday</i> -particularly irksome to persons of any sort of <i>ton</i> in the -Fashionable World. A dose of piety in the morning is well -enough, though it is somewhat inconvenient to take it quite so -early; but then it wants an opera, or a play, or a dance, to -carry it off. There are indeed some <i>esprit-forts</i> <a -name="page116"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 116</span>among the -ladies, who are trying with no little success to redeem a portion -of the Sabbath from the insufferable bondage of the Bible and the -sermon-book; and to naturalize that continental distribution of -the day, which gives the morning to devotion, and the evening to -dissipation. It is but justice to the gentlemen to say, -that they discover no backwardness in supporting a measure so -consonant to all their wishes. It is therefore not -impossible that some considerable changes in this respect may -soon be brought about. That good-humoured legislature which -has allowed a Sunday newspaper, <a name="citation116"></a><a -href="#footnote116" class="citation">[116]</a> will perhaps not -always refuse <a name="page117"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -117</span>a Sunday opera, or play. People of Fashion will -then no longer have to torture <a name="page118"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 118</span>their invention for expedients to -supply the absence of their diurnal diversions. They may -then let their tradesmen go quietly to their parish-churches, -instead of sending for them to wear away the sabbath-hours in -some supervacaneous employment. In short, Sunday may be set -at liberty from its primitive bondage, and exhibit as happy a -union of morning solemnity and evening licentiousness, as it has -ever displayed among the dissolute adherents of Fashionable -Christianity.</p> -<p>But to return:—The rage for amusements <a -name="citation119"></a><a href="#footnote119" -class="citation">[119]</a> <a name="page119"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 119</span>is so strong in this people, that it -seems to supersede all exercise of judgment <a -name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 120</span>in the -choice and the conduct of them. To go every where, see -every thing, and know every body, are, in their estimation, -objects of such importance, that, in order to accomplish them, -they subject themselves to the greatest inconveniences, and -commit the very grossest absurdities. Hence they will rush -in crowds, to shine where they cannot be seen, to dance where -they cannot move, and to converse with friends whom they <a -name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 121</span>cannot -approach; and, what is more, though they cannot breathe for the -pressure, and can scarcely live for the heat, yet they call -this—enjoyment.</p> -<p>Nor does this passion suffer any material abatement by the -progress of time. Many veterans visit, to the last, the -haunts of polite dissipation; they lend their countenance to -those dramas of vanity in which they can no longer act a part; -and show their incurable attachment to the pleasures of this -world, by their unwillingness to decline them. The -infirmities which attend upon the close of life are certainly -designed to produce other habits; and it should seem, that when -every thing announces an approaching dissolution, the amusements -of <a name="page122"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 122</span>the -drawing-room might give place to the employments of the -closet. Persons, however, of this description are of -another mind; and as every difficulty on the score of teeth, -hoariness, and wrinkles, can be removed by the happy expedients -of ivory, hair-caps, and cosmetics, there is certainly no -<i>physical</i> objection to their continuing among their -Fashionable acquaintance, till they are wanted in another -world.</p> -<p>I cannot illustrate this part of my subject better than by -presenting my readers with the following Ode on the Spring, -supposed to have been written by a man of Fashion; it expresses, -with so much exactness, the sentiments and taste of that -extraordinary people, that it will stand in the <a -name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>place of a -thousand observations upon their character.</p> -<h3>ODE ON THE SPRING.</h3> -<p style="text-align: center" class="gutsumm"><span -class="GutSmall">SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY A MAN OF -FASHION.</span></p> -<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry">I.</p> -<p class="poetry">LO! where the party-giving dames,<br /> - Fair Fashion’s train, appear;<br /> -Disclose the long-expected games,<br /> - And wake the modish year:<br /> -The opera-warbler pours her throat,<br /> -Responsive to the actor’s note,<br /> - The dear-bought harmony of Spring;<br /> -While, beaming pleasure as they fly,<br /> -Bright flambeaus through the murky sky<br /> - Their welcome fragrance fling.</p> -<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry"><a -name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 124</span>II.</p> -<p class="poetry">Where’er the rout’s full myriads -close<br /> - The staircase and the door,<br /> -Where’er thick files of belles and beaus<br /> - Perspire through ev’ry pore:<br /> -Beside some faro-table’s brink,<br /> -With me the Muse shall <i>stand</i> and think,<br /> - (Hemm’d sweetly in by squeeze of state,)<br /> -How vast the comfort of the crowd,<br /> -How condescending are the proud,<br /> - How happy are the great!</p> -<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry">III.</p> -<p class="poetry">Still is the toiling hand of Care,<br /> - The drays and hacks repose;<br /> -But, hark, how through the vacant air<br /> - The rattling clamour glows!<br /> -<a name="page125"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 125</span>The -wanton Miss and rakish Blade,<br /> -Eager to join the masquerade,<br /> - Through streets and squares pursue their fun:<br /> -Home in the dusk some bashful skim;<br /> -Some, ling’ring late, their motley trim<br /> - Exhibit to the sun.</p> -<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry">IV.</p> -<p class="poetry">To Dissipation’s playful eye,<br /> - Such is the life for man;<br /> -And they that halt, and they that fly,<br /> - Should have no other plan:<br /> -Alike the busy and the gay<br /> -Should sport all night till break of day,<br /> - In Fashion’s varying colours drest;<br /> -Till seiz’d for debt through rude mischance,<br /> -Or chill’d by age, they leave the dance,<br /> - In gaol or dust—to rest.</p> -<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry"><a -name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 126</span>V.</p> -<p class="poetry">Methinks I hear, in accents low,<br /> - Some sober quiz reply,<br /> -Poor child of Folly! what art thou?<br /> - A Bond-Street Butterfly!<br /> -Thy choice nor Health nor Nature greets,<br /> -No taste hast thou of vernal sweets,<br /> - Enslav’d by noise, and dress, and play:<br /> -Ere thou art to the country flown,<br /> -The sun will scorch, the Spring be gone,—<br /> - Then leave the town in May.</p> -<h2><a name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -127</span>CHAP. VII.</h2> -<p class="gutsumm"><span class="GutSmall">HAPPINESS OF THE PEOPLE -ESTIMATED.</span></p> -<p>I <span class="smcap">trust</span> my reader is by this time -sufficiently acquainted with the general outline of Fashionable -life: it would only be accumulating observations unnecessarily to -enter further into the subject: I shall therefore devote the -present chapter to a brief investigation of the state of -happiness among a people who, it must be observed, claim to be -considered—the <i>happiest of their species</i>.</p> -<p>Happiness is, as moralists agree, a relative <a -name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 128</span>expression; -and indicates the excess of the aggregate of good over that of -evil in any given condition. The foundation of happiness -therefore must be traced to the ideas which those, upon whose -condition the question turns, are accustomed to entertain, of -good and evil. So that if we wished to ascertain the amount -of happiness in a life of Fashion, we must make our calculation -out of those things, which constitute respectively good and evil -in a Fashionable estimation. I have had occasion to observe -before, that a Fashionable life is a life of sense; consequently -all the sources of happiness in such a condition must be confined -to the pleasures of sense. Now, it must be considered, that -the pains of sense are at least as numerous as its pleasures; <a -name="page129"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 129</span>and that, -by a law of Providence subject to very few exceptions, those who -will have the one, must take their proportion of the other with -them.</p> -<p>This observation is abundantly confirmed by what occurs in the -experience of the parties under consideration. The -pleasures which men of Fashion derive from the gratification of -their animal appetites at the table, the gaming-house, and the -brothel, have a very ample set-off in the inconveniences which -they suffer from arthritic, nervous, and a thousand other, -painful and retributive complaints. Nor are the gay and -dissipated of the other sex exempted from the same contingency of -constitutional suffering. Beside the common lot of human <a -name="page130"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 130</span>nature, -they have a class of evils of their own procuring; and, by -excesses as imprudent as they are immoral, they bring upon -themselves a variety of diseases, for which neither a name nor a -remedy can be found. There are those, it is true, who avoid -much of this inconvenience, by mixing some discretion with their -folly, and setting some bounds to their favourite gratifications: -but then it is to be remembered, that these are restraints which -render persons of licentious minds singularly uneasy; and they -may therefore be considered as administering to pain, nearly in -proportion as they abridge indulgence.</p> -<p>But supposing that we were to throw these severer items out of -the calculation: <a name="page131"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -131</span>there would still remain evils enough in a Fashionable -condition, to keep the scale from preponderating on the side of -pleasure. To shine in a ball-room, is, no doubt, a high -satisfaction; but then to be outshone by another, (which is just -as likely to happen,) is at least as great a mortification: to be -invited to <i>many</i> modish parties, is really delightful; but -then to know those who are invited to <i>more</i> than ourselves, -is certainly vexatious: to find one’s-self surrounded by -people of the first Fashion, is charming; but then to be dying -with heat all the time, is something in the opposite scale; to -wear a coat or a head-dress of the newest invention, is indeed a -pleasure of the highest order; but then to see, by accident, -articles of the same mode on the back of a man-milliner, <a -name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 132</span>or the head -of a lady’s maid, is a species of vexation not easily -endured. An opera, a play, a party, a night passed at a -dance, or at a cassino, or a faro-table, are all events, to be -sure, of the happiest occurrence; but then, to be disappointed of -<i>one</i>, makes a deeper impression on the side of pain, than -to be gratified with <i>three</i>, does on that of pleasure: and -disappointments will happen, where many objects are pursued, and -where the concurrence of many instruments is necessary to their -accomplishment. A drunken coachman, a broken pannel, a sick -horse, a saucy footman, a mistaken message, a dull play, -indifferent company, a head-ach, a heart-burn, an epidemical -disease, or the dread of it, a death in the family, Sunday, -Fast-day, Passion <a name="page133"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -133</span>week, and a thousand other provoking casualties, either -deprive these entertainments of their power of pleasing, or even -set them wholly aside. I should only weary my reader were I -to lay before him in detail half the catalogue of those minor -distresses which embarrass the idea of a modish life: he must -however perceive, from the little which has been said, that every -pleasure has its countervailing pain; and that every sacrifice to -diversion and splendour has its correspondent chastisement in -vexation and disgrace.</p> -<p>Hitherto those principles have been assumed as the basis of -calculation, upon which people of Fashion have <i>some</i> -advantages in their favour; but there is another <a -name="page134"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 134</span>ground upon -which (to say the whole truth) it ought to be put, and on which -all the advantages are <i>against</i> them.</p> -<p>Man (it is notorious) is a reflecting being; and, do what he -will, he <i>must</i> reflect. He may choose an -<i>habitual</i> career of sense; but still he must have, whether -he seek or shun them, moments of <i>Reflection</i>. This is -I admit, extremely inconvenient; but then it is without a -remedy. My business, however, is, neither to impugn, nor to -vindicate the existence of such a principle; but to show its -bearings upon the sort of life which people of Fashion must -necessarily lead. Not to enter into particulars, what can -constitute a heavier affliction, than for a man of Fashion (or, -which is the same thing, a man <a name="page135"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 135</span>of the world) to be obliged to think -over again the events of his licentious career? To be -persecuted with recollecting the property he has squandered, the -wine he has drunk, the seduction he has practised, and the duels -he has fought? These things were well enough at the time; -they had their humour and their reputation, and they were not -without their pleasure: but then they were designed to be -<i>acted</i>, and not <i>reflected</i> upon. The woman of -Fashion is under the same law, and is therefore exposed to the -same mental torments. She, too, must trace back (though she -would give the world to be excused) the steps she has trodden in -the enchanting walks of dissipation. She must live over -again every portion of a life which, though too fascinating <a -name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 136</span>to be -declined, is yet too shocking to be thought of. Her memory, -also, must be haunted with frightful scenes, which remind her, at -the expence of how much health, and property, and time, and -virtue, she has sustained the figure which made her so talked of, -and the gaieties which rendered her so happy. Now these are -real afflictions; and that <i>Reflection</i> from which they -result is, not without reason, felt and acknowledged as the -scourge of their existence, by the ingenuous part, at least, of -the Fashionable World.</p> -<p>Many expedients have indeed been suggested for laying this -busy principle asleep, and many plans struck out for rendering -its pangs supportable; but hitherto without <a -name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -137</span>success. For though it has been proposed to laugh -it away, dance it away, drink it away, or travel it away; yet not -one of these projects has answered the end: and Fashionable -casuists are as far as ever from finding out a remedy of -sufficient potency, to cure, or even abate, in any material -degree, the pains of Reflection.</p> -<p>And here I cannot but remark, how grievously the seat of this -disease (for such it is considered) has been mistaken by those -who have so lightly undertaken to prescribe for its -removal. They have manifestly considered it as a disorder -of the <i>nerves</i>; and hence all the remedies which they have -recommended, are calculated to promote, <a -name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 138</span>either by -change of scene, or by some other mechanical impulse, a brisker -circulation of the animal spirits. The ill success with -which each has been attended, sufficiently proclaims the fallacy -upon which they all are founded. If Reflection had been -only a nervous disturbance, if it had arisen out of any -disarrangement of the <i>animal</i> economy, some, at least, of -the Fashionable nostrums would have dispersed the complaint: -whereas it is notorious, that, under every regimen which has been -tried, while the stronger symptoms have disappeared, the disorder -has remained in the system; and neither Bath, nor Weymouth, nor -Tunbridge, nor Town, has ever effected a cure.</p> -<p>The plain truth is, (whatever may be insinuated <a -name="page139"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 139</span>to the -contrary by these <i>Médecins à-la-mode</i>,) that -the disease is altogether <i>moral</i>; and, consequently, the -seat of it is not in the nerves, but in the -<i>Conscience</i>. There is, in fact, nothing new in the -complaint: it is inseparably connected with a Fashionable career; -and has been more or less the scourge of all, in every age, who -have declined the duties which they owe “to God and their -inferiors.” I take it to have been a malady of the -very same description which afflicted Herod in his communication -with the Baptist, and which made Felix tremble under the -reasoning of Paul. It is not a little remarkable, that both -these men of Fashion (for such no doubt they were) fell into the -error which has been condemned, in the treatment of <a -name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 140</span>their -disease; and each, there is reason to believe, carried it with -him to his grave.</p> -<p>If my reader now adverts to the particulars which have been -stated, he will be compelled to draw conclusions not a little -humbling to the lofty pretensions of a Fashionable life. In -few states of society, under its present imperfection, is -happiness very high: and it might not perhaps be easy to assign -the particular condition which embraces it in the greatest -proportion. But surely after the discoveries which this -discussion has made, we run no risk in affirming, that a life of -Fashion is <i>not</i> that condition. The lot of mankind -would be wretched indeed, if those were <i>the happiest of the -species</i>, who, without exemption <a name="page141"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 141</span>from the pains of sense, are -excluded from the pleasures of Reflection: and who, as the price -of enjoyments derived from the <i>one</i>, become subject to the -chastisement inflicted by <i>both</i>.</p> -<h2><a name="page142"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -142</span>CHAP. VIII.</h2> -<p class="gutsumm"><span class="GutSmall">DEFECT OF THE -SYSTEM—PLANS OF REFORM—CONCLUSION.</span></p> -<p>A <span class="smcap">system</span> which does so little for -the happiness of its members, as that which has been unfolded in -the course of this work, must have some radical defect; and it is -worthy of consideration, whether some steps should not be -speedily taken, in order to discover the nature of that defect, -and to provide a competent remedy for it.</p> -<p>I am perfectly aware, that it would be most decorous, to let -such a measure of <a name="page143"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -143</span>enquiry originate in the community to which it -primarily relates; and if I thought there was any chance of the -affair being taken up by the body, I should satisfy myself with -having intimated the necessity of such a procedure, and leave the -people of Fashion to reform themselves.</p> -<p>But I will honestly confess, that I see not at present any -prospect of such an event. It has not, so far as I can -understand, been hinted, in those assemblies which legislate for -the body, that the system of Fashion requires any revision: nor -can I discover, among the projected arrangements for future -seasons, any thing like a committee of reform. There is, on -the contrary, every reason to believe, that <a -name="page144"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 144</span>designs of -a very different nature occupy the minds of those who influence -the community. I very much mistake, if it is not their -intention, to carry the system more extensively into effect; to -make still further conquests upon the puny domains of Wisdom and -Virtue; and to evince, by new modes of dissipation and new -excuses for adopting them, the endless perfectibility of Folly -and Vice. Under such circumstances, it will scarcely be -imputed to me as a trespass upon their privileges, if I venture -to perform that office for them, which they are never likely to -do for themselves.</p> -<p>I scruple not then to affirm, that <span -class="GutSmall">INCONSISTENCY</span> is the radical fault of the -Fashionable system. This truth is demonstrated <a -name="page145"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 145</span>by every -thing that has been said upon their polity and laws, their -religion and morals, their plans of education, and their -institutes of life. Under every view which has been taken -of this people, they have exhibited appearances truly -paradoxical; and been found involved, from the beginning to the -end of their career, in the most palpable and extraordinary -contradictions. The fact indeed is, as their history has -shown, that the principles upon which they act, are essentially -at variance with each other; and the effect which these -principles have upon their conduct and their feelings, is only -such as might be expected, from an everlasting struggle for -mastery among them. The hand of this people is given to -Self-denial, but their <a name="page146"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 146</span>heart to Sensuality; and the manner -in which they are obliged to equivocate with both, will not allow -them the complete enjoyment of either. The libertinism they -practise shows them nothing but <i>this</i> world, the piety they -profess hides every thing from them but the world to <i>come</i>: -thus alternately impelled and restrained, deluded and undeceived, -they follow what they love, and condemn what they follow: neither -blind enough to be wholly led, nor discerning enough to see their -path;—with too much religion to let them be happy here, and -too little to make them so hereafter.</p> -<p>Now I see but two ways by which this <span -class="GutSmall">INCONSISTENCY</span> can be removed; and as I <a -name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 147</span>wish to -make my work of some use to the people of whom it treats, I shall -briefly propose them in their order.</p> -<p>1. The <i>first</i> plan of <i>melioration</i> which I -would submit to the Fashionable World, is that of <i>renouncing -the Christian religion</i>. In recommending this step, I -proceed upon a supposition, that the government and laws and -manners which now prevail, must <i>at all events</i> be retained: -and upon such a supposition, I contend, that <i>renouncing the -Christian religion</i> is a measure of indispensable -necessity. For surely if duels must be fought, what can be -so preposterous as to swear allegiance to a law which -says—“<i>Thou shalt not kill</i>?” If -injuries must <i>not</i> be forgiven, where is the propriety of -<a name="page148"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -148</span>employing a prayer in which the petitioner declares, -that he does forgive them? If the passions are to be -<i>gratified</i>, what end is answered by doing homage to those -Scriptures which so peremptorily declare, that they must be -<i>mortified</i>? In a word, if swearing, prevarication, -and sensuality; if a neglect of “the duties to God and -inferiors,” be necessary, or even allowable, parts of a -Fashionable character; where is the policy, the virtue, or even -the decency, of connecting it with a religion which stamps these -several qualities with the deepest guilt, and threatens them with -the severest retribution? If a religion of <i>some</i> sort -be absolutely necessary, let such an one be chosen as may possess -a correspondence with the other parts of the system: let it be a -religion in <a name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -149</span>which pride, and resentment, and lust, may have their -necessary scope; a religion, in short, in which the God of this -world may be the idol, and the men of this world the -worshippers. Such an arrangement will go a great way -towards establishing <i>consistency</i>: it will dissolve a union -by which both parties are sufferers; and liberate at once the -people of Fashion from a profession which involves them in -contradiction, and Christianity from a connexion which covers her -with disgrace.</p> -<p>2. If, on the contrary, it should be thought material -(as I trust it will) <i>to retain Christianity at all events</i>, -the plan of reform must be exactly <i>inverted</i>; and the -sacrifices taken from those laws, and maxims, and <a -name="page150"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 150</span>habits, -which interfere with the spirit and the injunctions of that holy -religion. It is altogether out of the character of -Christianity to act a subservient or an accommodating part. -Her nature, her office, and her object, are all decidedly adverse -to that base alliance into which it has been attempted to degrade -her. Pure and spotless as her native skies, she delights in -holiness; because God, from whose bosom she came, is holy. -Girt with power, and designed for dominion, she claims the heart -as her throne, and all the affections as the ministers of her -will: nor does she consider her object accomplished until she has -cast down every lofty imagination, extinguished every rebellious -lust, and brought into captivity every thought to the obedience -<a name="page151"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 151</span>of -Christ. It is obvious, therefore, that if she is to be -retained at all, it must be upon her <i>own</i> terms; and those -terms will manifestly require an utter renunciation of every -measure which, under the former plan, it was proposed to -retain. Duels must <i>now</i> no longer be fought, nor -injuries resentfully pursued, nor licentious passions -deliberately gratified. Swearing must be banished from the -lips, prevarication from the thoughts, sensuality from the heart; -and that law be expunged, which dispenses with “the duties -to God and inferiors,” in order to make way for that -immutable statute which enjoins them.</p> -<p>It must not be dissembled, that, in the progress of such a -reform, certain inconveniences <a name="page152"></a><span -class="pagenum">p. 152</span>will be unavoidably encountered; but -these will be speedily and effectually compensated by an influx -of real and permanent advantages. The pangs which -accompanied the “death unto sin,” will soon be -forgotten in the pleasures which result from a “life unto -righteousness;” and the peace and hope which abound in the -way, will efface the recollection of those agonistic efforts by -which it was entered.</p> -<p>In the mean time, all things will be done with decency and -order. The whole economy of life and conduct will be -scrupulously consulted; and such arrangements introduced, as will -make the several parts and details correspond and harmonize <a -name="page153"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 153</span>with each -other. Duty and recreation will have their proper -characters, and times, and places, and limits. Every thing, -in short, will be preserved in the system, which can facilitate -intercourse without impairing virtue; and nothing be struck out -but what administers to vanity, duplicity, and vice.</p> -<p>Whether changes of such magnitude as those which I have -described, will ever take place upon an extensive scale, I cannot -pretend to conjecture; but certain I am, that, if ever they -should, not only the Fashionable World, but society at large, -will be very much the better for them. Greatly as I wish -the “Reformation of Manners,” and “the -Suppression of Vice,” I see insuperable <a -name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 154</span>obstacles -to each of these events, while rank, and station, and wealth, -throw their mighty influence into the opposite scale. -Then—<i>and not till then</i>—will Christianity -receive the homage she deserves, and produce the blessings she -has promised—when “the makers of our manners” -shall submit to her authority; and the <span -class="GutSmall">PEOPLE</span> of <span -class="smcap">Fashion</span> become the <span -class="GutSmall">PEOPLE</span> of <span -class="smcap">God</span>.</p> - -<div class="gapspace"> </div> -<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">THE -END.</span></p> -<h2><a name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -155</span><i>Lately published by the same Author</i>,</h2> -<p>THE CHRISTIAN MONITOR for the LAST DAYS; or a Caution to the -professedly Religious, against the Corruptions of the latter -Times, in Doctrine, Discipline, and Morals. Second Edition, -corrected.—8vo. 6<i>s.</i></p> -<p style="text-align: center"><span -class="GutSmall">ALSO</span>,</p> -<p>THE HISTORY of the ORIGIN and FIRST TEN YEARS of the BRITISH -AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY. 2 Vols. Extra -Boards. Demy, 1<i>l.</i> 4<i>s.</i> Royal, 1<i>l.</i> -15<i>s.</i></p> -<p>This Work contains an Authentic Account of the Origin of the -Institution, and of the several Societies in connection with it: -together with a Chronological View of the Controversy concerning -it, and other Matters of an interesting Nature, not before made -Public.</p> -<p><i>The following are some of the Testimonies borne to the -Work</i>.</p> -<blockquote><p>“The general Narrative is clear and manly, -and in many parts rises into true eloquence.</p> -<p>“There is one department, especially, of the Work, which -is entirely <i>new</i>, and that is the History of the <a -name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p. -156</span><i>Origin</i> of the various Societies. We do not -hesitate to consider it as in the highest degree interesting and -valuable.” <i>Christ. Observ. for Nov.</i> 1816.</p> -<p>“Mr. Owen, in detailing the History of the British and -Foreign Bible Society, has conferred an obligation, not only on -the particular Patrons of it, but on Literature in -general.” <i>Gent. Mag. for Oct.</i> 1816.</p> -<p>“We trust that every one of our Readers, who can afford -to purchase the Work, will possess himself of this intellectual -treat.” <i>Christ. Guard. for Feb.</i> 1817.</p> -</blockquote> -<p style="text-align: center"><i>See also British Review</i>, -<i>No. XV</i>.</p> -<p>Sold by the same Booksellers; of whom may be had the other -Works of the Author.</p> - -<div class="gapspace"> </div> - -<div class="gapmediumline"> </div> -<p style="text-align: center"><i>Tilling and Hughes</i>, -<i>Printers</i>, <i>Chelsea</i>.</p> -<h2>FOOTNOTES.</h2> -<p><a name="footnote5"></a><a href="#citation5" -class="footnote">[5]</a> For the geographical solecism of -“a western <i>latitude</i>,” the author has only to -plead, that the people of whom he treats, acknowledge no points -of the compass but those of <i>east</i> and <i>west</i>; and that -the term <i>longitude</i> has scarcely any place in their -language.</p> -<p><a name="footnote10"></a><a href="#citation10" -class="footnote">[10]</a> This <i>somehow</i> and -<i>somewhere</i> existence of people of Fashion might lead a -stranger to suppose, that they have no permanent -dwelling-place. He must, however, be told, that, while they -are thus migrating from place to place, without comfort, and -without respect, many of them are actually turning their backs -upon the conveniences of a family mansion, and the consequence of -a dependent tenantry. This disposition to emigration in -persons of distinction, has been so admirably noticed in a late -elegant and interesting work, that I cannot refuse myself the -pleasure of transcribing the passage.</p> -<blockquote><p>“That there exists at present amongst us a -lamentable want of rural philosophy, or of that wisdom which -teaches a man at once to enjoy and to improve a life of -retirement, is, I think, a point too obvious to be -contested. Whence is it else, that the ancient mansions of -our nobility and gentry, notwithstanding all the attractions of -rural beauty, and every elegance of accommodation, can no longer -retain their owners, who, <i>at the approach of winter</i>, -<i>pour into the metropolis</i>, <i>and even in the summer months -wander to the sea-coast or to some other place of Fashionable -resort</i>? This unsettled humour, in the midst of such -advantages, plainly argues much inward disorder, and points out -the need as well as the excellency of that discipline which can -inspire a pure taste of nature, furnish occupation in the -peaceful labours of husbandry, and, what is nobler still, open -the sources of moral and intellectual -enjoyment.”—<i>Preface to Rural Philosophy</i>, -<i>by</i> <span class="smcap">Ely Bates</span>, Esq. p. 9.</p> -</blockquote> -<p><a name="footnote12"></a><a href="#citation12" -class="footnote">[12]</a> His Majesty’s -Birth-Day.</p> -<p><a name="footnote29"></a><a href="#citation29" -class="footnote">[29]</a> Vide Paley’s Mor. Philos. -vol. i. p. 1.</p> -<p><a name="footnote42"></a><a href="#citation42" -class="footnote">[42]</a> For an account of this -transaction, see the trial of Captain Macnamara for the murder of -Colonel Montgomery; in which it will appear, that though the -Captain admitted <i>the fact</i>, yet the jury acquitted him of -the <i>crime</i>. Such complaisance on the part of juries -is particularly favourable to this summary mode of terminating -differences. Fatal duels are now become almost as common as -highway robberies, and make almost as little impression upon the -public mind. The <i>murdered</i> is carried to his grave, -and the <i>murderer</i> received back into society, with the same -honour, as if the one had done his duty in sacrificing his life, -and the other had only done <i>his</i> in taking it away.</p> -<p><a name="footnote53"></a><a href="#citation53" -class="footnote">[53]</a> “In the worst moments of -his pain he cried out, that he sincerely hoped, <i>the agonies he -then endured might expiate the sins he had committed</i>.” -* * * * “I wish with all my soul (says the writer of the -Memoir) that the unthinking votaries of dissipation and -infidelity could all have been present at the death-bed of this -poor man; could have heard his expressions of contrition for his -past misconduct, and of <i>reliance upon the mercy of his -Creator</i>.”—<i>Vide Memoir of the late Lord -Camelford</i>, <i>by the Rev. —</i>, &c.</p> -<p><a name="footnote57"></a><a href="#citation57" -class="footnote">[57]</a> Vide the titles of certain -country-dances, the Pantomime of Don Juan, and the ballets at the -Opera House, on the vigils of the Sabbath.</p> -<p><a name="footnote66"></a><a href="#citation66" -class="footnote">[66]</a> The Bishop of Durham animadverts -(with just severity) upon “<i>the great neglect of church -in the Sunday afternoons</i>, <i>when the duties of religion are -deserted for the fashions or friendship if the -world</i>.” Vide Charge for 1801.</p> -<p><a name="footnote104"></a><a href="#citation104" -class="footnote">[104]</a> If the reader should have a -difficulty in discovering the full import of this remark, he is -requested to consider that the peculiar <i>term</i> appropriated -to <i>swearing</i> is capable of becoming either a verb, a -substantive, a participial adjective, or an adverb: and he will -find that it is used under all these forms by people of -Fashion.</p> -<p><a name="footnote116"></a><a href="#citation116" -class="footnote">[116]</a> How much the Fashionable World -are indebted to the legislature for refusing to accede to Lord -Belgrave (now Earl Grosvenor’s) motion against Sunday -newspapers, in 1799, may be learnt (among other things) from the -following advertisement which appeared in the Morning Post for -October 26, 1805:</p> -<blockquote><p>“The British Neptune, or Naval, Military, -and <i>Fashionable</i> Sunday Advertiser, <i>will always contain -real critiques upon Theatrical Performances</i>.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Such entertaining publications as these, issued and hawked -about on the Lord’s Day, are a concession to the -Fashionable infirmities of the age, for which those who are -wearied of their Bibles, cannot be sufficiently thankful.</p> -<p>If any of my readers wish to see this subject seriously -discussed, he will find something to his purpose in the 6th -chapter of “The Christian Monitor for the last -Days.”</p> -<p>N.B. While this note was passing through the press, a -Sunday <i>Evening</i> Paper was announced for publication: and, -as if it were not sufficient to break the laws, without at the -same time libelling them, this “Sunday Evening -Gazette,” which is to employ compositors, pressmen, -venders, hawkers, &c. on the Lord’s Day, is to be -called—The Constitution!!!</p> -<p><a name="footnote119"></a><a href="#citation119" -class="footnote">[119]</a> A distinguished Prelate, who -gained the ear of the Fashionable World to a degree beyond all -former example, has adverted to this “rage for -amusement” with such apostolical earnestness, at the close -of a lecture delivered to perhaps the greatest number of -Fashionable people that ever assembled for a similar purpose -within the walls of a church, that I shall avail myself of the -passage, as well to confirm my statement as to embellish my -pages.</p> -<blockquote><p>“When I consider that the time of the year -is now approaching, in which the gaieties and amusements of this -vast metropolis are generally engaged in with incredible alacrity -and ardour, and multitudes are pouring in from every part of the -kingdom to take their share in them; and when I recollect -further, that at this very period in the last year, a degree of -extravagance and wildness of pleasure took place, which gave pain -to every serious mind, and was almost unexampled in any former -times, I am not, I confess, without some apprehensions that the -same scenes of levity and dissipation may again recur; and that -some of those who now hear me (of the younger part more -especially) may be drawn too far into this Fashionable vortex, -and lose, in that giddy tumult of diversion, all remembrance of -what has passed in this sacred place.” <i>Bp Porteus -on St. Matthew, Vol. II. Lect.</i> 18, p. 161.</p> -</blockquote> -<pre> - - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FASHIONABLE WORLD DISPLAYED*** - - -***** This file should be named 62238-h.htm or 62238-h.zip****** - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/2/2/3/62238 - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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