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The oddity of character which great men are fometimes remarkable for, Maupertuis was not entirely free from. If we can believe Voltaire, he once attempted to caftrate himself; but whether this be true or no, it is certain he was extremely whimsical. Though born to a large fortune, when employed in mathematical enquiries, he difregarded his perfon to fuch a degree, and loved retirement fo much, that he has been more than once put on the lift of modeft beggars by the curates of Paris, when he retired to fome private quarter of the town, in order to enjoy his meditations without interruption. The character given of him by one of Voltaire's antagonifts, if it can be depended upon, is much to his honour. You, fays this writer to Mr. Voltaire, you were entertained by the king of Pruffia as a buffoon, but Maupertuis as a philofopher. It is certain that the preference which this royal fcholar gave to Maupertuis was the cause of Voltaire's disagreement with him. Voltaire could not bear to fee a man, whose talents he had no great opinion of, preferred before him as prefident of the royal academy. His Micromegas was defigned to ridicule Maupertuis; and probably it has brought more difgrace on the author than the subject. Whatever abfurdities men of letters have indulged, and how fantastical foever the modes of science have been, their anger is ftill more fubject to ridicule.

THE

THE BE E, No II.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1759

ON DRESS.

FOREIGNERS observe that there are no ladies in

the world more beautiful, or more ill-dreffed, than thofe of England. Our country-women have been compared to thofe pictures, where the face is the work of a Raphael; but the draperies thrown out by fome empty pretender, deftitute of tafte, and entirely unacquainted with defign.

If I were a poet, I might obferve, on this occafion, that fo much beauty fet off with all the advantages of drefs would be too powerful an antagonist for the oppofite fex, and therefore it was wifely ordered, that our ladies fhould want tafte, left their admirers fhould entirely want reason.

Butto confefs a truth, I do not find they have a greater averfion to fine cloaths than the women of any other country whatsoever. I cannot fancy that a fhopkeeper's wife in. Cheapfide has a greater tenderness for the fortune of her husband than a citizen's wife in Paris; or that mifs in a boarding-fchool is more an economist in dress than mademoiselle in a nunnery.

Although Paris may be accounted the foil in which almoft every fashion takes its rife, its influence is never fo general there as with us. They ftudy there the happy method of uniting grace and fafhion, and never excufe a woman for being aukwardly dreffed, by faying her cloaths are made in the mode. A French woman is a perfect architect in drefs; fhe

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never,

never, with Gothic ignorance, mixes the orders; The never tricks out a fquabby Doric fhape with Corinthian finery; or, to fpeak without metaphor, The conforms to general fashion, only when it happens not to be repugnant to private beauty.

Our ladies, on the contrary, feem to have no other ftandard for grace but the run of the town. If fashion gives the word, every diftinction of beauty, complexion, or ftature ceafes. Sweeping trains, Pruffian bonnets, and trollopees, as like each other, as if cut from the fame piece, level all to.one ftandard. The mall, the gardens, and the playhouses are filled with ladies in uniform, and their whole appearance Thews as little variety or taste as if their cloaths were bespoke by the colonel of a marching regiment, or fancied by the fame artift who dreffes the three battalions of guards.

But not only ladies of every fhape and complexion, but of every age too, are poffeffed of this unaccountable paffion of dreffing in the fame manner. A lady of no quality can be diftinguished from a lady of fome quality only by the redness of her hands; and a woman of fixty, matked, might eafily pafs for her grand-daughter. I remember, a few days ago, to have walked behind a damfel, toffed out in all the gaiety of fifteen; her drefs was loose, unstudied, and feemed the refult of confcious beauty. I called up all my poetry on this occafion, and fancied twenty Cupids prepared for execution in every folding of her white negligee. I had prepared my imagination for an angel's face; but what was my mortification to find that the imaginary goddess was no other than my coufin Hannah, four years older than myself, and I thall be fixty-two the twelfth of next November. After the tranfports of our firft falute were over, I could not avoid running my eye over her whole appearance. Her gown was of cambrick, cut fhort beVOL. IV. M

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fore, in order to difcover an high-heeled fhoe, which was buckled almoft at the toe. Her cap, if cap it might be called that cap was none, confifted of a few bits of cambrick, and flowers of painted paper stuck on one fide of her head. Her bofom, that had felt no hand, but the hand of time, these twenty years, rofe fuing, but in vain, to be preffed. I could, indeed, have wifhed her more than an handkerchief of Paris-net to fhade her beauties; for, as Taffo fays of the rofe-bud, Quanto fi moftra men tanto epiu bella, I should think her's moft pleafing when leaft dif

covered.

As my coufin had not put on all this finery for nothing, the was at that time fallying out to the park, when I had overtaken her. Perceiving, however, that I had on my beft wig, fhe offered, if I would 'fquire her there, to fend home the footman. Though I trembled for our reception in public, yet I could not, with any civility, refufe; fo to be as gallant as poffible, I took her hand in my arm, and thus we marched on together.

When we made our entry at the Park, two antiquated figures, fo polite and fo tender as we feemed to be, foon attracted the eyes of the company. As we made our way among crowds who were out to fhew their finery as well as we, wherever we came I perceived we brought good-humour in our train. The polite could not forbear fmiling, and the vulgar burft out into a horse laugh at our grotefque figures. Coufin Hannah, who was perfectly confcious of the rectitude of her own appearance, attributed all this mirth to the oddity of mine; while I as cordially placed the whole to her account. Thus, from being two of the beft-natured creatures alive, before we got half way up the mall, we both began to grow peevish, and like two mice on a ftring endeavoured to revenge the impertinence of others upon ourselves.

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"I am

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** I am amazed, coufin Jeffery, fays mifs, that I can never get you to drefs like a Chriftian. I knew we should have the eyes of the Park upon us, with your great wig fo frizzed, and yet fo beggarly, and your monftrous muff. I hate thofe odious muffs." I could have patiently borne a criticism on all the rest of my equipage; but as I had always a peculiar veneration for my muff, I could not forbear being piqued a little; and throwing my eyes with a fpiteful air on her bofom, "I could heartily wish, "madam, replied I, that, for your fake, my muff was "cut into a tippet.

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As my coufin by this time was grown heartily afhamed of her gentleman ufher, and as I was never very fond of any kind of exhibition myself, it was mutually agreed to retire for a while to one of the feats, and from that retreat remarked on others as freely as they had remarked on us.

When feated we continued filent for fome time, employed in very different fpeculations. I regarded the whole company, now paffing in review before me, as drawn out merely for my amufement. For my entertainment the beauty had all that morning been improving her charms, the beau had put on lace, and the young doctor a big wig, merely to please me. But quite different were the fentiments of coufin Hannah; fhe regarded every well-dreffed woman as a victorious rival, hated every face that feemed dreffed in good humour, or wore the appearance of greater happiness than her own. I perceived her uneafiness, and attempted to leffen it, by observing that there was no company in the Park to-day. To this the readily affented; and yet, fays fhe, "it is full enough of scrubs of one kind or another." My fmiling at this obfervation gave her fpirits to purfue the bent of her inclination, and now fhe began to exhibit her skill in fecret hiftory, as fhe found me difposed to liften. "Obferve, " fays fhe to me," that

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