value from the food which they administer to vanity and the love of admiration; the aver fion, which almoft every individual of either fex is prone to feel towards a rival, is particularly called forth. And when objects attainable so easily as exterior ornaments occupy the heart, there will be rivals without number. Hence it is not very unusual to see neighbouring young women engaged in a constant state of petty warfare with each other. To vie in oftentatiousness and in coftliness of apparel; to be diftinguished by novel inventions in the science of decoration; to gain the earlieft intelligence respecting changes of fashion in the metropolis; to detect, in the attire of a luckless competitor, traces of a mode which for fix weeks has been obfolete in high life; these frequently are the points of excellence to which the whole force of female genius is directed. In the mean time, while the mask of friendship is worn on the countenance, and the language of regard dwells on the tongue, indifference, disgust, and envy, K 2 envy, are gradually taking poffeffion of the breaft; until, at length, the unworthy conteft, prolonged for years under confirmed habits of diffimulation, by which none of the parties are deceived, terminates in the violence of an open rupture. The Scriptures have spoken too plainly refpecting unreasonable solicitude about dress, to permit me to quit the fubject without referring to their authority. Our Saviour, in one of his most folemn difcourfes, warns his followers against anxiety" wherewithal they should be clothed," in a manner particularly emphatical, by claffing that anxiety with the defpicable pursuits of those who are ftudious" what they shall eat, and what they shall drink;" and by pronouncing all fuch cares to be among the characteristical features by which the heathens were distinguished and difgraced (c). It ought to be obferved, that these admonitions of Chrift respect men no less than women. St. Paul, (c) Matt. vi. 31, 32. in the following paffage, fpeaks pointedly concerning female drefs: "I will, in like manner alfo, that women adorn them"felves in modeft apparel, with fhame"facedness and fobriety: not with broi"dered hair, or gold, or pearls, or coftly array; but, which becometh women pro"feffing godlinefs, with good works (d)." In another paffage, which remains to be produced from the New Teftament, St. Peter also speaks exprefsly of the female sex; and primarily of married women, but in terms applicable with equal propriety to the fingle "Whofe adorning, let it not be "that outward adorning of plaiting the hair "and of wearing of gold, and of putting on of apparel. But let it be the hidden : man of the heart," (the inward frame and difpofition of the mind,) " in that which is not corruptible; even the ornament of a "meek and quiet fpirit, which is in the fight of God of great price (e)." It would be too much to affert, on the one (d) 1 Tim. ii. 8. 10. (e) Peter, iii. 3, 4. hand, hand, that it was the intention of either of the Apostles, in giving these directions, to profcribe the use of the particular kinds of personal ornament which he specifies. But on the other hand, it was unquestionably the design of both, to proscribe whatever may justly be ftyled folicitude refpecting any kind of perfonal decoration; and to cenfure those who, instead of refting their claim to approbation folely on the tempers of the foul, fhould feek to be noticed and praised for exterior embellishments, as deviating precisely in that degree from the fimplicity and the purity of the Christian character. These observations may, by parity of reafoning, be extended from the subject of dress to folicitude refpecting equipage, and all other circumstances in domestic economy, with which the idea of shewy appearance may be connected. CHAP. VIII. ON AMUSEMENTS IN GENERAL.-MASQUERADES. THE EFFICACY OF INDIVIDUAL EXAMPLE CONSIDERED. AMUSEMENTS, private as well as public, form another province over which cuftom and fashion are generally allowed to prefide. The claim is, under due limitations, not unreasonable. But that propensity to imitation in the female fex, which has already been explained, concurs with the high spirits and inexperience of youth occafionally to lead women to venture, in this province, on ground that is manifeftly inaufpicious, and fometimes on ground which ought to be deemed forbidden. In former ages, when the barbarous combats of gladiators were exhibited in the Roman Circus; and exhibited in fo many cities. and K 4 |