different was the case of Athenian ladies, after polygamy was banished from Greece. They confumed the whole morning at the toilette; employing paint, and every drug for cleaning and whitening the skin: they laid red even upon their lips, and took great care of their teeth their hair, made up in buckles with a hot iron, was perfumed and spread upon the fhoulders: their drefs was elegant, and artfully contrived to fet off a fine fhape. Such is the influence of appetite for drefs:anity could not be the fole u gaandheich. motive, as Athenian ladies were never feen in public. We learn from St Gregory, that women in his time dreffed their heads extremely high; environing them with many treffes of falfe hair, difpofed in knots and buckles, fo as to resemble a regular fortification. Jofephus reports, that the Jewish ladies powdered their hair with gold duft; a fashion that was carried from Afia to Rome. The first writer who mentions white powder for the hair, the fame we use at present, is L'Etoile, in his journal for the year 1593. He relates, that nuns walked the streets of Paris curled and powdered. That fashion fpread by degrees through Europe. For many years after the civil wars in France, it was the fashion in Paris to wear boots and fpurs with a long fword: a gentleman was not in full drefs without thefe accoutrements. The fword continues an article of drefs, tho' it distinguishes not a gentleman from his valet. To fhow that a taste for drefs and ornament is deeply rooted in human nature, favages difplay that taste upon the body, having no covering to difplay it upon. Seldom is a child left to nature: it is deprived of a testicle, a finger, a tooth; or its fkin is engraved with figures. Cloathing hath no flight influence, even with refpect to morals. I venture to affirm, at the hazard of being thought paradoxical, that nakedness is more friendly to chastity than covering. Adultery is unknown among favages, even in hot climates where they have scarce any covering. A woman dreffed with taste is a more defirable defirable object than one who always goes naked. Drefs befide gives play to the imagination, which pictures to itself many fecret beauties, that vanish when rendered familiar by fight: if a lady accidentally discover half a leg, imagination is instantly inflamed, tho' an actress appearing in breeches is beheld with indifference : a naked Venus makes not fuch an impreffion, as when a garter only is difcovered. In Sparta, men and women lived together without any referve public baths were common to both; and in certain games they danced and combated together naked as when born. In a later period, the Spartan dames were much corrupted; occafioned, as authors fay, by a fhameful freedom of intercourfe between the fexes. But remark, that corruption was not confined to the female fex, men having degenerated as much from their original manhood as women from their original chastity; and I have no difficulty to maintain, that gold and filver, admitted contrary to the laws of Lycurgus, were what corrupted both fexes. Opulence could not fail to have the fame effect there that it has every where; which is to excite luxury and fenfuality. The Spartans accordingly, shaking off aufterity of manners, abandoned themselves to pleasure: the most expensive furniture, the foftest. beds, fuperb tapestry, precious vafes, exquifite wines, delicious viands, were not now too delicate for an effeminate Spartan, once illustrious for every manly virtue. Lycurgus understood human nature better than the writers do who carp at him. It was his intention, to make his countrymen foldiers, not whining lovers: and he juftly thought, that familiar intercourfe between the fexes would confine their appetites within the bounds of nature; an ufeful leffon to women of fashion in our days, who expofe their nakedness in order to attract and enflame lovers. What justifies this reasoning is, the ascendant that Spartan dames had over their husbands while the laws of Lycurgus were in vigour : they in effect ruled the ftate as well as their own families. Such a fcendant scendant cannot be obtained nor preserved but by strict virtue: a woman of loofe manners may be the object of loose defire; but feldom will fhe gain an afcendant over any man, and never over her husband. Among no people was there more freedom of intercourse than among the ancient Germans: males and females slept promiscuously round the walls of their houfes; and yet we never read of an attempt upon a married woman. The fame holds true of the Scotch highlanders. Cleanliness is an article in external appearance. Whether it be inherent in the nature of man, or only a refinement of polifhed nations, may at first fight appear doubtful. What pleads for the former is, that cleanliness is remarkable in feveral nations that have made little progrefs in the arts of life. The favages of the Caribbee islands, once a numerous tribe, were remarked by writers as neat and cleanly. In the island Otaheite, or King George's ifland, both fexes are cleanly: they bathe frequently, never eat nor drink without washing before and after, and their garments as well as their persons are kept free of spot or blemish. Ammianus Marcellinus, defcribing the Gauls, fays, that they were cleanly; and that even the pooreft women were never feen with dirty garments. The negroes, particularly thofe of Ardrah in the flave-coast, have a fcrupulous regard to cleanliness. They wash morning and evening, and perfume themfelves with aromatic herbs. In the city of Benin, in Guinea, women are employ'd to keep the streets clean; and in that refpect they are not outdone by the Dutch. In Corea, people mourn three years for the death of their parents; during which time they never wash. Dirtinefs must appear dismal to that people, as to us *. But inftances are * Many animals are remarkable for cleanliness. Beavers are fo, and fo are cats. This must be natural. Tho' a tafte for cleanliness is not remarkable in dogs, yet like men they learn to be cleanly. no no less numerous that favour the other side of the question. Amminianus Marcellinus reports of the Huns, that they wore the fame coat till it fell to pieces with dirt and rottennefs. Plan Carpin, who visited the Tartars anno 1246, fays, "That they never "wafh face nor hands; that they never clean a dish, a pot, nor a garment; that, like fwine, they make food of every thing, not excepting the vermin that crawl on them." The present people of Kamskatka answer to that defcription in every article. The naftiness of North-American favages, in their food, in their cabins, and in their garments, paffes all conception. As they never change their garments till they fall to rags, nor ever think of washing them, they are eat up with vermin. The Efquimaux and many other tribes are equally nafty. As cleannefs requires attention and industry, the cleanliness of fome favages must be the work of nature; and the dirtinefs of others must proceed from indolence counteracting nature. In fact, cleanliness is agreeable to all; and nastiness disagreeable: no perfon prefers dirt; and even thofe who are the most accustomed to it, are pleased with a cleanly appearance in others. It is true, that a tafte for cleannefs, like that for order, for fymmetry, for congruity, is extremely faint during its infancy among favages. Its ftrongest antagonist is indolence, which favages indulge to excefs : the great fatigue they undergo in hunting, makes them fond of cafe at home; and dirtinefs, when once habitual, is not easily conquered. But cleanliness improves gradually with manners, and makes a figure in every induftrious nation. Nor is a tafte for cleannefs bestow'd on man in vain: its final caufe is confpicuous, cleannefs being extremely wholesome, and naftinefs no lefs unwholefome *. Thus *The plague, peftilential fevers, and other putrid diseases, were more frequent Thus it appears, that a tafte for cleannefs is inherent in our nature. I fay more cleanliness is evidently a branch of propriety, and confequently a felf-duty. The performance is rewarded with approbation; and the neglect is punished with contempt (a). A taste for cleannefs is not equally diftributed among all men; nor indeed is any branch of the moral fenfe equally distributed : and if by nature one perfon be more cleanly than another, a whole nation may be fo. I judge that to be the cafe of the Japanese, fo finically clean as to find fault even with the Dutch for dirtiness. Their inns are not an exception, nor their little houfes, in which water is always at hand for wafhing after the operation. I judged it to be alfo the cafe of the English, who, high and low, rich and poor, are remarkable for cleanliness all the world over; and I have often amufed myself with fo fingular a refemblance between iflanders, removed at the greatest distance from each other. But I was forc'd to abandon the resemblance, upon a discovery that the English have not always been fo cleanly as at prefent. Many centuries ago, as in Europe formerly than at prefent; especially in great cities, where multitudes were crowded together in small houses, and narrow ftreets. Paris, in the days of Henry IV. occupied not the third part of its present space, and yet contained nearly the fame number of inhabitants; and in London the houses are much larger, and the streets wider, than before the great fire, 1666. There is also a remarkable alteration in point of diet. Formerly, people of rank lived on falt meat the greater part of the year: at present, fresh meat is common all the year round. Pot-herbs and roots are now a confiderable article of food: about London in particular the confumption at the Revolution was not the fixth part of what it is now. Add the great confumption of tea and sugar, which I am told by physicians to be no inconfiderable antifeptics. But the chief cause of all is cleanliness, which is growing more and more univerfal, especially in the city of London. In Conftantinople, putrid difeafes reign as much as ever; not from unhealthiness in the climate, but from the narrownefs and naftiness of the streets. (a) Elements of Criticism, chap. 10. VOL. I. G g recorded |