am not for adding to the beautiful edifices of nature, nor for raifing any whimsical fuperftructure upon her plans: I must therefore repeat it, that I am highly pleased with the coiffure now in fashion, and think it fhews the good fenfe which at prefent very much reigns among the valuable part of the fex. One may obferve that women in all ages have taken more pains than men to adorn the outside of their heads; and indeed I very much admire, that thofe female architects, who raife fuch wonderful ftructures out of ribbands, lace, and wire, have not been recorded for their respective inventions. It is certain there has been as many orders in these kinds of building, as in those which have been made of marble Sometimes they rife in the fhape of a pyramid, fometimes like a tower, and fometimes like a fteeple. In Juvenal's time the building grew by feveral orders and stories, as he has very humourously described it.

:

Tot premit ordinibus, tot adhuc compagibus altum Edificat caput: Andromachen a fronte videbis ; Poft minor eft: Aliam credas.

Juv. Sat. vi. ver. 501. With curls on curls they build her head before, And mount it with a formidable tow'r : A giantess fhe feems; but look behind, And then the dwindles to the pygmy kind. DRYDEN.

But I do not remember in any part of my reading, that the head-dress aspired to fo great an extravagance as in the fourteenth century; when it was built up in a couple of cones or fpires, which stood fo exceffively high on each fide of the head, that a woman, who was but a pygmy without her headdrefs, appeared like a colous upon putting it on. Monfieur Paradin fays, That thefe old-fashioned fontanges rofe an ell above the head; that they were pointed like fteeples, and had long loofe

pieces

pieces of crape faftened to the tops of them, which were curiously fringed, and hụng down their backs like ftreamers.'

The women might poffibly have carried this Cothick building much higher, had not a famous monk, Thomas Conecte by name, attacked it with great zeal and refolution. This holy man travelled. from place to place to preach down this monftrous commode; and fucceeded fo well in it, that as the magicians facrificed their books to the flames upon the preaching of an apostle, many of the women thew down their head-dreffes in the middle of his fermon, and made a bonefire of them within fight of the pulpit. He was fo renowned, as well for the fanctity of his life as his manner of preaching, that he had often a congregation of twenty thoufand people; the men placing themfelves on the one fide of his pulpit, and the women on the other, that appeared (to use the fimilitude of an ingenious writer) like a foreft of cedars with their heads reaching to the clouds. He fo warned and animated the people against this monftrous ornament, that it lay under a kind of perfecution; and whenever it appeared in publick was pelted down by the rabble, who flung ftones at the perfons that wore

it.

But, notwithstanding this prodigy vanished while the preacher was among them, it began to appear again fome months after his departure, or to tell it in Monfieur Paradin's own words, The women that, like fnails in a fright, had drawn in their horns, fhot them out again as foon as the danger was over.' This extravagance of the womens head-dreffes in that age is taken notice of by Monfieur d'Argentré in this hiftory of Bretagne, and by other historians as well as the perfon I have here quoted.

It is ufually obferved, that a good reign is the only proper time for making of laws against the exorbitance of power; in the fame manner an exG 3

ceffive

ceffive head-drefs may be attacked the most effectually when the fafhion is against it. I do therefore recommend this paper to my female readers by way of prevention.

I would defire the fair fex to confider how impoffible it is for them to add any thing that can be ornamental to what is already the mafter-piece of nature. The head has the most beautiful appearance, as well as the highest ftation in a human fiNature has laid out all her art in beautifygure. ing the face; fhe has touched it with vermillion, planted in it a double row of ivory, made it the feat of fmiles and blushes, lighted it up and enlivened it with the brightnefs of the eyes, hung it on each fide with curious organs of fenfe, given it airs and graces that cannot be described, and furrounded it with such a flowing fhade of hair, as fets all its beauties in the most agreeable light: In fhort, fhe feems to have defigned the head as the cupola to the most glorious of her works; and when we load it with fuch a pile of fupernumerary ornaments, we deftroy the fymmetry of the human figure, and foolishly contrive to call off the eye from great and real beauties, to childish gewgaws, ribbands, and bone-lace.

L

No. 99.

SATUDAY, JUNE 23.

-Turpi fecernis honeftum.

HOR. Sat. vi. 1. 1. ver. 63.

You know to fix the bounds of right and wrong.

THE

HE club, of which I have often declared myself a member, were laft night engaged in a discourse upon that which paffes for the chief point of honour among men and women; and started a great many hints upon the fubject, which I thought

were

were entirely new: I fhall therefore methodize the feveral reflexions that arose upon this occafion, and prefent my reader with them for the fpeculation of this day; after having premised, that if there is any thing in this paper which feems to differ with any paffage of laft Thursday's, the reader will confider this as the fentiments of the club, and the other as my own private thoughts, or rather thofe of Pharamond.

The great point of honour in men is courage, and in women chastity. If a man lofes his honour in one rencounter, it is not impoffible for him to regain it in another; a flip in a woman's honour is irrecoverable. I can give no reason for fixing the point of honour to thefe two qualities, unless it be that each fex fets the greateit value on the qualification which renders them the most amiable in the eyes of the contrary fex. Had men chofen for themselves, without regard to the opinions of the fair fex, I should believe the choice would have fallen on wifdom or virtue; or had women determined their own point of honour, it is probable that wit or good-nature would have carried it a gainst chastity.

Nothing recommends a man more to the female fex than courage; whether it be that they are pleased to fee one who is a terror to others fall like a flave at their feet, or that this quality fupplies their own principal defect in guarding them from infults, and avenging their quarrels, or that courage is a natural indication of a strong and sprightly conftitution. On the other fide, nothing makes a woman more esteemed by the oppofite fex than chastity; whether it be that we always prize those most who are hardest to come at, or that nothing befides chastity with its collateral attendants, truth, fidelity and conftancy, gives the man a property in the perfon he loves, and confequently endears her to him above all things.

I am very much pleased with a passage in the infcription on a monument erected in Westminster-Abbey to the late Duke and Duchefs of Newcastle: 'Her name was Margaret Lucas, youngest sister to 'the Lord Lucas of Colchester; a noble family, for all the brothers were valiant, and all the fifters

'virtuous.'

In books of chivalry, where the point of honour is ftrained to madness, the whole ftory runs on chastity and courage. The damfel is mounted on a white palfrey, as an emblem of her innocence; and, to avoid fcandal, must have a dwarf for her page. She is not to think of a man, 'till fome misfortune has brought a knight-errant to her relief. The knight falls in love, and did not gratitude restrain her from murdering her deliverer, would die at her feet by her difdain. However he must waste many years in the defert, before her virgin-heart can think of a furrender. The knight goes off, attacks every thing he meets that is bigger and stronger than himself, feeks all opportunities of being knock'd on the head, and after feven years rambling returns to his mistress, whofe chastity has been attacked in the mean time by giants and tyrants, and undergone as many trials as her lover's valour.

In Spain, where there are still great remains of this romantick humour, it is a tranfporting favour for a lady to cast an accidental glance on her lover from a window, though it be two or three ftories high; as it is ufual for the lover to affert his paffion for his miftress, in fingle combat with a mad bull.

The great violation of the point of honour from man to man, is giving the lie. One may tell another he whores, drinks, blafphemes, and it may pafs unresented; but to fay he lies, though but in jeft, is an affront that nothing but blood can expiate. The reafon perhaps may be because no other vice implies a want of courage fo much as the making of a lie; and therefore telling a man he lies, is

touching