adorn the countenance, is condemned as a mark of vulgarity and low breeding. Can we have a stronger proof of their folly than this, except that, after condemning the most attractive sign of health, and effecting its destruction in their own persons by gross indolence and irregularities, they proceed to bedaub themselves with a wretched counterfeit of it? Those females who have the good sense to prefer a natural brilliancy of complexion, will find it easy of attainment by means of systematic exercise in the open air, which, besides insuring colour to their cheeks, will give tone to their nerves, and energy to their minds. But how shall they emancipate themselves from the thrall of fashion? To be deemed profligate, extravagant, intemperate, or even wicked, might be patiently endured, because one might be all these without being in the least degree unfashionable. But to submit to the stigma of vulgarity on account of our aversion to such vices, demands a magnanimity which is rarely to be seen. Crimes of moderate magnitude, it has been well observed, do not excite so much repugnance, as an oversight in any of the minutiae of fashion. Much harm has accrued from the general disposition of men to dignify profusion and extravagance by the titles of munificence and generosity; and to denounce the opposite virtues of frugality and prudence, under the characters of meanness and avarice. This perversion of judgment, of which not the fashionable circles only, but almost every class of society is guilty, tends in an alarming degree to the promotion of habits destructive to health. It leads all classes to emulate each other in loading their tables with the greatest profusion of delicate viands, and the motive of a vain ambition is added to that of a vitiated palate. Reason and reflection, therefore, have to combat two passions instead of one, and must moderate our pride as well as restrain our appetites. So numerous and so grievous are the mischiefs which arise from many of the habits which men form in obedience to the dictates of custom and fashion, that, were not the evidence too palpable to admit of mistake or doubt, we should be apt to deny the possibility of men being so completely lost to the suggestions of reason and common sense. It would seem, indeed, as if these evil influences neutralised the powers of the understanding. Certain it is, that, were we called upon to assign a reason for suffering ourselves to be thus deluded, the best defence we could make for our absurdities would be something like the following:-Why should I be unlike every body else? Is it not the universal practice?-To all such ridiculous appeals, I would simply answer, that he who is satisfied to do as others do, not because it is good, but merely because others do it because it is the fashion, has no business to repine at a fashionable state of bad health! We cannot too quickly begin to emancipate ourselves from the baneful influence of such unworthy prejudices. Such is their aptitude to entwine themselves into our daily life, and thus to become, as it were, an integral part of us, that we ought not to suffer a day to pass without attempting to radicate them. If long let alone, they will become too deeply fixed for the most painful efforts of a vigorous mind to shake them off. Let us ask ourselves what we gain by our conformity to the absurd and pernicious rules of fashion? Loss of health and shortness of life supply the answer. Would any but a lunatic persevere in thus inviting the attacks of disease? And yet, melancholy to relate, thousands of our fellow-men, civilised, educated, and intelligent, are thus acting; and, what is worst of all, indulge in the vain hope of retaining health, though guilty of acts of intemperance and excess almost every day of their lives. The depraving effect of sensual habits is strikingly exemplified in the disposition which young men frequently evince to ridicule every precept of an opposite tendency. Such jesters, however, forget that the same shafts might be retorted with much greater force against themselves. There is no surer sign that a cause is bad, than when ridicule is the best means which its supporters can provide for its defence. A moderate share of discretion, judiciously applied to the preservation of health, betokens far more of true wisdom, than abundance of wit when exerted to depreciate the value of that inestimable blessing. The code of fashion, the ton, as it is called, is so far beneath the serious consideration of a man of sense, that I will not pay the understandings of my readers so bad a compliment as would be implied in dwelling longer on the subject. Those who yield themselves the slaves of so barbarous a despotism, betray a weakness of mind little better than idiotcy; like the unreasoning dog in the fable, they part with substantial blessings, and obtain in their stead gratifications that are purely imaginary NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL WANTS. "He who loseth wealth, loseth much; he who loseth a friend, loseth more; but he who loseth his health, loseth all."-SPANISH MAXIM. It is one of the most unfortunate privileges of the comparatively healthy, who are in what are termed comfortable circumstances, to indulge in a degree of excess with impunity. Because they are blest with strength, they conceive no harm can reach them, however extensive may be their indulgences, so long as the dominion of their reason is not lost among the intoxications of their pleasures. "Some, as thou saw'st, by violent stroke shall die, They seldom, therefore, set any bounds to their appetites, which they not only pamper, but provoke; but onward they go, accelerating their end by a rapid consumption of those energies intended for the support of a long continuance of life. |